Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Tony Doris with the proof: vehicle traffic can be lowered by proper planning

Tony Doris at The Palm Beach Post with news that will have many cheering. It was thought if you increased a city's downtown population then car traffic will increase. Sure it will unless you plan ahead and discourage motor vehicle use. West Palm Beach's plan is working and this article by Tony Doris proves it:
     Though far from reaching the heights of San Francisco cable cars or the Boston T, West Palm Beach’s trolley buses are rolling up big ridership numbers.
     Numbers compiled by the Downtown Development Authority show a 65 percent increase in trolley use between 2005 and 2014, to 582,000 riders.
     That includes 447,000 on the Clematis-CityPlace route, known as the Yellow Line, and nearly 135,800 on the “commuter circulator” Green Line route downtown. The city on Wednesday rolled out a new fleet of six red, liquid propane-powered trolleys, replacing its larger, blue diesel vehicles on those routes.
     Raphael Clemente, the DDA executive director, said the trolley ridership numbers, along with an apparent dip in car traffic, are encouraging for city efforts to encourage downtown living. Road traffic on South Dixie Highway, between Belvedere Road and Okeechobee Boulevard, for example, was down to 16,559 average daily trips this past year, from 18,761 in 2005.