jacksparrow82

Yeah, when I saw the headline I didn't even click on the article because I didn't want to read the comments or give the enquirer extra clicks. The usual suspects are going crazy with this ridership data on The Enquirer's politics page. None are taking any of these temporary and fixable issues into account, nor are any aware of any of the new construction and rehabs on almost every block along the streetcar route in long-desolate Over-the-Rhine. ^ They will, once again, get out over their skis in their criticism of the streetcar.

I don't ride the streetcar often because, frankly, I don't go out that much these days, but the last few times I have used it the wait was a joke. I was out with my family the day before Thxgiving and we went to dinner at Taqueria Mercado on 8th and Walnut. After dinner we thought it would be fun to hop on a streetcar and ride up to OTR to go to a bar. We walked over to the stop at 7th and Walnut We looked at the sign and the estimated wait was 20 minutes! I wanted to wait regardless just to see if it really would take that long, but 2 of my family members said "screw that I'm walking" and just walked. We waited, and waited, and waited, and waited! It took over 20 minutes to finally arrive! This was a Wednesday night around 7pm. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if this was Cranley's plan all along. Make it so inconvenient that no one wants to ride it, then throw up your hands and say "see, told you so." I am a long time supporter of this system and campaigned with the rest of you to make this a reality, but this system IS GOING TO FAIL miserably if they don't immediately find a solution to the wait times. No one wants to wait more than 10 minutes to get on a streetcar. That should be the maximum amount of time anyone should wait IMO. Waiting any longer than that is pointless because most places downtown can be walked to in 15 minutes or less, unless you're literally walking from the Banks to Findlay Mkt.

Running only 2 streetcars on the weekends is absurd. The city needs to change its contract and run more every weekend, not just for special events. People waiting 35 minutes for a streetcar is crazy. You could walk most of the loop in that amount of time. And there's no reason the cars should be so jam packed (I saw one Saturday night after the reds game and people were literally squished against the doors). This is a good problem to have because it shows there is a demand and that people want to use it, but if they don't quickly fix these problems, the system will gain a negative reputation and ridership will go down. There is no reason they can't pay to have 3 or 4 streetcars running on the weekends, especially when there are Reds games and Bengals games going on. I have to say though that I'm not surprised. SORTA doesn't even know how to run a modern bus system correctly (for example, only 1 place downtown and 1 place uptown to buy bus passes, otherwise you need exact change...that is so stupid I can't stand it), so I wasn't very happy when they were hired to be in charge of the streetcar as well. We all need to be vocal about these problems or they will persist.

Well that's certainly disappointing. I do hope however that traffic will decrease as you say. It all depends on how much they restrict traffic between Sycamore and Central Pkwy. I would LOVE it if they eliminated the Sycamore to Reading portion of Liberty altogether, but there's probably a better chance of hell freezing over:) I would also love if they blocked off 13th street at Reading and turned 13th into 2 way traffic again. We get a lot of people who just speed right through our street off reading to get into OTR. They go 50+ mph down our street. The motorcycle gangs love it too. Not very inviting for families with children considering settling down here (which is ultimately what OTR still needs more of). I find it amazing how well Northern Kentucky has done with protecting its nice neighborhoods from ridiculous traffic around the area of Newport on the Levee. That whole neighborhood has dedicated residential only parking and many of the streets are blocked off from allowing people to just cut through. As a result there are many quiet, pleasant neighborhood streets there. Why can't Cincinnati get its head on straight? Pendleton could be so much nicer if they got rid of the drive through traffic and noisy highway (Liberty). If only I could be supreme dictator of Cincinnati for a day!! (evil laughs)

Does anyone know if this plan for a road diet of liberty will include the entire length of liberty (from Central Parkway all the way to Reading)? I ask because I live in Pendleton at the end of 13th St (next to the bell tower). We own a house and its backside faces liberty. We have to endure the insane, loud traffic and all that comes with living next to essentially a highway in the middle of the city. People turn off reading and hit the gas and go 0-60+ miles an hour that whole stretch of road. Its absurd to have such a road right in the heart of downtown. I want to see liberty reduced to the size of any other small street downtown. I could care less about commuters racing in and out of the city everyday to the suburbs. This road is a joke and is a left over from another era in our history where the city was not seen as important anymore. Not only that but it is a huge safety hazard. My wife occasionally takes the 19 metro to work (at the zoo) and has to cross liberty in the morning to get to it. Its incredibly dangerous to cross a highway like that, especially in the mornings and evenings when traffic is at peak and the light is not great. Not only that, but the corner of our property got cut off to make way for traffic from Frank to Artist Alley when Liberty was widened in the 1950's. As a result the original carriage house building that was there had to be torn down at that time. It would be great to get that property back, but that's something I don't have much hope for realistically.

I agree that there is no need for a 6am streetcar. I don't see many people out on the street in OTR at that time. I think option 2 makes the most sense assuming that most of the ridership will be coming from people out having fun. It needs to stay open late on the weekends for sure

It looks like they are still doing work on the overhead wires in a few spots. I'm guessing they must have identified problems today? There are wires hanging down on the street and they have it blocked off to traffic at 12th and Republic? Also saw them digging up concrete around some of the tracks on main street in the CBD? Guessing this is all normal

Looks exactly like the streetcars we rode around in Berlin this spring. They haven't even unwrapped it yet!

So, does anyone know when they'll start testing car 1175? I can't wait to see it rolling around the neighborhood!

I've been asking these questions for years (since this thread started in 2006!). I think it all comes down to simple ignorance and fear of what they don't understand. The people who are most angry about this are the most ignorant and fearful people in the city. They are people who have never travelled outside of this region. They have never lived anywhere other than where they grew up. They have never been friends with people from other backgrounds. They have never known anything other than an automobile dominated society and honestly have no idea that there are other ways to live your life outside of what they know. I grew up with people like that. My father is like that. Many of the people I went to high school with are like that. Cincinnati has a lot of people who fit into this description. They get screwed up ideas in their head about this stuff and just get angry because that's all they know how to do (plus they have to sit in traffic all day and they don't realize that its their cars that are making them miserable). The good news is that our demographics are changing rapidly. Since 2008 when I moved back here after med school I've seen an enormous influx of intelligent, well rounded people who understand the value of a healthy urban core and fully support rail transit. This is going to accelerate exponentially now that this system is up and running. I am really excited to see what will happen over the next 10 years. I'm still shocked at how vibrant OTR has become since 2008, especially in the last few years. Every time I walk around the neighborhood, especially on weekends, I can not believe all the development and people. The angry people are becoming more and more of a minority every day. My father has worked in downtown Cincinnati his entire adult life, since the early 80's. While I don't live in the Cincinnati area now, whenever I visit I try to get downtown or OTR as much as I can to check out new development and entertainment options. When I occasionally bring up doing something in OTR as a family, he says he would NEVER visit any new establishment in OTR, because he doesn't believe in the Cincinnati Streetcar and doesn't want to have anything to do with its potential success. I was totally flabbergasted by this revelation; he's logged over 60,000 hours of his life in downtown Cincinnati, so I thought for sure he would appreciate the success and investment that downtown and OTR have seen recently after decades of neglect. At the very least, I thought maybe he would be totally indifferent to what is happening, since the type of entertainment options that have been popping up in OTR aren't necessarily for everyone. He was actually hostile to the idea of spending any time or money in OTR, and it sounded like it had almost everything to do with the streetcar. He's a devout Catholic Republican that has spent his entire life in the Northern Kentucky suburbs, so take that for what you will. These are the types of people we are up against, and I'm not sure if any amount of success will turn their opinion on the matter. It's going to take many years until the region fully embraces the Cincinnati Streetcar and rail's future in the region, but I think Cincinnati's off to a great start. Thanks for the story. But again, WHY is he so angry? Did he have to pay for it? If not, then why does it matter for him? That's what I really don't get. Okay you have no use for the streetcar. Fine, I get that. But what the hell makes people so irritated about the street car? People literally act as if the street car was built from a portion of there paycheck. You don't live in Cincinnati. You live in the suburbs. Yet people get angry, and I just don't understand why. My friends who live in Blue Ash acknowledge that they will probably never use it. But are happy for people who live in OTR/Banks, or poorer residents who live in the northern stretches of OTR and can use it as a main way of transportation to get groceries at the Vine street kroger. They see the practicality of it, even if it's not for them. But the people who didn't spend a dime for the streetcar, who live in the suburbs, who work in the suburbs, who go to downtown maybe twice a month for drinks at OTR, they are up in arms! BAGHHHH!! Seriously? I'm embarrassed quite frankly.

I just got back from Germany last week. I'm more convinced than ever on rail transit. That country is so well connected by trains its hard to believe (streetcars, light rail, subway, regional, and highspeed lines). We did everything via train the whole time we were there and loved it! There's nothing like it here in the states (and I've spent time in all of the big cities here with subways, lightrail, etc). Berlin was especially impressive with its use of streetcars. Many of their vehicles were just like the ones we're getting here. We should be very excited. I don't need to preach to the choir here, but I think the fundamental problem is that this region is full of a majority of people who don't understand what streetcars are for (don't fully know why that is, but I suspect its due to lack of travel experiences or living elsewhere). John's trips to Portland are exactly the kind of eye opening experience that these people desperately need. At this point I think all we can do is hope that once our system is in place that at least some of these people will come downtown and use it and start to see its effectiveness in terms of moving pedestrians around efficiently and conveniently. Regardless, I think this city is going to really take off once this system is running and we're going to see it extended all over the place whether our current council/mayor wants it to or not:)

How much trouble could one get into with police for doing something like this? I think it looks like a ton of fun! https://youtu.be/rZNqHA6auA0

Thanks for sharing those pics of the inside of the MOF. Looks great!

Imagine that...a politician being misleading! And a desperate newspaper being misleading to gain themselves attention and praise from all the conservative suburbanites who hate downtown/otr. We've never seen this behavior before. If John Cranley and whoever else wants to waste their time trying to hurt this project I say bring it on. We've beat them many times before and we'll beat them again. Its fun:)

Yeah, there are always people hanging around in that stop. I think the city is in for a lot of vandalism until the streetcar starts running. I agree, its too soon to have finished the stops. They should have just installed everything EXCEPT the glass panels and benches. That would prevent loitering and would have saved the city the cost of replacing broken or vandalized panels. There will also be a lot of graffiti removal to contend with as well. I am still concerned that they're putting up the shelters too soon. Yesterday, the shelter at Elm & Liberty had people loitering in it and one of the glass panels appeared to be shattered. (It looked like a broken car windshield -- still in one piece but all cracked up.) I guess the one benefit of installing them now is that for the next two years, people will see the shelters as they walk around OTR and start to understand the streetcar route a bit better.