Friday, May 07, 2010

GGW: Powering the Streetcars

Greater Greater Washington gets into the nitty gritty of how DC can make its streetcars go.

11 comments:

Dave B said...

If they use over head wires, can we name the H Street neighborhood "The Wire(s)"?

So in the future when batteries are awesome, we can probably just stick them in buses and make streetcars obsolete.

I'm really trying to convince myself that these streetcars are going to be better than the X2 and change my life. The only reasons they will be better are that they will have fewer stops and be quieter and cleaner. The streetcar still has to go through traffic and stop at lights (does it get its own lane to zoom past cars? you could still give the bus its own lane). The X9 bus, God willing, will solve the frequent stops problem. Once the X9 becomes electric, it will now be a quiet clean streetcar not constrained by tracks (in other words better)

Maybe the streetcar can be effectively electrified by batteries first if metal wheels and rails have less friction than tires and blacktop and thus buy it a few years of clean, quiet, exclusivity.

I will guess that in 10 years streetcars will be made obsolete by electric buses. The only thing that will save streetcars is if white people are still afraid of buses.

Derek said...

@ Dave B; what the hell....are yo having a bad afternoon? Relax will you

Anonymous said...

White people aren't afraid of buses. They're afraid of the black people who shoot people on buses.

Happy Friday, y'all!

Anonymous said...

Anon 3:22pm- I think white people would be afraid of white people (or any person for that matter) that shoot people on buses!!

Anonymous said...

Hopefully the a law will be created that requires trucks/cars/buses to give the right of way to streetcars. That's the law in San Francisco, it's a hefty fine and actively enforced.

Dave B said...

I am relaxed and I am pro street car. I was just commenting on the future state of ground transportation. In 10 years, if buses become electric, do you think anybody is going to go through the process of digging up perfectly good streets to lay tracks so streetcars can run on them?

For now there might be a benefit to undertaking the investment because buses are dirty and loud

Anonymous said...

to Anon 3:27,

I see your point, but the fact is black people are the ones still shooting.

Davy Crockett's Hat said...

Has anyone done a risk analysis on the possibility of a streetcar (powered by batteries/wires/springs) running over a family of raccoons and/or possums?
Given that blunt force trauma is murder when applied to innocent street creatures in the area it would stand to reason that the streetcar could be charged with murder and the ensuing investigation/trial could drag on for quote some time.
As such, I can only recommend that, in lieu of a full analysis , the streetcars be battery powered so that wires do not have to be run to the courthouse.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, yeah yeah, but they painted the outside of the Argonaut green a few years ago. Remember the outrage? And there was that mean slicked-back hair guy at the Sticky Rice. Remember the outrage? And all those folks who swore they'd NEVER return to H Street restaurants that didn't treat them right on crowded opening night. They sure showed those restaurants what for.

Anonymous said...

if the street cars ever get running, and if the x 9 is super speedy, do you think that will ease the parking at the 12th and H horace and dickies sidewalk parking lot? and if one of the irish o'possums is hit will the laws be inforced the same as the regular possum laws are? if you are given a parking ticket at the auto zone lot, can you argue it in court and say you didn't know what inforced meant? if a possum and a raccoon fight in the alley behind the pug will the city forbid stickball there? what's more important, powering the streetcars or turning them around at the end of the line?
tonyt
the pug

Anonymous said...

wait, since the kids are napping, i have another question. in a road race, who wins; a crackhead on the trolley, a white chick on the x2, or a black dude on an electric bus? and would all of them get beat by a hipster riding a cool, ironic thrift store bike? aside from jimmy the greek, can any one tell me who's quicker, a black dude with a gun, or a white dude with a gun?
oh yeah, thanks to everyone who came to last week"s haiti fundraiser at the pug.
tonyt