KJP

Can I get back to you on that?

Does your brother know the community circulator runs every 20 minutes with mainline buses in between? Does he live on Madison, because there I can see a problem with not having a grocery store on Madison (until you get east to Birdtown). I live at the east end of Lakewood (just off the Gold Coast), and as I posted in the Where Do You Live thread, the following basic services and amenities are within a 15-minute walk of my building: > the Rapid station (frequent service to Hopkins Airport, with community circulators from my neighborhood to the station every 20 minutes from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m.); > two grocery stores; > two inns (Day's Inn, Travelodge); > four banks; > post office; > four churches; > two coffee houses; > three large drug stores (two of which are open 24 hours); > one college (Virginia Marti College of Fashion and Art, which also has a nice art gallery storefront); > two video stores (not including those in grocery or drug stores); > several doctor/medical offices, > two convenience stores (one is open 24 hours); > lots of funky stores (Clifton Web, Flower Child, and others); > a couple of laundromats/dry cleaners; > six fast-food restaurants; > 17 restaurants, of which several are open 24 hours (Pier W, Swingos on the Lake, Warter's Edge Deli, Gold Coast Cafe, Clifton Diner, Papa Nick's Pizza, Tick Tock Tavern, It's It Deli & Cafe, Kluck's Seafood, Truffles desserts, Diana's Deli, Friends Restaurant & Deli, Pizza Hut (should it be under fast food?), Shore Restaurant, Maria's Roman Room, Pepper's Italian Cafe, and some Chinese take-out joint I've yet to visit), with more restaurants coming as two car dealerships are giving way to the mixed-use Rockport Square; > Seven live-music taverns/clubs: Blind Lemon (rock), Phantasy Theater and Nightclub (concert club), The Chamber (goth/industrial), Symposium (dance club), Twist (gay dance club), Pepper Joe's (blues/rock), Hi-Fi Club (rock); > Six "neighborhood-style" pubs: Five o'Clock Bar, Remix Lounge, Good Luck Tavern, Bassa Vitta Lounge, The Hawk (NEVER!), Elm's Bar; > A wide variety of ethnic persons live in my building and the surrounding neighborhood. In the summer, from my balcony, I can hear parties in which Arabic techno music is played, disagreements in Hungarian are made, and greetings in oriental are relayed. > Plus, there's the annual Clifton Arts Festival, held the first weekend of each June, in which the seven-lane-wide Clifton Boulevard is closed to traffic for several blocks and turned into a huge art gallery, food bazaar and live music venue. They also close Lake Avenue for the Cleveland Marathon (runners from around the world pass by in both directions, but the Kenyans always win) for one day each May. > Oh, and a 15-minute bicycle ride takes you to Edgewater Park to the east, or Lakewood Park to the west.... Who needs a car? Unfortunately, as a reporter, I do...

West Shore Regional Rail Stakeholders Meeting 9:30-11 a.m., July 19, 2006 Westlake City Hall Council Chambers 27700 Hilliard Road (440) 871-3300 9:30 a.m. Welcome, Purpose and intros (all in room) – Dennis Clough, Mayor of Westlake 9:40 a.m. PowerPoint on need for regional travel alternatives - Ken Prendergast, NEOtrans · Costs to region from not having Regional Rail · FRA Quiet Zone standards issued · NEORAIL Study Phase I – Lorain-Cleveland · Low-cost train equipment available now · Regional rail demo & study of permanent rail service w/ possible Vermilion and Sandusky extensions 10:00 a.m. Group discussion of transport, access, development, environmental and funding challenges & choices facing region Moderator: Betty Blair, Lorain County Commissioner 10:30 a.m. Next steps and adjourn · Stakeholders' task force · Possible tasks · Members · Additional stakeholders · Funding 11:00 a.m. After the meeting - 1997 Commuter Rail Preview video

Maybe some, but not enough to knock it out of the top bus route ranking. RTA has another data class they use to rank transit routes: average boardings per in-service vehicle hour. On that score, RTA's top-ten most productive bus routes are the 6, 2, 326, 1, 22, 246, 10, 30, 14, and 251. While the systemwide average for buses is 22 boardings per in-service vehicle hour, the average for rail is more than 50 boardings per in-service hour. So if RTA officials tell you that their rail system is underperforming (and compared to most U.S. rail systems it is), ask why they have been implementing new/expanded bus services when those are less than half as productive as rail. And remember, labor costs (a key component of vehicles in service costs) is by far the most dominant expense RTA has (something like 70 percent of RTA's operating cost structure).

Agreed. Not sure about the sprawl comment though. The last time I drove around the DC metro area (1993) I was shocked at how far out the 'burbs went (70 miles). I can't imagine what it must look like now.

The GoogleEarth image is too low-res to make out details. I'm just going with my memories of the photos and video I shot in the area.

MayDay, I so enjoyed your venting that I printed it out and shared it with writers in the office, including my editor. She wondered if you would be willing to submit that as an op-ed to the West Side Sun News. Just passing along the request.

No farms in Port Stanley, Mark.

I'm pissed. I had an article about SYC sitting in our computer at Sun and wasn't published for two weeks due to lack of space. Now, the PD has an article out today and mine won't come out until tomorrow. I could've scooped the PD by two weeks if.... arrrg!

The powers-that-be (Mayor Jackson, County Commissioners, Forest City--who funded campaigns of the aforementioned pols) want the convention center at Tower City. If it gets built, that's probably where it's going to go (how I wish it weren't true). The goal isn't to put a levy on the ballot to specifically for the convention center, however, unless you count the gambling issue on this fall's ballot as it.... Word from the politicals is the profits from one or both of the casinos would be used to pay for the convention center. But they are very quiet about this because they don't want to people to a vote for casino gambling as a vote for the convention center. They want them to remain separate issues in the electorate's eyes.

The last I heard, the developer was having difficulty getting hotels to sign leases.

When I was in Port Stanley three summers ago to look at the town and check out the port facilities, I was amazed at how small the town was. Yet, it's one of, if not the most populous towns on the Canadian shore of Lake Erie -- and I drove the whole north shore on that trip. Fascinating drive. Anyway, while in Port Stanley, the thought that came to my head is that I wished I had some disposable income because I would be buying up land there right now! And with such a sleepy little fishing community, you could probably get land there very cheap.

The 326 is so busy is because it took two already busy routes, the #3 bus on Superior and merged it with the #26 bus on Detroit. It would be like merging the #6 with the #22 to create a single route. It makes the ridership look more impressive than it otherwise would be if they remained separate routes, but it also causes reliability problems with such a long route.

And, to bring ourselves back down to earth, check out this posting about Cleveland streetcar ridership in the 1920s. Very sobering... http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=6369.msg63500#msg63500

I believe West 25/Pearl will -- that's the project now underway. And I'm familiar with the signals on Lorain Road in North Olmsted and Fairview Park, which I'm pretty sure have the preemption for emergency vehicles. But, like you say, that may not be compatible with the others. Here's where the region has flunked Regionalism 101.

I just noticed... RTA's top eight bus ridership routes carry more people than COTA's entire system. And, mrnyc, those are just the bus route ridership rankings. Including rail, the Red Line is the top route in terms of ridership -- 5.45 million and the Blue/Green Lines carried 2.77 million. Both of those are 2005 figures, representing ridership increases of 8 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively, over 2004. Here's how the top-ten routes would rank if I included rail (which I should have, but the spreadsheet from RTA I was using listed only buses)... 66 Red Line 5,450,000 326 Detroit - Superior 3,547,361 6 Euclid Ave 3,071,548 67X/AX Blue/Green Lines 2,770,000 1 St. Clair 2,144,667 22 Lorain 2,070,102 15 Union 2,069,559 14 Kinsman 1,932,469 35 Broadview - Quincy 1,125,976 20/A W.25-Broadvw/State 1,079,360 On that score, RTA's top FIVE busiest routes carry as many people as the entire COTA system. And, that's not to slam Columbus, but to slam COTA!

The 326's buses run through downtown without added/subtracted buses, and are scheduled to run every 6-10 minutes weekdays. The only section where it runs less frequently is west of the West Boulevard Rapid station, where 25 minute headways are offered in the middle of the day. See http://www.riderta.com/pdf/326.pdf However, because the buses run for such a long distance across town, it is common for an unlucky bus to miss a disproportionate number of traffic lights. That delay causes the number of waiting passengers to increase ahead of its arrival and the bus slows further to pick up the riders collecting at the stops. Meanwhile, a nearly empty bus behind it starts to catch up to the crowded bus. So, if you're waiting for a long time on Detroit or Superior for the 326, chances are two buses will eventually show up -- one that's packed to the doors and another that's virtually empty. And they'll run in tandem the rest of the way along its route. Screws up return trips too. It's another reason for equipping buses and traffic signals with signal preemption devices....

Maybe those managers could find new jobs flippin' burgers? Geez, I'm surprised they weren't offered that as a transfer option!! :finger:

Perhaps as early as this fall, maybe early next year. Just a guess though.

Thought you all might find this of interest. These are the top-ten RTA bus routes, as ranked by total ridership in 2004.... % of system Rank Route Ridership total 1. 326 - 3,442,131 8.3% 2. 6 - 2,941,560 7.1% 3. 22 - 2,041,450 4.9% 4. 1 - 2,005,840 4.9% 5. 15/15A-1,958,665 4.7% 6. 14 - 1,888,796 4.6% 7. 10 - 1,866,657 4.5% 8. 20All - 1,351,598 3.3% 9. 2 - 1,228,787 3.0% 10. 40 - 1,210,848 2.9% For those not familiar with RTA's bus system, the routes are: 326 - Detroit/Superior Ave 6 - Euclid Ave 22 - Lorain Ave 1 - St. Clair Ave 15/15A - Broadway-Union Ave 14 - Kinsman Ave 10 - East 105th 20All - West 25th-Broadview/State 2 - East 55th/East 79th 40 - Lee Road/Lakeview Road My suggestion to save RTA operating expense is to implement a traffic signal preemption program along all these routes so buses don't have to start/stop at every light. It's already happening along many of these roads (the latest is West 25th), and emergency vehicles are equipped so they will always get a green traffic light. The same equipment should be added to RTA buses. It should pay for itself in reduced fuel consumption, fewer brake replacements, and increased ridership from faster, more reliable service. Oh, by the way, here are RTA's top-ten ridership performers in 2005, among the radial bus routes (as opposed to circumferential routes, freeway expresses, or community circulators etc)... 326 Detroit - Superior 3,547,361 6 Euclid Ave 3,071,548 1 St. Clair 2,144,667 22 Lorain 2,070,102 15 Union 2,069,559 14 Kinsman 1,932,469 35 Broadview - Quincy 1,125,976 20/A W.25-Broadvw/State 1,079,360 19 Broadway - Miles 1,059,658 25B/W Madison 874,478

Yes, John Ferchill. It's the narrow strip of land between the river and Scranton Road, just south of the closed Eagle Avenue bridge.

Board member William A. Anthony Jr. said dumping light rail will help COTA’s chances to get a levy approved in the fall. Is there survey data to support this view?

I'm not sure what you're saying. The Shoreway was visible early on in the video.

That didn't look like that much parking. I can see why they didn't want parking lining the boulevard (was that West 75th?).

Check out this article I wrote in January.... http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=6727.msg70057#msg70057