{"id":372,"date":"2007-01-25T19:49:55","date_gmt":"2007-01-25T10:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2007-01-25\/372"},"modified":"2007-01-25T19:49:55","modified_gmt":"2007-01-25T10:49:55","slug":"kyotos-new-light-rail-system-sort-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2007-01-25\/372","title":{"rendered":"Kyoto’s New Light Rail System…. Sort Of"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n

Kyoto has a new tram system. Well, it did... just for a few<\/span> hours yesterday.<\/p>\n\n

I wouldn't have believed it if I'd not seen it myself, but for three\nhours, they shut down half the lanes along a crowded<\/span> 4km stretch of road,\nintending the claimed space to be considered as a trolley<\/span> track. They then\nhad city busses pretend to be trains, and they plied the route for those\nthree hours.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>map & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>Pretend Train Approaching on a Pretend<\/span> Track<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n

Apparently, the city is considering to add a new<\/span> light rail system, to\nconnect a rather<\/span> affluent but disconnected area with the subway and railway\nsystem. The plan, Kyoto's LRT<\/a>\n(Light Rail Transit), has apparently been in the works for some time.<\/p>\n\n

So yesterday, they wanted to test something — perhaps how smooth\nthings would be — by lining a heavily<\/span>-used main thoroughfare with an\nabundant number of police, 200+ private security guards, and Lord knows how\nmany traffic cones. About 8<\/span> busses carrying 300+ pretend riders on the\npretend trains ran on these pretend tracks.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>map & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>“Train” leaving the main “Tracks” to pull into a “Station”<\/span><\/div>\n\n
<\/a>map & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>“Train” No. 3<\/span><\/div>\n\n

I really have no idea how they think the test could possibly be useful,\nsince the test conditions are so wildly different than what any light-rail\nsystem might actually be. First off, any real light-rail system would not\ninvolve 250+ people milling about at the edges of the street, nor such a\nstrong<\/span> police presence. Perhaps the latter offsets the chaos imparted by\nthe former?<\/p>\n\n

Also, during the test, some of those 200+ private security guards were\ntasked to stand at the outside edge of the street (not the\n“tracks”) with little “NO STOPPING!” signs, to\nadmonish taxis and other selfish drivers who might otherwise be inclined to\nblock traffic “for just a bit,<\/span>” as they normally do\nincessantly. For this reason<\/span> alone, traffic seemed to have been much\nsmoother than normal, and all in all it was probably substantially better\nfor the average driver during the test.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>map & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>Shielding the entrance to the “tracks” from non-“trains”<\/span><\/div>\n\n

It just makes me want to roll my eyes. “Your Tax Yen At Work.”<\/p>\n\n

Just 10 years ago, the city spent considerable sums, I'm sure, to remove\nthe tram system that used to run along Sanjo Street (one street south of\nmine), putting it underground to become the subway's “Tozai\nLine” (“East-West Line”). I've heard that the Sanjo\nStreet tram was the first in Japan, and I believe<\/span> it, because it ran\ndirectly by Japan's first\nhydroelectric power station<\/a>, meaning that there was abundant\nelectricity to power a tram.<\/span>\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kyoto has a new tram system. Well, it did... just for a few hours yesterday.<\/p>

I wouldn't have believed it if I'd not seen it myself, but for three hours, they shut down half the lanes along a crowded 4km stretch of road, intending the claimed space to be considered as a trolley track. They then had city busses pretend to be trains, and they plied the route for those three hours.<\/p>

Apparently, the city is considering to add a new light rail system, to connect a rather affluent but disconnected area with the subway and railway system. The plan, [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}