urbanlife

Care to place bets on how many of the board members use RTA services regularly? :-P the current answer is 0. some former board members of the past decade were occasional users of the system, but the current board does not ride the system on any sort of a regular basis, and i would guess that except for a special charter or event - like the HealthLine opening - haven't been on a bus or train in regular service in some time. the RTA board makeup is also quite different from other major systems where there is often more representation from day to day riders and business interests on the board. another issue, with respect to the fare machines, is that RTA employees - many which ride RTA everyday to and from work - don't use the fare vending machines because they show their employee id to board. internally i think it is now well recognized that there is fare machine problem, but the fix has been way to slow. indeed, the main issue was that these machines were even allowed to be designed and placed at stations in the first place in their current state. that was where the ball was dropped. big time.

imo, this post doesn't really answer the poster's question. a clearer answer, if it was true, might be "there is no relation within at least a couple of degrees." however, i'm pretty sure they are actually cousins. so the correct answer might be that, yes Joe is from Syracuse, and yes, he did move to Cleveland in 2000, and he is a cousin, but he is not corrupt. think about your own families and how different brothers, sisters, cousins, etc. are.

this is the huge issue: designated federal funds that can only be used for xyz purpose. in this case, RTA passes through funds but potentially looks like it isn't focused on the big picture. but, not sure it is any better if they let the money go away because they are worried about appearances.

it appears to be an outdoor roof top patio area. not sure if it will always be open or only for special events.

i believe it is the same owners of the w10 space, which may be closing. originally, the w10 liquor store was at the closed pizzaria space next to the former lust. generally, should be good to have it back up the hill, although i think many people who were picking up liquor leaving downtown or just using their car appreciated the relatively ample parking on w10. good luck finding a street parking space on w6 with all of the valet zones that have taken over the street. imo, w6 needs some kind of consolidated valet operation, perhaps 1 per block to free up some on street parking and get the valet cars into parking lots/garages.

pretty sure mayfield is back to the drawing board and due to costs, there will be only one head house with a center platform, as opposed to the 2 platform, 2 head house drawing above from 2009. i also don't think the existing stairwell will be used.

I don't like the MDF finishes that have been applied to all of these storefronts. I'm really surprised that the city is allowing this type of material to be used for a permanent facade.

If Des Moines can publish their GPS data to the web with that system, there's no excuse we shouldn't be (especially if RTA has already purchased the software and already has the GPS installed). Yes, the website is clunky and in general pretty much sucks, but it's still a million times better than having nothing. That may be why we haven't seen anything yet. As RTA is likely their biggest customer they may be suggesting that a new web interface be created. Call it learning from the POS/Vending machine fiasco. anything is possible, but i can pretty much guarantee that what we will see in cleveland is going to look exactly like the pace link above, except that it will have rta colors and an rta web address. see long beach, also using trapeze webwatch: http://webwatch.lbtransit.com/webwatch/ we haven't seen anything yet becuase it took months to get the contract finalized and to schedule the installation on site. once the software is installed, there will be a period of debugging and tweaking rta data to make sure it is accurate. anything that is customized will be done by a 3d party developer

there is 1 huge reason - cost is a primary driver in the decision, and not necessarily functionality or customer facing elements. - the "better" fare machines that you see in other cities are likely twice the cost of the ones that RTA chose - but you can really tell that they are better, with touchsreens, color coding, a customer friendly process, etc. i'm not sure it made sense to go the cheapest route with the machines. - trapeze, RTA's scheduling system (or maybe it has a new name now, as this company seems to change names a lot) for better or worse was installed at RTA a long time ago, before mobile apps and a lot of the other features many riders expect today. to install an entirely new scheduling system that would have better data export capabilities, would probably cost at least $20 million. That probably won't happen, so we get patches to the current system, and we will eventually get some ability to see real time data.

that's the rub. RTA seems to have committed to making whatever real time data they have available publicly for others to possibly use. However, it isn't clear that the WebWatch platform is using any sort of open data standard, and this could be one of the reasons that no other transit system that I have looked that user Trapeze and WebWatch has any mobile apps available. It could also be that many of these cities are smaller transit systems than Cleveland's.

As you may know, all RTA vehicles are equipped with GPS. Our bus and rail dispatchers already receive real-time updates. In the future, RTA -- and most transit systems in the country -- would like to extend that access to everyone. However, as if often the case, our "wish list" is far greater than our "budget list," so I cannot say when that might happen. Thanks for the comment. In fact, the RTA board of trustees has already approved the purchase of the software module needed for allowing real time information to be posted to the web at the May 17, 2011 full board meeting http://www.riderta.com/newsroom/releases/index.asp?listingid=1585, reads in pertinent part, "2011-41 – Authorizing Contract No. 2011-066 with Trapeze ITS for the purchase and installationof TransitMaster Webwatch in an amount not to exceed $173,000.00 (RTA Development Fund, Service Management Department budget)" This will get the data on the web, available to the public. Out of the box, this software is a bit clunky. Hopefully it will be extended to other mobile device apps. There was originally talk of having real time information live in June or July, but I don't think the implementation has even started yet. Basically, what RTA is getting out of the box with the new software will look like this: http://gis.pacebus.com/webwatch/ RTA is also one of the largest, or perhaps largest transit system, using this particular scheduling software, so unfortunately there aren't a lot of mobile phone apps that can be extended from other other cities using this new data feed. Hopefully the local development community will be able to work on something that can use the webwatch real time data.

It's too bad that CityWheels closed its Oberlin and Shaker Square locations, but at least it's keeping the UC/CWRU location http://www.mycitywheels.com/map_UCircle.php. And Oberlin now has Hertz On-Demand: http://www.hertzondemand.com/Oberlin/ My understanding is the CityWheels is no longer in existence and was sold to Zipcar. There should be more zip car locations showing up in the Cleveland area soon.

Mike York, deputy general manager, Operations: "The problem with the destination signs in the Red Line cars is two-fold: 1. Many of the motors that advance the roller-type destinations signs are bad and we can't find a replacement motor. 2. The gears that move the rollers are bad on some cars. If we can't find replacement motors and gears, the alternative is a simple sign in the sign window that says Red Line." How about a completely new sign system then, since the old ones are apparently not fixable. It seems unacceptable to put a paper sign in a window of a system like this. Very amateurish. or at least a program to install the LED destination signs that are on all of the buses.

i don't think ODOT has ever released the actual traffic studies or their assumptions, but has remained firm that it will degrade service to cars, and won't work. commuters and commute times are certainly an important element to consider, but i think a balance needs to exist. does it make sense to (re)build a roadway to serve 10 hours of peak traffic per week (out of 168 hours in a week)? in some cases it may, and maybe there are really 20 hours of peak traffic per week. i can't help but think that this whole process is like designing the huge parking lots for a big box store that sit 3/4 empty most of the time, except for 2 or 3 big shopping days. if this project isn't going to be significantly different than the current configuration, i'm not sure it makes sense to spend any money at all on it.

yes. they are using it to move the forms for the foundation into place.

+1 we are waiting for the amenities as well. downtown is actually quite kid friendly with things to see - people, dogs, boats, buildings, things on the street, etc., but there is a sorely missing playground component, either along the river at w10, voinovich park, malls, etc. There is some hope that the new malls will have some kid friendly equipment, but i haven't seen a a funded plan, only some conceptual ideas. we spend a lot of time around browns stadium and science center on the grass areas and i had hoped that the city would put some kids play equipment where the old skate park was at voinovich park. that is at least a central location which would help serve downtown residents with kids, but also provide something to visitors to the area with kids. perhaps we can approach the cimperman and request a small allocation to put some basic stuff in? having lived in san fran, i think the comparisons are apples to oranges. there are so many factors that are different in northern california that don't necessarily apply to demand generation in northeast ohio for a similar neighborhood or residential product. There may be some distinction between downtown proper and neighborhoods, and I don't know if you have any kids, in which case you may not notice what is there in SF, but there are literally 100 playgrounds in San Francisco, many of them in areas that are much more dense than Cleveland's downtown proper. There is a great list here: http://www.ggmg.org/Playgrounds/playground_summary.html while i agree that a swingset isn't going to make downtown vibrant, it is one of the small quality of life issues that if not implemented will potentially shift my discretionary dollars, real estate purchase, and general interest in downtown towards a suburb.

Here is one from Prospect. Pretty cool to see sticking up. I haven't seen any renderings showing the new buildings from other areas. I can't imagine you'll be able to see much of it from this viewpoint, although would be cool if you could.

Not so far.... my understanding is that there has been very little traction in getting the casino to partner/sponsor expanded RTA service, such as a new or expanded trolley route. casino workers will rely heavily on rta services, but I don't think the operators view RTA service (whatever it might be) as a big option for customers. it is also probably a control issue as well.

technically, you are supposed to use the elevator from the rapid level and exit onto prospect.

you can check RTA elevator and escalator status on the web - this is usually very accurate and pings the elevators every few hours - http://www.riderta.com/ro_rapid-elevator.asp also, the red line operator should have made an announcement that the elevator was out of service.

had lunch there last week. thought the atmosphere was good and the menu good as well. the couple of dishes we tried were excellant, and i'm looking forward to going back. it was also good to see an outdoor patio on the square full at lunch. we need 5 more places like this around public square. i really wish the starbucks in key tower would face public square and mall a, at the south east corner of the building with some patio seating.

there are new awnings up (which don't seem to match the existing awnings) that say something about "prime rib steaks"...so maybe this has taken another turn?

pretty sure UCI owns building and was giving discount/free rent to keep them there.

don't write columbia off yet. lots of behind the scenes work....

There is a Smart Lights/Safe Flights initiative that many local buildings have adopted during the spring and fall bird migrations that was championed by CMNH where building lights are kept off during migration periods. Many other cities in the midwest have adopted the same program