I can tell you the light rail in Austin is a complete failure. There was some ridership before the pandemic, but after a few years, the numbers are dismal. They've covered the windows with ads, so you can't even tell how empty they are inside. Meanwhile, they crisscross the city, constantly blocking streets with rail guards just to shuffle a handful of people north and south.
> light rail in Austin is a complete failure
Light rail is stupid. It’s a bus that can’t change lanes. A train that gets stuck in traffic.
And, as you said, they visibly disrupt drivers which generates class animosity.
I think you’re thinking of streetcars—trains that share right of way with cars. Light rail often has its own right-of-way with priority over cars. (That’s what the crossing guards are for.)
> Light rail often has its own right-of-way with priority over cars
It’s still at grade. Priority is meaningless if there is a car in the way when the guards come down. And those guards, in interrupting traffic, are annoying to drivers. (I’d also point out that the line between trams, street cars and light rail is ambiguous. It’s an American term describing principally European infrastructure.)
> Priority is meaningless if there is a car in the way when the guards come down.
This possibility is so far outside my experience I can only think your perspective has more to do with emotion than logic. Maybe it happens more often in your city than mine.
The Austin train you are talking about is heavy rail. Not to be confused with Austin light rail which is Coming Soon (TM).
It's still more reliable than the busses. I think it's pretty fun.
I'm not sure how you'd measure the effectiveness of light rail/trams vs buses - a hybrid of average journey duration, number of passengers, and I suppose some ROI type metric?
Either way personally priority bus lanes feel significantly more flexible and cheaper to implement than LR/trams...but that's just a personal opinion.