Who We Are

What We Want

Why Light Rail?

Rails & Trails
    A proven idea
    A safer CCT
    Pedestrian friendly
    Green tracks

News & Events

Project Background

How You Can Help

source: Portland Oregon Visitors Bureau

Light rail has features that make it compatible with pedestrians and urban settings:

• Tracks give pedestrians confidence they know the path the vehicles will follow.
• Modern vehicles have low floors, so boarding platforms have a low profile that easily fits on streets.
• There is no electrified "third rail", so pedestrians can cross tracks freely in plazas and streets.
• Vehicles are emission free.
• Vehicles are quiet.

Safe and easy pedestrian and bicycle access to light-rail stations will be provided via new and improved sidewalks and access trails in neighborhoods all along the Purple Line. This is important in communities that aren't adjacent to the CCT like Langley Park and College Park.

Good examples of light rail operating safely in pleasant pedestrian environments can be found in many places. A few examples are shown below - in eight photographs from a collection taken by Harry Sanders in a November 2009 trip to Paris, Nice, Montpellier and Barcelona.

Tram at Universtiy Stop in Paris.

Tram crossing a pedestrian plaza in Nice -
running without an overhead wire for two blocks.

A cyclist and pedestrians with a stroller cross tram tracks
in a street in Nice.

A tram at a pedestrian plaza and outdoor cafe in Montpellier -
waiters cross the tracks to serve customers.

See a video by Harry Sanders on picasaweb.google.com to see and hear the tram as it passes through the plaza.

Cafe patrons are not disturbed by an adjacent tram.

Trams support the night life in Montpellier.

A path gives cyclists and pedestrians an easy route to a tram platform
outside Montpellier.

A tram platform in Barcelona.