Which do you prefer, subway or streetcar?

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I mean.. subways are the most efficient by far.  They can travel 50-60mph under a city with no obstacles.

So they are inherently better.

However, if you're on a non-crowded streetcar on a non-crowded street, streetcars are nice.  You see the city that way.

Buses are not bad if you're not stopping and traffic isn't bad.  Having the driver right there makes it seem safer, too.

But some of the bus lines in Chicago are hell.  Always packed and always stuck in traffic.... stopping every block and then crawling 15-20mph between them.  You can bike faster than the bus.

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Subway is heavy rail.  Light rail is light rail.  The determining word here describes passenger level, with LRT trains holding much fewer passengers than a subway train.  LRT also runs above, at, and below grade while subway generally runs below and sometimes above.

A streetcar runs at grade in the middle of the street, usually at no more than 30mph and makes frequent stops.

[Ban my account ffs!]

The ride is the same either way.

It most certainly is not.

If I like the green line (which I rode for many years as a grad student) how should I vote?

If you like the green line, then you should vote to see a psychiatrist.

I voted Subway.  I don't care for the subways that surface to surface trolleys either (e.g., The Green Line, which I rode more times than I care to remember as well).  The Red Line is faster and more comfortable, and more like a real subway.

The Green Line from Riverside was my link to Boston in grad school. Red was of no use, or at best for a connection to Harvard or MIT if I couldn't ride my bike. I could sometimes take commuter rail, but the schedule was much less frequent. Interestingly, in the 80's the Green Line to Riverside had newer, nicer cars than the Red.

I guess I'm biased by the CTA as well. Both the Red and Blue line subways surface once they are out of the Loop, and have more stations above ground than below ground. Of course even these lines are collectively referred to as the L even when they aren't elevated.

Subway is heavy rail.  Light rail is light rail.  The determining word here describes passenger level, with LRT trains holding much fewer passengers than a subway train.  LRT also runs above, at, and below grade while subway generally runs below and sometimes above.

A streetcar runs at grade in the middle of the street, usually at no more than 30mph and makes frequent stops.

The aforementioned Boston Green Line is light rail and runs at, above and below grade. It also runs down the middle of the street in places and makes frequent stops. It sure seems like a streetcar to me.

The Chicago Blue Line is heavy rail and runs at, above and below grade. It's only underground for a few stops downtown and at Logan Square, so it's hard to call it a subway. But the Brown Line is above grade the entire way and runs the same heavy rail as runs underground on the Blue Line. I don't think I can call the Brown Line a subway, but it's not a light streetcar either. However, it is a nice way to get to and from Wrigley Field when most everyone is packing the Red Line.

It's obviously hard to define these things strictly.

The L is heavy rail...and runs mostly above grade with the two subways near the loop.  Where it runs at grade it is a dedicated ROW with very few or no at grade crossings...which is the big criterium here.

LRT has become a catchall for hybrid systems that run both like heavy rail and a street car but generally with lighter capacity and frequency than a heavy rail system.