Tacoma Washington has a population of something like 202,700 and has a system called the Tacoma Link. Its 1.6 miles, opened in 2003 and has a daily ridership of 2,900. The city has an '08 population density estimate of 3,984.2/sq mi compared to the slightly lower 3,403.6/sq mi of Lansing and higher 4,135.4/sq mi of East Lansing (2000 estimates). Just some wiki numbers, so take them as they are and I know lots of factors play into things like light rail but I just thought I'd give their system mention.
Some others maybe worth mentioning are in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Little Rock, Arkansas, and Tampa, Florida...all with systems of between 2 and 2.5 miles, opened between '00 and '04.
Just for note, if we're going to compare cities on population and density being that transit systems are almost always regional systems, it would only make sense to compare urban area and metro population, as opposed to simply comparing municipal populations, given the ridiculous disparities in physical size between municipalities. Lansing has an urban population of 300,000 (as of 2000) and a metro population of 456,000 as of the latest estimate.
Yeah, although to be fair I thought that we were mostly talking about just where the #1 route is. Certainly it is the most used route by CATA and at the moment it doesn't sound like we're discussing a large regional system. That somewhat limits how and who would be using it. The Lansing urban area is about 136 sq mi and the metro 1,714 which to me, while worthy of note, would include a lot of comparisons of areas not even being effected unless we truly built something big here. The urban and metro populations of many other areas with light rail systems already in place are quite a bit larger (U.S. cities anyways, haven't checked worldwide), let alone in the main cities that they serve to begin with. The places that have even just a half a dozen mile systems or larger tend to all have huge city, urban and metro populations compared to Lansing's. The larger the area of comparison, the more disparity.
The meeting went well. We had 20 - 30 people show up--lots of business owners as well as residents--and everyone seemed enthusiastic about the project. We will use the comments we received, as well as other information, in the visioning session that will be held on Tuesday, August 26 from 3:00-5:00PM at the CED (1615 E. Michigan). For those interested in transportation (and this thread seems to have become somewhat obsessed with that 1 issue) we did have a representative from CATA there last night. Check the website for updates, and there is a survey so if you can't make it to one of the meetings, but want to express your ideas, please stop by and submit a survey online.
This has been pretty focused on transportation - what other ideas do people have for the corridor? I'm just curious mostly... I personally would love to see some sort of plaza-like feel downtown, maybe urban parks like the one in old town. Obviously there isn't the sidewalk space to do a 'plaza' but I mean benches and maybe fountain features or sculptures to make the strip more attractive to pedestrians. I envision it kind of like the Coventry area of Cleveland, where even the fences around the trees are made into little sculptures and the benches are colorful and artistic... just little things like that can really give an area character.
Here are some photos:
There is an area kinda like that in East Lansing by the Peanut Barrel area...it has a sculpture, a fountain, etc. and it doesn't take up alot of space...something like that could fit into an area on Mich. Ave.
Yeah exactly, that's what I'm thinking. But as for ideas about farther out from downtown I'm coming up with a bit of a blank. Like down passing Frandor and into EL? Other than transportation I got nothing.
Comments
Some others maybe worth mentioning are in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Little Rock, Arkansas, and Tampa, Florida...all with systems of between 2 and 2.5 miles, opened between '00 and '04.
Here are some photos:
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i303/woodsstephene/CIMG2178.jpg
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i303/woodsstephene/CIMG2179.jpg
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i303/woodsstephene/CIMG2177.jpg
(sorry don't know how to embed images)