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Walt Disney World has significantly better transit than most cities in the US. Its 12-train-set monorail, 325 buses would make it the 16th most ridden transit system in the nation. America's fantasy world, it turns out, is a place you can get around without getting into a car. 🧵 37 comments
I dig deeper into the relationship between Fantasylands like Disney and Vegas and transit in this Straphanger dispatch:  @straphanger we could pay the characters of Times Square to ride and delight Subway passengers, just like Disney:) @straphanger If you look at the dedication of that book, Jackson tragically lost a son to an automobile accident, which always shapes my reading of it. @straphanger similar bizarre story for the ultra-conservative Florida enclave, The Villages, where low-speed NEV are the norm. @straphanger Do you know where I can find a GTFS feed or shapefile of the WDW monorails and bus lines? @straphanger Awesome map, but the Skyliner isn't included. It's been a wonderful addition to Disney World transportation options. @PJD65 @straphanger I immediately zoomed in to look for the Skyliner. Since it opened, Art of Animation is now my number one resort choice. You can get to Epcot or the Studios in minutes. @smartwatermelon @straphanger For us, it's Pop. We have stayed there every trip since the Skyliner opened. We particularly like being able to easily hop over to Epcot for dinner at whatever festival is running.  @straphanger wow they've really expanded that since the last time I was there. Incredible.  @straphanger AND they have collector cards for each mode of transit! We discovered this last spring when our son exclaimed "Cool monorail!" as it pulled into the station ... apparently these are the secret words; the conductor popped out of his compartment and rather grandly handed S a card. (To all of our delight.) The monorail IS cool, but I'd totally take mode-of-transit collector cards when touring various cities. Transit cards just like baseball cards! Looks like the hype loop system won't get out of its rookie card phase though... @straphanger and I have done disneyworld dozens of times without a car. When Magic Express was running, total extra transportation costs were $0. @straphanger Wait, i could have sworn somebody told me public transit wasn't cost effective or efficient? 🤔 @Karstan @straphanger Although I admire the WDW transportation system, in fairness it should be noted that the resort operates it as a way to keep visitors on the property instead of visiting other attractions. This creates an incentive to invest that most municipalities don't have.  @mbrailer which makes me ask “why not?” Tax revenue is tax revenue. Keeping people in the area means more money for businesses and higher property values. @twipped @Karstan @straphanger I don't think the WDW transportation system is funded by taxes. While the roads are maintained by the special taxing district*, the buses, boats, monorails and sky gondolas are operated by WDW itself. WDW runs them at a loss because doing so helps the resort monopolize tourists' time. Most mass transit systems don't have that advantage, because taxpayers hate subsidizing things they don't use. (* and WDW is the largest taxpayer in the district.)  @straphanger They wouldn't have it if it didn't make them money. Supposedly in California people look at you funny if you walk anywhere  @straphanger "We limit cars in our world and people happily pay for the privilege to live car free here." Actually sounds a lot like Singapore.  @straphanger Reasonable public transport or not (and it’s shocking that this outdoes most US cities!), I don’t think I could bear to set foot in this or any Disney theme park! 🙀 By the way, considering how litigious Disney are about their intellectual property, it seems a bit rich for them to be using the London Transport (now TfL) roundel here 😉 I wonder if Disney bothered to ask for permission: https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/suppliers-and-contractors/using-tfl-brand-ip @straphanger Disney was famous for his urbanism and criticism of traffic. His original plan for Epcot to be a real city, but to build something that radical he had to figure out some way to deny residents the vote. Here's an astonishing documentary @straphanger is there a larger version of this image somewhere? I’m having trouble zooming in on the key @straphanger@urbanists.social They've been trying to sell us this Suburban House Two Car Three Kids thing for decades, but in reality the American Dream is a townhouse in a walkable city where you can sit outside a book-filled cafe with all your other single friends, drink coffee and access free wifi. @straphanger @wesley wow.... That's really wild! I always failed to catch the irony of how good they built and managed transit. My next question is "how do they fund it? And what can we as urbanists learn from that funding model?"  @ShmosKnows Being a multi-billion dollar company has its perks it would seem! I think a lot of the expense when it comes out to building new transit is the right of way acquisition which they don't have since they own the land  I wouldn't want to live in a city with public transport like this. Way too complicated. No general concept, just endlessly added additional lines. No idea, how to get from A to B without taking the "From A to B" bus. This may seem different, when being there. But the map itself is unreadable. And I like reading such maps. @straphanger Defunctland's video on EPCOT makes very clear that Walt thought cars were a problem @straphanger It has to do with motivations and resources. Disney is a commercial enterprise with a direct profit motive for providing excellent transportation services. Public transportation, on the other hand, is publicly funded and built to operate as cheaply as possible without a profit motive. Those differences result in vastly different executions. |
Gregory's Server
"While real trolleys languish for lack of patronage...people flock to Disneyland to ride fake trolleys."
—historian Kenneth Jackson, author of Crabgrass Frontier.