How Does Your City’s Streetcar Compare to Others?

Lots of cities have added streetcar lines in recent years, but not all systems are created equal. Matt Johnson, a writer with the D.C.-area blog Greater Greater Washington, recently plotted every streetcar system in the country that’s either open or under construction. Drawn to scale and shown side by side, these maps give a sense of the relative size of different cities’ streetcar systems.

As Johnson notes, the two largest systems, in Philadelphia and New Orleans, are upgraded versions of original streetcar lines that have been in place for more than a century. This map doesn’t include San Francisco’s Muni Metro system or Boston’s Green Line; both are descendents of historic systems, Johnson says, but today they operate more as light rail lines. This image also doesn’t include tourist-oriented lines with limited hours of operation, such as Savannah’s River Street Streetcar.


Source: Matt Johnson/Greater Greater Washington