[PRCo] Fw: More primitive, old-fashioned trolleys!

[Jim Holland]

"Dik T. Winter"  wrote in message news:...
 > In article "Stephen Sprunk" writes:
 > > "Hans-Joachim Zierke" wrote in message
 > > news:slrnfjbpmd.7dp.Usenetspam011 at Odysseus.Zierke.com...
 > ...
 > > >> I can see a street being pedestrian-friendly (with no crossing
 > > >> restrictions) if there's only a few per hour, but a tram every two
 > > >> minutes (as we have in our LRT system) in each direction means
 > > >> there's not much time to cross safely unless the speeds are so
 > > >> low as to be useless.
 > > >
 > > > The Karlsruhe drivers will tell you, that you should never travel 
below
 > > > 15 km/h, even in a really crowded pedestrian area, because people 
will
 > > > start to behave dangerously, if you do.
 > >
 > > Go much faster than that in a pedestrian zone and when you hit some 
idiot
 > > who walks in front of the train, the jury will crucify you for being
 > > "reckless".
 >
 > I do not think that does apply in Europe.
 >
 > > > City and city is different. The extreme situation in Karlsruhe is
 > > > created by the fact, that a quite small area serves as both the 
CBD and
 > > > shopping center for a city of 300 000, and that this street 
passes right
 > > > through the middle of it. By running all lines along this street,
 > > > Karlsruhe achieves > 50% transit modal share for the traffic between
 > > > suburbia and the CBD. (For all traffic, figures are lower, but still
 > > > good.)
 > >
 > > As a Merkin, my knee-jerk reaction to that would be to put a few of 
the
 > > lines on parallel or crossing streets to make the CBD/shopping area 
larger,
 > > bring in more tax money, and spread out the traffic.
 >
 > That is possible *if* there are suitable parallel or crossing 
streets. In
 > Amsterdam we have a street still smaller than the one in the 
pictures. It
 > is a pedestrian zone, and three tram routes are running through it with
 > (in the peak hours) a common headway of 2 minutes in each direction. 
There
 > is *no* suitable parallel or crossing street to be found.
 > --
 > dik t. winter, cwi, kruislaan 413, 1098 sj amsterdam, nederland, 
+31205924131
 > home: bovenover 215, 1025 jn amsterdam, nederland; 
http://www.cwi.nl/~dik/

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Jim  Holland
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Studying Pittsburgh Railways Company (PRCo)
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..............................From 1930 -- 1950
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Pennsylvania  Trolley  Museum  (PTM)
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http://www.pa-trolley.org/
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N.M.R.A.
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http://www.nmra.org/