JeTDoG

The other problem I'm finding now that it's summer is that it is HOT in the healthline buses. I mean, I'm sure the driver is comfortable. But when you've been walking to catch the bus, and then you get on a bus with lots of people with windows that don't open (it's fine on regular buses where the windows do open!), it makes for a pretty miserable riding experience. Please tell the drivers to wear a sweater and turn the AC on!!!!! It would be so much more comfortable for everyone. I'm not meaning to sound snarky or begin a debate on the topic, but I see nothing impertinent about a passenger walking up to the driver themself and asking for the climate control to be adjusted. I've done it many times. This doesn't mean yelling from the back of the vehicle, "hey, turn on the ^#*&$%! air conditioning!!!", as I've unfortunately sometimes heard. It also doesn't mean keeping a window open after the air conditioning has been turned on -- overwork of an A/C compressor is a sure way to kill it, and attempting to cool the entire outdoors is a sure way to overwork it. You are correct in one point - the driver's seat environment isn't necessarily representative of the rest of the vehicle, and sometimes the driver may simply forget. A gentle, polite reminder is usually all that's needed. My personal experience on the RTVs is that they're usually kept at a reasonable temperature.

clvlndr- I refer you to the press release announcing this change, http://www.riderta.com/nu_newsroom_releases.asp?listingid=1303, which stated that this was done in preparation for the impending construction at the Puritas station...

then I may need to send a mayday over to MayDay :-) ... dunno why it's still reading full...

Nor can I personally reassure you of the excellent job you're doing, despite the lack of run support you've been getting from the operations side. Thanks :-D I think my PM box is now empty enough to receive news messages...

The use of words such as "every" and "any" in your initial statement (which have now rightfully been tempered to phrases like "a lot more") were absolutes that implied you spoke for all. I was addressing that concern in my statement of perceiving you as self-centered, nothing more. You are certainly free to voice your concerns, as are others with opinions different from yours. It is my belief, based on your statements here, that you have voiced those concerns, and that they are being given due consideration. I know (because I've personally observed it) that some of the buses now have these beep signals operating at a lower volume than they previously did. As far as concerns for the deaf or hard of hearing, if you examine RTA's initial statement on this matter (which can be found at http://www.riderta.com/nu_newsroom_releases.asp?listingid=1281), you will see that other systems which address both the universality of the beeping noise and non-auditory alternatives are being examined. These take time, as would the revamping of the present system to limit its use to turns (what determines a "turn", for instance? if you're talking steering angle, some sharp curb pull-ins can be more severe than a typical turn, and the implementation would require additional hardware, which is, of course, subject to maintenance time and expense. also, should such a system be speed-governed? these are just some of the many factors undoubtedly being considered). As far as proof that the positives outweigh the negatives, it's a difficult position to be placed in, as we're being asked to prove a negative (that is, that the presence of the audible signal prevents accidents). We certainly don't want to float a trial run of stopping the audible alerts just to see if the incidence of accidents increases -- that would be incredibly irresponsible of us. Also, the time period this system has been in place (less than 90 days) is likely not yet enough to statistically prove its effectiveness. I welcome any and all dialogue on this forum, as long as it's kept civil and courteous. It would be wonderful if we could all devote 100% of our time and energy to solving each of life's problems in sequence as they occur, but that is, in my opinion, unrealistic.

The issue has been identified, your objections are noted, and ALL input (including that of those in favor of the action that has already been taken) is being considered as this policy is further refined. You have voiced your objections to the appropriate parties, and now seem to be upset that you haven't immediately gotten your way. The use of absolutes in your statements belies your self-centeredness, which is unfortunate. I would hope you would be as open to compromise as you desire us to be. My input on this topic is done.

Doc- Your PM box comes up as full, so I couldn't message you offline. Please clean your inbox out a bit so we can discuss further.

You're new here, so I'll cut you a little slack. Any perceived "touchiness" is likely a response to the dead horse you chose to further beat. Moving along... Those videos being posted on YouTube was just the first of many steps to be taken. Frankly, far more benefit will likely be gained by those YouTube-hosted videos being embedded in OTHER web sites -- sites where transit might not normally even be a second thought, but where these videos can possibly provioke interest, or conversation. This doesn't mean that they won't make their way onto RTA's main site, or one of RTA's other internet properties, eventually. If anything, posting them on YouTube is an enabling step for this to happen. Thank you for your interest.

Notwithstanding today's events (which I will refrain from commenting on, as I know only as much about the specifics of them as all of you do), I wanted to let everyone know that RTA is exploring the use of various social media tools to communicate with and reach out to the public. One of the first of these is YouTube, where we've set up a channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/GreaterClevelandRTA. The first items we've placed out there are the 15-second video spots that we started running locally in April, which will be television broadcast through the end of this month. The internet being what it is, we decided to give these pieces an online home to ensure their longevity, and I encourage our supporters to embed them, share them, spread the message, and by all means give us feedback through the comments (keeping it relevant to the videos, please). This is just the first part of a more generalized outreach effort RTA will be making throughout the remainder of this year. Readers here on urbanohio are the first (okay, second -- our Citizens' Advisory Board was first) group to hear about this.

Certainly the onus is on companies and event planners to do much more (if anything at all) to promote mass transit. However, I wonder if RTA has a standard set of website "buttons"* that website developers can place on their contact/location pages that would basically send visitors to RTA's "how to ride" page or the pertinent transit route serving said location. *(Not sure if this is the right term. The analogue would be the small images at the bottom of weblogs that say "Powered by Moveable Type" or somesuch.) The concept of an RTA "press kit" is something that's been bounced around a few times. I suspect we'll be revisiting it shortly, and I for one will absolutely push for it. Nothing too heavy-handed, but enough to make our brand easy to consistently identify and work with.

I'm going to answer this in my capacity as a Board member of the Northeast Shores Development Corporation and neighborhood resident more so than my capacity as an RTA employee. We are working extensively to improve the safety of that area, and Commander Drummond of the 5th (former 6th) District Police is very conscious of an responsive to neighborhood issues. This area has seen recent growth as a burgeoning arts district, and was actually featured prominently in last Friday's Wall Street Journal. I do not personally consider the Waterloo/Grovewood area to be overly dangerous, but then I am an able-bodied 40 year old white male who grew up regularly walking New York City streets of all varieties, from the East Village to Harlem and all points in between. I would recommend exercising caution during later hours, and walking with a companion whenever possible. As far as RTA service, the #37 and #39 late-night only run once an hour, so you do need to be cognizant of the schedule timings. If you are catching a #37, there are closer stops to the Beachland than Grovewood. Also, I don't consider many (or any) of the Beachland-area or Grovewood stops to be "isolated". Whatever your final decision may be, I hope you enjoy the show tonight. Cindy Barber (NSDC Board President and Beachland owner) does a great job keeping things at the Beachland running smoothly.

1. Along the Blue & Green lines; I have no more specific information. 2. Sufficiently answered by KJP's earlier post, and my discussion of the need to do this in as short a timeframe as possible. 3. I will not engage in finger-pointing in this forum. 4. This should already be done, or will be done shortly -- are you volunteering to assist?

Good morning, everyone. Jerry is out of the office and out of town today, so I'll be standing in as his proxy for the time being. Thank you all for the heartfelt comments you've expressed. Know that any decision such as this that affects a major portion of our operations is made with careful consideration for all of the factors involved. This is a phrase that bears repeating -- "consideration for ALL of the factors involved". First, a matter of perspective: The 32nd Film Festival, by virtue of the statistics posted on clevelandfilm.org, had attendance of 52,100 patrons over ten days. The highest attended day was Saturday, March 15th, 2008 - 8,701, with the highest rounds (also on that day) being 4:00 PM - 1,752 7:00 PM - 2,287 9:00 PM - 1,776 Compare this with the Indians' home opener, and Progressive Field having a capacity upwards of 43,000, all of whom need to be moved in and out within the course of 5 hours (being generous). The estimates for St. Patrick's Day this year hovered around the 400,000 mark. Don't get me wrong, I'm an avid supporter of the arts, and will be attending as many of the films at CIFF as I possibly can. While the replacement of the light rail with shuttle buses at this time is unfortunate, it IS necessary, for a number of reasons. First, there are segments of the line where operators are under speed restrictions due to deteriorated track conditions. The repairs that will be done will provide long-term gain in efficiency and on-time performance following this (relatively speaking) short-term pain. Second, as many of you know, RTA is due to be the recipient of a sizeable share ($42 million) of Ohio's federal stimulus dollars. Part of the condition of receiving this money, and being in the best possible position to receive more in later funding rounds, is that the contract awards have to be done within a certain time frame. Basically, it means we have to get work like this off the ground NOW, so that resources can be freed up to allow further work to proceed. Internally, it has been acknowledged that the timing and communication of this shutdown was not where it should have been. That is being addressed. Know that there will be further weekend shutdowns announced over the coming months, as the work in question has a much greater scope than one or two weekends can hope to address. Future communication efforts should be much more coordinated, comprehensive, and proactive.

I have to say, as far as bang for the buck, $57 million for construction costs, and a $4 round-trip fare, for a ride that covers 5/8 mile in 3 minutes? Wow, somebody at OHSU apparently had cash to burn (or didn't, and burned it anyway)... All of a sudden, $200 million for Cleveland's BRT line looks cheap. In defense of Cincinnati's system, I've used the #20 Winton - Tri-County on a couple of occasions to get downtown from my girlfriend's house (I actually live and work in Cleveland, for those unfamiliar with me), and found it to be a very pleasant, if seemingly somewhat lightly used, ride.

^They say Med Mutual at the E.9th St platform, Cleveland State U by the bookstore, Cle Clinic Foundation bw 89th and 105. Did UH not pony up the cash? They repeat the "please pay your fare..." at every stop. If you're taking the HL from E.19 to Adelbert, that can be quite a bit. It says UH at the Adelbert (and Cornell I think) stations. The verbal announcements mentioned (Medical Mutual, CCF, CSU) are for station sponsorships, above and beyond the line's naming rights, which were paid for by the combination of the Clinic and UH.

Just to give you all a little insight into how things are progressing and what's being done, one of our contractors has arranged for some network downtime tomorrow (Friday) to perform some required maintenance. Hopefully, we'll see some more forward progress after that step is taken.

For best/most reliable results, I'd recommend the posted stop on E 12 across from Embassy Suites. While any operator should be in a position to make a courtesy pick-up on E 13, as long as traffic conditions permit, I don't believe we've posted any temporary stops on E 13. The new schedule wouldn't include the reroute information since it's perceived to be relatively short-term (we usually don't incorporate reroutes into printed documentation unless they have a duration of around a year or more, such as in the case of the Fulton St. bridge).

my apologies for your extended wait this morning... to the best of my knowledge, the #9 is not rerouted off of E 12, but I will check with our Service Quality department right now to confirm this; I'm glad you enjoyed your HealthLine experience, hopefully it made up for some of the displeasure you experienced Thanks. I'm not angry about it or anything (luckily it's not that cold today), I just kinda felt like an idiot standing at the street corner for 40 minutes, lol. So, uh, I'd rather not do that again if I don't have to! Entirely understandable; there is actually a minor reroute for the eastbound #7, #9, and #32 that puts them on E 13 between St. Clair aqnd Superior, and then routes them back to E 12. This reroute was published on November 11, 2008, and the full text of it can be found here: http://www.riderta.com/nu_ridersalerts_list.asp?listingid=1154. Ideally, if you were waiting at E 12 & Superior, you should have seen a bus approaching you on Superior and making the left turn south onto E 12, so perhaps there was something else going on there if you didn't see any such bus approach you. One of the web site enhancements we'll hopefully be implementing this year is "tagging" of reroutes so that they can be associated with given routes -- right now, the posting system for those notices is entirely date-centric, and not readily searchable or indexed. A tag-based system will allow all reroutes for a given route to be collected together and displayed en masse.

my apologies for your extended wait this morning... to the best of my knowledge, the #9 is not rerouted off of E 12, but I will check with our Service Quality department right now to confirm this; I'm glad you enjoyed your HealthLine experience, hopefully it made up for some of the displeasure you experienced

saving $15 million is "insulting"? speaking as a fellow taxpayer, I do not think that word means what you think it means...

If that truly generates feelings of horror, you really need to get out more...

Agreed. The statement about there not being signs is plainly, simply, and utterly incorrect. EVERY median station is clearly marked. Curbside stations, I would hope, don't need that marking (?!?), but I do believe they are just as clearly identified. You are also correct that the issues with the fare vending machines are completely out of place in a design discussion - the two have NOTHING to do with each other. Unfortunately, I doubt that any answer will ever satisfy 100% of the critics. If we went with wood benches, people would eventually complain about rot and splinters, and if we went with plastic, they'd likely complain about cracks due to temperature changes/UV fatigue and scratches/scuffs/carved-in graffiti that would undoubtedly result. I'd also like to know what 80-seat conventional buses Ms. Coppola has been riding (she did say that a HealthLine RTV has "less than half the seats of a traditional bus", so unless traditional = London double-decker, there's some creative math going on here).

Do you remember when these shelters went through design review? I need to go pull some meeting minutes so I know who to appropriately hate. I don't, as I've only been a Cleveland resident for just about three years, and I suspect that occurred before then. I can certainly check with the project officer and let you know. Easy on the hating, though... "design" is often synonymous with "opinion" (I say this as a design review representative for my local CDC).

fixed; column headings were inadvertently reversed -- thanks for catching this!

and I say E 185 St is not a bad place to start some of that mode of thinking... right here, right now... thanks, KJP