Streetcars are a piece of the puzzle for increasing density in the designated growth areas, many of which coincide with the neighborhood business districts. The fact that the city council started this streetcar study goes hand-in-hand with that goal. The fact that there is a permanence to the locations and routes of streetcars holds promise in getting people to move near the line (and people to open business nearby as well). Conversely, bus routes are easily changed and are designed to serve more of a dispersed population, which encourages exactly the opposite sort of growth. The point being, there’s definitely room for both.

The group is going to continue to meet monthly before reporting back findings to the council around the May timeframe, tentatively every third Monday from 4-6. The January meeting will be discussing some proposed routes, so it promises to be an interesting and lively discussion. All interested parties are encouraged to attend, the city wants your feedback.

I was just typing a question when Jamie posted the same follow-up point. Will the gee-whiz “cute” factor of streetcars will make it “O.K.” to ride one? Because among many people I know (who haven’t spend time outside the U.S.), many wouldn’t be caught dead riding the bus. It’s as if there is some stigma attached to being seen on one. Whereas Seattleites I know use it as a way of life. And within Seattle’s downtown zone, it sure helps that it’s free. The instructions I’m usually given when going from point A to point B in downtown Seattle (and it’s too far to walk) usually starts with, “Just hop on whatever bus comes along…” Jamie’s point about the permanence of the streetcar routes is an interesting. If you look in old real estate ads from the first half of the last century, proximity to those permanent streetcar lines was a real plus worth mentioning. Anyway, despite the good-sense it makes, I’m wondering if such studies accurately predict what people will actually do in real-life. What are the studies showing, or what’s the gut-feeling out there? As Derek’s comment on another thread about lack of concentrated business districts, it would be nice to be able to connect the scattered dots with streetcars. I know the Link is a separate issue, but I wonder how ridership on that compared to predictions. It sure seems empty on weekends.

This committee is not limited to looking at steel wheeled solutions. Bus, dog-sled or taxi’s all could be considered. Type of equipment, reason for design (encourage development or serve existing residents) along with routes are all on the table.

If the study concludes that a streetcar system would be a valuable addition to the city’s public transit system, I would personally prefer to keep things simple. Why not use allocated funds to form a partnership with Sound Transit to expand the Link? It just doesn’t make sense to have two incompatible street car systems in the same city.

I know its the unpopular option in Sound Transit’s 3 options for expansion, but if Tacoma offered to fund most of it perhaps it would happen.

Just thought I’d deposit $0.02 or so.

It is also worth noting that the current Tacoma LINK cars actually are streetcar weight, though the track infrastructure is well enough engineered for heavier light rail cars that will be used in the Central LINK up north… The extra expense comes from engineering the line to be light rail compatible. But the existing tracks themselves are essentially compatible with either application, the only difference would be the voltage in the overhead lines.

Did I mention there is an original unrestored Tacoma Streetcar north of Seattle? Not too many escaped the scrapyard, but somehow this one did. It has our name on it and is waiting to come back home…

Jake, How long ago are you speaking of? The car that’s in the Old Spaghetti factory is from McKinley hill….

I agree with several comments above that, in most people’s minds, streetcars and trains are cool but buses aren’t. I ride a bus to work about three days each week, by the way.

I’m excited to consider whether or not a streetcar could move people up the hills downtown—this seems to me to be the biggest obstacle (even more than rain) to walking. It’s not clear to me that a streetcar system can do this, however…

We’ve just posted minutes from the first meeting to our blog.

Ok. Here’s a street car ride down a pretty steep hill in San Francisco. Hang on.

You can hear the excitement in the background from the passengers. A bit different experience than in a bus.

Regarding hill grade: that was news to me that a streetcar could make it up a hill similar to 9th. Well, maybe it’s possible to go up the hill… but down? I think we’ll need to do a bit of research on this question.

We could always give consideration to cable cars, considering every major hill in downtown used to have one. I would love to see a line that goes from the base of 9th up to Hilltop!

Concerning the steep hill discussion; Yes, there were cable car routes in the original streetcar system. However, I believe only three existed; 11’th street, 13’th street, and McKinley (I could be wrong on McKinley).
Nevertheless, any future runs up these hills will probably have to utilize a cable car system unless the cars themselves have some SERIOUS traction motors strong enough to pull up to Hilltop on a fair weather day, not to mention rainy or snowy days.

In addition, I hope any future plans for a streetcar line heading south towards 38’th/56’th/72nd/PARKLAND focuses on using Yakima, G’st or M’st, for this line, NOT PACIFIC, as the former are original streetcar routes (Although I believe a small section of South End Pacific had street trackage). They make sense as far as the layout of the city, business districts, traffic flow and general improvement to the area goes. Pacific, first of all, is a state highway with large traffic volumes during peak hours. Second, in reference to my original comment, Pacific rises up quite a hill from downtown. Yakima and M street have the suitable capacity to reinstitute a STREET LEVEL, NOT DIVIDED MEDIAN, traction line. Plus are suitable, as originally laid out, for a non cable car system up the hill.

I simply mention this concern of mine based off of one of the original outline proposals I saw regardintg the new streetcar idea which had the line run south on Pacific starting at the current Link trackage.

The BIA is covering streetcar developments on its blog, where the minutes from the first meeting have been posted:
http://tacomadowntown.blogspot.com/

It sure be nice to see more residents and exit133’ers at the upcoming meetings. It seemed like city employees and engineers outnumbered everyone else. That concerns me. If you don’t participate, you can’t complain later!

I encourage every Tacoma resident to participate in the City of Tacoma Streetcar Committee.

Meetings will be held the 4th Monday of each month until April at Tacoma Municipal Building North, (uphill from City Hall 747 Market Street main entrance) 4-6pm. Yes, I know. They schedule these meetings at times when most people have to be at work – just say you have to take your dog to the hospital!

Please contact Spencer Beier with the City of Tacoma at 253.591.5579 or email spencer.beier@cityoftacoma.org to be added to the distribution list.

January 22, 2007: Planning/Development Discussion; Route Prioritization; General Cost Estimating, Capital Cost and O & M

February 26, 2007: New Technologies and Design Issues;

March 26, 2007: Capital Cost; Operations and Maintenance Cost; Financial Plan

April 23, 2007: Finalize Report to City Council, End of Committee’s responsibilities.

May: Present to the City Council at Study Session