Tucson Streetcar. A Sustainable Transit Solution

Tucson is a medium-size city in southern Arizona. As its population approaches 1,000,000 people in the metropolitan area, the ability of the community to sustain itself in a desert environment is a key issue. The central core of the city, highlighted by a growing downtown, the University of Arizona, and a number of historical attractions, cannot support continued traffic growth. Already a city known for its alternative transportation mode usage (including a very active bicycle community), city leaders turned towards rail transit as a potential solution to provide mobility in the central core. Streetcars, historically known to provide reliable and sustainable transportation for cities and towns for over a century, became the locally preferred choice for Tucson’s solution.