Photo by drum118 on Flickr.

American streetcar projects have gotten some tough love recently. Writers who advocate for walkable, transit-oriented urban neighborhoods are questioning whether streetcar investments really enhance mobility, and whether they’re worth the money, if, as is often the case in the US, a new line has no dedicated lane or runs infrequently.

While streetcar projects can and should be better, many of these articles go further and either imply or outright state that a streetcar without every desirable feature is worse than nothing.

That’s not right. Perfect transit is absolutely a goal, but the perfect must not be the enemy of the good. There are plenty of reasons why a streetcar might be worth supporting, even if it isn’t as long, frequent, or speedy as we might like:

  1. Imperfect transit can still be good for cities.
  2. An imperfect streetcar might be all your city can afford—for now.
  3. Funding won’t get redirected towards a “better” transit project.
  4. Streetcars can outperform buses, even without dedicated lanes.
  5. Your city can make it better later, and may even plan to.

Read more in my latest article on CityLab.

David Alpert created Greater Greater Washington in 2008 and was its executive director until 2020. He formerly worked in tech and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco Bay, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He lives with his wife and two children in Dupont Circle.