One sided story on the Columbia Pike Trolley

It would have been nice if your reporter had bothered to look at the other side in the trolley debate on Columbia Pike instead of using WAMU as a platform for local developers and the politicians that are beholden to them. If your reporter had bothered to ask, he would have found that

1. The cost of the trolley project will be $250 million and it will only replace 11 buses

2. It will run in traffic and take up one lane of a two lane road. Thus creating traffic delays for those going to the Pentgon.

3. It is not environmentally friendly as it runs on electricity which is produced by coal. The natural gas powered buses are much cleaner than the trolley could ever hope to be.

4. Trolley rails are a hazard for bicyclists

5. Trolley are not flexible. A traffic accident or road work shuts down your whole trolley system because being on rail trolley cannot get around obstacles.

6. In the only survey data that we have on the troley says that 37% of the people surveyed want the trolley and only 27% will use it.

Maybe this reporter is only a work study student working the holiday and so such shoddy journalism is understandable even when a story that generates just one side is never acceptable. If he had even bothered to check with your Arlington reporter, David Schultz, he would have known most of this if not all of it. It is now time for a story about the other side in the trolley folly.

The clear answer for Columbia Pike transit is natural-gas-powered bus rapid transit. These buses are truly clean and green, and unlike a streetcar, they can maneuver around such obstacles as road work, accidents and the occasional cars parked in the wrong place.