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I saw this image on "What does it mean?" so my answer was, "See if your municipality has an Active Transportation map. Overlay the last image on it, and then you'll understand."
That's such a succinct way of explaining so much. Sharing with my housing advocacy friends
@McKenna @ned Before cars it was bicyclists who were lobbying for paved roads. Think about that next time you’re on a bike and a motorist yells “Get on the sidewalk!” at you.
Many US cities had trolley systems but after WW2 much was made of the fact that those systems were “losing money”. When Tennessee Williams play “A Streetcar Named Desire” was turned into a movie the Desire streetcar line in NO had been discontinued so the movie company had to hire a fake streetcar.
@michaelormsby @McKenna @ned
Here in Southern California, the deal with the trolley (and interurban) losing money was that it was a private company, so losing money put it at risk of bankruptcy. Of course, since there was a private transit system, there wasn't an existing public transit system to buy them out, so the transit system collapsed when the private operator went bankrupt. I'm sure the same basic thing happened in many American cities.
@VATVSLPR @McKenna @ned Even when private companies were taken over by public authorities the mindset continued. I remember riding Route 23 trolley in my youth down Germantown Ave in Philadelphia. In the 1990s they replaced the PCC trolleys w/ buses, not sure how the route changed.
One of the issues cited was that a single improperly parked car could obstruct the tram. Irizar in Spain manufactures electric rechargeable buses which would be a better replacement.
@michaelormsby @VATVSLPR @ned
My money's on the tram in that confrontation, but 
@McKenna @michaelormsby @ned
The car might be worse off than the tram after a collision, but they would both lose. Idiots obstructing the tracks is a hard problem. The real solution is to have a separate right of way, but that's not a real answer for an existing system. The only other approaches are giving up on tracks- possibly with a trolley bus so you can keep the system electrified- or consistent, long-term enforcement so drivers get the idea that stopping on the tracks is a bad idea.
@VATVSLPR @McKenna @ned They tried enforcement in Philadelphia but Philly folk are stubborn. 
The Irizar bus / tram has steering so it can go around cars, doesn’t need overhead wires - it has batteries that get recharged when there’s a major stop. A built-in pantograph on top of the bus reaches up to a recharging port. A couple of minutes of fast charging and everyone’s on their way again. I think they are trialing them in London.
@michaelormsby @McKenna @ned
Fully electric, rechargeable battery buses are practical today, but they weren't back in the '90s. That's where trolley buses that can draw power from the same overhead lines the trolleys used would have been a good idea. Their pantographs have enough flexibility to let them change lanes to deal with traffic and illegally parked cars, and the technology has been available for a century or more.
@ned I've often used this image to explain Edmonton's bike routes to people.