Mar
29
2008
Electrification of Transit
How Did the Electrification of Transit Affect Public Transit Progress?
Initial studies in urban transportation history describe how the limitations of horse-drawn trolley systems spurred the rapid innovation of electrified trolley lines in the context of rising public utility investment, land speculation, and rapid population growth (Ward, 1971, 131-34; cited in Yago, 1983). Electrification proceeded faster in the United States than in Europe (McKay, 1976; cited in Yago, 1983). The electrification of transit paralleled the growth of both the national electrical supplies manufacturing industry (Passer, 1953, 250-55) and the local real estate industry (Hoyt, 1933; Wilcox, 1921; Weber, 1974; cited in Yago, 1983).
Electrification of Transit
I'm still waiting for public transit in the United States to reach a level of sophistication that gets anywhere near what they offer in developed European cities. Switzerland, for example, has one of the most brilliant, technologically advanced, clean and efficient electric transit systems I've seen on the planet.
Why don't our transit people take a look at how the rest of the world does it and model our systems after theirs?
Swiss Transit
You're right - Switzerland has a highly efficient and high tech transit system. We particularly admire the trams and trains going in, out of, and around Zurich - the technology capital of Switzerland.
While the U.S. does borrow many European and Swiss technologies when it comes to public transit, we can't model our systems, from an infrastructure point of view, exactly after the European model because the infrastructure and lay of the land differ so much. Whereas Zurich is a closely knit together city, for example, Los Angeles is a huge sprawl - covering thousands of more miles of land. Therefore - a different model has to be applied to achieve the same level of efficiency.