Denver has light rail.
There are a lot of people who pooh-pooh this. Some of them think we should expand our bus fleet. Others think rapid transit is a goofy idea, and that we should just expand our freeways to LA-size megaways (since that has, clearly, made LA traffic so much better).
I, frankly, think light rail is keen. I dearly wish it traveled somewhere along my commute, because I would ride it (as I rode the bus downtown when that was where my job was). The critics would note that it does not do so, and so condemn light rail as a profligate waste, a boondoggle, a passle of porkbarrel.
But there is value in symbols, and light rail, even though it does not solve all our ongoing transit problems (though the Southwest corridor has turned out to be far more successful than anyone thought, and I predict similar success for the Southeast corridor), is a symbol. It is a sign that we can at least give lip service to solving regional problems. It’s a sign that we are looking for alternatives to simply paving more roads to accomodate more cars and more people.
And you know what? People do ride the light rail. And when petrol prices climb even higher, more will ride it. And folks will bitch about short-sighted politicos who can’t wave their hands and make more light rail magically appear.
Such is progress.