The latest effort by national anti-transit, anti-planning, pro-sprawl activist Randal O'Toole to trash Portland's reputation as a model of effective planning and superb urban transit is adroitly and powerfully rebutted by a critical rejoinder sponsored by the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU). ... More...

Recent US data continue to confirm that public transit – particularly light rail and other forms of rail transit – is an extremely safe way to travel compared with private motor vehicles on streets, freeways, and highways ... and certainly, by far the safest way to travel in urban areas. ... More...

New rules for New Starts and Small Starts proposed by the US Federal Transit Administration would downgrade the importance of land use and economic development, and redefine the definition of "fixed-guideway" to include transit funding for highway lanes that use tolling schemes – thus diverting rail transit money into roadway (tollway) development. ... More...

Growing interest in electric rail transit seems to have got Road Warriors in the motor vehicle and highway construction industies seriously bent out of shape and really running scared, leading them to mount a ferocious and massive public relations blitz, apparently designed to convince us all that - despite our intuition, and despite the barrage of evidence to the contrary - petroleum-fueled motor vehicles, including private cars, SUVs, and buses, are supposedly superior to electric rail transit. This article responds to a number of recent propaganda attacks on rail transit. ... More...

In what might be called the "Battle of the BTUs", opponents of electrified public transportation have seized on a new figure for assessing the energy content of production and distribution of electric power to launch a campaign to disparage the energy efficiency of electric transit. But when the equivalent production and distribution efficiency of motor fuels is taken into account, comparative analyses still place electric rail well ahead – especially in terms of carbon-emissions energy. More...

Whether to continue the Charlotte area's half-cent tax dedicated to transit is an issue facing voters in November 2007. In this commentary, Citizens for Efficient Mass Transit lays out the case why a good, attractive, cost-effective public transportation system – including light rail transit – is needed in the Charlotte/Mecklenburg area. ... More...

Portland, Oregon's MAX light rail transit system has achieved another ridership record with 110,300 average weekday rider-trips. Meanwhile, enthusiasm for the successes of Portland's LRT system has led to further rail expansion projects across the urban area, including the 8.3-mile (13.4-km) Green Line project, now under way. More...

"Bus Rapid Transit" promoters, led by Bill Vincent of the so-called "Breakthrough Technologies Institute", claim that "BRT" is better than rail for addressing a number of urban ills. However, their latest media campaign consists of a string of whoppers. While some of those who promote BRT mean well, most of them seem to believe transit is strictly for the poor and seem to be out to kill good rapid transit. ... More...

Contrary to a widely held notion among the public that rail transit systems, such as light rail transit, are weighted down with substantial heavy capital expense, while buses are more or less "free", bus systems incur sizable capital expenses, too, as well as rail, with typically much higher operational costs – and often, when you add up all these costs, account for the relative life of the components, plus the work performed, you may find that rail actually gives amazing "bang for the buck" ... as this case study of bus vs. rail in St. Louis suggests... More...

Would a Rapid Streetcar approach, combined with prudent budget engineering, incremental system implementation, and an emphasis on local funding of a starter light rail system represent a way to untangle the Gordian knot of Kansas City's light rail conundrum? ... More...

What can be done – quickly – to save significant amounts of gasoline and provide a non-oil alternative for many millions of American commuters? One very viable alternative is to build much more urban rail – in particular, electrified urban rail. In this essay, researcher Alan Drake presents a list of US urban rail projects that are close to "ready-to-go" to respond to this growing crisis... More...

US transit's rate of growth surged in 2006, with Americans taking 10.1 billion trips on local public transportation in – a level not seen in 49 years. And once again, light rail transit produced the highest percentage increase among all modes, with a 5.6 percent ridership growth rate. More...

Especially in the western USA, electric light rail transit (LRT) systems in city after city have continued to experience phenomenal growth – clear evidence that LRT is both fulfilling its goals, and desired by local communities. This article summarizes three of the latest and most impressive American LRT expansions – in Denver, Sacramento, and San Francisco. More...

The Rapid Streetcar concept deploys modern streetcar technology to achieve the original aim of light rail: providing predominantly surface-routed rail service at modest cost. Electric streetcars (trams), rather than being consigned solely in street configurations to relatively slow services, would be deployed in some types of alignments and operating practices currently envisioned for higher-level, interurban-type light rail transit. More...

Evidence from public transit strikes in Los Angeles (2003) and San Francsico (1997), and from the 9/11 crisis in Washington, DC, demonstrates the significant role of public transit in alleviating traffic congestion compared to the level of congestion that would otherwise be experienced without it. More...

Promoters of "Bus Rapid Transit" ("BRT") have been promulgating the claim that this mode of bus deployment is "just like rail transit, but cheaper". But how does Los Angeles's new "Orange Line" actually measure up in comparison to light rail and other rail systems? As usual, "a photo is worth a thousand words" ... so selected photos may help to illustrate the "Orange Line" facility and pertinent issues associated with it. More...