John Schneider

Wouldn't you think they could get some video of modern streetcars?: http://www.wlwt.com/news/15227201/detail.html

Smith is a longtime rail opponent. He opposed LRT as far back as June, 2001. Whatever the plan is, he has a different plan.

^ The guy standing at 13th and Vine was Jim Tarbell.

^ Think it's worth calling in, or just let it go?

^ At the request of Jim Tarbell, during the LRT planning early in this decade, the engineers took a look at this -- an incline up the face of Mt. Auburn. Basically, it didn't compute, though I can't remember all the specifics. I don't think it was seriously pursued after the Mt. Auburn Tunnel became the preferred alternative.

^ I actually walked Vine from McMillan to Eighth Street today. I feel it has little to recommend it for streetcar -- steep slopes to the west, few sites, and I'm not even sure there's a level enough piece of land for a stop. Remember, streetcars, like the Metro and the Tube, work well as intersecting routes. Just because the first line goes to Findlay doesn't mean the second line has to be an extension of that one.

At 9:00p tonight - Tuesday - 700WLW host, Scott Sloan, will host a program on the Cincinnati Streetcar. His guest is Cincinnati City Council Member John Cranley.

^ What's the slope of West McMillan? I'd be concerned a little about all the turns with so many people standing. Otherwise, I agree it connects a lot.

^ Jake, can you calculate the slopes? One missed opportunity -- now built on -- was the valley that connects Marshall & McMicken with Stratford & Clifton. I always thought that was the best way to come up from Central Parkway. Another possibility is the unbuilt ROW that descents from Clifton at Dixmyth. It emerges neat the Frisch's parking lot on Central Parkway.

I'm hoping that you will reserve two hours starting at 1:00p on Monday, February 25th to attend an important meeting on the Cincinnati Streetcar. City Council's Finance Committee will hold a hearing on the first phase of the streetcar project, unquestionably the most significant step in the process so far. A favorable recommendation of the Finance Committee would likely result in a decision by the full City Council to move ahead with the project. The meeting will be held in City Council Chambers on the Third Floor of Cincinnati City Hall, 801 Plum Street, Downtown. There's lots of cheap parking in the old Lazarus Garage southeast of City Hall. I've been assured that the City Administration has answers to the questions which have recently appeared in The Cincinnati Enquirer and that it will be presenting those and other facts at the February 25th hearing. Please plan to attend and bring a friend or two. If you can't stay for the entire hearing, come for the start of it and leave whenever you must. I've never seen a project that has so much intrinsic civic support. Now's the time to show it. Thanks for taking the time and trouble to do this.

The Cleveland Flats Light Rail project teaches a good lesson: when you build higher-level transit to serve a bunch of bars and infrequent seasonal sporting events, it's not serious transportation, and the ridership will fall as soon as the novelty wears off. This is very much unlike Cincinnati's streetcar project.

SOME STREETCAR FACTS: Besides Portland, there are only two other modern streetcar systems in North American -- Seattle and Tacoma. I'd ignore the cutesy vintage streetcars that serve tourist areas in some cities, for they're not serious transportation. In Cincinnati, we're talking about comfortable, car-competitive transportation that you can depend on. Tacoma opened a 1.6 mile end-to-end system on August 22, 2003. In the third quarter of 2007, it carried an average of 3,030 passengers each weekday. The Tacoma Link system is a streetcar that runs in light rail configuration in its own lane rather than in mixed traffic, so it's a little different from what we're talking about here. It's ridership averages 1,894 weekday passengers per route mile. Seattle opened a 1.3 mile end-to-end system on December 12, 2007 that connects Downtown with South Lake Union neighborhood. It's carrying about 950 passengers per day, or 730 weekday passengers per route mile. City officials are very happy with the first month's results and are talking about expanding the system to serve five more Seattle neighborhoods. Cincinnati plans a 2.0 mile end-to-end system that would commence operation in 2010 or 2011. The median value Opening Year ridership is estimated to be 4,850 passengers per weekday, or about 2,450 per route mile. Unlike Tacoma and Seattle's streetcar projects, the Cincinnati project will serve the core of regional employment, areas of high public investment such as The Banks, and major sports and cultural attractions, so you'd expect ridership to be higher. Cincinnati, with 3,880 people per square mile is considerably denser than Seattle (3,225 persons per square mile) and Tacoma (1,619). Cincinnati's density is equal to Portland's, which has strong urban growth controls. Essentially, Cincinnati has natural population density without an Urban Growth Boundary. Few people are aware of this fact.

^ Probably 30 of 130 max. capacity passengers would have seats.

^ And the Clifton Hill, which would otherwise be more desirable, has slopes in excess of 9%, which can be a problem for streetcars. Which begs the question, "How come? Streetcars used to go up and down Clifton." The answer is, modern streetcars are much larger, three times as large, which is the source of their efficiency - the cost of a driver is spread over 130 passengers at full load. But they weigh a lot more than the old wood-sided streetcars we used to have here. Theoretically, you could super-size the electric motors to climb steeper grades, but then you have to drag around even more dead weight over the balance of the flat-land route. We do a straight, short 9% grade on the Portland trips when the streetcar goes down to the waterfront. It's a good place to make a judgment on this question. One of the reasons I take people there.

The peevish side of me wants to say, "Well, the streetcar has to dead-end somewhere." But Findlay needn't be the end of the streetcar line if it doesn't go up Vine or Clifton. it could travel northwest along McMicken to Central Parkway -- a sort of linear Pearl District. At Central Parkway, it would intersect with light rail going to Northside and eventually to Tri-County. Or if the suburbs aren't ready to bite on LRT, the streetcar could continue on Central Parkway all the way to Northside. There are so many sites between Mohawk and Central State, it's unbelievable. And the streetcar might actually better exploit these values than LRT would. And I suspect a lot of Downtown-destined Northside and College Hill residents wouldn't mind bypassing Clifton Hill. Getting back to Findlay, no one's been talking about this, but I'd like to see some of the inbound Race Street buses turned back at Findlay and those passengers transferred to the streetcar at Findlay, which would become a hub again, like Peebles Corner and Knowlton's Corner once were. The benefit for Findlay merchants would be that some people would do some shopping at the interchange from the bus to the streetcar or the streetcar to the bus. The benefit for Metro would be that it could keep some of its buses out of downtown traffic -- saving $75 per hour operating costs -- and instead send those buses deeper into the suburbs and/or offer more frequent service. In a perfect world, Metro would pass some of its savings on to the operator of the Cincinnati Streetcar. And let me share a lingering doubt. On a vehicle where 80% of the passengers are standing, I'm a little worried about the streetcar passengers' comfort on the twisting Vine Street Hill. I used to ride those buses a lot, and you never wanted to be standing on it. Try it, you'll see what I mean. Food for thought.

I see a couple of problems: * I doubt the traffic engineers would ever let two directions of streetcar travel be on Ludlow. I think Northside gets served better by light rail coming up Central Parkway to Spring Grove. * Not a lot of density or developable sites on Oak Street until you get to Reading Road. The Eden to Oak section would be dead money, I'm afraid. * Unless the southern freeway access to Uptown is changed, Reading Road is just too busy to put streetcars on it. There is a plan to add a fifth -- fifth! -- lane to Reading Road Between Elsinore and Victory Parkway, and that might help. But that's one reason I favor Gilbert. Gilbert has more density too. * The traffic engineers won't give up more than two north/south streets to rail. So if the first leg uses Main and Walnut, I suspect Sycamore and Broadway might be out. Better to approach Downtown on an east/west axis via Central Parkway through Broadway Commons or Seventh and Eighth, which are problems because they're freeway entries and exits. If it's determined that the uptown streetcar needs to serve the medical center rather than the south frame of Uptown, then I'd just use MLK to Gilbert.

Anyone really been thinking about Phase 1B? I have, a lot. I believe that it should start at Clifton and Ludlow, go from there to either Clifton Heights or Corryville via Clifton or Jefferson/Vine, use the Taft/McMillan pair to get to Peebles Corner and then Gilbert to the CBD, maybe going through Broadway Commons along the way. My logic is, the streetcar is a circulator, not line-haul corridor-level transportation like the Vine and Clifton buses. Its route could literally be a circle if that's what you wanted it to do. I'm guessing that Uptown residents and workers want to be connected to other Uptown destinations in addition to Downtown. The streetcar is a much better ride than the bus, so if it's a little longer, it's no big deal. Plus, I'm not sure it's even that much longer, time-wise. There's very little friction on Taft and McMillan east of I-71, and Gilbert's a breeze. Entering on the east side of the CBD puts it closer to the center of employment. Here's the Portland Streetcar map. As you can see, it's hardly a straight line. In fact, the next phase of the Portland Streetcar will loop east across the Willamette River to make a circle. See: http://www.portlandstreetcar.org/map/map_printable1.pdf Consider all the Uptown destinations that could be connected through the wasteland of West Walnut Hills to Eden Park/Mt. Adams and to Broadway Commons, the next big site for development after The Banks. There are great sites and lots of building shells east of I-71. That's the only direction the university/hospital community can grow. Coupled with a grid-restoration plan to bridge the I-71 trench, it could open that whole area for redevelopment just as surely as the new Fort Washington Way is making The Banks possible. I'm pretty confident that the Phase 1A is going to happen and that we need to be focusing more on what 1B should look like. Just thinking out loud ...

^ And keep in mind that the economists who studied Cincinnati's Streetcar project estimated a 2.7:1 Benefit/Cost Ratio -- with all future benefits reduced to Present Value and then compared to the project's costs. This is like showing up at the bank when it opens in the morning, opening a new account by depositing $1.00 in it and then returning at 5:00p to withdraw $2.70. People who don't understand the Cincinnati Streetcar may view the project as risky, but the risk/reward ratio is quite favorable.

Best for appreciation, safety, view, walkability, park, arts institutions, walkable to CBD and river = Mt. Adams. Having said that, I'd ask your wife to reconsider downtown. It now has the lowest crime rate in the city.

^ Write a letter.

John Cranley's questions range from excellent to frivolous. In any case, they all need to be answered, and I'm certain that city administrators want to and are going to answer them quickly. I'm guessing that the effect is to delay action on the project by a few weeks, not months. One result is that the fact-base surrounding the project will improve. Another result may be that John Cranley's popularity with central city residents, such as it is, will not improve. My recollection is that he finished fourth or fifth in the downtown and uptown areas in 2007. There's now a well-embedded belief that he is the principal opponent of the Cincinnati Streetcar. I can't see how this helps him.

Where would you rather be in ten years? Living in Boone County, paying $6.00 per gallon for gas, at the midpoint of the six-year Brent Spence Bridge replacement, facing the prospect of paying, say, $3.00 to cross it each way, every day, to get to your job in Downtown or Uptown. ... or living, say, across from a new park at 13th and Race, a few blocks from a continuously improving food market, walking or using the streetcar to get to and from work, with no car payments, insurance payments or bills for fuel? Sometimes we lose sight of how good the future really looks for those willing to break free of the highway economy.

There was an earlier posting about breaks in the new rails being installed in Phoenix. Someone in the international light rail mafia mail posted this comment in another blog ... "Phoenix appears to be experiencing breaks in the rail caused by wide temperature fluctuations between the time the rail was installed & now during extremely cold weather, which is nearly a 100 degree fluctuation causing the rail laid in the heat of summer to pull apart in winter months. Here's the story: http://www.abc15.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=685acd88-3646-4ac5-bf89-53a5f477cb50

^ There's a big retention pipe under Third Street that has reduced our downtown CSO's from something like 30 per year to 3 or 4.

By the way, I don't want to criticize the architecture of the RTC. It's actually quite excellent. But the scope was way over the top for what was needed down there. The architects did what they were told to do with the budget that elected officials gave them. My worry is that the RTC just adds fuel to the fires set by people who want others to believe that transit investments are monuments to waste.