BART is great, but it is a great commuter rail, not a great "get around town" rail. SF really lacks a good way to get around town. So those coming in from the 'burbs can do so efficiently, but those who live/travel in the city might spend 90 min or more to get from the east to west coast of the peninsula.

http://www.toronto.ca/wes/techservices/involved/transportation/st_clair_w_transit/pdf/report/streetcar_renaissance.pdf

It's a pdf, unfortunately, but it's worth the trouble.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCC_streetcars

There is and has for some time been a push to "restore" the Hetch Hetchy Valley, which would significantly alter San Francisco's water and hydropower sources; advocates of this strategy suggest "that replacement energy supplies could be largely made up through
renewable resources, such as wind and solar, or by investments in energy efficiency" (http://www.environmentaldefense.org/documents/5489_HHMythsandFacts091506.pdf), which seems to this reader to be something of a tautology: "If people would just stop using electricity, we wouldn't need these dams to generate electricity!" There's a lot to be said for conservation, which is usually cheaper and easier than finding new sources of energy, but since the SFPUC provides 20% of the city's electricity - that part which is used by public facilities including Muni, it's unlikely that conservation can ever completely eliminate the need for these powerhouses. As for the "wind and solar" bleatings, we've been hearing that for years and little has come of it. Now the people calling for more wind power in the 70s tell us that turbines kill birds and alter climate and shouldn't be used either. At some point you have to make a value judgment: get rid of Muni or accept some form and amount of ecological degradation. SF has done a pretty good job doing the things that need doing with minimal damage.

With your SF photos it shows people just how much more alive this area could be with the light rail.

I grew up and lived most of my life in San Francisco and have always found its public transportation system to be rather disgraceful, especially for a city of its size. There is no reason why it should have to take anyone more than an hour to get from one end of the city to another, if not less, but the fact of the matter is, unless you live right in the center of the city or need to go to any outer neighborhood, you'd better plan on having a car or a bike.

San Francisco also continues to flounder plans to bring light-rail and rapid transit service to outter neighborhoods that were once serviced by streetcar systems prior to urban renewal plans. San Francisco's public transportation system is a shining example of wasted potential.

Have to say when I first saw the first few photos of this post, I was like, "very nice photos from Red Hook but where is this piece headed?". But within seconds I was taken aback by the wonderful juxtaposition with SF you made. Funny, I have been to SF so many times, and have seen the Red Hook cars probably a hundred times and never quite made the connection.

Oh and I learned the hard way that most of my friends in 'Frisco, don't like to hear the words "Frisco" spoken aloud.

Clarence

AD - I thought they could only use that lane for turning, not to continuously ride in front of the streetcars (or maybe I'm just thinking of the cable cars?)

From what I understand, that is exactly what Zurich, Switzerland has done. First they created dedicated bus lanes, and then the routes became so popular they started replacing bus service with electrified streetcar lines on the same rights-of-way. perhaps that's the best case scenario for BRT in New York?

On a sidenote, it bothers me that SF streetcars seem to all have an old-timey look. Even if they're not just used by tourists, the image it conveys is "tourist attraction." I would like to see sleeker models that say streetlevel transit is modern and useful on a mass scale.

I'll try and post some pics and information on my site later this evening. When I was in school, I studied the history of the New Orleans Streetcar and I'm sure I can find some of that info somewhere on one of my harddrives....

@TG: Yes, the maintenance is handled by volunteers of the Market Street Railway group.

7: Your point is well taken. You're probably right unless the powerplant is hydroelectric or wind, which it just might be. But more importantly, I think there is an important qualitative difference between pollution that is remote to population centers and pollution that is in your face. Either one is bad but the latter is even worse.

As a post-Katrina transplant to the Bay Area, I was thrilled when I got to ride down market street in original New Orleans Streetcar. During the 7 years I was living in New Orleans, I was witness to a burgeoning Streetcar Renaissance. New lines opened up on canal street, taking people from the downtown to the serene (and tourst-free) mid-city area. Before the hurricane, the city was planning on resurrecting new lines, including the famous "Desire" line, with the hopes of revitalizing some of the oldest and most beautiful neighborhoods in the city.

I agree BRT is a low cost easy way to establish the surface mass transportation Right of Way that could serve multiple different modes of transport - diesel bus, hybrids bus, electric bus or light rail.

But what I like most about these photos is the reminder that you can put this mass Transit right of way in the middle of the street and create a separate loading space for passengers next to it, leaving only one lane for automobiles on the sides.