Proctor Streetcar, courtesy tacomastreetcar.org

The Tacoma Streetcar continues to receive widespread support from across the community. Recently the North End Neighborhood Council endorsed the plan.

Their letter of support to the Mayor states:

Although some benefits may seem obvious, others are equally important. Streetcars encourage greater ridership than bus service, which will reduce automobile traffic and parking pressure. They complement a pedestrian streetscape, thus helping to make neighborhoods more livable. They offer clear routing for both visitors and residents, and they help connect folks to the regional transit systems and to different neighborhoods. They have also proven themselves to be an effective economic development tool.

They go on to site success of streetcar systems in Portland, San Francisco, and our very own LINK.

They close their argument with:

Streetcars might very well be one of the most important investments that will help Tacoma become the city we all want it to be.

It is great to see organizations from across Tacoma getting behind an integrated streetcar system. Hopefully city-wide organizational endorsements will spur the city to lay those tracks!

Read the full text here

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To: Mayor Baarsma and Tacoma City Council Members
Re: Tacoma Streetcar

I am writing on behalf of the North End Neighborhood Council in support of a feasibility
study for reviving Tacoma’s streetcar system. Increasingly across the nation in large and
medium-sized cities alike, people are finding great value in the use of streetcars. In cities as different as Dallas, Portland, Memphis and Issaquah, the cost of this particular form of mass transit has proven minimal compared to the benefits reaped by its implementation.

Although some benefits may seem obvious, others are equally important. Streetcars
encourage greater ridership than bus service, which will reduce automobile traffic and parking pressure. They complement a pedestrian streetscape, thus helping to make neighborhoods more livable. They offer clear routing for both visitors and residents, and they help connect folks to the regional transit systems and to different neighborhoods.

They have also proven themselves to be an effective economic development tool.
In Portland, the downtown streetcar encouraged over two billion dollars in investment
after the announcement of the streetcar route in 1997. Dallas has seen a once quiet downtown housing scene surge around streetcar and light rail lines. Riders from Toronto to San Francisco are predominantly “choice” riders, which means they have other options but choose streetcars. In Tacoma, ridership on the Link Light Rail, which is really a streetcar line running on light rail right-of-way, increased 500% over the free bus service that once covered the same route.

Cities are not investing in failure when they invest in a streetcar system. Although
streetcar lines might seem expensive, they are much cheaper than light rail lines and have modest operational costs. Several cities have been successful with creative financing strategies for their systems. Plus, aren’t unrealized development opportunities and a lack of neighborhood connectivity ultimately more expensive? Streetcars might very well be one of the most important investments that will help Tacoma become the city we all want it to be. Please give streetcars a look.