jim uber

That is not the bottom line at all, in my opinion. I'll just say that those folks who have maintained that real-time tracking was not important, have now been proven wrong. It is an important component of a well run system, and absolutely critical for us, during this period when we have traffic issues we're trying to iron out. The problem is that we lied to people, and are continuing to lie to them again with each and every message board. And JYP[/member] is exactly correct - these are issues that can turn people off from transit, for a long time. One thing that I will never understand or forgive, is why SORTA refuses to simply replace the message board with a note that says Streetcars are normally expected every XX-YY minutes, where XX and YY are numbers they get from data. This was a critical error. Right now the only optimistic way I can spin this is - it's good there is low ridership at the present, because the less people we contaminate with this system as it is currently operated, the better off we are, in terms of ultimately being able to expand. I am so pissed off about this it makes my head spin. How were these problems not made urgent with CAF and transportation engineering during the one year testing phase? Were they not carefully paying attention to timing issues and the whole operational experience during this period? In order to turn this around, we need someone to step up, big time, and take responsibility for fixing it. I do not see that happening at present. Not from council, not from SORTA, not from City staff. The only thing I see happening right now is to position Transdev as the fall guy for what frankly looks like a complete lack of system operational planning.

Yes, this is a big packet! Includes all the remaining phases of the 15th & Race 3CDC project. The corner of 15th & Race infill maintains the same scale (3 story) as the adjacent existing structure to be rehabbed.

^ Yeah it is good to have clarity on this important issue. The article goes on to mention that this Ordinance requires that council vote on any specific recommendations prior to implementation, which is unusual but, according to Flynn, possibly appropriate for this important study. In terms of timing, looks like we should expect the status quo for the next 3-6 months.

:wink: $1.50 Burger Beer at MOTR, is the answer :wink: btw I enjoyed reading your food notes. brought back memories - in my case of many, many casseroles.

When?

Given we are running up to an election year, and that the streetcar once again figures to be part of the attacks, the fact that this story gets buried says that people all around are really unsure whether they will end up on the winning side of this argument. Sounds like the makings of a good investigative piece to me...

Based on a search of council documents http://city-egov.cincinnati-oh.gov/Webtop/ws/council/public/documents/SearchForm, there are two documents containing the word "traffic", after 1/1/2016, that are relevant to a downtown traffic study: 1. A motion from 9/14 that refers to a "... traffic count study already authorized and funded..." and that very specifically mentions traffic signal prioritization for the streetcar: http://city-egov.cincinnati-oh.gov/Webtop/ws/council/public/child/Blob/46045.pdf?rpp=-10&m=1&w=doc_no%3D%27201601278%27. However this motion was never voted on and has a final disposition of "filed." 2. A motion from 10/12 that appears to be a significant revision of the above, and references a traffic study much more vaguely, "... a downtown traffic signal timing and traffic study will result in recommendations to the Administration for updating traffic signal timing in downtown Cincinnati" and that eliminated all specific references to traffic signal prioritization: ...http://city-egov.cincinnati-oh.gov/Webtop/ws/council/public/child/Blob/46219.pdf?rpp=-10&m=1&w=doc_no%3D%27201601373%27 Maybe someone who has a better idea of the inner workings of city council can illuminate what, exactly, these mean, and what work is authorized by city transportation. Two months have gone by and people on this list, who are much more in the know than anyone else, don't have a clue. Given the importance of this study, if indeed one exists, we'd be good to focus our energies on paying attention to this and finding out what is going on, and what pressure is being exerted from different factions.

Has the City Manager refused? Or is the ordinance just waiting endlessly with no response? These are very important questions. This is something that this group might be able to rally around. If anyone has any ideas about what council could do, or how citizen efforts could help them move this forward with Black, then please share... This inaction on a mundane but critical study is an example of what people expect from Washington, but don't have patience for in their local government. Cranley's "argument": "Why spend $300K on a 'traffic study' designed to slow thousands of cars getting to and from downtown, just to make the streetcar a little faster for a hundred or so people wanting to go to lunch on the streetcar?" A good answer is needed. I'd rather bring this back to non-confrontational, "good policy" arguments, like "No. That's not what a traffic study does. It will find out how to move the most people, to and from downtown, in the quickest way possible. We haven't measured traffic in our downtown in 25 years. Since then we've changed the configuration of vine street, witnessed the rebirth of OTR, reconfigured our highway system and built The Banks, built the first streetcar line in over 50 years, and repopulated our urban core. It makes no sense to pretend these things didn't happen, or don't matter. We need a logical, fact-based study of downtown traffic, and we need it now. Everybody should get behind this; doing otherwise is just obstructing the cause of good government."

Oh please. You're talking about $300,000 as though it was coming out of your home budget. "Political will" is generated by how the argument is made. I think we've all seen enough evidence for that in the last year. If jmecklenborg[/member] is correct in assuming the Dems on council are being held down by Cranley for a freaking traffic study, then in my opinion they should all quit. If you are unable to make a bullet proof and objective case for a traffic study that hasn't been done in 20 years, in downtown, where traffic conditions have changed drastically, and you've just installed $130MM of transit infrastructure, then I'm not sure what you would be able to do, effectively, as a politician.

The best guard against those who would exploit these initial streetcar problems for political gain is to face them, and demand that the well known solutions be implemented. The thing that scares me more than anything is the silence (to my eyes and ears) from supporters on council about why we are not moving forward aggressively with these solutions - the traffic study to name one. If that is being held up by Cranley and his allies, then I sure don't know about it, and it hasn't been widely reported that way. I would think supporters on council would be trying every which way to force a vote on authorizing the studies, so that those in opposition could be tied to those votes.

I am actually happy for this. It seems the only way things will get studied and fixed is after sh$t hits the fan and forces council to do it. It's much better for us that this gets boiled down to the real cut-and-dried technical arguments as quickly as possible, preferably before it has the chance to become completely politicized.

^God if there ever was a tired and worn out discussion, this would be it. Recalling Barry Horstman, RIP

Praise the Lord someone at SORTA has finally figured out how to turn off the "real time tracking" signs. This alone will give ridership a bump.

Has anyone heard about the planning commission meeting today for the Liberty/Elm project?

^Yes. So long as it wasn't $15 for a 3 way.

I want to say John Schneider[/member] that having this information is, in my opinion, really valuable. I hope that we can distribute it widely. It's just totally different to acknowledge that there are problems, and we're not getting it done as quickly as we'd all like, but we are working through it -- than to have silence that breeds conspiracy theories of incompetence. I only wish that the good folks at SORTA could take the lead in getting this information out in effective ways (like, for instance, Cincy EZRide! :clap:), so that more than our rather insulated urbancincy community could know there are good people on the hunt for solutions.

Point well made, Travis - although you couldn't yet cross off "No one will ride who works downtown and has a schedule to keep." The streetcar has proven to be a popular transit option for people visiting downtown and OTR. Yesterday I got on at the banks ~6PM, and a couple boarded with me who had evidently parked there and were riding the streetcar up for dinner at Tafts. That's perfect, and I expect such ridership to continue to increase. The uncertainty is downtown worker traffic during the weekdays. Will this become a valid transit option for downtown workers doing business or personal errands? I commute on the streetcar most days, and ridership is extremely light. I've talked to many people using the streetcar for commuting to work and downtown/OTR work related trips -- some that I don't see any longer, by the way -- and I've never had one person describe it as convenient when you've got a schedule to keep. It's an ongoing problem, and those of us who are big streetcar boosters (and want to argue for expansion funding) should continue to voice concerns to get the necessary changes in place. I know there's a lot of things supposedly in the works regarding signal timing and prioritization, real-time tracking fixes for message boards and apps. According to John Schneider from a post a couple of months ago, Deatrick had said fixes for the real time tracking were to be done within days, but that's came and went. Meanwhile I'm concerned that the streetcar is solidifying its reputation that travel and arrival times are not reliable, so you better not use it when you really need to be there on time. Does anyone know - do they discuss these things during the council transportation committee meetings?

I was surprised (pleasantly) to see that 1400 block Elm building in there. This building has been stabilized but to a degree that I haven't seen before. It required wrapping the entire building with steel C-channel that I assume has to be permanent? And still the masonry has a very obvious bow to it. I'm impressed that someone thought to invest there as opposed to one of the other buildings on the block. Then again, maybe it's the fact they had to demolish the back part of the original structure, and so more than half the lot is essentially open to design. Interesting.

It would be smart to not make any adjustments to service until the system is working properly, which it is not yet. Accurate and available arrival info, and meeting headways, is affecting ridership now. That's very unfortunate, but it would be worse to overreact to that and make schedule changes now, that will be hard to undo later.

We looked into hostels and they're really not that much more affordable than where we're staying but would have to share a common bathroom, sleep in a room with a bunch of other people, wouldn't have exclusive access to a kitchen, etc. What's the point of saving $15-$20/day if you wind up with a shitty product? We wanted somewhere that was a more secure home base than a hostel. That and most hostels that we found in the price range we were willing to work with were unisex. My friend is female, I'm male. That's a bit of a problem. We need a place where we are in the same exact spot so we can coordinate. Also, a ton of the hostels we did find had stay limits where we'd have to check out one or more times, leave for the day, then come back and check in. We have only 9 days, I don't want to be dealing with that crap when trying to make the most of every minute of my trip. Airbnb offers a product that wasn't easily available before. It's as simple as that. Denying that is to deny reality. You can dislike it if you want, that's your right, but you can't truthfully claim it does nothing different than a hotel or hostel. yeah, for sure. We just returned from two weeks in Seoul where we stayed at an Airbnb for $40/night - not luxury of course, but a very typical small Seoul apartment for a single person, with a mini kitchen, fridge, and wifi. And it was clean, and in the historical city center, Mapo region. Trying to find a hotel for as much would have landed me in a seedy dump, and even just decent hotels in that region go for many times more.

it is a different development - not Towne

I don't think you can ever solve these problems by starting out apologizing for the way SORTA seems to be run. The best thing that will happen from all of this is a heightened set of expectations for SORTA from customers they've not often thought about. It doesn't take a lot of funding to create a vision. It takes a vision

Yes. My wife who is from Seoul notices the lack of that map every time

^oh my God no comparison. Shapiros is a real NY style deli. Only there once but I have that from friends who are both Jewish and from NY.

^From riding it this weekend, it was absolutely packed. I'm guessing that negative feedback had to do with people waiting excessive amounts of time at the stops, and being packed in when they finally came. I waited 35 minutes for a streetcar at mid afternoon on Sunday. And saw folks at the stops who had been waiting not squeeze into the car because they are too polite or whatever. This is all exacerbated, of course, by not having a clue when to actually expect the next car. I don't know if SORTA is planning on being more adaptive with adding cars on the weekends in the future, but I sure hope so.