photo: COLIN MCCONNELL/TORONTO STAR

One of the oddities of Houston transit is the difference between how Houstonians perceive their transit system and how the rest of the world perceives it. Over and over again, I hear the same criticisms of the Main Street Line: “It needs to go to the suburbs.” “It should be elevated.” “It stops too often.” But in the rest of the transit world, Houston’s little rail line is perceived, for good reason, as a huge success.

Historically, most U.S. light rail lines have run in streets only for short stretches near downtown, then used other rights of way — usually abandoned railroad tracks — to run fast out to the suburbs. Four years ago, when METRO put together a plan for a 73 mile system composed almost entirely of street alignments, Houston seemed to be bucking that trend.

But it’s looking more and more like Houston was not an aberration but a trendsetter. In retrospect, the cities that built light rail early were those that had convenient abandoned railroad tracks. In some cases, these cities were extremely fortunate: St. Louis had not only an abandoned rail line to the airport and the northwest suburbs but an abandoned downtown subway. But those cities like Houston that don’t have such luck want good transit, too. Meanwhile, tightening federal funding requirements make it all the more important that light rail lines carry as many people as possible, and that means going right to where people want to go, not just downtown but all over the system.

It turns out our Main Street line wasn’t the only line being built in streets to serve acitivity centers and urban neighborhoods. In 2004, Portland opened the Interstate line, running 4.5 miles right down a major commercial street. Salt Lake City’s University Line connected Downtown to the the University of Utah along 400 South Street in 2001. San Francisco’s Third Street Line, entirely in city streets through commercial and residential neighborhoods, opened this January. Almost all of the new Phoenix system, now under construction, will be in streets. And planning is almost complete on the Central Corridor Line, connecting Downtown Minneapolis to Downtown St. Paul by way of the University of Minnesota, 11 miles of light rail, almost all of it down the center of University Avenue.

Perhaps the most notable convert is Toronto. Toronto is one of North America’s most transit-oriented cities. Toronto knows all about rail in city streets: they still have a streetcar system: 11 lines, 190 miles. This isn’t light rail: these streetcars share lanes with cars, and reliability and speed suffer accordingly.

The shortcomings of the streetcars lead to an explicit policy, from the 1950s onwards, of replacing streetcars with subways. The Toronto subway has been a success by any measure, but it’s come painfully slowly. So far: 43 miles in 60 years, replacing less than a fifth of the streetcar system.

Now comes a change in direction. The new plan: only minor subway extensions. Instead, 75 miles of new true light rail, almost all of it in reserved lanes in city streets. Meanwhile, streetcar lines will be upgraded with reserved lanes and new stations. That was already done on one short line in the 1990s; it’s underway now on St. Clair Avenue. Ironically, St. Clair had reserved streetcar lanes until 1935. They made way for cars; now Toronto is saying that was a mistake. The way forward is street-running light rail in reserved lanes.
As lightrailnow.org notes, the Toronto Sun recently carried a column by Rob Granatstein making the case for light rail:

Sure, we dream of subways every which way across [Toronto], but it’s not realistic, would take forever and blow our blown budget. It’s hard to imagine a subway line built after the York U. extension.

That leaves us with light rail. If you’ve been to places like Europe, Houston or Minnesota, you know Toronto’s already decades behind on this mode of travel.

I’m used to Houstonians saying we should be more like Toronto or Dallas or Denver. I tend to be hesitant — Houston is a wonderful and unique city, and we need to build on what we are, rather than try to be something we’re not. But those comparisons are a sign those other cities are doing something right. And when a columnist in Toronto — one of the most urban and transit-rich cities in North America — says they should be more like Houston, we’re doing something right.

Toronto, by the way, is home to the best urban design blog I know, spacingwire. It makes me want to visit. Unfortunately, I haven’t, so I had to use someone else’s photo for this post. Have you been? Tell us in the forums.