wAtS: Portland Oregon's MAX lightrail system (I think it means Metro Area Transport = MAX) was started in the downtown core. My recollection is that Gresham Oregon, a suburban community east of Portland, intentionally re-developed their local core to accomodate the extended MAX lines. The most recent MAX line, I believe, was run out to the western suburbs.

I don't know a lot about it, as it's been 15 years since I lived there, but that might be a place to start. Since it's Oregon there should be all kinds of initiatives associated with the MAX line like bike racks and farmer's market stalls and whatnot.

For the midwest this is the best I have seen:



Salt Lake City: Light Rail's a Hit

There are buses you know all over the place. Why do buses get such a bad rap?

my problem with buses and even sometimes light rail is that they are not independent of the automobile infrastucture. meaning: if theres traffic, car accident, rubbernecking, basically traffic then the light rail and or bus is sitting in traffic w/ everybody else. that sux

also the light rails (at least here) hold far more people, are cleaner, more reliable, and just generally less scary than the busses. Maybe that's just LA though.

DART in Dallas is gradually branching out to the northern suburbs. it currently has 13 cities that participate

http://www.dart.org/transitsystemplan2030.asp

rationalist: ditto for dfw

livin in gin - this site is f@C*ing awesome.

i saw a lecture recently where the speaker mentioned that at least one of the commuter lines to the suburbs in toronto only runs a few hours a day.

same for many of these too?

What about automated people movers...where the car is built for 4 people - anyone recall a built project?

Automated people movers aren't really practical for applications other than airports. However, downtown Jacksonville, Florida has one.

Have you seen the Docklands Light Railway in East London? It is a driver-less system on overhead rails that links the centre of London to new housing communities around Greenwich and Canary Wharf.

And Copenhagen has a stretch of overhead Metro that links to new housing and commerical developments to the south.

the Jacksonville people mover is supposed to be expanded, according to the city's Downtown Master Plan. Go to Page 5 for a diagram of the existing Skyway and the proposed expansion.

also, check out the ULTra Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system. I worked with this company at my last job, a sustainable island resort development. They (ULTra) recently won a contract with London Heathrow Airport.

I lived in Porland for 2 years a couple years ago and their MAX system is superb. As someone mentioned above, only in the downtown core does it "share the road" with auto traffic. Outside downtown it has its own track and zips by clogged rush hour traffic to parking areas dispersed throughout suburbia.

I was able to live in Porland without a car for 2 years because of its great public transit. Just took MAX to the airport whenever I traveled and rode my bike to the countryside if I ever wanted to get out, or hitched a ride with a friend.

SF and Portland have hands down the best public transit outside the Eastern seaboard in the US.

For a city as large as Portland (130 sq miles), I wish there were more lines, specifically in the SE part. Despite that, I walked everywhere anyway. When I needed to go downtown, I would just drive to Lloyds Center and take the MAX in for free.

Sewage, they still have the free bike thing going in Portland?

Portland's most recent extension is actually a line that runs north along Interstate Avenue. Currently, they are also reworking the bus mall downtown to incorporate the MAX. If it hasn't already, construction should begin soon on another extension running along I-205 south to Clackamas Town Center. As far as I can remember, plans call for another line running through SE down towards Sellwood.

Unfortunately, many of the suburban stops are designed for park-and-ride users and do not really connect into the adjacent communities, although I think the long-term goal is to make most of them mixed-use nodes. Gresham is an exception and so is Beaverton Central - a really interesting project to look at.

The Portland system seems to grow exponentially more useful with every additional stop and line added to the system.

Copenhagen's driverless metro cars are beautiful and the station architecture is great too. The elevated line running south is a big mistake though... it's almost always a bad idea to elevate subways/light rail
and in this case it creates a sort of no-mans land below.