Pros And Cons Of Light Rail In Arizona

Introduction:

There are many ways people in Arizona get from place to place, especially using public transportation. One specific use is the light rail that serves in Arizona that combines certain cities including Mesa, Tempe, and Phoenix. Looking at history that has taken place we look at how we have grown and how far we have come to help better advance the light rail. We look at how great it is to include the light rail into cities and how impactful it has been in other cities such as Boston, Massachusetts and Portland, Oregon (Figure 1). I found that businesses did improve their profit and really benefitted from the light rail, along with the increasing positive environmental impacts. Although we only look at the positive impacts, negative

impacts also take place that concur for the cities and citizens within these cities. Coincidentally the topics for the light rail being positive also accounts for the negatives. I’m going to be explaining on how it was harmful and beneficial to businesses and how much the upfront costs might hurt us but benefit us in the long run. I am also looking at the future for the light rail; we can examine if it is a success to can expand to farther parts of Arizona, closer to nearby cities. In addition to seeing where exactly it is needed we have to look at how long it would take and how much money that we would likely be spending on this. Furthermore we have to include what the people want or if they even are allowed to have a say in what is being done. Focusing on how well the light rail is being utilized I am going to expand on the pros and cons of having the light rail in these communities. I also conducted a small survey to get more of a feel as to how many people actually do use the light rail and their reasoning’s to why or why not. It is interesting as to how many people actually felt the need to give their opinion when I gave them the option in the survey. (Figure 2 shows an example).
Brief Overview:
The light rail came to be “By the 1900s almost all US horse tramways had been converted to electric traction.”(Taplin). The light rail systems had thus improved and have been able to expand into other cites around the United States (US) (Figure 3). “However by the 1920s there had been a rapid increase in the cost of labor and materials that were involved”(Taplin). Which was around the time the depression was happening and caused the decrease in tramways. “Until the 1970’s where the reboot of the trams came around to smaller areas in the United states that allowed this type of system to take place and save them from sprawl and economic decline.”(Taplin). Since the depression ended, we have really expanded. We have been able to watch the system evolve into something that had helped people not only get around but it also helped decrease the high levels of congestion.
Research:
The cons to the light rail include money, disruption, location, and maintenance.

Starting with money, we find that the construction for the light rail for these 3 cities came out to be 1.4 billion dollars. “The federal government paid for nearly half, and Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa kicked in a combined 40 percent. The Proposition 400 transportation tax covered the rest,”(Creno). Where now, “The projections call for Phoenix to pay $75.35 million toward the operating budget and for Tempe to pay $32.08 million. Mesa is down for $6.50 million. Other Valley cities pay token amounts.”(Creno). Which is putting us in a worse situation. Disruption takes place as a bigger issue because this involved a lot of businesses that suffered because the building of the light rail ran in the way of their business. Businesses near the light rail have been effected by this says, “Jacob Johnson owner of Watson Flowers in Tempe, said the construction hurt his business severely, and he does not believe it has had a positive impact on sales since completion.” (Quizon). Along with businesses disruption there is also traffic congestions, “a 50-year-old Scottsdale resident who works in downtown Phoenix, said the trains doing test runs have been causing traffic problems, nobody knows where they're going.”(Creno). It was also stated from “Sal Navarro, 27, of Avondale, said only people who work downtown will have any use for light rail.”(Creno). Looking at the location that was picked helps explain why

exactly not everyone was 100% satisfied with the light rail. The light rail extends to Montebello Avenue and 19th Avenue to Sycamore and Main Street in Mesa, which does not make it as accessible to everyone who may want or need to utilize the light rail. The inconvenience of maintenance also has proven to be a problem because one tram cannot take the place of another one; it isn’t as easy to transport passengers if the tram were to break down.
The pros for the light rail have been beneficial to the three cities that currently offer the light rail. Although cost can be considered a con it also fall under a pro along with the convenience for pedestrians and businesses that benefit from so much foot traffic. The cost for building the light rail exceeded quite a bit of money but looking over the numbers it allows the costs to even out for the expenses, “Fares are expected to account for $44.81 million during the next five years.”(Creno). Which is going to help towards maintenance and keeping the system up and running. Convenience has proven to be one of the main reasons that the light rail is being utilized because of the location it makes it that much easier for employees who work downtown or for students who need to make it down for classes. Valley metro offers the statistics in 2012 stating, “in 2012 estimated daily ridership of 43,310, making it the 12th busiest light rail system in the country”, there are over 30 light rail stations in the United stated which proves that the light rail has been impactful and useful.”(Valley Metro). The light rail numbers seem to peak it’s highest when there are events downtown and vice versa for Tempe with the ASU sports games or events. As far as businesses go where some businesses went under/bankrupt there are other businesses that completely benefitted because of all the foot traffic that it provided for them. Quizon interviews a business who have really been impacted by the foot traffic, “Omar Torres and Howard Gaebel own, a hot-dog stand called Metro Dog, it owes its existence to the light-rail system.” (Quizon). He goes on to say, “They brag that they sell their products to hundreds of customers a day; most are getting on and off the train.”(Quizon). Arizona has instilled plans to reduce emissions, “Between 2005 and 2012, emissions decreased by 7.2%, from 678,150 to 629,504 metric tons CO2 emissions, this can, in part, be attributed to the 2009 Climate Action Plan (CAP), which outlined 10 actions the city could take to lower emissions.”(Gibbs and McNeely). With these numbers we see that the plan is working but with the light rail improving and possibly extending we can see if it will help the number to continue to decrease. (Figure 4 &5)
Decisions:
Future for the light rail seems more likely for the Phoenix area. “In September, Phoenix won a $1.6 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery federal grant to extend the light rail into the south central part of the city.” (Suerth). The light rail and the extension are looking to; “Valley Metro is working on two extensions to the light rail that would increase the total length of the line by approximately 6.2 miles.” (Koerth) (Figure 6). We question if this is the direction they are going in because some of the difficulties that Phoenix was hesitant on were the funding but, “Despite funding hurdles on the horizon, Phoenix is aggressively moving forward with plans to expand its light-rail system” (Gardiner). He also states that the “Construction of the northwest extension along 19th Avenue, running from Montebello to Dunlap avenues, is under way.” (Gardiner). The construction should be completed this year or in 2016. Looking at future plans Arizona has many that can become an extension for the light rail and at this point is waiting for the right timing and the funds that Arizona just doesn’t have right now. Future plans include “Northwest Phase II — 1.4-mile extension would connect the 19th Avenue line from Dunlap Avenue west to 25th Avenue and then north to Metrocenter. Capitol/I-10.” (Gardiner). West — 11-mile extension would run from downtown Phoenix to the state Capitol and then west along Interstate 10.” (Gardiner). With some of these options to branch off of we can see that the light rail might be beneficial to the community and could be beneficial to expand to these locations.

Survey:
When continuing my research I decided to provide my own short survey allowing answers to range from always to never and their own personal responses (Figure 1). Conducting this survey really allowed me to see what might be some issues as to why people do not use the light rail or what might be some slight issues they have with the light rail. The responses I received ranged from love to hate and I’m not surprised (Figure 7&8), these questions I asked were simplistic yet gave me enough information as to the problems why people chose not to ride the light rail. Now I only received 22 responses, but the main issue I saw was people didn’t use the light rail was because of distance and cost. What did surprise me was that not one response disagreed at the thought of it being eco-friendly, because of that answer it does make me want to add another question as to “Do they know the environmental impacts or even care that the light rail might not be as beneficial to the environment?” This survey made me wonder as to if these expansions did happen, just how much more effective might they be; because some personal responses basically stated “they just chose not to”. Now, if this expansion were to happen, how many more people actually do feel this way and would take advantage of the light rail if it were closer to them. (Figure 7&8)
Other Options:
Placement of the light rail seemed to interest me the most; in this I researched other areas in the world that chose a different placement for their tram systems. Some placements that I have ran into are underground and elevated at higher levels, could this have been more beneficial to trying this in Phoenix? In Boston, Massachusetts built in 1901 they have the subway that is located underground, “The system operates with the lines running radially between central Boston and its environs, it is common usage in Boston to refer to all four of the color-coded rail lines which run underground as "the subway", regardless of the actual railcar equipment used.” (Nidadhavolu). Another train we can compare it to be the J train built in 1922 in Brooklyn, New York. This train is “The Jamaica Line – then known as the Broadway Elevated – was one of the original elevated lines in Brooklyn, completed in 1893 from Cypress Hills west to Broadway Ferry in Williamsburg.” (Brooklyn Daily). Seeing how long these have been around would doing this have made a difference or might have improved the system here? Looking more in depth I found that building a system below ground is more expensive, “The tremendous investment cost of digging a subway and installing underground stations is obviously a huge deterrent to the development of such systems — both in the initial financing, and in sopping up available resources” (Word Press) (Figure 9). Comparing the costs in other places around the world building a subway would cost more then we were allotted. Phoenix proposed for the light rail to be built at an elevated spot in 1985 but came to an agreement of, “In order to get the most out of the light rail, Phoenix revamped its zoning along the transit-shed-to-be to encourage an appropriate mixture and density of activity around transit stations and promote alternative modes of transportation to the automobile.” (Thompson). This decision later benefitted them because, “The next year, ASU announced it would build a new campus in downtown Phoenix, the advent of light rail, which would provide a link between the two campuses, was critical to the proposal.” (Thompson). The decision became pretty clear as to what their new focus needed to be and where they wanted to build it, and that is where we are now.
Conclusion:
Back to the original question “ Is the light rail underutilized?” most of the research goes hand in hand, what I’m referring to with this is, what exactly do we consider a great transit system? We imagine all these high tech, great for the environment and great for the community type systems, but no one is ever truly satisfied. There are always people who agree and disagree or people who think things can always be improved. Now this may be true but my research shows me that no matter what, people are going to benefit and people are going to suffer from the light rail. The light rail can be improved in many ways and can try to accommodate as many people as it can, but we also have to realize that people look at the big American dream defined as, “the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.” This can mean a multitude of different things and to most that means being able to buy things that other people can’t which usually includes owning an automobile. Having a light rail system doesn’t change the American dream however the best we can do is make it more available which according to my research is the biggest issue.

Work cited:
1. P, n.d. Valley Metro. 2015.
2. Michael Taplin. Light Rail Transit Association. The History of Tramways and Evolution of Light Rail. 1998. < http://www.lrta.org/mrthistory.html>
3. David Jolkovski. East Valley Tribune Friday, December 13, 2014. “Businesses buckling down for end of light rail construction.”
4. Eric Jay Toll. “Phoenix eyes south Phoenix light rail extension with federal grant” .2014.
5. Gober, Patricia. Metropolitan Phoenix: Place Making and Community Building in the Desert. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
6. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. 2015.
7. Matt Lerner. Walk score. “ New ranking of the best U.S. cities for public transit”. January 28, 2104.
8.

Neelesh Nidadhavolu. “The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority”. http://mobile.usablenet.com/mt/net4.ccs.neu.edu/home/neelesh/Project/documentation.html

9. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, vol.53, NO.149, pg.10. “Trains Running this Morning”. May 30, 1893

10. Light Rail Now. “New subway (metro) systems cost nearly 9 times as much as light rail.” February. 13, 2014. https://lightrailnow.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/new-subway-metro-systems-cost-nearly-9-times-as-much-as-light-rail/

11. Thompson, Jonathan. High Country News. “Light rail enters the West’s most sprawling metropolis”. Nov. 14, 2104.

12. Creno, Glen. The Arizona Republic. “Valley residents remain split over cost, effects of light rail.” Nov. 26, 2008

13. Creno, Glen. The Arizona Republic. “Coping with light-rail costs”. Dec. 9, 2008

14. Quizon, Derek. The Arizona Republic. “Effects of light-rail on businesses mixed, owners say.” Jul. 13, 2010

15. Jesse Victor and Diane E. Brown. Arizona PIRG Education Fund. “The Businesses of Light Rail: A Compilation of Local Business Interviews”. < http://www.arizonapirg.org/sites/pirg/files/reports/The-Businesses-of-Light-Rail.pdf>. April

2010.
16. Rob and Melani Walton, Joe Gibbs, Philip McNeely, Nicholas R. Brown, Rajesh Buch, Nalini Chhetri, Lynn Coppedge, Dan O’Neill, Anne Reichman, Richard Rushforth. “2012 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Report.” . December 2013.
17. Koerth, Kimberly. Downtown Devil Magazine. “Light rail extensions planned for 2015, 2016”. 2015.
18. Gardiner, Dustin. The Arizona Republic. “Phoenix advances light-rail plans despite money hurdles.” April 28, 2014.
19. Suerth, Jessica. The State Press. “Light rail expansion to benefit students, residents in Phoenix”. October 5, 2104.