Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Streetcars

The new streetcar line would connect two other low-ridership streetcar segments. Map: Seattle

Should Seattle Extend Its Streetcar?

By Angie Schmitt | Jul 2, 2018 | 8 Comments

Like other cities that have built low-ridership streetcars, Seattle is facing a choice: keep throwing money at a mode of transportation that hasn't paid off, or stick with it in the hopes that more people will ride routes that connect more places.

How Detroit’s Streetcar Overlooked Real Transit Needs to Satisfy a Well-Connected Few

By Angie Schmitt | Mar 14, 2018 | 36 Comments

Local government ceded decisions about the project to private benefactors, subordinating public goals to their interests and preferences.

New restrictions on car access have shave several minutes off streetcar trips along Toronto's King Street. Photos: Jennifer Keesmaat

Toronto Shows How Easy It Is to Speed Up Surface Transit

By Angie Schmitt | Nov 17, 2017 | 29 Comments

It only cost Toronto $1.5 million to clear cars off King Street and dramatically sped up streetcar trips for tens of thousands of people.

Detroit's 3.3-mile QLINE streetcar, funded in part by a $25 million federal grant, saw ridership drop 40 percent after introducing a $1 fare. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The Problem With America’s New Streetcars

By Angie Schmitt | Oct 4, 2017 | 212 Comments

The new wave of streetcars should be recognized for what they are: economic development projects, not solutions to the transit and transportation problems cities face today.

Currently, streetcars get bogged down down in private car traffic on King Street, Toronto's busiest surface transit route. A new plan would divert private vehicles out of the path of transit. Photo: booledozer/Flickr

Toronto Has a Plan to Clear the Way for Streetcars Stuck in Traffic

By Stephen Miller | May 15, 2017 | 4 Comments

Toronto's busiest surface transit route could get a big upgrade as part of a year-long pilot project -- if it clears the Toronto City Council this summer, where suburban interests have a history of rejecting transit initiatives.

Detroit’s Big Transit Success Story Isn’t Its New Streetcar — It’s the Buses

By Stephen Miller | May 12, 2017 | 11 Comments

Today is the grand opening for the QLine, Detroit's 3.3-mile, mixed-traffic streetcar on Woodward Avenue. It's getting tons of local press attention, but TransitCenter reports that the Motor City's true transit renaissance is not due to the streetcar, but the city's successful, under-the-radar turnaround of its bus system.

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