Who Are New Orleans' Streetcars For?
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- čas přidán 12. 07. 2024
- In the years since Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has leaned heavily into its tourism economy, and that's reflected in its streetcar system. But how does it hold up as actual transit? Can it serve the people who are keeping the tourist economy alive? Join me as I take a ride to find out...
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0:00 - Welcome to New Orleans
1:15 - The Map
3:09 - The St. Charles Line
7:28 - Canal Street
10:53 - Being a Tourist
11:50 - The Other Side of Transit
13:51 - Things Are Looking Up
14:45 - Inspiration from Overseas
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Sources:
www.governing.com/transportat... the New Orleans tourism industry perpetuates its glaring ...The Tennesseanwww.tennessean.com %E2%80%BA news %E2%80%BA 2021/07/15 %E2%80%BA how...www.neworleans.com/plan/itine... Jazz by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
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Classy Whale - at-least-weekly misadventures with trains and transit!
One small correction: the reason the graves in cemeteries are above ground is not because of the water table. That's just an urban legend. The reason is due to it's french heritage, as those are what what french cemeteries are like. In fact, there's a Jewish cemetery there where the graves are underground.
Welp, Caleb didn't do too much research 😂
@@ClassyWhale Ah Ah, he said it! He said it!
@@SteveGettingAroundPhillyyeah
@@ClassyWhale the convention centre is closed
Also the water table isn't high. The city is low.
New Orleans is quite unique among southern cities is that it was largely built before cars, not after due to it not seeing a post-car population boom, unlike other southern cities
It's not because New Orleans didn't have a post car population boom, it's because New Orleans was already a very big city before cars (used to be the 3rd biggest city in the country in 1840). Most southern cities are just not that old compared to cities in the North. The few old southern cities like Savannah and Charleston did retain their walkable inner city neighbourhoods.
Streetcars are actually used by the average Joe's and Josephine's. They're mostly transit and a little tourism. It's actually like asking if New York's subway is for the tourists or locals.
Not being used by commuters in this case isn't quite the same as not being used by the locals. We use the street cars all the time. When I lived in the Garden district, I drove my car to work every day (out in Metairie). But with a Streetcar stop a block away, I used it all the time in the evening and on the weekends to move around the city, especially if I was going bar hopping. So much easier grabbing a street car than trying to find or pay for parking. Most of my neighbors used them the same way.
The shoutout is much appreciated! New Orleans once had the opportunity to get PCCs! When Dallas retired its PCCs, they tried to sell them to other streetcar operators. New Orleans considered them for its Canal and St. Charles lines, but ultimately rejected them because the narrow rear doors of the Pullman design would slow passenger flow too much. Beignets were brought to New Orleans in the 18th century by French colonists who settled there as well as Acadians. Acadians from France originally settled in what's now Atlantic Canada, and were forcefully deported by the British. They made it to Louisiana thanks to recruitment by the Spanish.
As for why the cemeteries are like that, as someone else has pointed out, most people would say it's because of the water table because New Orleans being New Orleans, but that's not the main reason. While that is a contributing factor, New Orleans Catholic Cemeteries has stated that the reason they're like that is because their architectural and cultural past is strongly linked with France and Spain. You can find cemetery landscapes that appear extremely similar to those of New Orleans throughout Europe and other locales that were colonized by European nations. But their monuments in the cemeteries function as tombs unlike those in European countries because of the low elevation. After New Orleans was established in 1718 by the French, they realized they had to deal with disease, hurricanes, and poor sanitation. The resulting high mortality rate combined with population growth of the colony resulted in the urgent need for cemeteries. The first known public cemetery appeared in 1725, which was in-ground due to economic necessity.
You again why I see you every time
Thanks for the information, Dear Leader, very cool!
@@ImNotLoganA that is definitely not the real Kim
Man I would kill to see old PCCs from Dallas still operating. My hometown had some great surface transit back before the suburbanization of Dallas, and I wish I could see it myself. Thank you, great leader!
Technically, NO had PCC cars. They bought a few from Septa back in the 90s. I believe they were going to take parts off them for other cars. I'm not entirely sure but I seem to remember seeing pictures of 1 running under power though I could be dreaming that. Edit I found a few pictures.
friedman.cs.illinois.edu/riverfront/Pic085.htm
Really great overview of the system! I remember being excited upon discovering how extensive the streetcar system is, but then disappointed when I saw how insanely close together the stops are (particularly on Canal Street) and how sporadic the service is.
They could make a huge improvement to speed and reliability for minimal cost by eliminating closely-spaced stops and adding strong signal priority.
Interesting to note that the #12 St. Charles streetcar and the #47 Canal Street Cemeteries streetcar run 24/7. Pretty good for a city the size of New Orleans. The other two streetcar lines are from 5 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. For some reason, maybe tourists, the timetable is the same, weekdays and weekends.
The streetcar is a very useful way to avoid expensive parking downtown….I simply park my car at the end of a streetcar line and ride to Canal St….It’s like I paid $1.50 to park.
Make sure you park legally not in the parking lot you might get towed.
@@sitdowndogbreath street parking
@@tswagg504 most of the street parking signs are ambiguous.
@@sitdowndogbreath No they’re not…it’s a white sign with red letters saying “No parking”…..and i’m not talking about downtown, im talking about the other end, uptown….There is street parking there.
I was recently in New Orleans. Got up early and took the streetcar into the French Quarter. The majority of the people on board were locals going to work. Later in the day it was a mix, and in the evening mainly tourists. I'd imagine around 5pm-6pm you'd see people returning from work.
The St. Louis Cathedral is the oldest cathedral in continuous use in the US! It is dedicated to King Louis IX of France, the same name origin for the city in Missouri! The first church on the site was built in 1718. The current cathedral dates mostly to the 1850s, with a bit dating to 1789. Basically the second church they built was burned in the Great New Orleans Fire of 1788, which destroyed over 850 structures. It was rebuilt in 1789 and became a cathedral in 1793, but it was decided to expand it and reconstruct it once more, so most of the 1789 stuff was demolished. The cathedral has been visited by two Popes, Paul VI who designated it a minor basilica in 1964, and John Paul II in 1987.
And speaking of gumbo since you mentioned it in the intro, gumbo was named after okra! As you know, New Orleans has a lot of African influence, and in the Niger-Congo languages spoken by the Africans who were brought to Louisiana, okra is called ki ngombo! But it's not just African influence in the dish, as it having Filé powder made from dried sassafras leaves came from the Choctaw!
A $1.50 US (now $1.25) for a long streetcar ride here in New Orleans is not what I would call a tourist trap! It's a heck of a lot cheaper than most transit systems in the US, for example the NYC subway which is $2.90 or the MBTA subway and light rail in Boston which is $2.40. Plus, it definitely is patronized by us locals so it's not just for tourists! Hopefully the RTA can expand the streetcar out Canal Boulevard to the Lakefront and down Saint Claude to the Jackson Barracks some time in the future!
Is there a reason they never got PCCs?
Grew up on N.O. 60+ years ago. The private transit company, NOPSI, decided by 1953 to convert all remaining car lines to bus, scrapping its whole fleet of non-revenue service cars except maintenance car #29 and training car #453. After 1953 the only remaining car lines were cut-back portions of the Canal and St. Charles lines.The 2-man 1920's cars were kept operable largely with usable spare parts salvaged from scores of retired cars, apparently cheaper for NOPSI than buying new buses. By 1964 NOPSI was running low on salvaged parts, so it replaced Canal cars with buses, salvaging usable parts for the remaining St. Charles cars. Soon enough there was historical interest in keeping the antique 1920's cars running, even if NOPSI had to start fabricating replacement parts, which it did. As for PCC's, NOPSI was an early supporter of PCC development, and would likely have bought 1-man PCC cars in the 1930's, but for the violent 1929 car strike. A disputed issue was whether the city should allow NOPSI to use 1-man cars. NOPSI dodged the issue by gradually converting its 2-man car lines to 1-man bus lines. The St.Charles cars were finally converted to 1-man operation 50 years ago this spring. I was a passenger that first sunny spring Sunday morning without conductors. NOPSI had gone to exact fare in 1970 after a robber murdered a bus driver to steal the $15 or so in change he carried. There wasn't much for car conductors to do after they were relieved from the duty of making change. Many of the oldest motormen and conductors retired around that time. Some had worked for NOPSI ever since it fired the 1929 strikers.
I really enjoyed this video, I also liked your ideas on how improve New Orleans streetcar system. Keep making your videos, I have enjoyed watching them all.
Gee, I wonder who that guy he's talking about with the Cuban flag in their profile pic during the beignet part could be? 😂Yup, one other state has an official state doughnut, and it's Massachusetts and their Boston cream doughnut! The Boston cream doughnut was designated the official doughnut of MA in 2003. The cream pie that the donut is based off of became the state dessert in 1996. The pie in turn was created in 1856 by Armenian-French chef Mossburg Sanzian at the Parker House Hotel! The cake was called a pie due to the fact that pie tins were more available and used more often than cake pans in the mid-19th century. Back then, it was just called the Chocolate Cream Pie or Parker House Chocolate Cream Pie
Yup, the term po' boy came out because of the free sandwiches given during the strike. The term po' boy was coined by Benjamin and Clovis Martin, who were former streetcar conductors originally from Raceland in Lafourche Parish! Hence why they were supportive! The Martins established their eatery in 1921, but it was not until 1929 that the bakery of John Gendusa first baked the bread to be used for this sandwich, and the strike happened in 1929. Said strike happened for four months!
Do you Google any of this when you write comments or do you just pull it out of your head?
@@ClassyWhale I know way too much random information for my own good
New streetcars that have old-fashioned styling are entirely an option, and I think we should have more of them in the US. Apparently Japan has some that try to mimic those 1920s and 1930s looks and has done so across a few generations of trains. Such examples include the Toei 7500, 7700, and 9000 series, with some being as new as 2016.
I wish them trollies were still in service today, all around the world
This might be your best video!
Thank you for accurately calling the confederate leaders traitors.
You meant traitors, I hope?
@@expletivedeleted7853 I did and I corrected it. Thank you.
Someone got mad about it in my original vlog so I doubled down in the analysis video
Very well done, especially considering the historical perspective about the city's transit system, especially its street cars. I lived there will growing up and rode the street cars regularly. I also recognized that you are one of only a handful of vlogers who ever spoke about the neutral grounds and cold drinks, which is how we knew them at the time. We regularly played on the old Jeff Davis, now renamed, Parkway neutral ground located at Tulane Avenue, which was only a block from our home. Also, on a somewhat related historical transit system note about the city, you might want to investigate the history of New Orleans' electrified bus system that ran along the regular streets, such as Tulane Avenue. They were unique in their old right, both in appearance and sound. That made your video presentation very special for me as a former New Orleanian. Thanks.
great video 🚈🚋🚌
I live here, and I take the streetcar once a month on average. It's a great option for someone like me living in Carrollton to get to the Quarter for cheap. Cheap, but not quickly. In my rides it fluctuates. Some are 90% tourists, some are 50/50. It all depends on the season and the time
What a pretty city
This was a really well done overview of New Orleans Caleb! I'm always down to watch some streetcar action, and I appreciated the points about how the bus network isn't quite equitable in its frequency and coverage
15:01 WOAH boat tram!!!
@@JacksonBetz thanks Jackson!
Anything with the Jackson seal of approval is a win
There's not a natural levee on the river, that's all man-made. I'll also say, if you shot this in 2021, there was something going on around that time, that was the reason locals weren't riding the street cars. Locals who live along the routes do ride the street car, but also a lot of us ride bicycles because it's a very flat city and not that big. It's only takes maybe 20 minutes to ride across the entire thing. Or, we have blue bikes to rent, people have cars as most people don't live downtown, or the bus system. The bus passes are transferrable to the street car, so you can switch between them off the same pass. We also don't really run on time efficiency, it's a different pace. Time is a bit more bendy here, and it's usually to hot to be trying to get anywhere quickly. We're also way too densely built to add a light rail train. There's no where to actually add a light rail without augmenting one of our dozens of historic neighborhoods dramatically, and it's really not a very big city.
Great research!... Except for the grave thing. 😏 Seriously informative while covering a lot of topics and moving along quickly with great editing.
I suppose I made one grave error!
No matter what you say or like it called, we natives still call it Lee circle!
Trolleys and interurban cars have always had advertising, inside and out. Some of the unrestored cars at Lackawanna Trolley Museum have their original placards. The refurbished cars at the Illinois Railway Museum also carry them.
I live in New Orleans. IDK how a streetcar that cost's $150 can be considered a tourist trap. I've taken street cars regularly for many years. It is a means of transportation & it is one of the best things I reccomend for tourists to do {That and to take the ferry to old algeirs and back) Both are super cheap and you get to see so much of the city, including the most expensive real estate in New Orleans {St. Charles Ave.)
You're spot on, Heart. We locals use them to get places. It not like San Francisco's Trolleys which are mostly for the tourists. It would be like asking if NY subways are for tourists. They're one of the best things about the city.
I recommend the Algiers Ferry to tourists too. You never really know a city until you cross its river.
...the transit system in New Orleans used to be managed by Public Service which is the electric power utility.
@ 4:33 passing Loyola University and what we use to call "Touchdown Jesus".
@ 5:35 that building used to be the BBQ restaurant I worked at in the 1970s (now under different ownership). Also later managed a deli restaurant further up Carrollton.
Ah Cafe Du Monde, Spent a lot of my free time drinking coffee and noshing on Beignets while writing music manuscript.
San Francisco has two of the Blackpool "Boat Trams" (the open ones)
Oh, and as to the question of commuting v. "touristy" I used to commute to work daily on the St. Charles streetcar to the two jobs I had in the Carrollton district.(lived on Napoleon Ave just off St Charles midway between Downtown to the University area). Of course that was in the 1970s, decades before Katrina devastated the city. and the St Charles line was the only streetcar omn operation.
Hope to return some day but expecting a lot of differences compared to almost 5 decades ago
Cool Alfa Romeo shot 😊
The play is good
Anyone else here love that song where Judy garland song where she sings about a trolley ride?
Clang clang clang
Randy Rainbow did a good version.
They really need to revamp the local bus system, it's pretty bad with infrequent service and a loss of many routes that were never returned after Katrina. Apparently, I've heard New Orleans transit pre-Katrina was this standout unique holdover of quite high ridership with a dense network of routes in a smaller transit-oriented city.
RTA runs a lot of newer cars on the St Charles line now, it seems like the majority of cars are non-historic... just rode it 2 months ago for the first time in about 5 years and really noticed the difference.
The temporary Union Station-Canal-Riverfront streetcar route is actually a pretty good useful route, I think much better than the original Riverfront line and Loyala-Rampart line. This one is definitely tourist oriented but the Canal addition to the route makes it much more useful, the short branch to Union Station is an added benefit.
Canal line is used mostly by locals, it could be improved with more transit priority like removing the left/u-turns across the tracks when cars block the streetcars (and replacement buses). St Charles line is also used by locals but also tourists given the historic nature of the line and the concentration of tourist destinations along the route but it is a real workhorse line and I believe its the busiest route in the entire RTA system.
Would be nice to have an airport rail link. The express bus route isn't bad, it's just very infrequent and not used by visitors. The local route run by Jefferson Transit is a little more frequent but very slow and focused on airport workers.
that brt should be a streetcar route.
8:07 You of all people should know the King of weird local vernacular is Boston. Ever had someone ask you to grab a tonic at the packie on the other side of the rotary?
Don't forget to ask them to pick up some grinders with spuckies for the kids!
Was a greater Boston local (townies are born there) and Now I'm a new Orleans local.
So there's this weird mix on the st Charles line. Tons of tourists, but the land use planning around the route is just super convenient and it's one of the only public transit lines that comes every 15 min or better frequency. I use it to commute to Tulane every day and all the time tourists are shocked to find that I actually ride it to a destination instead of just riding it in a loop 😂
This is a very good lesson for us in St. Louis.
The German freeway system was also named after Audubon 😛
You know whats sad? They were just about to start a program on the Canal line where the U-turns over the neutral ground would be closed, avout two tvirds of the stops would be closed, and would implement off board fare collection in the CBD during rush hour. But then covid hit....
What about heavy rail? How do you build tunnels when the water table is super high?
I don't think that would be practical! NOLA is a light rail sized city imho
@@ClassyWhale Eh it's got a lot of windy streets and probably a few places where grade separation might be needed
With a lot of pump houses to keep the tunnels from flooding!
@10:56 it's interesting how everyone have their own narrative of beignets . Cafe Du Monde or the selling of beignets were businesses that were started by Black Creole women who received funding from their French "husbands" when laws began to get strict with passing down wealth to the Blk woman and her children. Cafe au lait was named as a way to describe the various skintones of the women. So beignets were only made and sold by Blk Creole women as a way to generate money.
Great coverage of this system and thanks for the really honest look at the history and the focus on equity. Hopefully the bus network redesign, the BRT combined with your ideas for the streetcar lines could help to improve the service for residents especially those who could stand to benefit the most from the benefits transit can offer.
Blackpool is "grim".
The UK is jam-packed with heritage railways and museums. It would be a pity not to visit a few on your upcoming tour but some serious research might be necessary to determine their locations.
Be warned though, you could spend days at the Railway Museum in York.
Of course, you will be eager to try our cream doughnuts!
But are UK cream donuts better than Boston ones?
@@ClassyWhale No experience to form a judgement. Generally though, Brits maintain that Americans can't make doughnuts, and the same applies vice versa!
Customer
"Is that a doughnut or a meringue?"
Glaswegian shop keeper.
"nah yareet pal, it's a donnut!"
So it shouldn't be difficult to schedule a wave of traditional vehicle departing immediately after an LRV on any given corridor, such that the next LRV doesn't catch up \m/
Im glad they kept the old streetcars and built new ones looking like the old streetcars.
Good things to save handcrafted vehicles which isnt as common as it was....
What do mean about Pittsburgh?
The gauge
And vernacular
@@blue9multimediagroup OK
I like how you eviscerated New Orleans' more recent transit priorities.
I know this is unrelated to the video topic but, there's an old Lamborghini Countach at 7:58!
Good that they still have streetcar named Desire
Actually, we do ;)
Thank you for bringing us this very interesting and informative video presentation, it was fascinating. I would certainly agree with the Blackpool style compromise of old and new style cars. Blackpool has recently completed an extension to Blackpool North railroad station though I am unsure whether this is open to the public. A little further North in Scotland, Edinburgh has recently opened a three mile extension, so on its route one can see, trains and boats and planes. Reminds me of a song sung by Dionne Warwick a number of years ago!
Blackpool's new trams are great, but the problem is that there is (and has been for as long as I can remember) just the one line from Fleetwood to Starr Gate. The extension to Blackpool North Station is still not yet open. There have been proposals for branches to Lytham (replacing part of the infrequent and little-used rail line from Blackpool South Station) and reusing a closed rail line from Fleetwood to Poulton-le-Fylde - but current thinking seems to be to reopen that as a rail line. I can't see a way in which there can be any extension to the inland suburbs where most people live.
Speeds are much better than before where there are dedicated separate tracks, but the central area along the Promeade is slowed down by pedestrians who show no inclination to move out of the way. Luckily most people are travelling either to or from the town centre so are not inconvenienced too much.
Frequency is 15 minutes which is not bad, though the service from Bispham to Fleetwood is only half-hourly in the evenings.
You had to use Uber?, I took a vacation to New Orleans a few years back took buses everywhere, but hey I'm from Texas I have low standards for "good transit". Interesting comparison of Blackpool and New Orleans, having been to both they are surprisingly similar, both have a jarring mix of poverty and heavy tourism.
I visited Prague this month and I saw some trams that were from as early as the 1920s all the way up until the newest models from Skoda.
I wish I knew everything too! Thank you for your opinions.
I agree with your assessment that they're tourist-oriented. I think the RTA should overhaul all the lines except the historic Green Line/St. Charles Line and create a modern light rail or trolley system. The lines all stay tight to downtown and don't service the airport, lakefront and/or major shopping areas like Metairie. There's also no lines on the West Bank communities which are increasingly congested vehicle commuter based communities. A line connecting West Bank suburbs to downtown or the Algiers Ferry would help with increasing transit commuting. There's also a lot of major NOLA streets with preserved Neutral Grounds that once did and could still accommodate trolley/light rail lines.
I know NOLA better than almost any city besides Chicago. It's a wonderful place, but even before Katrina its transit was horrible. They need more vehicles to offer more frequent service (I'd actually suggest alternating modern and historic vehicles), and they also need signal priority. Both buses and streetcars get stuck in traffic and go ridiculously slowly. I can remember walking from Loyola University (across from Audubon Park) all the way along St. Charles. Only two streetcars passed me as I made my way downtown, and they were going barely any faster than I was on foot.
When I would try and wait for the Canal St streetcar, I'd wind up walking the 4miles home instead and sometimes wouldn't even see it pass me as I neared my house. But even when it did I'd often be like 8blocks from home. And the St. Charles one? It would be SO crammed with tourists sometimes I'd have to wait for the next one. I remember moving to ATL and getting on MARTA and thinking ohhhhh, is THIS how it's supposed to be
7:57 Peep the Countach
What
@@ClassyWhale there was a Lamborghini countach parked on the street, very rare car. Just thought It was cool
I rode the streetcar in New Orleans and I loved it. The problem is, the streetcar does not go to the airport and neighboring townships. Also NOLA is one of the most dangerous cities in the US, I do not feel safe in this city.
Hmm. I always thought it was pronounced kar-ON-Dee-LAY and not kar-on-Dee-let...
I'm a transplant and I've only heard Car-ON-de-let
I've enjoyed riding the St. Charles streetcar line several times between 1988 and 2004. It is a fun way to get to the places we needed to go during these short stays in New Orleans, whether arriving by car, Amtrak, or Trailways bus. For the latter two options, New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal seemed reasonably close to access the St. Charles line. As of 2004, it did require walking a few blocks from Union Station to the St. Charles streetcar but didn't seem to be an unsafe walk. I believe a newer streetcar line now more directly serves Union Station.
Check out trams in Brussels too. Nice museum runs heritage cars along tracks with modern trams.
The state donut???? But it’s not even a donut….
I'd personally like to see a mix of vintage, vintage-replica and modern low-floor European-style street trams giving both tourists and residents a past/present/future feel.... I'd also like to see the system expanded back to the size it was since this would probably help bring life back to parts of the city left lifeless since Katrina...
I was in NO in May for 2 days and used the trolleys as connected where my hotel was in the Garden District to the Canal Street area. I also rode on the Canal Street line several times. You can get a cheap 24 hour ticket good for the trolleys and buses on either. They do operate somewhat irregularly or not at all and in some places, they don't really connect well to certain areas.
Why cant places do both.. Have a few commuter cars and a few touristytrap historic cars.. But the noise yesh
You think that's Cool you should see Tampa Teco line
Literally Tourist trap! But it might get upgraded soon
would you classify the 15 trolley in philly the same? i feel like its a legitimate mode of transportation here even though on paper it has all the same shortcomings of this system
✌🏾
It's hard for me to think of something without air conditioning being considered a tourist trap, but certainly the tourists do seem to flock to them. I've lived here my whole life and it's always just been the fun arm of the otherwise bland bus line. We didn't have a car until I was about 12, so these are how we got around other than walking. Like a lot of things in New Orleans, things just stick around long after there's no point to them, and like it or not that's sort of why we stay the way we are.
edit: shows how long it's been since I've been on one on Canal, I've never ridden one with AC
I like your solutions but we have a historical preservation society that seems the street cars the only moving historical landmarks.
This city might be the best city in America
maybe give one of the Canal street services heritage streetcars and then put modern streetcar on all other lines, including the other Canal service
When I visited NO, our hotel was right on the St. Charles line. It was convienent for us to get in to French Quarters. I also think that a lot of college kids use it at night to get from Tulane to Bourbon St.
This look into NOLA makes me wonder what you would think of Tamapa's streetcar...
Quite interesting from an operating standpoint.....
Other state with an official Donut is Massachusetts, Boston Cream Donut. At first I was thinking it would be North Carolina with the glazed donut, since Krispy Kreme was founded in North Carolina. But then I remembered North Carolina only has Official Vegetables and berries.
how many people live in new orleans?
376,000
It used to be as big as Boston!
History is what it is….
One interesting thing I read is apparently the St Charles line is not allowed modern cars because of it's status as a heritage site(I could be wrong).
**Caleb did a lot of research**
It's important to learn all of the history, the good and the bad. You're a thorough historian, I enjoy your videos and this one really examined transit and history well
New Orleans also has a decent bikeshare system called Blue Bikes with all electric bikes. The bikes are single speed and limited to 16mph, but the coverage area is very good in thr urban core. A monthy membership is $25 which covers 60 minutes of free riding per day. I really enjoyed the system and despite the poor conditions of the roads there is a growing cycling culture in thr city. Getting around by bike in the urban core is a great way to navigate around the street grid, especially on the tree lined boulevards, side streets and dedicated multiuse trails.
Dang I remember being there and wishing they had something like that, glad to see it's a thing now!
Before Katrina it had an even bigger bike culture because there were a lot of people who were too poor to own a car so if they could afford a bike that's how they got around.
New Orleans once looked comparable to Amsterdam, maybe that would be a great video to talk about
why was that woman at 4:18 running on the tracks jfc
There's a lack of parks with paths to run long distances on so the streetcar line has to double as a running track.
Caleb did his research! This was a really well-researched video and it was so fascinating to watch. I've only been to New Orleans once, and it was pre-Katrina, so it was interesting to learn about the city's well-intentioned but perhaps misguided transit investments.
Well made video, and nice promo for your UK tour towards the end. For some reason, based on your descriptions, the New Orleans streetcar system kinda reminds me of the Lynx gold line (and the CATS system for their first few years of operation) in Charlotte, NC, in which the infrastructure is built for modern light rail standards, but the rolling stock is given an old time look, and has a handful of problems on its own.
I think that if you canvased most passengers on those New Orleans streetcars you would find most are tourists.I suppose that some locals might catch them but they don't really get far enough out of the central area to the places more people live.
It's a shame that Blackpool doesn't have modern double decker trams like London has modern double decker buses.
Yeah, I’m really not a fan of „heritage“ lines in places where there is actual demand for transit. Heritage lines are cool in places where the demand wouldn’t justify the service today, so keeping it around as a tourist attraction is a way to keep it alive. But for a serious transit systems improving service has to have priority over historic preservation.
Even with wheelchair lifts these vehicles are far from perfect. You can’t take a stroller, walker or bike and climbing up these kind of steep steps quickly is a challenge for many people, not just wheelchair users. The capacity in general is also not great, resulting in high operating costs compared to the people transported.
It’s a shame, the alignment looks good, the station spacing should probably be slightly wider, but with all the green track it looks quite French. Now embrace the French heritage and get some modern French trams, signal priority and you’d have a decent backbone.
I suspect part of the problem is the weird track gauge, no idea how expensive it is to order standard trams with something else then meter or standard gauge.
I have no faith of the heart.
Also give me pinned comment
Plz
New Orleans is lovely, but just out from there, it is all suburban wasteland
I stopped watching immediately after I saw someone wearing the absurd mask.
😷