Wow, I half-expected this to be a lot of "look! expansion!", but really there's a lot of consolidation and complete overhaul if not downsizing. Detroit and Buffalo are pretty depressing, but not unexpected given their population trends. It's neat how Montreal moved everything underground, what a massive undertaking. While I'm not super surprised at the general trend of abandonment of public transit, it's sad! Look at all our European friends with their fuctional and heavily-used public transit networks! Also, doesn't San Francisco rely way more heavily on BART?? I feel like the street cars aren't the "modern transit network" of the city, but I get that it's cool for comparison. I'd love to see a comparison for Boston: "Ah yes let's just keep adding stops and not bother with any standardization or anything". Cue daily delays and failures.
Looking at the comments in the article, it looks like the artist's choices for some of the data used is worth scrutinizing and considering. Still, it's kind of fun to look at the maps overall.Also, doesn't San Francisco rely way more heavily on BART?? I feel like the street cars aren't the "modern transit network" of the city, but I get that it's cool for comparison.
I mean I see why he only showed streetcars, and it certainly provides an interesting comparison because the street grid remains very similar over time. I just think if he's saying that their modern transit system has better service than the old one, it's worth mentioning that today's major transit system is not actually the one represented on the map. Yeah, they didn't build highways in their city because they have a very robust transit system, but the very robust transit system in question isn't streetcars (though the streetcars are still there and do indeed reflect interesting changes)