Oceans Yet to Burn

[Oceans Yet to Burn]

Bus Tracks

The One Thousand Villages series continues, as we return to the suburbs of Flatsville, our new town in the state of Arkowa.

Wanting to avoid the sins of past American cities and avoid creating a sparse and energy-inefficient sprawl that we may become unable to maintain, our Metropolitan Planning Authority has decided to plan with an eye towards public transit from the beginning.

At this point it becomes very tempting to just put trams in everywhere.  They’re reasonably quiet, they don’t emit fumes, people love riding them, and property developers view them as a long-term investment.

Unfortunately, trams are quite expensive.  And, quite frankly, it would be highly irresponsible for the MPA to build such heavy public transit without knowing where the densest areas of the city will be!  We can’t just dedicate an entire zone to only hotels - what do you think this is, Brasilia?

[Oceans Yet to Burn]

[argumate]

how do buses and tracked trams differ significantly? ability to route around obstacles?

mmm, tracked public transport

[mitigatedchaos]

Was this an anon?

The big difference is actually political - it costs more to set up tram tracks so AFAICT governments are less willing to shut them down or move them.  This means that, unlike bus lines, which could radically change across the entire city in a month, you can build apartment buildings next to tram tracks and trust that there will still be trams there if the ridership is high enough.  The routes are also going to be better defined, say if you’re an employee wanting to move somewhere you can easily commute to your place of employment from.