Transit Speed and Urbanism: It’s Complicated

There's been a rollicking online debate the past week on the subject of "slow transit." Matt Yglesias at Vox and Yonah Freemark at Transport Politic noted the downsides of two transit projects -- the DC streetcar and the Twin Cities' Green Line, respectively -- arguing that they run too slowly to deserve transit advocates' unqualified support.

Robert Steuteville at Better Cities & Towns! -- a publication of the Congress for New Urbanism -- responded by defending slow-moving streetcars, saying they help create walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods that make fast, long-distance trips less necessary. Then Jarrett Walker ran a response from a Human Transit reader questioning whether streetcars are a worthwhile way to achieve Steuteville's goal of increasing access to a wide range of destinations.

Jeff Wood, co-host of Streetsblog's Talking Headways Podcast, wades into the debate today at his blog, the Overhead Wire. He says there's some tension between a walkable urban fabric and surface transit that moves through places as quickly as possible:

Wood says that while Portland's streetcar certainly doesn't deserve all the credit for the development of the Pearl District, it's hard to argue that the project didn't help construction, overcoming zoning and NIMBY barriers. But that type of transit doesn't work everywhere, he says, listing a few ways to harmonize fast transit with walkable urbanism:

There's a lot more in Jeff's post -- it's a great read and worth checking out.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Transportation for America responds to the last-minute Senate deal to avert federal transportation funding insolvency. Systemic Failure reports that a legally blind Oakland man has been given a slap on the wrist for getting behind the wheel and killing a pedestrian. And Bike Portland comments on the city's ongoing downtown sidewalk biking sting.