SystemsConsciousness wrote:There are much worse things. I can't imagine the highline being that effective as a piece of transit. The elevated lines in Manhattan were taken down for a reason--nobody liked them. They were noisy and got in the way.
Better to have subways or light rail. Light rail would work beautifully in these areas of relative low density. It requires a systemic sensibility though. Not the idea to build a light rail across 42 street, but rather an interwoven system. This is much harder to push, but this will be what works.
El's are not the same as the High Line. I also mentioned the changes since that mitigate that argument further. The El's that still exist in Manhattan (like the old ones) are all the things that the High Line is not. They are made of flexing riveted stanchions that look like erector sets, and noisy unto themselves under any kind of traffic. There's also no railbed so they allow debris to fall through, and their height allows for horrific derailments.
They are what the various communities railed against (pun intended).
The High Line is only a couple of stories tall, has a railbed, and could be fitted with welded rail for quiet subway service using the current R-160 cars in a two track configuration preventing toppling derails.
It works....or would have.
