| rev:text
| - I'm going to be honest and say up front that I am a huge supporter of light rail and have been an advocate for many, many years.
First off, HAHAHAHA all you haters! We built it! It's here! It's been a huge success! And second, it's about damn time Phoenix! Salt Lake City had more public transportation options than Phoenix did. But Phoenix is a city that grew up with and was built in the later half of the 20th century around the automobile. The beautiful, walkable, urban city that Phoenix once was (and it was!) was demolished long ago to make way for parking lots, wider streets, and freeways for even more cars. But hey, gas was cheap and commutes were relatively short, and that nasty brown cloud of pollution circling the Valley wasn't really THAT bad.
My biggest complaint for years was that Phoenix has no alternatives to the car. (Yes, I know there was the bus and I used it. But a bus is not a train.) Personally, I hate driving. Hate it. I hate going slow, I hate the stupid drivers who pull out in front of me FOR NO REASON, and hate that I miss every green light. And I loathe the speed cameras.
But Dec 27, 2008 was what I call, The Day the Valley Changed. (It was also the day before my birthday and Phoenix gave me the best present ever- a train.)
I seriously have nothing to complain about. The light rail is perfect in every way. It's sleek and beautiful, it glides down the road like it's on ice skates, it's clean, it's cheap, it goes to the places I want to be. Each station has art that reflects the neighborhood the station is in. The light rail connects to the airport. The weekend hours were recently extended (hooray!). All real cities have trains and it is LONG overdue in Phoenix.
I guess I do have one complaint: people need to shut the H up about it already and we need to extend it all over the Valley immediately.
I've found through talking to people that the ones who are most belligerent and those who seem to hate the train the most, are the people who have never travelled far. (Not EVERYONE of course, but a lot. They always use the word "boondoggle" as well and never provide any evidence.) And to those who say that the light rail doesn't go near them, I say, too bad. That's what you get for living out in the sprawling suburbs. Enjoy your expensive gas and cars.
But the light rail is here to stay. It has changed the face of the Valley, it has changed development patterns and it has made Phoenix a better city. I still can't believe when the train speeds across the bridge over Tempe Town Lake that I'm actually in the Valley of the Sun.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)