There is a certain happiness sighted when your bus comes along. It is of course a small specialized form of happiness and will never be a great thing.

-Richard Brautigan, The Old Bus

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

20 years of light rail. Where to next?

Sacramento Regional Transit will celebrate 20 years of light rail service Friday with free rides on light rail all day, a concert by Mumbo Gumbo at 11th and L streets and interminable speeches from public officials at a press conference at Cathedral Square. (See RT's press release here.)

Here's a toast to the advances of the past 20 years. Happy birthday light rail. But what about the future? Look at this map:


I want to hear someone at Regional Transit talking about the next 20 years in ways that envision changing this map from pie-in-the-sky into real transit advances on the ground. Is it even possible to discuss such a future without being brushed off as being hopelessly naive?

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