Well, this was interviewed and written by two people who never rode a DC streetcar, and had no idea about what people thought about them. I did. I was born and raised in DC and rode the streetcars. I loved them. And most people I knew loved them. Of course, there were accidents between cars and street cars. There are accidents between cars and other cars, and everything else. I lived in SF a long time and they have streetcars and cable cars. It doesn't snow there but once every decade. Are we supposed to give up a transportation system because a few people have to wear chains in city traffic? Maybe better road clearing would help. Streetcars were quiet, the conductors were nice, they went in a straight line, so often the accidents were the car's fault. The authors here also misunderstood the tourist economy of having streetcars. Maybe they don't need them to go out to Md, but all over downtown, to Georgetown and someplace north, south and east would help a lot. People now have no idea what this city looked before money came in and destroyed the overall look of DC. Look at Foggy Bottom. It's a shame.

Did Jim Epstein intentionally dress like his 8th grade class photo for this interview?

Did he just call buses, "nimble & quiet"?

very interesting, but...son, comb your damn hair.

Dude, that interviewer. The shirt, the hair, needs a shave too.

The Slot that got jammed wss because the people diden't want unsightrly overhead wires. Bus is also where noisy they had internal combustion engines and smelly but they were cheap and coild be reroughted. This video leaves a lot out.

I don't understand this anti-transit agenda. So much goes into planning new projects that is vastly under the radar. What planners think is best may be unpopular with elected officials causing the project to truly suffer. Street cars are an abundantly clear way to bring back struggling economic centers. They vastly reduce the need for parking near dense shopping/job areas. Add a streetcar and eliminate parking minimums and watch the tax revenues pile up. Most streetcar projects have paid for themselves in a very short time frame. Direct revenue has nothing to do with measuring the cost/profit of transit. (off topic, but transit in most places should be no fare in the off peak) The answer is not on the surface. You have to take into account the reduction in traffic lanes/cost of building and maintaining roads. The cost of providing "free" or cheap parking. All that parking reducing the tax revenues of properties and if there are no properties, there will be no sales. Parking destroys walk-ability and a sense of place that keeps people coming back time and time again. Parking reduces safety by having large spaces of poorly lit nothingness that nobody wants to be around. Long story short, transit is invaluable and should not be viewed as a cost but yet a necessity. Streetcars are the baby step to investing into real long range transportation. Developers like rails in the ground. People like riding on trains. Unless you want to give every bus route a dedicated lane and run 60ft buses to mimic what a train kind of feels like, you're way off base.

I disagree with faster and more quiet than street cars.

He calls a bus quiet and a streetcar noisy? No. I've run historical streetcars. Electric is electric, they're quiet as a whisper.

Streetcars, so terrible that I made my profile pic one and have been to several museums simply to ride streetcars to nowhere.

It is a good idea. But the streetcar is in the wrong place. H Street already has good bus service. A light rail line is needed from Anacostia Metro to National Harbor & Rosecroft Raceway.

Rail's true potential is when it's seperated from traffic. If the DC streetcar had dedicated right of ways, making into a true LRT system, it would work just fine. Rail mixing with traffic is an absolute disaster though.

Did Jim just get out of bed or something?

I get the feeling Reason TV isn't being funded by "Big StreetCar"

I really don't understand the purpose of the street car in Washington DC when they have the metro lines that operate a lot faster.

Despite him dismissing it as a "conspiracy theory," it doesn't change the fact that GM, Firestone, and Standard Oil did actually takeover National City Lines and use it to buy streetcar lines throughout the country before dismantling them. That some people were happy to see the old streetcars go doesn't change this. Or the fact that GM was convicted in 1951 of monopolizing the market for transport equipment and supplies by doing this.

Yeah. In the 60s they breathed a sigh of relief and then coughed because of the polluted air. But Libertarians fix polluted cities by introducing more diesel buses. How clever!

Interviewer hair style nightmare: Then and Now

Well someone has a problem with streetcars. If streetcars are so bad and buses are so good then why is New Orleans RTA building new streetcar lines and manufacturing their own version of the 1920's Perley Thomas cars? Granted with the exception of the St. Charles line they they shut down all streetcar lines in 1964 but in '88 they built the Riverfront line mostly for the tourists but it is profitable - Canal Street followed in 2004, City Park was added and Rampart recently opened. The people wanted their streetcars brought back to service. Other cities are trying to follow suit but are struggling with obtaining right-of-ways and even finding an American manufacturer. Then there are the nay-sayers like this - Europe and many countries use them profitably, what is the problem here? Oh yeah, we're in a different time zone . . .

someone buy your interviewer a comb

Add technology used on & from modern cars & trains to then improve the streetcar like automobile safety sensors etc , snow ice rail clearing accessories

The conduit slot between the rails was used by the Capital Transit company because the government wouldn't let them string overhead. Outside of city limits, they used overhead wires. Manhattan streetcars used the slot too.

theres so much wrong wifh the information in this video

Just like the streetcar nightmare in Cincinnati. There is no money to sustain it and they have not even started running it.

Light rail vehicles similar to street cars ,but running on dedicated tracks are more promising .

streetcars are specialty tool that can be incredibly successful in the right places. Light rail is a much more realistic use of tax money with buses providing local service and light rail as the artery's.

jim is disturbing. he looks like he wants to kiss this cat? and if his stylist isn't his kid sister, then he need's to put down the scissors. egads.

So when a mad man shoots up a mall, the far left goes after the guns... Now when D.C. screws up a streetcar implementation, the far right goes after the streetcars? Imagine (sorry Randall O'Toole, I'm sure you can't) if you took these high capacity vehicles, they have superior acceleration, superior braking, and one operator can do the work of 3 bus drivers on every shift. Simply lay the track in unused medians, utility easements, side of the roadway, and forget all the whistles and bells (IE: New roadway, pavement, furnishing, lighting, landscaping etc). Simple bus shelter type stops. Such a system would beat the socks off any bus, anywhere, anytime... I am Robert W. Mann, Author, History Press, and former Southeastern Transportation Supervisor for Tamiami Trailways Bus System.

If there wasn’t a conspiracy then why did they lose a lawsuit, unfortunately it came too late for the trolleys.

"A Streetcar Named Disaster" by American playwright Waysten R. Greenbacks.

Ah, another video about public transport that speaks as if America is the only country in the world. Please come to Europe and watch our trams glide past the traffic in their very own lanes

What’s the point of the streetcar when dc has decent subway system 🤔

I rode on the D.C. PCC cars in Barcelona in 1967

Amazing video, i look forward to the day a street car comes up to rockville

Light rail in the United States - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_rail_in_the_United_States

I use the street car. It's more spacious than busses.

2.2 ! 2.2 mi ! 2.2 miles ! Such a short track...Why ?

Muh public transit

Thank you for this advertisement for trolleybuses?

People have bad hair days yall calm down 😭

Rails were a passing phase. A vehicle confined to tracks became a joke for urban use. Now it is simply hatred of cars that has people resurrecting this dinosaur of the nineteenth century. Portland Oregon residents cover the 80% of costs that ridership fails to meet year after year, as the promoters count their millions, year after year. PGE is a major supporter, and profiteer. The only light rail that makes any sense is one that runs from the airport to the downtown train station. Cyclists now have to deal with tracks, usually wet. Maybe you saw the video of the train rolling through a flooded track- it is typical misappropriation.

Great production

We wanted to keep our trolleys, they just took them away here in S. Calif. So this guy is full of crap.

Willfully disobedient public servants.

IN DEPTH: I'll respond to the video and as always, I'm happy to answer questions. Both books are by the same publisher but no, Reason didn't interview me because they wouldn't like my answers and it won't fit their agenda. [quote]VIDEO-'Streetcars involved major engineering headaches and they required enormous amounts of capital investment and maintenance.' [/quote] They pull an interesting sleight-of-hand in the video, streetcars are good because the efficiency of rails over a roadway is about 10x, to wit; 'A horse could pull 10 times the weight on rails,' which is said just a bit later in the film, after stating that; 'Streetcars involved major engineering headaches and they required enormous amounts of capital investment and maintenance.' Then they mention the growth of the hilly suburbs and the fact that a horse couldn't make the grade (literally). They are not talking about streetcars here but they never mention it as the casual observer completely misses the insinuation that horsecars were not replaced by streetcars, they were replaced by 'C A B L E C A R S !' And while cablecars might look like streetcars, they are completely different animals requiring obscene amounts of investment and maintenance. Fact is the Washington and Georgetown Railway converted to cablecars in 1890, by which time that entire industry was in free-fall thanks to the ease of engineering and building electric streetcar lines. Cable Railways were once found in virtually every major metropolitan area except in the deep south, maybe we were not as dumb as some people seem to think we are? [quote]VIEDO - 'Power cables ran in a slot in the street and were inefficient.' [/quote] True. This wasn't by design, it was by law in DC that forbade overhead electric lines. We wouldn't want a single wire to obstruct our view of that impressive capital. This was a bad idea then, and it's a bad idea today. [quote]VIDEO - 'The bus moved freely, nimble, quiet, comfortable and just so much better.' [/quote] Correction, if the bus moved 'freely' it was only because the streets it ran on were largely paved with tax revenue from the streetcar companies. In one of the worst cases of robbing Peter to pay Paul, the cities saw the streetcars as Milch Cows to be used for any and all municipal projects. Around 1912 a nationwide campaign circulated for municipal ownership of all streetcar lines because following the lead of Chicago. There is something to be said for 'nimble' buses, as a bus can change lanes, and go around objects blocking it's path and rail vehicles cannot. 'Quiet?' Just how quiet is a 1920/30 vintage bus? How about if I told you they generally sound like a WWII fighter plane? Rubber tires on a smooth pavement might be quieter than a steel wheel going over a rail joint, but modern streetcar lines have very few rail joints so that part of the argument has changed meanwhile, electric motors hum while internal combustion or diesel engines chug or sputter. 'Comfortable?' Do you enjoy diesel or gas fumes? Ever been behind a local school bus until you are turning green? Tell me how comfortable that is? As to seating, Horses could pull more because there is next to no friction with a steel wheel on a steel rail and that equates to a silky smooth ride. Perhaps DC's early buses had velvet interiors? Hey, but then many early streetcars actually did. 'So much better,' Sorry but that is in the eye of the beholder, from a passenger prospective a rail vehicle is much larger, much smoother and generally quieter. [quote]'VIDEO - People preferred buses.'[/quote] While this might have been true in a few isolated locations, the facts are that when buses replaced streetcars ridership plummeted. The worst case I've found is Oklahoma City which suffered a sudden -97% drop in ridership almost overnight. Some others were Detroit -93%, Dallas -89%, St. Louis -87% and WASHINGTON DC -85%. (you can google this fact, it is on several sites) [quote]'VIDEO - There is a hard to kill conspiracy theory, it is just not true.'[/quote] Pick up a copy of my book, in the appendix you will see copies of several FBI letters documenting the exact fact this video is attempting to refute. There was also the civil court cases that were filed by several cities (also in the book). I find it irresponsible that any historian or political think tank would sweep away the charges and the convictions (for the lesser crime of conspiracy in the sale of buses) with a claim that it never happened. [quote]'VIDEO - The people wanted to get rid of streetcars.'[/quote] How does that square with what happened in Oklahoma City or the fact that cities were suing over the loss of their streetcars? [quote]VIDEO - 'Streetcars don't coexist well; tracks next to parked cars is wrong' [/quote] No argument here that streetcars at their best are on exclusive right-of-way. Streetcars are railroad vehicles and their size, weight and construction guarantees that in any conflict between pedestrian, bike, car or bus and a streetcar, the streetcar wins. [quote]VIDEO - 'Résurrection of this expensive 19Th Century Dinosaur,' 'Limited (modern day) national application (is expected).'[/quote] Do they really want to go there? A streetcar that returns 25% of it's cost through the farebox is returning 25% more than any road. Toll roads likewise do not 'make money'. A roadway will last about 10 years according to FDOT before it needs attention, and a roadway with heavy vehicles such as BRT buses will become worn out even quicker. The bus vehicles themselves have a lifespan of about 8-12 years, (12 is the current standard but the industry is pushing for 8 years). According to the FRA streetcar track is good for 50 years and the vehicles 30+ though several cities are currently running streetcars that are over 100 years old. '19Th Century Dinosaur's,' Amazingly silly statement, I can date the Via Appia built by Romans under Appius Claudius Caecus to 350 BCE, which would date highways and roadway vehicles to a tad before the 19Th Century Dinosaur's mentioned in the article.

I've got some money for Jim Epstein's next haircut.....

Reason needs to apply public service login in order to determine if this was a "failure". If the project was meant to provide an efficient mode of transport for the public, yes, it failed. But if the project was meant to extract endless amounts of taxpayer money and funnel it into union workers, lawyers and social advocates - then it is a great success. a 3 year blowout in going live means 3 years of extra funding. Perspective matters.

Buses are so much better: they allow ultimate flexibility in designing routes; they can use existing infrastructure; they don't require costly and disruptive track maintenance; the ability to move to the right allows vehicular traffic to move past them. Cities began to get rid of their street cars in the 50s for a reason.

Just like the streetcar nightmare in Cincinnati. There is no money to sustain it and they have not even started running it.