Grumpy

I've been of the opinion for a while that they should do away with overhead bins completely. If it doesn't fit in your pockets or under your seat, you should check it and pay the damn fee for not packing appropriately. People bring way too much damn stuff when they travel.

How do they not get this? We're used to losing seasons. We don't like them, but we're used to them. The thing is, we're used to rebuilding season, then season with some potential that turns into a train wreck. We all expected this to be the rebuilding season, followed by the train wreck next year. Now the Browns may as well have announced a rebuilding year next year. And if the next coach has a losing season next year (and with the guys lombardi drafts it's likely he will) then will he be fired too? Meaning perpetual rebuilding years? You can't come in saying your philosophy is to bring stability to the team then fire a head coach that's had to deal with the injuries the Browns have had and the sloppy seconds from the Holmgren era after one season and expect us to take you seriously. Frankly, my opinion of the front office was pretty much set when they traded McCoy for a 5th round pick and kept Weeden as starter, but I gave them the benefit of the season. I haven't watched the last few games and it'll take something impressive in the news to get me to watch next season.

As much as we complain about the Healthline's shortcomings, it's only somewhat below expectations. It is faster than a regular bus. It is convenient to have a line with a frequency high enough that I don't have to pay attention to the schedule. It does have a higher capacity than a bus. It is easier to cross a lane of traffic to a HL station than to climb a flight of stairs to a Red Line station. I'm sure some developments in the area chose Euclid Ave at least partially because of the HL. That said, it's not as big of an improvement as we hoped. It is slower than a rail line. The busses do bunch up. If you're waiting in cold weather, the stations don't keep rain/snow/wind off of you. If the busses are bunching, it takes longer than it should for the next one to come. If the busses are bunching, the first one to come will not have enough room. The lights that are supposed to give the busses priority don't seem to do so. The number of developments that chose Euclid even partially because of the HL has been greatly exhagerated (to put it mildly). Is it the Rolls Royce of BRT? No, but it's not the Pinto of BRT either.

I'm surprised Chud only got one season but I have to assume the fact that he was gone so fast means either he didn't really get along with Banner/Haslam, or there's already a candidate lined up for the job.

IMO, if RTA were interested in redesigning their system, while a grid would help, even more important would be that RTA should consolidate routes and reduce the number of stops on them so that it can offer greater frequency, faster service, and greater reliability on those routes it keeps.

I've got to wonder how many times the Streetcar thread has been refreshed today.

Absolutely necessary? No, but you lose a percentage of riders for each transfer you add to their route, unless the frequency is high enough that it's not a big deal when you miss your transfer. Are the green and red lines frequent enough to make up for the Blue (or Green) line not going downtown? I don't know.

Isn't most of the OC to be paid for with state and local funding?

^Is NS open to the idea of selling their tracks? Is RTA willing to single track the last few miles? What about the few businesses that require the use of the existing tracks? (Yes, I know there's only a few.) Are there sufficient cars in the existing stock to be able to handle an extended line? The DMUs could use the existing platforms and could be made to use electric where available.

If they're not going to build a Red Line extension, then I don't like any of the other options much. The more I look at the "Street Running" options, the more I realize none of them is going to be much faster than the current bus routes. I guess it depends on RTA's goals, if they want to be able to say "we provide transit to an increased % of the population" then none of the options provides transit to people that don't currently have bus routes. If RTA wants to provide a faster ride then their only realistic options are a Red Line extension or an express bus. A BRT along the lines of the Healthline is probably the last thing they need.

I assumed they went with tighter seats to make more room for standees during peak periods.

The old ugly brown seats are more comfy than the seats on the blue and green lines, but still an improvement. The windows were what needed replaced most IMO.

He's had some fantastic games, but it's still a bit early in his career to go that far IMO. I'm not prepared to say he's better than Newsome till we've seen a couple more consistently great seasons.

Personnally, I'm highly doubtful that anything will get built. I'm still of the opinion that an improvement in bus service is all that's needed and all we'll get. If RTA manages to use this study to come up with federal funds for a few new vehicles for those routes I can't blame them for it.

1. Where's the data? Is it currently in report form? 2. What about the costs of electrifying the NS tracks themselves concomitant with an obvious shifting away of most freight to other NS corridors? Alternative Alignment B

It's not that informative of a video, you're not missing much. Although one of the comments some girl reads is one that I submitted to them on twitter. Seeing the alternatives that they're considering at http://www.redlinehealthlinestudy.com/explore-alternatives is far more interesting. Option E and G are great alternatives, a streetcar that touches numerous different neighborhoods that are very disconnected from rail (Ivanhoe, E.152, Waterloo, Downtown Euclid Etc.) I feel like this is a more exciting alternative than the Heavy/Commuter rail going from Superior station to E.260th and Euclid. This is especially exciting since it rides through actual neighborhoods which would help with ridership greatly, where the red line would be away from residential and face the same problems the current red line is facing. I also like that it would help play a part in revitalizing the Collinwood area. The only thing I would change is having it go to the end of the county line but I know it would be a challenge to find a turnaround for the streetcar. I'm not bothered by not going all the way to the county line, but they could at least have extended the busses down to the high rises at 260th. The residents there make up a significant portion of the ridership of the 39/39F. Plus no need to plan for a turnaround for a streetcar if you have no intention of building a streetcar. Let's not kid ourselves, a RTA doesn't want rail. We all know we're going to get bendy busses and while it's tight there is room for one to turn around in Shoregate or in front of one of the high rises, so what's the issue? As far as alternatives for routes, I like half of them but I'd prefer one that takes Euclid to Coit then take 152nd through 5 points and then turn onto Waterloo to 185th up to Lakeshore.

Thanks for the sum up.

A close win and we might get passed up. OSU's strength of schedule isn't as high as the SEC teams so even going undefeated might not be enough if the Buckeyes can't convincingly beat a good opponent.

It's not that informative of a video, you're not missing much. Although one of the comments some girl reads is one that I submitted to them on twitter. Seeing the alternatives that they're considering at http://www.redlinehealthlinestudy.com/explore-alternatives is far more interesting.

It looks like Cincinnati is going to be having a firesale on streetcars and rails soon. Can we trade them the HL busses? :-D

^It's the same video they released in November. You linked to it upthread.

I've seen them a couple times on the HL during morning rush hour.

There's no sidewalk on 105th or MLK because of the construction.

^The rails under E. 105th looked even better than that when they were doing work on 105th and Wade Park over the summer. They were still shiny.

I always love that they give the HL credit for the VA hospital work that's over half a mile away from it, was planned before the HL broke ground, and isn't currently accessible from the HL by paved sidewalk. Yeah, sure they spent $600 million consolidating the brecksville and wade park VA hospitals because of there is a new bus route half a mile away.