Looks good.  Thanks, Taco.

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2021/11/opportunity-corridor-still-closed-at-i-490-on-day-of-scheduled-opening.html

 

35 minutes ago, LibertyBlvd said:

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2021/11/opportunity-corridor-still-closed-at-i-490-on-day-of-scheduled-opening.html

 

 

I've been watching for the sign as I drive up 77 at night heading home.  

9 minutes ago, E Rocc said:

 

I've been watching for the sign as I drive up 77 at night heading home.  

It's too bad the signs don't say Garrett Morgan Parkway. 

12 minutes ago, freefourur said:

It's too bad the signs don't say Garrett Morgan Parkway. 

 

I'm still plugging for that when I see the opportunity.

It was John Gorman on FB who pointed out where that first traffic light actually was.

Edited November 12, 20213 yr by E Rocc

1 minute ago, E Rocc said:

 

I'm still plugging for that when I see the opportunity.

It was John Gorman on FB who pointed out where that first traffic light actually was.

Hey, if we can agree on something, it must be a good idea. 😀

16 minutes ago, freefourur said:

Hey, if we can agree on something, it must be a good idea. 😀

 

I thought of it when the road was first being discussed, “Opportunity Corridor” is generic and could be anywhere.   It was like Gateway, a good name to market the project but otherwise weak.

 

About the same time my daughter’s pre-school had a bunch of postings for African American history month of famous people.  It struck me that they were all politicians, activists, entertainers, or athletes.   My thought was it was like having an inspirational display of famous women and they were all nurses, teachers, entertainers, or famous wives.  Where were the doctors, scientists, entrepreneurs, engineers, and oh yes inventors?

 

If a couple kids wonder who he was, look him up, and go into STEM, I suspect he’d approve.

1 hour ago, LibertyBlvd said:

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2021/11/opportunity-corridor-still-closed-at-i-490-on-day-of-scheduled-opening.html

 

Well, now they have changed this article to a "subscriber exclusive".  But it looks like it will open gradually starting at 7:00 pm tonight.

^ Hilarious that they make what is essentially an ODOT press release an ‘exclusive’

Well 7pm was a lie. Still closed at 9pm on the highway and at Kinsman Ave. 

27 minutes ago, KFM44107 said:

Well 7pm was a lie. Still closed at 9pm on the highway and at Kinsman Ave. 

This sounds like the signaling was left to the CIty of Cleveland streets department, who probably waited until 9 am this morning to start the project.... 

I tried driving the opportunity quarter really in the opportunity quarter earlier this evening about 9 o'clock and it was not open.

 

 

I might give it a try tomorrow. Headed east for a get together.

Edited November 13, 20213 yr by mu2010

It appeared open now. Drove by it a few times tonight. 

I'll be heading to Sagamore Hills at some point today, maybe I'll take 77 instead of 271.   Ironically I did wear an old CWRU hoodie to work today.

 

Bummer. He deleted the tweet. He had some nice pics.

No problem. Here's an image of one of the first motorists. But seriously, congrats to all involved for getting this roadway opened. 

Finally got done with work. I took it home. Trees are in. Shaved eight minutes off my commute. 

Edited November 13, 20213 yr by KFM44107

3 hours ago, KFM44107 said:

Finally got done with work. I took it home. Trees are in. Shaved eight minutes off my commute. 

Did it feel more like the Westside Shoreway or more like Clifton / Lake Shore Blvd?  

Were people speeding or was it calm driving?

I hope the first traffic stop just east of E 55th doesn't become a high accident area due to eastbound motorists thinking it is a highway. Are there rumble strips and/or flashing lights on the approach?

I went from MLK and took it down to 55th.   Still very light traffic so no way of knowing how people are going to drive it.   Or how it's going to be when there is development on it between 55th and 93rd.   

 

At least that area is empty, not blighted, for the most part.   Still a lot of excavation going on beside the road.

 

Seemed to be a very well designed road.   I would have absolutely loved it back in my CWRU days.

 

I was going west, there is a left turn to get on 55th.  Going straight takes you right to 490 with the exit to 77 on the right.   If I remember right there is an odd bend to get on past 55th.    I doubt I will hit it eastbound tonight, my brother and sister in law's band is playing at Cebar's and I'd like to get up there.

 

They are going to have to re-time the lights at MLK and 105th and 105th and Euclid, they backed up badly and seemed interminably long at 11:30am on a Saturday.   Once on the OC itself they seemed quite well timed.

I went this morning as well. Can't add a ton to the discussion but it was a nice drive and I'm excited for the development potential on 75th and 79th.

 

It's still not on Google maps, i wonder how long that'll take. I also wonder how long until people who don't pay attention to this stuff at all will discover that there's a new route.

Had to get something from Steelyard Home Depot. Used Waze to see if it would take me using it from CH and it did. Here’s a time lapse of the way back. 

Edited November 13, 20213 yr by smith

Drove it this morning, just because. Kids got a kick out of following along on GoogleMaps as we drove though back yards and the middle of old factories. 

1 hour ago, mu2010 said:

I went this morning as well. Can't add a ton to the discussion but it was a nice drive and I'm excited for the development potential on 75th and 79th.

 

It's still not on Google maps, i wonder how long that'll take. I also wonder how long until people who don't pay attention to this stuff at all will discover that there's a new route.

 

Ironically, once I got down here, Ardyn's aunt was on the phone with a friend who was trying to figure out the best way to get from Westlake to an event around 74th and Kinsman.   I tried to explain that "as of today" there was a much quicker and better way than before, but she didn't want to give them a route that wasn't on GM.

3 hours ago, punch said:

Did it feel more like the Westside Shoreway or more like Clifton / Lake Shore Blvd?  

Were people speeding or was it calm driving?

I only took it's from Kinsman but in that small frame it felt way more like Clifton. 

1 hour ago, smith said:

 

IMG_5297.MOV 42.47 MB · 6 downloads

Had to get something from Steelyard Home Depot. Used Waze to see if it would take me using it from CH and it did. Here’s a time lapse of the way back. 

That was cool, thanks! Looks better and a lot less freeway-like than I was expecting

3 hours ago, mu2010 said:

It's still not on Google maps, i wonder how long that'll take. I also wonder how long until people who don't pay attention to this stuff at all will discover that there's a new route.

 

Like @smithmentioned, Waze is including Opportunity Corridor in routes as of today, and I know yesterday it was showing up in Waze's maps but not routing...but in addition I saw an ODOT sign around noon on the Jennings Freeway by Steelyard announcing that Opportunity Corridor was now open, so that will get the word out some as well.

Edited November 14, 20213 yr by infrafreak
specified time of day

On 11/12/2021 at 2:37 PM, freefourur said:

It's too bad the signs don't say Garrett Morgan Parkway. 

 

 

this is a good idea --  is this officially going to happen?

13 hours ago, mrnyc said:

 

 

this is a good idea --  is this officially going to happen?

 

Not yet, but I'm trying to stir up support on social media for it. Let's all do our part!

24 minutes ago, KJP said:

 

Not yet, but I'm trying to stir up support on social media for it. Let's all do our part!

They really should've thought about the name of the street during construction.  Opportunity Corridor is so generic. 

Cleveland seems to be fond of naming roads, bridges, public buildings for local politicians. I have a feeling that will be the case again here.

2 hours ago, freefourur said:

They really should've thought about the name of the street during construction.  Opportunity Corridor is so generic. 

 

It's more than just generic, it's totally cringe. I can't believe the brain geniuses in city/state government just hung onto the marketing name. 

I've added #GarrettMorganParkway and #GarrettMorganBoulevard as twitter hashtags.   I like the latter after having driven it.

3 hours ago, LibertyBlvd said:

Cleveland seems to be fond of naming roads, bridges, public buildings for local politicians. I have a feeling that will be the case again here.

At least they're not calling it the Opportunity District. God knows the city has a fetish for that word.

Edited November 14, 20213 yr by TBideon

5 hours ago, TBideon said:

At least they're not calling it the Opportunity District. God knows the city has a fetish for that word.

 

Considering that they were once going to name a part of Cedar after Donald King, maybe we should just be glad they aren't naming it after his old boss Shondor.

59 minutes ago, E Rocc said:

 

Considering that they were once going to name a part of Cedar after Donald King, maybe we should just be glad they aren't naming it after his old boss Shondor.

John Scalish Avenue.

I am impressed by the new road. Unlike the West Shoreway, it feels as if it has truly been designed to be driven at 35 or 40 mph. If you are coming from the west, there is a stepdown from the freeway, so it makes the transition to lower speeds less sudden. In the transitional area, there are no sidewalks or bike paths, but the road has clearly changed from a freeway into something else. When you get past the transitional area, there is a sidewalk on one side and the multi-use path on the other. It really seems like a street, and I noticed that the Quincy/105 rapid station has a grand presence. If you come into Cleveland on 71 and go through to University Circle, you really get to see a compendium of Cleveland places--the modern prosperous city, the intense industrial areas, the desolate zones, everything.

 

I completely agree that it should be named Garrett Morgan Something. I think street would be better than boulevard or parkway, because then it would really be unique. I was surprised to see that it is a part of SR 10, so I would also like it to be referred to as The 10, as if we were in LA, Toronto, or Buffalo.

 

I agree that the name Opportunity Corridor is embarrassingly bad. I remember in the early planning stages it was referred to as UCAB, the University Circle Access Boulevard, which was a more honest and yet fully defensible description of what the street really is.

live in tremont and made it to Shaker Square in like ten min.

 

I was thinking they should rename the  northern stretch of buckeye to Shaker Blvd and give it the the big grass median to add continuity and streamline the path to shaker square from opportunity corridor. 

8 hours ago, Whipjacka said:

live in tremont and made it to Shaker Square in like ten min.

 

 

And with that, the Rapid has lost its edge.

2 hours ago, KJP said:

 

And with that, the Rapid has lost its edge.

How was one going to get from Tremont to Shaker Square on the Rapid before? Even if one was in OC near WSM, it still requires a train change.

1 hour ago, Boomerang_Brian said:

How was one going to get from Tremont to Shaker Square on the Rapid before? Even if one was in OC near WSM, it still requires and train change. 

OMG -- change trains?  Makes you wonder how people get around in London, NYC, Tokyo rail systems.

According to Google Maps, even without the opportunity corridor, driving was still twice as fast (starting at WSM). So not really an edge, but I think a lot of people are willing to exchange 2x time for the convenience of public transport (for short distances). I don't think the same can be said for 3x time though, so if the opportunity corridor shaves enough time off the commute, it's conceivable that RTA could lose some traffic as a result.  

1 hour ago, Foraker said:

OMG -- change trains?  Makes you wonder how people get around in London, NYC, Tokyo rail systems.

My issue is not with changing trains, it's with the time from getting off one train and waiting for the next. Oftentimes its a minimum of 15 minutes on a good day, which is rare for the rapid. In the cities you mentioned, trains are coming along every couple of minutes or more. So, not really a great comparison. 

Let's be honest, and more on topic, Cleveland is an auto-centric community that happens to still have the bones of a solid transit system. If the hundreds of millions spent on this corridor was spent on the rapid, and every other highway widening project around, we might be able to move about the city like they do in NYC and the like.

Semi unrelated so move this comment if need be but for the first time in my life there actual highway backup during rush hours at West 44th St. From 90 west. I've noticed this phenomena for about five months or less. I wonder if we will see more as more jobs locate on near west side and with all the hospital job nightshifters taking OC back home now. 

6 minutes ago, KFM44107 said:

Semi unrelated so move this comment if need be but for the first time in my life there actual highway backup during rush hours at West 44th St. From 90 west. I've noticed this phenomena for about five months or less. I wonder if we will see more as more jobs locate on near west side and with all the hospital job nightshifters taking OC back home now. 

Isn't there some road construction on 44th? 

2 minutes ago, freefourur said:

Isn't there some road construction on 44th? 

Sorry. The exit is 41st. There is construction on 44th but you can only access 44th directly from 90 east. On top of that that construction has been going on forever. 

2 hours ago, STRIVE2THRIVE said:

My issue is not with changing trains, it's with the time from getting off one train and waiting for the next. Oftentimes its a minimum of 15 minutes on a good day, which is rare for the rapid. In the cities you mentioned, trains are coming along every couple of minutes or more. So, not really a great comparison. 

Let's be honest, and more on topic, Cleveland is an auto-centric community that happens to still have the bones of a solid transit system. If the hundreds of millions spent on this corridor was spent on the rapid, and every other highway widening project around, we might be able to move about the city like they do in NYC and the like.

 

 

which leads to -- what does rta have planned for the oc? anyone know? i imagine one express type bus route at least to start?

19 hours ago, mrnyc said:

 

 

which leads to -- what does rta have planned for the oc? anyone know? i imagine one express type bus route at least to start?

I don't think RTA has any plans to put service on the OCB. For comparison, it doesn't have any service on Chester. On the other hand, there are several RTA train stations on or in proximity to the new road.