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How Light Rail Has Transformed Ethiopian Capital Addis Ababa

21 points by molteanu 8y ago

peterwwillis 8y ago
Can the mods put [annoying video web app with almost no text] in the title? [avwawant]?
- abrowne 8y ago
  I'm more annoyed by the anti-adblock thing that covers the page after ba few seconds. I got it when using the default option to enable tracking protection in a Firefox private window. It's in German despite this being an English article (I do realize only a small fraction of the site is in English), and while they show a guide to disabling common adblocking extensions, there's nothing about Firefox's built-in feature.
parvenu74 8y ago
I didn't watch the video but I couldn't help but thinking there are going to be people in Kansas City who might point to a city in Africa with 10x the population density and far lower car ownership per capita as some kind of case study for why we should expand our $150,000,000/mile light rail system. Outside of super-dense cities with well-defined urban and business cores light rail is a complete waste of money.
- peterwwillis 8y ago
  Kenosha, Wisconsin has a population of less than 100,000. They rolled out a new street car line in 2000 at a cost of $3 million per mile. http://www.lightrailnow.org/facts/fa_ken_2005-01.htm http://www.lightrailnow.org/facts/fa_ken_2005-01.htm
  - Agustus 8y ago
    And it points out that bus would have been only a quarter of cost.
oblio 8y ago
The bit about the government dislocating people without any regard for their well-being is quite disturbing, I agree. And if you're on the receiving end, it must definitely be horrible. However, putting myself in the shoes of an Ethiopian administrator, I'm not entirely convinced I'd make another decision. For a country as poor as Ethiopia IMHO growth should be priority #1, #2 and #3, as long as I'm not literally killing my compatriots. Also, people should keep in mind the great African collapse of the 70's (a lot of African countries borrowed money after their independence and they were hard hit after 1973, because of the oil crisis). It it entirely possible that the window for growth might be closing if another big crisis hits. Once Ethiopia moves above the current poverty levels it can start redistributing wealth. But for now it needs something resembling a middle class if it is ever to escape poverty. My 2 cents, from what I've seen and read about Ethiopia across the years.

21 points by molteanu 8y ago

peterwwillis 8y ago

Can the mods put [annoying video web app with almost no text] in the title? [avwawant]?

abrowne 8y ago
I'm more annoyed by the anti-adblock thing that covers the page after ba few seconds. I got it when using the default option to enable tracking protection in a Firefox private window. It's in German despite this being an English article (I do realize only a small fraction of the site is in English), and while they show a guide to disabling common adblocking extensions, there's nothing about Firefox's built-in feature.

parvenu74 8y ago

I didn't watch the video but I couldn't help but thinking there are going to be people in Kansas City who might point to a city in Africa with 10x the population density and far lower car ownership per capita as some kind of case study for why we should expand our $150,000,000/mile light rail system. Outside of super-dense cities with well-defined urban and business cores light rail is a complete waste of money.

peterwwillis 8y ago
Kenosha, Wisconsin has a population of less than 100,000. They rolled out a new street car line in 2000 at a cost of $3 million per mile. http://www.lightrailnow.org/facts/fa_ken_2005-01.htm http://www.lightrailnow.org/facts/fa_ken_2005-01.htm
- Agustus 8y ago
  And it points out that bus would have been only a quarter of cost.

oblio 8y ago

The bit about the government dislocating people without any regard for their well-being is quite disturbing, I agree. And if you're on the receiving end, it must definitely be horrible. However, putting myself in the shoes of an Ethiopian administrator, I'm not entirely convinced I'd make another decision. For a country as poor as Ethiopia IMHO growth should be priority #1, #2 and #3, as long as I'm not literally killing my compatriots. Also, people should keep in mind the great African collapse of the 70's (a lot of African countries borrowed money after their independence and they were hard hit after 1973, because of the oil crisis). It it entirely possible that the window for growth might be closing if another big crisis hits. Once Ethiopia moves above the current poverty levels it can start redistributing wealth. But for now it needs something resembling a middle class if it is ever to escape poverty. My 2 cents, from what I've seen and read about Ethiopia across the years.