‘Great people mover’ – or joke on Tucson?
by Garry Duffy on Apr. 24, 2006, under Local
Supporters hope Tucsonans will hop on board a streetcar, which would look much like this on its route along East University Boulevard.
A streetcar from University Medical Center to downtown, which could be in place by the end of next year, would be the first leg of a more extensive system that would boost public transit, ease traffic congestion and spur business development along its tracks.
So say backers of the $150 million project, included in the $2 billion Regional Transportation Plan that will go to voters May 16. Voters will be asked to approve a half-cent sales tax to pay for the improvements.
Critics say the streetcar is nothing more than a resurrected light-rail system included in a 2003 transportation plan that was roundly rejected by voters – a boondoggle that would burden taxpayers for years.
The scaled-down streetcar is part of a goody bag that local leaders are holding out to voters in hopes of finally passing a sales tax like the one Phoenix passed more than 20 years ago.
They hope to satisfy the whole region, across the whole spectrum of commuters and traffic activists, with midtown road widenings, beefed-up bus routes and improved arterials on the Northwest and Southeast sides, along with more bike lanes, sidewalks and railroad overpasses.
RTA backers say 10 percent of Tucson’s population either works or lives within walking distance of the streetcar line.
The goal of the streetcar is not just to tie UMC to downtown, but also to be the centerpiece of an expanded transit network.
“This will be a great people mover,” Shellie A. Ginn, a special projects manager for the city’s Transportation Department, said recently.
Supporters say other Western cities have found that permanent streetcar systems have spurred business development along the routes, creating jobs and expanding local tax bases.
“Businesses are much more willing to locate along permanent tracks,” said Tom Fisher, senior transportation planner for the Pima Association of Governments. “Bus routes can move away.”
Fisher cited the experience of Portland, Ore., after city officials gave the go-ahead to the kind of streetcar system envisioned here. Portland realized $1.4 billion in new business and housing development along its streetcar routes. About 2,700 new housing units sprang up, an important figure for cities trying to limit sprawl and encourage urban infill – as is the case with Tucson and its Rio Nuevo downtown rejuvenation.
But others aren’t buying into the win-win scenario.
“How is this different than a 19th-century trolley with a nice, new paint job?” asked David Euchner, a Tucson attorney and unsuccessful Libertarian candidate for Pima County attorney in 2004.
“It’s a joke,” Euchner said. “People don’t ride our trolley now because they aren’t going that way.”
He predicted that a Tucson streetcar system, if approved by voters and built according to the Regional Transportation Authority plan, would be an expensive failure.
“The taxpayers will end up subsidizing almost the entire project,” Euchner said.
Some business owners along the proposed route think it would be good for business.
“Other cities that have it have a nice downtown,” said Carlo Borella, owner of Caffe Milano, 47 W. Congress St.
The streetcar would run right past Borella’s restaurant along its route southwest to its initial terminus west of the Santa Cruz River.
Borella sees the streetcar as one of several positive steps toward resurrecting downtown as a destination.
“Maybe once in a while we could close the streets and just have the streetcar bring people here,” he said.
The streetcar would run through the University of Arizona on Second Street and turn south on Park Avenue to University Boulevard.
“I think it’s a good idea,” said David Morgan, manager of the Arizona Bookstore at Second Street and Park Avenue.
“We need to do something about traffic here,” he said.
Parking at UA is usually in short supply, and a streetcar running at short intervals, as this one is planned, would help solve the problem.
“It is a hassle to find parking,” said Jenny Ochoa, a Pima Community College student transferring to UA.
“And the parking is expensive – $5 a day,” she added.
The streetcar, powered by overhead electrical lines, could carry up to 4,500 people a day. That would ease traffic and make the air cleaner, said Gary Hayes, executive director of the Regional Transportation Authority.
Engineers working on the RTA plan bristle at hearing the streetcar called light rail or a trolley.
It is neither, Ginn said.
Unlike light rail, a modern streetcar would be much cheaper to build and operate, mainly because the tracks for a streetcar would not require relocation of underground utilities.
Also, she said, construction would be much faster because the streetcar’s tracks would not need to be supported nearly as much as would those of a much heavier light-rail system.
The proposed segment could be running by the end of 2007, she said.
While the tracks would run in travel lanes on the roads along its route, traffic would not be disrupted because the streetcars would load and unload quickly, due to a design that includes wide doors and a low floor, she said.
That would be a big benefit for seniors and the disabled.
“Wheelchairs just roll right in,” she said, unlike buses, where lifts must be used to safely bring wheelchairs on board.
Euchner
Borella
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PAST EFFORTS
Area voters have four times rejected transportation plans funded by sales tax increases since 1986 and have shot down other high-profile projects.
● No: A 1986 regional transportation plan partly funded by a half-cent sales tax to raise $1.6 billion over 20 years failed 57 percent-43 percent.
● No: In 1990, the Baja Project, which proposed a half-cent sales tax to raise $369 million over 10 years, was defeated 61 percent-39 percent.
● No: In 2002, a Tucson transportation plan that called for a half-cent sales tax was defeated by city voters 69 percent-31 percent.
● No: In 2003, a transportation plan and sales tax backed by critics of the city’s 2002 plan was beaten 63 percent-36 percent.
● No: In 1984, voters rejected, 58 percent-42 percent, a $15 million bond to pay for a 13.4-mile parkway along the Rillito to Tanque Verde and Pantano washes.
● Yes: In 1997, voters approved a $350 million Pima County package for transportation improvements to be funded through bonds. That money has gone to widen La Cholla Boulevard, extend and widen River Road and build a bridge over the Rillito at Alvernon Way.
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WHAT THE PLAN CALLS FOR
Between now and May 16, we’ll help you understand the proposed 20-year Regional Transportation Plan and half-cent sales tax to help pay for it.
The plan calls for road and intersection improvements, expansion of Sun Tran, creation of a modern streetcar system, more bicycle and pedestrian routes, areas set aside for wildlife protection and assistance programs for small businesses that could be affected by plan projects.
Here are some highlights:
● About $1.1 billion – 58 percent of the total funds of the plan – would go to 35 road improvement projects.
● Widenings include making Grant Road six lanes from Oracle to Swan roads and Broadway to six lanes from Euclid Avenue to Country Club Road.
● A four-lane road would connect Aviation Parkway to Interstate 10.
● Houghton Road would be widened and roads built in fast-growing areas such as Sahuarita and the Northwest Side.
● About 27 percent of the revenue would fund improvements to public transportation. Sun Tran would have more buses, more routes and extended night and weekend service.
● About $75 million of the sales tax money would go to design and build a streetcar system from University Medical Center to downtown.
● Bridges would eliminate at-grade railroad crossings on Ina and Ruthrauff roads and near downtown.
● 250 miles of sidewalks, 80 pedestrian crossings and more bike lanes would be built.
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STREETCAR FACTS
Operation: 20 hours a day, seven days a week
Frequency: 10-minute intervals
Funding for construction and maintenance: $87.7 million from the RTA sales tax; the rest from federal grants
Number of streetcars: Seven; five in service, two in reserve
Who would ride it: About 10 percent of the city’s population lives or works within walking distance of the proposed route. Bus passengers could connect with the streetcar along its route. Downtown workers, students, event attendees and tourists.
Breakdowns or vehicle accidents along the route: The system is planned as a double-track system with crossovers to allow streetcars to pass accidents.
Old Pueblo Trolley: The historic trolley would keep running between the University of Arizona and North Fourth Avenue, using the streetcar tracks instead of its current rail alignment.
Power source: Overhead electrical lines
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REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION PLAN
