Despite the valid concerns they raised during their discussion at Tuesday’s work session, the County Commissioners are taking a giant step towards being taken for a ride by the streetcar idiocy.
Streetcars were taken off Lancaster streets many decades ago because they were no longer practical. We can recall tracks remaining in the streets.
Anyone who looks at the streetcar that has parked downtown can envision what an obstacle they would be when utilizing one of the two lanes available for traffic.
They run without noise, thus presenting a real danger to children and adults getting out of cars or crossing streets.
Not many people ride the faux rubber wheel streetcars, so why suddenly would there exist a demand for trolley cars? The current mock trolleys hardly generate enough revenue to pay the drivers wage, which is only a small fraction of the overall cost.
Streetcars still exist elsewhere, especially in Eastern Europe. But they are located in major urban areas, run down private right-of-ways in the middle of wide boulevards, have islands for picking up passengers, and are heavily subsidized. The situation in Lancaster could not be more different.
Every example of streetcars cited as successful elsewhere, there were either dedicated right-of-ways, ridership was free, streetcars had failed to generate expected downtown development, and/or they were bleeding money.
And what national firm is expert in this field so that their findings would be reliable? In the hotel industry, there are four or five international prestigious specialists that perform hundreds of such studies each year. The successful performance of the hotels built is testimonial to their accuracy.
Since there is no firm with such experience, let alone national prominence, the streetcar advocates will hire a firm after making certain they are predisposed to write a study supporting the project. This would be unethical? Look at the lies and deceptions, the violation of public trust, and possible criminality that swirled around the convention center project! We are basically dealing with the same rascals: predators, dimwits, and the large body of influential people who don’t want to step out of line lest it harm their earnings or cost them friendships.
If the Commissioners are going to contribute to a study, they should insist on participation in the selection and having a veto right over what firm is going to be engaged. And the first thing they should investigate is whether the project is credible enough to justify spending more than $25,000 to be told the obvious—the scheme is idiotic!
