Regional Plan Association (RPA) has released a long-range plan for the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan region that it says ensures growth and equitable prosperity opportunities.
http://www.rtands.co...tml?channel=280
Regional Plan Association has an excellent grasp the New York City Metropolitan Area infrastructure needs. The group's recommendations carry weight, but too often policymakers ignore output. Then with needs becoming desperate, implementation becomes unnecessarily costly.
Case in point: Way back in 1982, RPA identified fourteen cities* which didn't have rail transit then but would be ripe for such a system. And that each system would "pay for itself" in energy savings, labor productivity, efficient land use, and passenger time savings.
*Railway Age June 14, 1982
About twenty-five years would pass before a rail transit building boom would start. Here is the list and what each city now has in light rail or streetcar modes:
Los Angeles —light rail
Honolulu—very expensive light rail due to delay in building
Dallas—light rail
St. Louis—light rail
Louisville—studied a streetcar concept and poo-poohed it
Seattle—light rail
Houston—light rail
Milwaukee—streetcar line under construction
Indianapolis—Rail transit faces a hostile political climate in the Hoosier State.
Cincinnati—streetcar
Columbus—Another state with a climate that is not rail transit-friendly.
Minneapolis—light rail
Denver—light rail
Kansas City—streetcar
Sloan