Is Being Self-Serving Necessarily Evil?

In Yonah Freemark's blog post, "St. Louis’ Loop District Gets Endorsement from Feds with Grant for Streetcar" (http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2010/07/26/st-louis-loop-district-gets-endorsement-from-feds-with-grant-for-streetcar/), Yonah makes the case for Joe Edwards' self-serving interest in the construction of The Loop Trolley by conflating the mobility aspects of two entirely different modes of transportation: the light rail and the streetcar.  Although self-serving aspects of The Loop Trolley are arguable and not necessarily evil, the reality of the mobility benefits of The Loop Trolley stand alone in comparison with the regional mobility provided by Metrolink.

In a previous blog posting, I described the difference between a light rail system and a streetcar system.  Briefly, there exists a difference in service-scale between a light rail system and a streetcar system.  A light rail system connects regions and a streetcar system connects neighborhoods.

Yonah debates the effectiveness of access gained by the existence of the streetcar along the current proposed alignment:  

"From an operations perspective, the project won’t do much to improve access, since its most distant station is less than a mile from an existing Metrolink stop. With nine proposed stations on the short line and vehicles running only every ten minutes, it will in many cases be faster to walk."

Because I live within several blocks of the proposed alignment, the "access" metric does not accurately measure the benefit the streetcar will provide for persons wanting to travel from the Forest Park Metrolink/Trolley stop to the Delmar Loop.  From the Forest Park Metrolink/Loop Trolley stop, to the Loop, the alignment will travel through an undeveloped portion of Delmar Boulevard most persons would take pause to travel by foot.  Many persons, however, may be more apt to travel this route, using a streetcar from the Forest Park Metrolink/Loop Trolley stop, to the Loop.  

Additionally, there is not a significant time difference between trains on Metrolink and the proposed Loop Trolley. The Loop Trolley proposes 10 minute lead times between streetcars, not significantly different than the lead times experienced on Metrolink:

"[The Metrolink], [a] fleet of 31 electric Light Rail Vehicles provides service every seven minutes during rush hour and at 10 to 15-minute intervals otherwise from 5am to 1am daily.  (APTA: Does Transit Work?  A Conservative Reappraisal, Weyrich, 2009, page 1)." 

Finally, Yonah debates Joe Edwards' vision for extending the Trolley toward the City of St. Louis, using old streetcar alignments:

"Edwards, the neighborhood developer, has been a proponent of eventually extending the streetcar route all the way to the riverfront, mirroring the route of the city’s old trolley network. Yet this would needlessly duplicate the services already provided by Metrolink. Rather, extensions south along Big Bend Boulevard, passing by the University City Metrolink Station, the two campuses of Washington University, and reaching Richmond Heights, could be truly valuable since it would encourage transit use by students for local-area commutes and connect dense areas with a corridor not currently serviced by rapid transit [emphasis added].

 Again, from Weyrich, "Metrolink crosses the Mississippi River on the Eads Bridge, built in 1874.  It passes under downtown St. Louis in an old railroad tunnel, opened at the same time as the bridge.  Most of the rest of Metrolink runs on the right-of-way of the former Wabash Railroad."  Old railroad alignments were not meant to serve residential communities, they were aligned to move freight.  Moreover, "Metrolink's availability is excellent in terms of destinations.  However, the line does not serve many residential areas directly....(ibid. at 1)." 

Yonah concludes, "Moreover, whether transport planners like it or not, these systems are in reality a lot more oriented towards fulfilling economic development goals than providing increased mobility."  I do not believe the two goals are at all mutually exclusive, and in fact, the sum of the two may produce something even greater.  That is at least the policy objectives of the Obama administration and  the HUD-DOT-EPA Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities, which recently awarded The Loop Trolley $25 million.