peterdietz

WMATA / DC Metro is now "paperless" in terms of farecards. Paper farecards are no longer dispensed or accepted at any stations or vehicles. To use the system, all users use SmartTrip tap-and-pay. http://www.wmata.com/fares/paperless.cfm Key Dates December 31, 2015, paper farecard sales ended. March 6, 2016, paper farecards no longer accepted at the Metrorail faregates. June 30, 2016, last day for paper farecards and Metrochek trade-ins to transfer the value to a SmarTrip® card. If you still have a paper farecard or a Metrochek after June 30, 2016, congratulations, you have a Metro souvenir. (Don't let this happen to you. Trade-in your paper farecards and Metrocheks today at any Brown Cash-Only Ticket Vending Machine.) This appears to affect both metro rail and metro bus. Plastic SmartTrip only.

Just got back from a quick trip to Chicago. We took Megabus there (catch at Stephanie Tubbs Jones in CSU), then the return this morning was via Amtrak. Having multiple disjoint intercity transportation links is a pain in the butt for figuring out logistics. We drove to CSU and parked to catch Megabus, and Amtrak is at Lakefront, so a half hour walk back this morning. Having all services under one roof would be best (Amtrak, Greyhound, Megabus). As in, having all of those options at one place increases your connectivity/options, without necessarily increasing your burden. A question that should be asked is how far do we want our intercity passenger links be from Public Square (heart of the city), in order to maximize connectivity, and to continue to fuel downtown growth. Airport + RTA is a half hour (sans temporary bus bridge), Airport + taxi is 15-20 minutes. Amtrak walking is 20 minutes, Stephanie Tubbs Jones Transit Center is 25 minute walk. But, if you link lakefront pedestrian bridge to North Coast Transit Center, that is maybe a 10 minute walk. You don't NEED to run some express RTA service to the North Coast Transit Center, keep Public Square the RTA hub, but allow for an easy path for people to get to and fro. I don't think a North Coast Transport Center needs to be anything close to fancy or extravagant. Keep it Simple, but clean, timeless, useful. I would suggest to have a glass roof providing shelter from the elements for the train platform, and the bus bays. Also, the experience of someone waiting, arriving, departing should consider that you would need waiting area and have food service and a toiletries shop. Also, lockers for people to store their luggage, if they have to wait a few hours, can just walk to the city, walk along the lakefront, then back to the station come departure time. You don't need too much long/short term parking near the transportation center, if it has a good link to the city, RTA, and the parking of downtown. So, either build a "does it all" transportation center, or come up with a masterplan for Cleveland's lakefront, that makes it a place worth visiting. Here's some refactoring you could do. Rip out N/S marginal road, rip out the shoreway, erieside ave, Al Lerner way, and make that a single, smaller road / boulevard that allows for new urban development alongside it. Hotels, retail, high rise apartments and offices, transport center. Then cool public parks along the lake itself. Also, if Burke Lakefront airport is limiting the development of the lakefront, due to building height restrictions, then a study needs to be done that considers how much economic benefit Burke provides to the city's downtown, vs allowing taller buildings to be built along the lakefront. If it turns out that Burke is limiting the growth of Cleveland, as opposed to accelerating, than reconsider the utility of a niche airport along the lake. (You could tear out Burke, and then invest into the Red Line, to have higher speeds, and limited stop Tower City <--> Hopkins Airport express runs.) Off Topic / Insight gained from trip to Chicago. Chicago is a very cool city. Very very walkable, everybody walks. All the places I wanted to go were useful / pleasant walks too. Everybody uses transit. Tons of transit lines (L's, subway's, Metra's), they are all running 8 cars, and the metra is double decker commuter train. CTA allows tap&pay, I didn't see one person fiddle with how to swipe their ticket, very people had to go to a fare machine, and every station requires you to pay to enter. Trains and busses all appeared to be mostly full most of the time. (Sometimes crammed). Its crazy to see a full Metra go past and think, that just moved a thousand plus people. (Manufacturer states 239 max passengers per coach, and Metra looked to have about 10 coaches, so potentially 2400 people per train...). Chicago had tall buildings everywhere, very few surface parking lots, very expensive parking, many very tall buildings, but yet tons of green space. They've reserved huge amounts (almost all?) of the lakefront to be public park land, as opposed to be private access. And that park land is worth visiting. Maggie Daly Park/Playground, Millennium Park. Places for young professionals to meet friends for a picnic, places for parents to bring their kids, places for people to jog/bike, beach, tourist attractions. Having the population, and the density definitely helps support all of this. But, I think Cleveland could put in place the zoning, the planning, the masterplan that encourages smart growth would be a great direction. Also, being at Chicago's Union Station, where there are several large Amtrak diesel trains idling, waiting to depart, is a pretty loud scene. I don't blame Cleveland for having intercity diesel trains get an electric tug-train pull them the last mile into and out of CUT. I suppose, history could have been different, and you would have electrified the long distance rail tracks. Lots of well-traveled rail corridors, that would have paid-off the investment. (But, I think shared passenger/freight track with double-stacked freight might be tricky to reach/avoid overhead wires.). None-the-less, it would be great to have faster, more frequent options for getting to a city that having a car seems practically useless (more of a liability due to super-pricey overnight parking). Think 110mph CHI <--> TOL <--> DET/CLE (3.5 hours?)

via https://csanders429.wordpress.com/2016/04/11/amtrak-bnsf-sue-kansas-feed-company-in-connection-with-march-14-s-w-chief-derailment/ I wonder what the punishment for causing unsafe conditions AND not reporting it is. I'm trying to think of some type of parallel to this. Oops, I accidentally snipped your brake line, but I'm not going to tell you about it. Oops, I accidentally collapsed a bridge, but I'm not going to tell you about it. Oops, I accidentally cracked a lock (as in seaway), but I'm not going to tell anyone. I suppose they are thinking.. Welp, its up to them train people to ensure their own safety, it looks like there's still track up on that track bed, looks good to me.

I don't know why I'm fascinated by this, but I felt the urge to draw a network map of the rapid system with a bunch of new lines. - I've added a "Shore Line", that along the lake, from Bay to Euclid. - I've extended the Red Line to Berea and Elyria on the west, and to Euclid on the east. - I've made the Waterfront into a small downtown loop. - I've extended what is essentially CVSR all the way to TC. - I've thrown in an Airport to Solon line, that connects with the CVSR line near Garfield. I used: http://beno.org.uk/metromapcreator/# to draw the lines. And map is not to scale. Here's a "Cleveland visitor" question. Are there any hotels walking distance to Rapid Stations? Such that you could tell a weekend visitor to park their car at the outskirts, and then take the rapid into downtown to enjoy themselves, without having to drive? Airport requires shuttles to hotels, and Tower City is already downtown, that you'll be paying a hefty parking fee.

"Last Mile" is an important gap to fill. For me, having bike racks at local bus stops would shrink the length of my last mile. I don't see how one would economically use Uber at any frequency for the last mile, with Uber as-is. Your all-day-RTA pass is $5, and an uber minimum fare I'm guessing is $5 each way. In this split, RTA earn $2.50 each way for 10 mile commute (25c/mile), and uber last mile ($5/mile). It would be useful if UberLastMile/Pool or some other cheaper option were available, $1 for the last mile..., otherwise, I'm fine walking 10+10 minutes to save $10. Perhaps RTA monthly pass + Uber monthly last-mile pass = $200. I'd also imagine that your RTA's are going to get almost no compensation from Uber for this. But, if Uber could help as a marketing tool, such as, if you want Metro/RTA to advertise Uber, then encourage Uber to advertise Metro/RTA in-app. 15 minute uber @ $12 or 38 minute uber-bus-uber for $4.50. But, new people considering riding RTA is good. And, Uber's long term business model in some way depends on decreasing personal car ownership / usage, which means more people day-to-day relying on transit. Also, I could see if Uber shared data, or provided data analytics to transit agency, and help them to redesign their network routes. i.e. Lots of people are trying to get from here to here at these hours, make these network changes, and it will be win-win. (Or, Uber is just looking to poach transit riders to become UberPool riders, and to run a fleet of Uber minivans). Also, I'm wondering how cities that have their own shuttle service, or would be considering offering a subsidized/free shuttle service, if they would get better bang for the buck, by having Uber operate their shuttle service? i.e. A fixed route, low ridership University Circle shuttle, or Cleveland Clinic shuttle, could morph into UberShuttle, in which a larger vehicle which services institutions (or community) and nearest Rapid station. i.e. your $30k annual shuttle costs might be better bang-for-buck to be University Circle Ubers... Also, I'd be interested to see if RTA had a breakdown on ridership by route by hour. And perhaps you might see that priority networks, (frequent service / rapids) would be the most used / with higher fairbox recovery rate. And then other routes, that are in many ways feeder routes would have lower fairbox recovery. So.. Uber-ization of last-mile would mean for RTA to drop coverage that provides last-mile feeding of priority routes, and instead RTA could focus on building frequent / rapid services. Good idea / terrible idea, I'm not sure. But, it could accidentally be a way of dismantling your regional transit. Or, provide corridors of growth/investment along rapids... Helsinki Finland a few years ago proposed building some integrated system between transit, intercity, and last mile. So, that you could encourage everyone to replace personal vehicle trips with a bit of transit. One-app-to-rule-them-all. At the point they announced it, Uber didn't have the presence it does today. But.. Linked trips.. Could you see your app given you a transfer-discount to go from Uber-network to RTA-network, and vice-versa? http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/jul/10/helsinki-shared-public-transport-plan-car-ownership-pointless

I've read that in Michigan, the Amtrak Wolverine (Chicago to Detroit) has a plan for that to run at 110mph. Its already 110mph between Gary IN, and Kalamazoo MI, and they have funding to extend 110mph between KZOO and Dearborn (Detroit suburb). With the increased running speeds, come the ability for additional round trips, so this would be going from 2 round trips a day, to potentially 8 round trips a day. What is really compelling about Michigan's ability to sell this proposal, is how they have a chart that shows this line can be net positive, and run a surplus, if we get the speed, the frequency, the ridership. 79mph trains will need annual surplus, but 110mph trains with 8 round trips a day, is so attractive, that people will leave their cars behind, and get on board, AND it will be a profitable line. Thus, your state, your cities, your colleges, your economy is better connected, you save your people time and money, that the state won't have to subsidize this line each year. http://environmentalcouncil.org/mecReports/Coast-to-CoastRailStudy-ExecutiveSummary.pdf So. Anyone have any analysis of rail routes at high-er speeds through Ohio, that could be time competitive with cars, and generate an operating surplus? i.e. Lake Shore, Cardinal, Capitol Limited, 3C. 79mph, 110mph, 125, 220mph. So. Which routes could generate a surplus, at speeds/frequency, and how much would initial build capital cost, and how many years (at surplus) until it would have been net positive ROI. Rail can be highly effective, especially if you can dispel the "snail rail", and get it up to speed, and as the New England corridor is proving, and the study about Michigan shows, you won't have to subsidize operation, once you get it above a certain level of service. I've read about the Midwest HSR project, that one route to would be for between Chicago and Detroit, and Chicago and Cleveland, to have them both go through Toledo, and split from there. Thus, the money to upgrade tracks to get to high speeds can be Chicago to Toledo, and then less-high speeds between Toledo/Detroit, Toledo/Cleveland, and you would still have a fast enough, competitive enough, compelling service.

Random thought. I've heard from this forum that GCRTA is planning on hopefully replacing the light / heavy rail cars over the next coming years. Does it make sense to replace the fleet with a brand new fleet, or could you get significant discounts by buying out a different cities car fleet that they are retiring? i.e. I've read that DC's WMATA is replacing their 1000,2k,3k,4k,5k,6000 fleets with full 7000 series, followed by 8000 series cars. Not that the old cars are unreliable, but as they grow their fleet (adding new lines, upping each line to run 8 full coaches), they also wanted for stylistic reasons to have each car be identical. All the new 7000 series cars have LED lighting, and digital screens indicating the upcoming stops. No reason for all old coaches to be sent to the scrapyard, or museums, when there is an agency that could use them. Perhaps get an agreement with the funding process, that any savings in vehicle procurement could be redirected to other infrastructure improvements (line extension, line upgrades, new line...). I'd venture to say that Cleveland is a little less picky than DC when it comes to stylistic requirements of transit vehicles. I'm guessing a counter-argument of an overly diverse fleet would be maintenance. Having to maintain a very wide array of makes/models, and stock replacement parts, and have maintenance workers.

The dumping/trash is worst between West Blvd to W65, but there is litter along much/most of the route. Tires, construction waste, washing machine, a boat... I believe that the Cleveland Rotary Club organizes clean ups around the Ohio City station (there is a wooden plaque that says homestead). Yes cleanups should be organized, and give people some civic pride. But you have to stem the illegal dumping in certain areas. Fences, home ownership, cameras, ...?

Over the weekend, I had a work trip in Milwakuee for a convention. So we had to transport a minivan full of cargo from Cleveland to Milwaukee, setup, present, then Sunday at 6p, tear down, and head home. We got in at 4am this morning, plus a daylight+time zone loss, and needless to say, it sucked. I'd guess it was about an 8hour drive, considering traffic, rain, fog, stops for breaks, food, and fuel. There is a fair number of tolls on that route, (roundtrip maybe $80??), and especially through Chicagoland, a fair bit of traffic. I'm wondering if something like an "auto train", where we could have driven the van onto a train in MKE, sat in a reclining passenger seat in the train, then woke up *refreshed* in Cleveland, is something that could be feasible. (I don't know how you would otherwise transport a van-full of cargo between cities. Fedex would be way too pricey. PODS would be weird). Also, does anyone know if there is a way to measure demand or potential between corridors? I suppose for certain classes of travel you would look at the number of direct/connecting flights between two airports. So, if there are 25 round trip flights between two airports, then you can score it 25. You could look at AADT (Average Annual Daily Traffic, the number of vehicles that drive on highways between), and then color code the highways for the amount of vehicle throughput (green, yellow, red). Then you could see yes there is a score of x for potential between MKE/CHI, y potential between CHI/TOL, z potential between TOL/CLE. For introducing / improving some sort of rail service between those corridors you could then estimate potential use if you could provide a service that someone would want to use. So, I'm guessing regular frequency, and possibly also services (auto train capacity). If you had a train that could accomplish this route 1x / day in 12 hours, then x ridership, 2x/day in 10 hours y ridership, 20x/day in 5 hours then z ridership. Then, once you have compelling modeling, you could try to drum up support for something like that. I'm interested in this demand/frequency/potential side of the equation.

For my commute home yesterday evening, the normal green / articulated "bendy" bus for the 55 CSU line must have broken down, and was replaced with a stock single/non-bendy bus, it was pretty tight, every seat taken, only a few standing spots available with a squeeze. (Not quite time to call in guy with white gloves to pack people like cattle, but, just saying that it appears that the 55 line appears to have pretty good ridership, at least during rush hours). Second. One of the things that Jarrett Walker (aka @humantransit) mentioned at Old Stone Church yesterday was that to an "outsider" like him looking to go somewhere from downtown, the free trolleys were the ones that advertised themselves to him, so those were the ones he took. (I've never taken a trolley), but I would say those are mostly designed for visitors / tourists who want an easy way to get to Playhouse Square / Rock Hall / Hotel, and less so much for getting to a different district in the city. At the bus stop near Public Square it has a big trolley map, but no simplified bus/network map. So perhaps it might be helpful for RTA to slightly tweak their network to follow Jarrett's idea of Frequent service (i.e. coming soon, less than 15 minute wait) in thick stroke red, medium service 15m+ in medium stroke blue, and coverage service to get you to less traveled areas that is hourly in a thin stroke yellow. So, a combo of network tweaking to make it easy to navigate connected / rapid service, and then some signage that one could navigate if I wanted to get from Lakewood to the Airport, or from University Circle to West Park that you could look for routes to get there. I almost always have to pull up Google Maps Transit or Transit App to figure out my best route home. I live after a split on the 55 line, which means its usually on a 10m, 10m, 20m cycle (it splits to go to Crocker Park). So if you are trying to go during the 20m cycle, its often better to connect 26 -> Red, or I could just walk a bit further to catch where they still overlap. Another question. Does anyone know how common it is for transit systems, or cities to have a place to lock a bike to near a bus stop? Although bike-aboard / rack&roll is available, I'm often going to Public Square / Tower City, and don't need the bike there. It would be better to just lock up the bike in my neighborhood at the bus stop. So.. Who would be the best complaint department in terms of getting a bike stall near the bus stop? My neighborhoods department of public safety, NOACA, RTA? Lastly, halfway to three-quarters off topic. Suppose I wanted to encourage people in my neighborhood to stop being so lazy, and driving EVERYWHERE. People drive their kids to school, and then drive home (they live on the same street as the school). Old River shopping district is often at the limits of parking for all the shops there. (One proposal is to rip out the Marion Ct freeway-style on-ramps to Clifton, and put in PARKING LOTS for Old River district). People drive to their easily walkable fitness centers. Active transportation reduces your need to get supplemental fitness, and makes people less obese. If you could walk the five minutes to the shops, then you could walk the five minutes to the bus stop, and use it more often. At the gym I hear people complain about the crazy price for parking, or since they were drinking how much a taxi costs to go to Cavs games. I suppose the design of parking minimums, and less-than-medium density, ample free parking, and drive thru's do wonders to keep motorist motoring? Should you attend city council meetings and make it known that buildings should be along the street, bark at parking minimums in favor of maximums, and remind your neighbors they can walk to where they went. Should there be a first-time-RTA-rider-kindle-giveaway-trust-fund? Joe C's book-of-the-month club? Or street banners along telephone poles advertising "Take RTA to The Q, 55/CSU is 25 minutes from public sQuare at this point, runs till 10p"

Is anyone aware of any progress on the TOD plan around the Ohio City rapid station, specifically the Pizza Hut plaza on W25/Lorain? http://www.cleveland.com/architecture/index.ssf/2013/06/a_new_rta_plan_for_transit-ori.html http://www.dimitarchitects.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=154&Itemid=60 The article linked has an architectural rendering of 200+ residential units in residential-over-retail touching the Ohio City W25 station. I've only heard of a growing trend for Ohio City / Tremont lately. Off-topic. Why isn't there much development on the East side of W25 between Detroit and the CMHA tower? Unstable soil? Land acquisition? Area in transition? I could see Ohio City's W25th being densely built with multi-story residential-over-retail, between Lorain/Detroit. Perhaps, Lutheran Hospital could give up some parking, or move their parking, and put some buildings at street level.

I've found a pretty cool Amtrak trains arrivals/departures display website for a specific station. They call it a "solari board", I don't know what that means, but, it somewhat looks like an old flip-style alarm clock. It really shows how major hubs around us (WAS, NYP, CHI) are presumably jam packed, or atleast have busy schedules. Cleveland (0 upcoming events) http://dixielandsoftware.net/Amtrak/solari/stations.php?data=CLE&tz=ET Cincinnati (0 upcoming events) http://dixielandsoftware.net/Amtrak/solari/stations.php?data=CIN&tz=ET Washington DC (12+ trains in the next 2 hours) http://dixielandsoftware.net/Amtrak/solari/stations.php?data=WAS&tz=ET Chicago (12+ trains in the next 2 hours) http://dixielandsoftware.net/Amtrak/solari/stations.php?data=CHI&tz=CT If anyone wants to check this at 2am, you might be able to see an event for CLE.

I'm reading Jarrett Walker's book Human Transit, he's a transit consultant that seems to favor transit systems that maximize your freedom, you can get to almost anywhere, anytime, and its a good use of your time. So, blur out the mode/vehicle/the-technology-under-the-floor, and focus on growing the "blob", the areas that can be reached within 15 / 30 / 45 minutes. 15 minutes - quick enough for errand or grab lunch, 30 minutes - commute tolerance, 45 minutes - once a week special trip. The most effective "technology under the floor" should prevail, and the technology should be an after thought to the goal of providing transit service. One city in Germany for instance, has customized their trains and busses to all have identical interiors. Same interior, same upholstery, same digital signage, people didn't mind using them interchangeably. One additional thing that Jarrett Walker brought up in a (YouTube) presentation is that Canadian transit is more effective not primarily through special technology, but through sheer quantity. So, planners north of the border "get it" more than has traditionally been the case in the US for most cities. More buses, more trains, more frequent service. This means more operating costs, but people know they can depend on it because of its frequent service, so more ridership. (See attached images, one is ridership per capita comparing similar US/Canadian cities, and the other is service hours, pretty strong correlation). Personally, I have said to myself, that for getting to the recent BriteWinter festival in Flats West, I didn't think taking the Red Line to Tower City, transfer to Waterfront, and get off at Settler's Landing to catch a shuttle to Flats West for a festival would be the best use of my time, because I don't trust that the waterfront will be there shortly after I arrive. If I'm going to have to wait 10+ minutes, then I could have gotten off at W25th and walked. Or, perhaps even better, if the 26 was faster / more frequent all the time, then we could have just walked the 5 minutes to catch that. And since its a festival, I'll be out late, can I trust that it can get me home... We ended up driving, and attempting to park, huge mistake. I think the timetables / pamphlet for RTA bus routes are a chore to read. So if I ever deviate from my typical route, I have to rely on Google Maps / Transit App to figure out the best route. I can barely understand the bus map, or the time tables. But would prefer something like frequent service. This bus has 15 minute headways starting at 0 / 15 / 30 / 45, and your stop is +3.. Thus do your own math: 3 / 18 / 33 / 48. I'm annoyed that every 4th time I go through a turnstyle, the machine has a card read error. Should we crowd-fund a Smart Card Trust Fund, and ask people to add a dollar every time they get bit by card read error? Is anyone aware of a "stylized" full network transit map for RTA? By stylized, I mean simplified like the Rapid map, but for bus+BRT+rapids. And perhaps even indicating the frequency of a route. Lastly, Jarrett Walker will be in Cleveland at the Old Stone Church on March 2 to give a presentation.

I found two old photos of the warehouse district, and put them in a quick Git repository. See if you notice any side-by-side comparisons between the images of many decades apart. (Sorry, not sure where to put old pictures). The best view is to click "Swipe", and then slide the slider. https://github.com/peterdietz/warehousedistrict/commit/8d20254c50f243e18812bee00927b577cdd45d83

Midway bike network. I'm just catching up, I haven't heard about this until today. First, it would be amazing to have cycle tracks, having your own travel space that can't be entered by vehicles, and your own signals that ensures that bike/vehicle collisions are prevented. I'm remembering my time in Copenhagen, where I felt quite safe and relaxed while biking. (CPH has lots of bike lanes, a brand new autonomous metro, their energy grid is 50%+ wind, whats not to love). I would absolutely use the Yellow/Lorain cycle track, every weekday on Lorain between Fairview Park and West Park Station (rapid station or maybe the eponymous bar too). And, perhaps take that route all the way in to downtown, if I felt like biking the whole 10 miles. I've got a pair of nice old french Peugeot road bikes, they can handle that distance. My question on the Midway routes. Could one dig into the details on how one could come up with a lane diagram for the entire length of each route? Or is that lots of detailed engineering and block by block analysis to come up with that? I think if you show one neighborhood the full route plan, and then show them their parcel, they might opt for the cheapest solution, or most non-lane-invasive option. But if you had a full system map, with how the street lanes would work, perhaps people could buy into the full network concept. Not wanting to be the bottleneck that forces the bikes onto vehicle lanes, and is the less safe corridor. Also, how does a project like this proceed? Lots of NOACA TLCI grants.. Or does that just give you analysis. I imagine there has to be lots of citizen meetings with tar, feathers, pitch forks. But eventually / hopefully a solution gets picked by cities that own the streets, and they start reshaping and restriping the streets? I do really like the idea of NACTO / livable / pedestrian friendly streets. On a street such as Lorain near the West Park neighborhood, most of the traffic issues that I see are that there is a lot of turning going on, so a vehicle going straight has to weave between lanes to dodge the car turning across the median to get to Dunkin Donuts, and then your normal intersection turning. So even as it is, its not a great road even for the cars, so changes ought to be welcome. And making these districts more people friendly should encourage further growth and development.

RTA Red Line currently in single track west bound passed Ohio City. I might switch to the 55 since this corridor is so slow...

You & Downtown Cleveland Published on Oct 16, 2014 Meant to be. You & Downtown Cleveland. Visit www.downtowncleveland.com to learn more. Video produced by Fusion Filmworks Music by Seafair - "Helm & Anchor" Video is inspiring, uplifting, and validation for the hard work, and faith that everyone putting their souls into rebuilding a vibrant downtown Cleveland. I can't wait for summer to come back. I think it could also be considered the official response to the hastily made "we're not detroit" video. EDIT: Previously accidentally linked to "Downtown Cleveland - You Are Here", the "You & Downtown" video is much better. EDIT #2: I see that this video isn't as recent as I thought, and might have already been discovered/linked to on UO / old news. Sorry about the noise. Happy Friday.

I felt like looking for some RTA numbers. ODOT - Status of Public Transit in Ohio (2014) http://www.dot.state.oh.us/Divisions/Planning/Transit/Documents/Programs/Publication/StatusOfPublicTransitInOhio2014.pdf Operating Funds Fixed Route Federal Assistance: $ 15,832,337 State Assistance: $ 0 State E&D Assistance: $ 0 Local Assistance: $ 193,289,995 Passenger Fares: $ 50,873,012 Contract Fares: $ 0 Other Revenues: $ 4,016,561 Total Revenues: $ 264,011,905 This looks like Cuyahoga tax is very important. The state contributes no funds to operating. Capital Funds Fixed Route Local Assistance: $ 0 State Assistance: $ 2,524,208 Federal Assistance: $ 39,548,845 Some state capital funds. I've seen a bunch of Federal grants that require a 20% local (non-federal) match. Without much being contributed from state/local, I'd imagine that the funds (federal multiplier) will just float past us. So, my assumption is that every additional dollar that the state/local could contribute would add 4 federal dollars. Could a county ballot measure that adds a funding stream for capital improvements pass? Let us build up capital funds every year, and we'll eventually extend (LRT/HRT) to Berea/west shore/Independence-CVSR/Euclid/Solon. Maybe not even additional revenue stream that solely goes towards RTA, but perhaps some type of livable-community thing. Bike lanes/tracks, complete streets, parks, improved schools within urban areas, TOD. Obesity related deaths are pretty high, active transportation or walkability + transit reduces that.

Sorry if this has been asked and responded already several times, but the Red Line "Go Slow" for replacing the rail road ties with concrete. It says they are replacing 6000 ties a year (according to wikipedia thats 2 miles of track, or 1 mile of double track). Is this process really going to take 24 years to complete, or 24 years under current funding, ... ? Is there a public-works / habitat-for-humanity style potential for weekend warriors to swing hammers and pour concrete? Maybe we could up that to 6005/year... And/or fix the go-slow zone, and then the trains can speed up. Also, is there a relationship between ballast health and speed that you can drive a train on it? I guess people drive slower on rubbled road. Red Line is still a good way for me to ride. (I'm a millennial that was working from home, and am now working at co-work space in Tower City, so I'm riding each day now). 55 is my alternate route, but could be subject to traffic jams. Then an RNC question. Would they consider running an Airport <--> Tower City express, that doesn't stop at points between to shuttle the delegates. And if so, whats the max speed / minimum time that that link could be made? A rough guess shows its 11 miles of track between the two points. So, average of @66mph = 10minutes, @44mph = 15 minutes, @22mph = 20 minutes. Finally. Is there any thought of adding bike cages / lockers at rapid stations? I don't want to bike to a station, leave it to get cherry-picked apart, and be stranded. I recall that Caltrain station at Palo Alto (and probably more stations) had bike lockers. Triskett / West Park would be my preferred stations. Then I would want to open the door of having bicyCLE lanes on the roads that could feed into stations. (i.e. Hilliard / Marginal ? or pick friendlier routes, offtopic...)

A downtown rail loop is a good idea. Using existing tracks would be economical, but I feel that is a bit too far outside of the downtown core to attract much ridership. I would try to make something like Playhouse Square more transit accessible. From Tower City, its almost a mile of walking, a bit further than most will tolerate. I would venture to say that many people have an appetite for using transit in Cleveland, but reasons against pop up such as: I live too far from a station, where I need to go is too far from tower city, connections/schedule, flexibility/speed of driving, safety concerns. My pivot of your downtown loop would be to run a track inside/along/over/under/on I-90. The waterfront line is a good start (I'm happy it got accomplished), but make it a continuous / automated / 24-7 loop. This adds about 1.8 miles of new track. At some online-source estimate of $86M/mile of LRT, then this would be $154M. The two stations I've guestimated to add would be I-90/E14th and I-90/Chester. This would make Playhouse Square within a 10 minute walk. If the downtown/waterfront/90 loop could operate like a Copenhagen Metro-style of being automated, continuous operation, small headways, bi-directional (clockwise and a counter-clockwise) I think you've got a usable product. I-90 is a still a bit torn up, so make sure they leave some space to fit this in. I would name it the Plum Line (purple in color), since Cleveland's a Plum. I would break it off of Green/Blue lines, they can terminate at CUT, and then everyone transfers in Tower City.

Just my 2 cents here. Greater Cleveland in many ways, and at least transit wise, is shaped more like a hub and spokes, as opposed to a grid (due to history, geography, density, efficiency). So, moving residences (origins) into the hub is good for them to get places, and offices (destinations) away from the hub is bad. Having their office downtown makes it so that transit rider from Lakewood and Shaker probably have an equal trip. Moving the office outside of the hub, to Independence, would require transit riders to ride into the downtown hub, and then transfer to Independence, unless there are other radial routes available (unlikely). So, I would assume this will increase the net commute time for all transit riders, if you move destinations out of the hub. A worker living downtown that commutes outward would have less congested transit and driving, since they are opposite flow of rush hour. I did a quick test using Mapnificent. 30 minute transit spread from tower city (spider like hub/spokes), vs 30 minute spread from Independence at Rockside (only covers Brecksville Rd / Rockside Rd, with an express that can get you to Tower City). Attached. http://www.mapnificent.net/cleveland/ So, if you are business, you are probably thinking, I bought real estate downtown in the 80's when it was cheap, held on to it for dear life for 3 decades, and now that downtown is hot, I'm cashing in, following the old playbook, moving to the burbs. Quality of life concerns ought to include, how much (time/money) does transport cost my workers, what lunch options are available to workers, do workers have after-work entertainment options (i.e. walk to sporting arena, vs drive downtown). Do I work somewhere energetic like downtown, where I can exchange ideas freely, or do I work in some crappy lifeless office park in the burbs. And does that move help you attract and retain the best and the brightest. I don't see why desire for downtown residency ought to supplant office space. Many areas have idle space. Surface lots, brownfields, underutilized tower. I suppose one building being converted from commercial to residential is part of rezoning, the exception rather than the rule. But, other office spaces could be built / rehabbed downtown. And keeping your space downtown in a vibrant/growing area would only increase your value over time. I'm guessing the developer at the moment sees that they can increase the rent faster for residential as opposed to commercial.

I just found out that ODOT is having a feedback session on planned US / OH bicycle routes. (This Wednesday evening at Merwin's Wharf). http://www.dot.state.oh.us/districts/D12/Documents/ODOT-BikeRoute-OpenHouse.pdf ODOT Open House Seeks Comments on Proposed Bike Routes: Planning For Greater Cleveland The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) is developing a network of U.S. and state bicycle routes in Ohio and is seeking public feedback at an open house to ensure the routes are as safe as possible. http://tinyurl.com/z8bv2bk The interactive GIS tool for the proposed routes is pretty cool (it didn't work well in Chrome, had to use safari). My house would along a bike route, so I'm pretty happy to see that. I'm not sure if the bike routes mean that there would be striping the streets to add bike lanes, sharrows, signage, or if this is a (Bike Route In Name Only - BRINO). I am glad to see ODOT putting some weight into this. I see a big disconnect between City of Cleveland's bike route planning (they have a good looking masterplan, and are actively expanding), and then the surrounding suburbs. It would help to have an overall masterplanner (ODOT), and then have the cities sign on board too. Then you can have connected bike routes. As opposed to hey, town X has this cool bike lane, which ends as soon as you change cities. (Not sure if on topic). I have a proposed route adjustment in Rocky River / Lakewood, but it would require a road diet / reshaping of the Marion Ct / Lake Rd / Clifton Rd interchange. Posted over at: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,8230.210.html#ixzz3yKF7ulpS The abstract of my change is to downgrade the mini-freeway (its less than a mile long), remove the on-ramps/off-ramps, and make it a regular complete street with sidewalks/bike paths.

In between Rocky River and Lakewood, there is a stretch where Lake Rd / Clifton Rd turn from city streets to a 5279 foot long highway, with on-ramps, off-ramps, over passes, and green highway signage. I would put Lake/Clifton on a road diet, 2 lanes each direction, with bike lanes along curbs. I would have Marion be an intersection (stop light), and it would connect over to the beach cliff neighborhood through Arundel Rd. Instead of Battersea dead-ending, it would connect to Beach Cliff Blvd. I would remove all on-ramps and off-ramps. https://www.google.com/maps/@41.4836384,-81.8388196,16.4z Links: Rocky River wants to study feasibility of downgrading Marion Ramp (leading to Lake Rd / Clifton Rd, its a 5279 foot long highway in between River and Lakewood) http://www.rrcity.com/rocky-river-blog/2015/9/24/detroit-road-traffic-parking-analysis-and-marion-ramp-feasibility-study Lakewood wants to put that part of Clifton on a road diet, and add bike lanes. http://www.cleveland.com/lakewood/index.ssf/2014/03/lakewood_group_asks_city_state.html What triggered this thought today was that today I found about an upcoming ODOT meeting at Merwin's Wharf this Wednesday on proposed bike routes. http://www.dot.state.oh.us/districts/D12/Documents/ODOT-BikeRoute-OpenHouse.pdf ODOT Open House Seeks Comments on Proposed Bike Routes: Planning For Greater Cleveland The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) is developing a network of U.S. and state bicycle routes in Ohio and is seeking public feedback at an open house to ensure the routes are as safe as possible. http://tinyurl.com/z8bv2bk I was going to post my route reshaping over in: Cleveland/Akron Bicycling Developments. http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,9873.175.html, but, since it involves my speculative, what-if's, on how bicycling would change if you re-shaped a roadway, then I'll post it here. It would essentially allow for bike paths to connect at Detroit-Marion/Lake/Clifton instead of lots of curvy jogging that will throw bicyclists off their path, and snaked through curvy neighborhood streets. (I will also post over there my opinions on this bike route thing). Attached is: - a current picture of Google Maps of Marion/Lake/Clifton. - my "photoshop the scars off" by the above joining of Marion/Arundel/Lake/Clifton as an intersection, and ramp removal. - ODOT's proposed bike routes, with a new alteration, if Marion/Lake/Clifton were all joined with bike lanes.

Just wanted to share some Cleveland / Transit musings. This is bumping an old thread, but I would really like to have a SmarTrip (i.e. DC) style fare payment method. Have a piece of plastic I keep in my wallet, auto-refill with credit card, so getting to a station means I can walk through, as opposed to fiddle with machines that require one-too-many button presses for every button you have to press, and having to re-attempt inserting dollars... I guess since the Red Line route I was taking had no turnstiles, I could have just ignored the idea of paying the fare... The fare machine is just an annoying pain point that eats 1+ minute per person in my group. Also, we took a family outing, to museums in University Circle, the Little Italy station is in a great location. However, it would be nice if there was a bathroom there. Seeing a bathroom sign, when you have to go, then seeing employee's only.. ugh.. Does anyone know if there we be repairs to the freight tracks next the Little Italy station? It wasn't raining at the moment, but it was dark, creepy, wet, dungenous, and muddy under the freight tracks. I saw a guy in a nice suit / nice shoes, pushing a stroller, walking through that muck, he had the right expression, that area is too gross. I don't know who would be the appropriate complaint department for that though? NSC/CSX/RTA/University Circle/UrbanOhio... But, there being TOD-ish things in close proximity to RTA station was great. Little Italy to the east, and plenty of lunch places in the University Circle gateway (Chipotle, Jimmy Johns, Starbucks, Corner Alley bowling, ...) is nice. The walk to University Circle museums was a quick walk, so I would advise doing this. I recently finished reading Street Smart by "gridlock" Sam Schwartz. Basically an story about a guy who's job was NYC's transport guru, building highways, and how he's realized that the best neighborhood is a complete-street, multimodal, walkable grid, dense urban neighborhood. As opposed to upgrading highways, bypasses, the lessons learned of Interstate Highway System, that was a great concept for connecting cities (i.e. NYC -> Pittsburgh -> Cleveland), but the original design wasn't to have the highways actually enter urban areas, and divide neighborhoods. He also mentions that Infrastructure Report Card might indicate billions of dollars of "functionally obsolete" bridges and highways, is a misnomer. The word means they can't handle peak rush hour traffic with causing congestion. But congestion means you have a vibrant city that has so many people clamoring to get there. Instead of letting even-more-cars get downtown faster, improving multimodality will alleviate traffic. And it touches on concept of future-autonomous-uber-google (i.e. Goober) world where people don't own cars, but there are many more Vehicles-In-Motion, and potential gridlock of that, and that single passenger taxi's cars can't handle peak traffic either... Also, how zoning for new building to have tons of parking is not a law of nature anymore... i.e. Zurich Switzerland has a maximum-cars-per-sqft law. Your new office park can have a maximum amount of parking. Also, Brooklyn basketball arena only has around 500 parking spaces for 15k fans, but, its on top of a dozen train lines, so it works, and no event there has ever completely filled the parking lot. Transit is so effective, for almost all people, that its the easier choice than driving. Lastly, probably even-more-off-topic, but I saw a VibrantNEO map that showed a potential extension of rail connecting near the shore out to Lorain, so that sounds good. Hopefully people have some powerball winnings that are looking for something to contribute to.

We rode CVSR yesterday for bike aboard, it was great, great people operate that, its very beautiful, and very worth doing, more than once. But holy cow.. What a day... I wouldn't mind CVSR educating and informing a trainful of GOP delegates between Akron/Cleveland for the convention. The scenic railroad is slow/scenic, but if it can haul 1000 people, then its high bandwidth. Also, I'm pretty sure this is largely a networking event, a slow train ride is a positive thing for this crowd, have wine and hors d'oeuvres on board. The train ride can be the afterparty. And have coffee+wifi in the mornings. Also, it would be great if CVSR could connect to downtown Cleveland. Another negotiating tactic could include mentioning to CSX that congress just gave rail operators an extension to the PTCS deadline, so perhaps they can throw us a bone, and allow CVSR to pass through. I would add that Steelyard would be a convenient location for a station. Though I would want to evolve its stores to less chain, and more local, but would need the neighborhood to support that. And yes, tie it into the RTA system, so I can transfer on to CVSR from the redline. This might be off-topic, but what would Akronites be interested in Cleveland, and what would Clevelanders be interested in Akron? I don't see the main draw as being commuters, but rather people spending a day visiting. I heard something about the Lebron Foundation using CVSR to give the kids a treat. Also, the Cavaliers practice facility is quite close to the Rockside CVSR station.