[milwaukee-electric] Fwd: The economic benefits of Streetcars.

[mrcooby]

--- In KenoshaStreetcars at yahoogroups.com, "mrcooby" <x779 at ...> wrote:


>From Metro Magazine:

"In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, streetcars were 
constructed
to serve burgeoning populations across the U.S. The streetcar was 
handy
for many reasons, among them, transporting people that had few transit
options to the city center from outlying neighborhoods. They also
spurred development around the areas where streetcar lines were, often
creating beautiful tree-lined centers that had all the shopping and
necessary amenities people often found themselves having to travel 
long
distances for.

"If you look at the great old city neighborhoods all over the
country, you can see where the streetcars used to be," says Charlie
Hales, senior VP at HDR Engineering. "It's where the great old
buildings are, with the storefronts and Craftsmen or English Tudor or
Dutch Colonial homes. Every city still has these neighborhoods."

With the post-war mass production of automobiles, and the subsequent
building of highways and infrastructure to support those automobiles,
streetcars around the nation soon became ghosts. However, population
surges, particularly in urban city areas, have forced as many as 60
cities, by some estimates, to explore the implementation of streetcars
once again. One major hurdle to getting these projects off the ground,
though, is the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) reticence to
fund streetcar systems, forcing many communities to sharpen their
pencils and search for alternative funding sources.

Stimulates economic boom
Estimates have found that the population is expected to double in many
areas around the U.S., particularly in metropolitan areas, over the 
next
25 years. Along with that is a growing number of "empty nesters"
looking to live in places where mobility is easy, with close proximity
to all of the necessary conveniences — shopping, medical offices and
markets. This change of lifestyle is also occurring on the opposite 
side
of the spectrum, with many younger professionals, who have spent much 
of
their lives being environmentally conscious, craving areas where they
can get around easily via foot, bicycle or mass transit.

The main reason streetcar advocates point out that they are an ideal
solution, though, is their potential to stimulate an economic boom.
"Streetcars are a catalyst for the kind of urban development that
cities are striving to create," explains Hales. "So far,
they've been successful. Not just pretty good, spectacularly
successful."

Streetcar advocates need only to point out one system to support their
argument that streetcars can bring development — Portland.

Since passenger service began on Portland's streetcar system in July
2001, approximately $3.5 billion has been invested, with 10,212 new
housing units and 5.4 million square feet of office, institutional,
retail and hotel construction taking place within two blocks of the
streetcar's now 5-mile alignment, all while creating fewer parking
areas. Ridership has also grown quicker then expected, going from 1.4
million riders in Fiscal Year 2001/2002, to a projected 4.3 million in
FY 08/09.

That same kind of development is also taking hold in Seattle, where 
the
2.6-mile Southlake Union line was launched in December 2007.

"If you fly over Seattle, you can see where the streetcar line is,
not by noticing the rails in the street, but by noticing the cranes 
and
construction projects along the corridor," says Hales.

Cliff Henke, senior analyst for Parsons Brinckerhoff, adds that the
streetcar line and subsequent development was a major reason that 
online
bookseller Amazon decided to locate its headquarters along the 
Southlake
Union streetcar line. "The Southlake Union project is already wildly
successful and streetcars are really playing a big part in stimulating
development in the area," he says.

Another major benefit of streetcar lines is the ability to build a
starter line in a relatively short amount of time. "If you follow
the mantra, `Keep it simple. Stupid.' It's very attractive
from the standpoint of a municipality, because a politician can
potentially do a project within their term of office," says Tom
Furmaniak, VP, southeast region, for LTK Engineering Services.

In fact, many agree that an initial line — usually less than two
miles — can go from a standing start to completion within three
years at a cost of about $25 million per mile, with long lead items,
such as the preferred girder rail, which is only manufactured in 
Europe,
being the largest obstacles once all other ducks are in their 
proverbial
row.

Lacking federal support
Their relatively low cost and ability to effectively move people 
along a
corridor, usually only a few stops at a time, would seem to make
streetcars a viable and popular mode of transportation. Well, they are
popular in plenty of cities that are currently in some phase of a
streetcar project, including Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Long Beach, Irvine
and Santa Ana, Calif.; Cincinnati; Columbus, Ohio; Washington, D.C.;
Boise, Idaho; Spokane, Wash.; Tucson, Ariz.; and Des Moines, Iowa, to
name a few, however, where they seemingly aren't popular is with the
FTA.
"The suspicion of many streetcar advocates is that there's an
ideological opposition to them within the agency," says Henke.
"It's a pretty strongly held point of view by a number of
people."

Adds Charlie Hales: "The federal government is an absent partner in
supporting these kinds of projects, and that puts cities and transit
agencies in a position of having to do some very heavy lifting to
finance these projects on their own."

Advocates of streetcars say it is best to start with a short route,
usually 1 mile to 2 miles, which keeps the costs down and makes it
easier to get off the ground. With these modest beginnings in mind,
these projects would seem ideal to receive Small Starts funding, but
currently only three projects — Portland's Eastside Loop and
Tucson's and Fort Lauderdale's start ups — are applying for
funds through the FTA and, at this point, having issues. In fact to
date, the Small Starts program, which was added on to SAFTEA-LU with 
the
funding of streetcar systems in mind, has yet to fund one project.

"Ever since the Reagan administration, the FTA has been focused on
commuter moving cost effectiveness [equation] and endeavoring to 
dribble
the money out as slowly as possible," explains Hales. "They are
obsessed with a narrow view of transportation cost effectiveness that
pays no attention to economic development and trips in cars that
aren't taken because of the presence of transit."

Because of the comparatively low ridership numbers, many streetcar
projects are losing out on Small Starts funding, while bus rapid 
transit
(BRT) projects have appeared to many advocates as the preferred mode 
of
transportation by the FTA. Many advocates feel that the FTA's
biggest mistake is holding strong to its formula and ignoring
streetcars' potential — and proven — benefits.

"They don't do much for regional mobility and that's what
transit agencies were formed to do; provide alternatives to highway
congestion," says Henke, noting Seattle's 1,500- to
2,000-passengers-per-day load. "What they are, though, are great
enhancers to pedestrian mobility and walkability, a nice amenity to 
the
urban design and a tool for redevelopment."

The $50 Million mark
So, as streetcar projects are seemingly popping up every day and the 
FTA
seems unwilling to fund them, how are these cities going to pay for
their projects?

"The next step that streetcar projects are looking at is an
alternative that is separate from how traditional BRT and rail 
projects
are funded," says Henke.

Henke adds that because streetcars have development, energy efficiency
and land-use planning dimensions, that there are many people that 
would
like to see projects find that funding elsewhere, taking it completely
out of transportation analysis.

"A rule of thumb that we like to use to sell that first line is to
keep it around the $50 million mark," advises Furmaniak.
"Generally, that's about two miles. Also, people can typically
find that money somehow without having to go through some long
convoluted process to get it." Streetcar entities trying to get $50
million out of the FTA, could spend as much as $10 million to $15
million to get it, he adds.

Portland and Seattle still serve as the models for these projects in 
the
way that they funded their projects without the use of federal money,
however, every city isn't the same, and therefore, has to search for
the right mix that will work. Some of the ideas for funding include
finding state and local government dollars and some form of
public-private partnership, which can range from sponsorship of 
stations
to the purchasing of the streetcars themselves.

"Every tool in the kit is being taken out and applied to the
challenge of trying to fund the first segment of the streetcar system 
in
the cities that are trying to make something happen," says Hales,
who adds that in some cases projects are weeks or months away from
figuring out how to finance the first phase and moving forward, while
others still have miles to go before they can attain success.

Many are hopeful that the incoming U.S. president and his new
administration will help sort out a way for the funding of Small 
Starts
programs to work better for those applying. Others point to the 
upcoming
federal transportation reauthorization as an opportunity to rewrite 
the
parameters for funding, thus making it clearer and simpler to apply 
and
possibly receive Small Starts money.

However, another important factor that many advocates say cannot be
overlooked is finding ways to transport people in growing urban areas,
with population in these areas expected to double in the next 25 to 30
years, who have a growing awareness of their own environmental
responsibility.

"The outlook is pretty good, given that some of the macro-forces
driving people to return to the cities and increasing interest in city
development, in redevelopment, are going to also help drive streetcar
development," says Henke on the future of streetcar projects.
"Things like the number of people that want to live with housing
near transit facilities. These focuses on the need for better energy
efficiency within a city, or just promoting more walkability and less
auto dependency will be important as cities look for ways to move 
people
without increasing their carbon footprint."

With that in mind, the Peachtree Streetcar was looking at most of it's
funding coming directly from the city, however due to massive budget
cuts that seems unlikely.

Luckily it is a cornerstone of the Connect Atlanta Plan, which has 
been
approved by the Atlanta Council a few weeks ago. Hopefully with 
funding
from the Obama Administration this streetcar line can come to 
fruition.

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