Summer heat goin’ to your head?

it is apparently a huge story that it is 110 degrees in Phoenix Arizona. What in the world will we do? I mean, seriously… Riding the light rail in the summer time? You must be nuts! The articles in the papers and on the blogs make it sound like we will all dry up and die waiting more than 30 seconds to walk into an air-conditioned light rail car. And the air conditioning systems? Will they work? Oh my gosh… They BETTER work. We paid $1.4 BILLION on a light rail system, I am pretty sure they knew it was going to be HOT and I’m pretty sure the technology is available to keep the trains cool. My friend David from PHX Rail Food recently made an excellent point on a blog I read about our “sizzling temperatures”…“Do we see similar articles questioning whether Minneapolis residents ride light rail during that city’s frigid winters? Most cities with rail transit experience severe weather of one type or another at some point in the year. Life goes on for the transit system and its riders.”

For now, all we can do is keep plowing along through the heat and hope we don’t wilt in the AZ Summer.

Other recent Metro related news that’s been slightly over done by the media…

From the moment of the first Metro accident (which occurred before the system even opened) we KNEW they would be keeping close tabs on all accidents associated with the light rail.

Interestingly, ALL of the accidents involving Metro to date have been caused by people that were not paying attention, which is apparently common when talking about light rail accidents.

About a month ago, Metro logged accident #21 which involved a bus and a light rail car. Turns out, the bus driver was having a bad day.

This past weekend as I was enjoying some time off for the 4th of July holiday, I heard that a taxi driver turned in front of a light rail car in Tempe. My thought was… “Glad no one was hurt, what’s going on the grill next?”

Just in case you missed it… Taxi cab collides with light rail…