A Greener City: Is San Antonio ready for light rail?
By Patrick Driscoll and John Tedesco- Express-News
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- Part 1: San Antonio leaders starting to take a shine to solar (June 29, 2008)
- Part 2: San Antonio has a fragmented network of bike lanes (July 20, 2008)
- About half of cycling deaths come when bikers are struck from behind (July 19, 2008)
- Part 3: San Antonio just keeps on sprawling (Aug. 10, 2008)
- Part 4: Coal: Powering the future (Sept. 27, 2008)
- Part 5: Is San Antonio ready for light rail? (Nov. 9, 2008)
- Part 6: San Antonio moves slow on recycling (Dec. 28, 2008)
The light-rail car was crowded. Plastic seats lined the interior, and overhead were metallic bars with hand straps for people who were standing. It felt like a roomy VIA bus.
“This is my stop,” Hein said after a few minutes.
Most passengers on trains aren't as rowdy as the teens on Hein's trip. But the local media raised questions recently about the safety of MAX passengers after several people were assaulted on trains and the station platforms.
Mary Fetsch, a spokeswoman for TriMet, which runs MAX, acknowledged crime has been a problem. But she emphasized that MAX averages only three incidents a day out of 300,000 daily trips. The incidents include minor and major crimes.
“People act out,” Fetsch said. “They act out on the city sidewalks, and they act out on the train.”
Portland's light-rail system has been widely studied, praised and criticized, and Fetsch often is the public face for MAX. Despite the bad publicity of recent assaults, Fetsch said the system remains popular. When she met a reporter downtown for coffee near a train stop, the noise of a jackhammer echoed down the street as workers built a new light-rail line.
“Light rail will not solve, by itself, every problem in a community related to transportation,” Fetsch said. “It's not intended to. It plays a role.”
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