TraderJake

Cincinnati was denser. Then I-75 happened and much of the West End was destroyed (see tragic historic photos). Can we imagine Cincinnati if Queensgate did not exist? It'd probably be more like Baltimore, believe it or not. I fear the West End likely would have fallen into disrepair like OTR and the remaining West End did, and Cincinnati may have had its own version of West Baltimore. Baltimore like Cincinnati? Nah, I have never thought that and I lived in Maryland for nine years (and will forever wish I still did). I always thought it was the little brother of Philadelphia, and I have never viewed Baltimore as a southern city the way I view Cincinnati (lovingly refer to Cincinnati as the most southern city of the North). Perhaps we should have a philosophical discussion of what city Cincinnati is like in City Discussion? To bring this back on topic. Skystar forever staying in Cincinnati would certainly be a blow to Newport. However, it would be one more attraction at the Banks, and if the Reds and Bengals are going to continue to be cellar dwellers then Cincinnati needs more carrots to draw people the Banks! Perhaps Smale Park could be finished?

Wow, the Brooklyn Han Dynasty is so unabashedly Philly. I mean, they wore the Eagles shirts for months, might even be doing it now! To place this on topic, perhaps Han Dynasty could open an OTR location! ?

Dayton's craft beer scene is great indeed, but Deerfield Township is not Dayton, Bizjournals. Anyways, yay for a new brewery!

Are you sure about it being one of four designs? The article states that it is at the first of four stages of design, not that it necessarily one of four design options. This said, the article also acknowledges that additional modifications and adjustments are expected, so we will see what is final. I like it! Should be an awesome stadium!

Yeah, that does look like a nasty yield. (And this is coming from me, a Professional Traffic Engineer that previously was the MDSHA Traffic Team Leader for Montgomery County). A hard yield like this is a very unexpected condition on an interstate or interchange. I hope ODOT has double posted 48"x48" yield ahead signs prior to the yield. If not, I recommend you requesting them. (Sorry, I live in Brooklyn these days, haven't been a Cincinnati resident in 10 years. If I lived in Ohio, I would request for you.)

Sadly, I see nothing in that article referencing potential for Signal Priority, Preemption, or precluding movements at intersection to more efficiently move the streetcar. This being said, retiming and entire grid system is an epic task. I wish them luck. I'm about to work on my own epic signal timing evaluation in another city. Sure to be a fun time.

In Maryland we love the Alternate (Zipper) Merge. They should be the preferred lane transition nationwide!

He is a traffic engineer's dream! In a congested scenario he is maximizing capacity! Use all the lanes!

To me the building looks straight out of DC. It screams height limit (or in DC's case, Height Act, see all boxes / rectangles in DC)

Living in DC, I make sure to avoid Breezewood with every drive back to Cincinnati. It's cheaper and almost as quick to take I-68 and I-79 to I-70 in Washington, PA. I feel the only value in Maryland / DC citizens using 70 to Breezewood would be for those who wish to continue on 76 to Ohio. Otherwise, I-68 and I-79 it for cheaper!

Chicago is their biggest hub, you can fly anywhere in the country from there (here for me). Lots of their planes also just land, let people off, let people on then fly to another destination too. And BWI is the second largest hub, makes sense that they would fly to those two airports. Most destinations will be a one transfer flight from CVG on Southwest.

Nothing screams Philly like sponsoring Station Names. AT&T, anyone? I certainly hope branding isn't that extreme, but Philly didn't even name its transit system for money. A question to be asked is if this piece of infrastructure is being Sponsored and allowed to be called the Cincinnati Bell Connector, shouldn't other infrastructure be allowed to be renamed? How would you like to see the Greater Cincinnati Drain-O Sewer District? Our how about the Home City Ice Water Works? Virginia was contemplating the sponsorship of roadways, who wouldn't like to see Sam Adam's Central Parkway, or Christian Moerlein's Vine Street? Sponsoring Infrastructure is a slippery slope. allow ads on trains, allow ads on stations, but don't kill the brand or identity.

Indeed to what taestell said. We traffic engineers are in fact smart. Some of us even advocate for Bike and Pedestrian features! But, signals have conflict monitors to through a signal into flash should two conflicting indications occur. It's a fail-safe. Interestingly, this is an ODOT controller cabinet. The signal controller is the Eagle Device on the left, the Conflict Monitor is on the right.

I wish the token was valid through Oktoberfest... I delayed my trip to Cincinnati by a week all because Oktoberfest moved for the streetcar. Either way, I'm still getting it, this is like the Pennants that WMATA gives out.

I am of the opinion that if the line terminated at Silver Spring rather than Bethesda it likely would have been under construction by now as the Friends would not have had anything to complain about. Yes, Barbara is retiring, but she is likely being replaced by our neighborhood friendly Congressman Chris Van Hollen. My limited experience with Van Hollen's Office is that when he asks for something he generally get's it. (who doesn't want a traffic signal in front of Trader Joe's?!). Van Hollen is likely being replaced by Jamie Raskin, who as my D20 State Senator has been pretty darn awesome, and I expect him to be just as effective in the House. I don't expect this funding go anywhere, unless the NEPA process is allowed to be perverted in a way that results in the Purple Line being killed. However, the irony of the judge's ruling is that a lesser, BRT alternative could be identified and placed along the Purple Line Route, as he had no environmental qualms with the NEPA Document (and he shouldn't, this is Maryland we're talking about). The utmost irony would be if the project ends up with an alternative that is cheaper, but still reclaims the county's right of way. After all, the county owns the Georgetown Branch alignment and it would be cheapest to use it. Widening East West Highway would be prohibitively expensive compared to the Georgetown Branch alignment. Either way, I hope the county continues to reclaim the Georgetown Branch right of way from these residents. The land is not theirs, and public land must be kept for public use and stewardship.

Wow, I love the comments about the blandness of the GE Building. The new GE Building looks straight out of DC. And not a good straight out of DC. There are a few nice new buildings, especially in NoMA, but most buildings are boxes. Hooray Height Act! The GE Building is a bland box. Par for DC, not Cincinnati. For shame.

They aren't doing this to motivate back door metro improvements. Friends of the Capital Crescent Trail is on their third path to derailing the project. First, it was the Hay's Spring Amphipod. That didn't work. Next, it was adverse possession. The Maryland Court of Appeals killed that one, as you can't adversely possess public land. Now, they found a judge who just happens to live in the Town of Chevy Chase and may also play golf at Columbia Country Club. The "friends" have a Save the Trail website. What they don't tell you is that the Capital Crescent Trail ends in Bethesda. Beyond that, there is the gravel Georgetown Branch Trail. Once you run past Chevy Chase and cross Rock Creek, it's not in the best of condition. Scour, pot holes, and the likes grace it, and the off road portion of the trail ends in Lyttonsville. If they were friends, they would want to Finish the the Capital Crescent Trail. The driving motivating factor behind the Friends is that their leaders have property up against the Georgetown Branch right of way. They also have a major portion of that right of way within their fence line. Their motivation is to keep public land, which used to be a rail line, and has been intended for LRT since the 80s for their own use. Given the Court of Appeals ruling, it is my utmost hope that Montgomery County reclaims the right of way. This ruling is a absolute perversion of NEPA. He says that ridership must be redone. Will he make every other DC Region NEPA study do the same? The COG Model is the region's travel demand model, and it was used for the Purple Line and pretty much every other major project in the region. Does COG account for Metro's problems? I doubt this, as these are short term issues. The reality is that Metro's short term woes effect far beyond the Purple Line, but for some reason Judge Leon decided that this project was special. I look forward to lawsuits attempting to stop major highway projects based on this decision should the DC Circuit not issue a stay. Metro's woes are terrible. In fact, many eastern transit agencies have similar woes right now. Deferred maintenance is a terrible thing, and I hope all transit agencies are learning from WMATA, MBTA, and MTA. But, to state that this aggressive maintenance schedule will continue through 2022 is foolhardy. Metro is replacing its most unreliable series of trains, and Paul Wiedefeld, the WMATA GM, is cleaning house and doing all he can to right the ship. I have the utmost faith in Mr. Wiedefeld. He formerly ran the Maryland Aviation Administration, and under his watch BWI became the most used airport in the Baltimore Washington Region. I have faith that he can do similar amazing things with WMATA. Here is a great write up on why the ruling is ridiculous. I hope you all will read it. It's incredibly insightful. http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/33115/ludicrous-ruling-could-delay-or-scuttle-the-purple-line/

In light of the "Ludicrous" ruling made by Judge Leon regarding the Purple Line (the Record of Decision was vacated solely on the fact that WMATA Metrorail ridership is severely hurt (thanks Safetrak and 5 years of crappy weekend service)) I took the time to remind supporters that the current Mayor of Cincinnati was elected on a "Kill the Streetcar" platform, and said streetcar opens September 9. It's times like this that I am reminded that these major projects always have many detractors and will pull at anything to get the project derailed, but in the end the project pulls through. I hope that this holds true for the Purple Line.

The DC Streetcar video, and the DC Streetcar Program, is a complete and utter joke. Thank heavens that SORTA and Cincinnati did not make a fool out of their city with the program thus far!

Huh, my senior project was creating a park plan for the Blue Ash Airport. It seems that isn't happening!

All Metrorail service will be suspended Wednesday, March 16, for emergency inspections http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/news/PressReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=6082 This is major, huge news out of DC. Wiedefeld has been very upfront with safety issues. This is a huge deal. It truly feels like the GM is creating a safety culture from scratch. That said, I feel that this is happening Wednesday rather than the weekend not because it is a high safety priority, but instead, weekend closures would severely inconvenience tourists. The Cherry Blossoms are in full bloom this weekend, and the festival has just begun. It's one thing to anger residents. We are a captive audience. It's another thing to inconvenience tourists. Bad tourist experiences are bad for the tourism industry. 9X Uber Surge pricing would likely not be nicely received well by tourists, nor would buses.

I would add that Kroger owns Harris Teeter. Their stores in cities are super duper amazing urban format, at least within the DC Market. Kroger definitely has a winning model for urban format stores. It should be added that urban format stores in dense areas can also be regular looking stores, either on one or two levels (see Whole Foods Foggy Bottom DC for two-level urban format, or Safeway Wheaton Maryland for a regular size grocery a at the first floor of a high rise.

This is beyond exciting. And to hear that there are no issues after the first Dead Pull already makes me think this will open before the DC Streetcar!

I think it will happen too, it is happening a lot during the testing of the DC Streetcar. However, it does appear as though the marked dynamic envelope in Cincinnati is much wider than the dynamic envelope in DC.

Is there not stress with driving? What about Distracted Driving Laws? How about being able to do work on a train? Or read a newspaper? Or take a nap? Certainly travel time should not be the only thing considered when choosing a mode.