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Via Translink's Buzzer blog.

Gondola Project reader Sean sent me a link to the above image. It dates from the 1950’s and comes from Vancouver’s regional transit authority, Translink, and was plucked from their archives.

Even 60 years ago transit authorities recognized the need for grade-separation and rights-of-way for transit: “freeing the limited street space for commercial vehicles and transit vehicles, we make it easier for people to get to and from our business districts.”

Most interesting is their claim that “actual tests in some of the very large cities on this continent show that the average speed at which traffic moves through congested areas is less that it was during the horse and buggy days.”

Now if that was true then (and that’s questionable, but let’s assume it’s more than just propaganda), how true would it be now?

And if we aren’t putting transit in fully-dedicated rights-of-way, then why are we spending the money on the latest-best-most-fastest transit modes around? Wouldn’t a horse and buggy do just as well?

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