In an effort to encourage inexpensive public transportation, dozens of cities are resurrecting the electric streetcar, hearkening back to a day before cars swarmed the roads and before streetcars became tourist attractions.
More than 30 cities across the U.S., including Dallas, Portland, Seattle and Salt Lake City, are planing to build, or have built, new electric streetcar systems, the Associated Press reports. In many cases, cities are resurrecting lines along the same routes where streetcars once traveled decades ago. Urban planners say that streetcar systems are far less expensive than new subways or high speed rail systems.
Portland’s $250 million investment to replace the streetcar line the city shut down in 1950 has resulted in $3.5 billion in new economic development around the route. Riders can track the cars with their smartphones, and more than 13,000 people ride the system each day.
Voters in Los Angeles and Kansas City have voted for new taxes for streetcar projects and may see new lines coming soon.
[AP]