The use of light rail in the United States is low compared to some European countries, but higher than some other nations, such as Canada and Australia. According to the American Public Transportation Authority, of the 20-odd light rail systems in the United States, five of them (Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Portland, OR), achieve more than 25 million passenger boardings per year.
Compared with that of Canada, the United States federal government offers considerably more funding for transportation projects of all types, resulting in smaller portions of light rail construction cost to be borne at the local and state levels. This funding is provided by the Federal Transit Administration though as of 2004 the rules to determine which projects will be funded are biased against the simpler streetcar systems (partly because the vehicles tend to be somewhat slower). Some cities in the U.S. (e.g. San Pedro, California) have set about building the less expensive streetcar lines themselves or with only minimal federal support.
Read more about Light Rail In The United States: Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Charlotte, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New Jersey, Norfolk, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Oregon, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, St. Louis, Seattle–Tacoma
Famous quotes containing the words united states, light, rail, united and/or states:
“We now in the United States have more security guards for the rich than we have police services for the poor districts. If you’re looking for personal security, far better to move to the suburbs than to pay taxes in New York.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)
“Ye say they all have passed away,
That noble race and brave;
That their light canoes have vanished
From off the crested wave;
That, mid the forests where they roamed,
There rings no hunters’ shout;
But their name is on your waters,
Ye may not wash it out.”
—Lydia Huntley Sigourney (1791–1865)
“Old man, it’s four flights up and for what?
Your room is hardly any bigger than your bed.
Puffing as you climb, you are a brown woodcut
stooped over the thin rail and the wornout tread.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“I am colored but I offer nothing in the way of extenuating circumstances except the fact that I am the only Negro in the United States whose grandfather on the mother’s side was not an Indian chief.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“[N]o combination of dictator countries of Europe and Asia will halt us in the path we see ahead for ourselves and for democracy.... The people of the United States ... reject the doctrine of appeasement.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)