TransitCenter analysis: Most city dwellers are near transit, but few are near good transit

 

http://www.streetsblog.net/2016/06/10/many-americans-live-near-transit-but-few-live-close-to-good-transit/

 

Wow Columbus needs to do much better. We do as well but they just completely surprised me.

 

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

 

 

Some friends and I are going downtown tonight for the game, but since there is an Indians game today as well, we were thinking of riding the redline. However, I've heard stories of how crowded the red line gets on gamedays, especially the tower city station. Should we try and find a parking spot or take the rapid?

Some friends and I are going downtown tonight for the game, but since there is an Indians game today as well, we were thinking of riding the redline. However, I've heard stories of how crowded the red line gets on gamedays, especially the tower city station. Should we try and find a parking spot or take the rapid?

 

Take the Rapid. Give it a try.

^^ Absolutely take the Rapid.  Driving downtown tonight will be foolhardy.  The City and the cops have already said parking will be limited and security will be high.

 

I hope RTA is up to the task because it's going to be a madhouse tonight either way.  They need to run extra trains/cars regardless.  And if we win, RTA should be prepared to run trains all night because people will party till daybreak downtown.  Tonight, RTA is as much on the spot as the Cavs. 

^^ Absolutely take the Rapid.  Driving downtown tonight will be foolhardy.  The City and the cops have already said parking will be limited and security will be high.

 

I hope RTA is up to the task because it's going to be a madhouse tonight either way.  They need to run extra trains/cars regardless.  And if we win, RTA should be prepared to run trains all night because people will party till daybreak downtown.  Tonight, RTA is as much on the spot as the Cavs. 

 

Was thinking the same thing. They should run all night if the Cavs win...I'm still on the fence about going downtown, but if I do, I would take the Green Line, but I really want to know how late the trains will be running.

RTA have confirmed via Twitter that it's a regular service schedule today...

^^ Absolutely take the Rapid.  Driving downtown tonight will be foolhardy.  The City and the cops have already said parking will be limited and security will be high.

 

I hope RTA is up to the task because it's going to be a madhouse tonight either way.  They need to run extra trains/cars regardless.  And if we win, RTA should be prepared to run trains all night because people will party till daybreak downtown.  Tonight, RTA is as much on the spot as the Cavs. 

 

Was thinking the same thing. They should run all night if the Cavs win...I'm still on the fence about going downtown, but if I do, I would take the Green Line, but I really want to know how late the trains will be running.

 

This is endemic of RTA's communications problems.  They should have planned for this and publicly come out said just that: if the Cavs win, the Rapids will run all night.  Short of overtime (which my heart couldn't take), the game will end around 11p and you can bet, if (when?) we win, many, many people will actually be going into downtown at that hour to party.  RTA's normal 90-minutes after the game rule just won't cut it tonight. 

This is endemic of RTA's communications problems.  They should have planned for this and publicly come out said just that: if the Cavs win, the Rapids will run all night.  Short of overtime (which my heart couldn't take), the game will end around 11p and you can bet, if (when?) we win, many, many people will actually be going into downtown at that hour to party.  RTA's normal 90-minutes after the game rule just won't cut it tonight. 

 

Sadly, we no longer have a big-city transit system.

What the crap.  So depressing and embarrassing.

 

https://m.reddit.com/r/Cleveland/comments/4otlle/psa_rta_is_not_extending_rapid_hours_tonight_plan?utm_source=mweb_redirect&compact=true

What the crap.  So depressing and embarrassing.

 

https://m.reddit.com/r/Cleveland/comments/4otlle/psa_rta_is_not_extending_rapid_hours_tonight_plan?utm_source=mweb_redirect&compact=true

 

I hope RTA doesn't pull the artics off the 26 (or 22) early this evening like they normally do.  I did see an artic on the 26 at 10:30pm last night so hopefully they'll be kept on both lines all night (if we win).

What the crap.  So depressing and embarrassing.

 

https://m.reddit.com/r/Cleveland/comments/4otlle/psa_rta_is_not_extending_rapid_hours_tonight_plan?utm_source=mweb_redirect&compact=true

 

Once again, Joe Calabrese giving the public the Finger.

What the crap.  So depressing and embarrassing.

 

https://m.reddit.com/r/Cleveland/comments/4otlle/psa_rta_is_not_extending_rapid_hours_tonight_plan?utm_source=mweb_redirect&compact=true

 

Once again, Joe Calabrese giving the public the Finger.

 

Major F-up.  There were groups of people waiting for the 77 in Brecksville before the game.

 

Uber people probably made a fortune.  I wish I had thought of that earlier....

 

Could it be the unions who said no to the RTA?

The Rapid was jam packed going to downtown/Ohio City, but not crowded at all going home to Shaker. We left right after the game ended, hoping to beat the crowd, but we had fairly empty cars. There was 2 trains queued for the Blue/Green line and if they stopped running by midnight, then a lot of people were stranded.

 

I was too tired to Uber people around but what a killing I could have made on surge pricing...

I took the red line to Ohio City yesterday.  I got on at the Cedar/University Circle stop and BOTH of the pay machines were out of service!  So I just got on the train with my friends and a lot of other fans.  Most people got off at Tower City so I assume they had to pay before going through there, but I got off at W 25th and we never paid.  I mean I would have, had the pay machines actually be working!!

Crazy to think how much money RTA could have made last night.

If you were going to downtown, you had to pay before leaving - and those machines there were working. We were looking for a machine at Shaker and found none, so we had to go to Dave's for tickets.

Crazy to think how much money RTA could have made last night.

 

Because RTA fares are artificially low, the more passengers RTA carries, the more money they lose -- especially when they have to offer extra service. If the added ridership can be carried without adding more service, then they lose less money. But they still lose money.

RTA has just posted regarding its service tomorrow to the Cavs parade and celebration downtown: 

 

http://www.riderta.com/cavsparade

 

Some are expecting 1 million, or more, people downtown and all hotels downtown and nearby are booked solid.  Many downtown streets will be closed and, essentially, cars will be limited to downtown's perimeter.  The east bus terminal for all downtown bound buses is E. 12 between St. Clair and Superior... a healthy distance from Public Square.  People would be very, very, very foolish to drive to this celebration.  The Rapid is clearly the best way to go.  That said, tomorrow RTA will be taxed and tested as never before.  I sure hope they're up to the task because the transit system could/should be very valuable.

RTA has just posted regarding its service tomorrow to the Cavs parade and celebration downtown: 

 

http://www.riderta.com/cavsparade

 

Some are expecting 1 million, or more, people downtown and all hotels downtown and nearby are booked solid.  Many downtown streets will be closed and, essentially, cars will be limited to downtown's perimeter.  The east bus terminal for all downtown bound buses is E. 12 between St. Clair and Superior... a healthy distance from Public Square.  People would be very, very, very foolish to drive to this celebration.  The Rapid is clearly the best way to go.  That said, tomorrow RTA will be taxed and tested as never before.  I sure hope they're up to the task because the transit system could/should be very valuable.

 

I'm getting up at 5AM and taking the Rapid from Hopkins. I worry as we get into the later morning hours the system will have issues. I'm used to riding the Metro here in DC and it's continual problems rise exponentially when there is a special event. Hopefully RTA can outperform WMATA.

 

If we decide take the bus from up Ridge from Parma will routes end at Ohio City due to the street closures or will they cross into downtown and go to PS?

^ That's not a very high bar these days. Our trains and tracks at least don't regularly catch on fire.

I'm almost frightened to think about RTA tomorrow.  We've heard the system barely has enough rail cars, esp LRT cars, to run regular weekday service.  St. Patrick's Day is already a strain on the system.  Well tomorrow's going to be like St. Paddy's day on steroids... The best I've heard from RTA is that trains will operate every 10 minutes.  Do they have enough to run the 3-car trains needed to handle the crush at that frequency?  We're about to find out.

RTA will be able to provide 3-car trains on the Red Line. They have enough train cars. Not sure about the Green/Blue lines offering enough trains, or A-C units on all of those Red/Blue/Green line trains though....

 

RTA bus routes will terminate on the western and eastern ends of downtown tomorrow....

 

A coworker sent this to me. It's the line outside of the Puritas station at 6am

 

All the lots are full.

Finding a bus stop was probably the better strategic option I wonder.

Or parking near an east side Red Line or HealthLine station. Or just driving to an inner neighborhood, parking on the street, and walking a couple miles.

 

The pics on Twitter of the long lines are nuts. Even at the airport station, which, apparently, ran out of fare cards so is letting people in for free (displacing paying customers further down the line). Having enough fare cards should be the one thing under RTA's control...

All the bus stops along Clifton for the 55 had at least 20 people waiting, and the buses looked already full

It's amazing to me how people are so outraged for the one or two times a year they use RTA for a huge event. This may be a good time for a huge campaign for better transit funding since it's fresh in people's minds.

^ Agreed.

 

http://clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2016/06/22/rta-is-using-todays-championship-parade-craziness-to-remind-northeast-ohio-that-its-underfunded

It's amazing to me how people are so outraged for the one or two times a year they use RTA for a huge event. This may be a good time for a huge campaign for better transit funding since it's fresh in people's minds.

 

Agree. But we can't wait on "leadership" to make this campaign, because it's just not there. This needs to be a grass-roots effort. At least initially.

^ Agreed.

 

http://clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2016/06/22/rta-is-using-todays-championship-parade-craziness-to-remind-northeast-ohio-that-its-underfunded

 

And the infrequent riders are reminding RTA that they prefer trains to buses.

 

http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2016/06/22/the-rapid-is-nuts-right-now-consider-the-bus

Bus shelter supposedly collapsed, with injuries.  People undoubtedly sitting on it.

I just got back from downtown.  Unfortunately was not able to use RTA either way.  I shelled out $60+ in ubers, but it was worth the convenience. 

 

I was also at two Red Line stations and never saw the employees they claimed would be selling passes.  I'm sure they ran away seeing the barrage of people heading their way. 

 

I know RTA is saying there is nothing they could do, but I wonder how many train cars on the Red Line sat idle, how many buses stayed parked and how many workers sat at home rather than paying them overtime.    This was a perfect chance to step up and show what heavy transit can do.  Instead they pi$$ed off hundreds of thousands in the burbs, who will continue to vote against any funding.

 

All RTA trains that could be put into service were put into service. That means running 1-car trains every 15 minutes on the Blue & Green lines.

 

However I saw #55 Clifton buses returning to the Triskett garage at 9-9:30 am as they usually do at the end of morning rush hour when 10-minute frequencies decrease to 30-minute frequencies. But this wasn't a usual day. There were still 10-40 people waiting at each bus stop along Clifton at 9:30am. Several jammed-full buses had already passed by when my friend and I gave up and called Lyft. We arrived downtown 15 minutes later.

 

I realize RTA can't afford to pay its drivers overtime to continue rush hour bus service after 9:30am. But it's not a good look to have buses coming out of service when so many people are being left at the curb. Perhaps RTA could have done some preemptive PR and informed the public what it can and cannot do and why. An informed consumer can be a powerful ally to RTA.

While I can't speak to the Clifton Line, there was a lot of unscheduled overtime via special shuttles to alleviate the overflowing Rapid Stations on the west side. There may have been 10-40 people on Clifton, but there were hundreds if not thousands of people still waiting at the rapid stations at 9:30 AM (lines started at 4 AM), forming lines so long they wrapped into the neighborhoods.

 

A lot of men and women worked long hours though unpleasant conditions to do their best attempt to alleviate the demand of 1 million + people all trying to cram into Downtown in the middle of a parade.

 

Its not that there was nothing RTA can do, RTA did everything they could do, but there would never have been enough rolling stock, operators, or fare sale personnel to satiate the crowds we saw today. Unfortunately, you cant maintain the capital assets and labor assets to serve this once in 52 years crowd. Not at current ridership levels, and not at current land use patterns.

I waited three and a half hours at the Green Road station for a train, which is fine, but two things really get my blood boiling:

 

1) Why would the RTA knowingly promote their service for yesterday knowing they couldn't handle that capacity?

 

2) Why don't county residents, who pay taxes to fund the system, get a fare discount?

 

I'm not happy, but I feel the worst for people who rely on the Rapid year round, who got bumped yesterday for people that don't even live in Cleveland or Cuyahoga County.

I'm not happy, but I feel the worst for people who rely on the Rapid year round, who got bumped yesterday for people that don't even live in Cleveland or Cuyahoga County.

 

True.  And how many were downtown based city employees that Jackson, while grandly proclaiming a "city holiday", declined to excuse from work?

I waited three and a half hours at the Green Road station for a train, which is fine, but two things really get my blood boiling:

 

1) Why would the RTA knowingly promote their service for yesterday knowing they couldn't handle that capacity?

 

2) Why don't county residents, who pay taxes to fund the system, get a fare discount?

 

I'm not happy, but I feel the worst for people who rely on the Rapid year round, who got bumped yesterday for people that don't even live in Cleveland or Cuyahoga County.

 

I feel bad but it was one day. Now county residents need a discount? How about a wristband that denotes you live in Cuyahoga County so you get to go the front of the line. Or a placard over every station that says for Cuyahoga County residents only. Greater Clevelanders have a tendency to telegraph that "no outsiders allowed" mentality when things get hectic and it's caused by people coming from out of town. It's not a good look.

 

These problems even happen in annual events like the Macy's Day Parade. I had to drive out of Manhattan during the last one to go to DC. Ended up going all the way out to the Outerbridge Crossing to get into New Jersey. People were stuck on the all the subway lines trying to get out. Same with PATH, MetroNorth and LIRR. Nobody was saying New Yorkers first and, yes, people work on Thanksgiving.

 

 

I feel bad but it was one day. Now county residents need a discount? How about a wristband that denotes you live in Cuyahoga County so you get to go the front of the line. Or a placard over every station that says for Cuyahoga County residents only. Greater Clevelanders have a tendency to telegraph that "no outsiders allowed" mentality when things get hectic and it's caused by people coming from out of town. It's not a good look.

 

These problems even happen in annual events like the Macy's Day Parade. I had to drive out of Manhattan during the last one to go to DC. Ended up going all the way out to the Outerbridge Crossing to get into New Jersey. People were stuck on the all the subway lines trying to get out. Same with PATH, MetroNorth and LIRR. Nobody was saying New Yorkers first and, yes, people work on Thanksgiving.

 

I do think we should probably get a discount, especially on days like yesterday, because we're the people paying for the damn thing! Especially when they constantly point out that fares only cover something like 20% of operating costs. If they need more funding like they claim they do, maybe we need to start by asking residents from rest of the seven county area to start chipping in. Don't ask Cuyahoga County residents to subsidize rides for other people on big event days while we get bumped. Sorry if it sounds petty, but I use the Rapid at least a dozen times a year, not just for big events. They were begging people to use it yesterday and then they couldn't handle the crowds.

I waited three and a half hours at the Green Road station for a train, which is fine, but two things really get my blood boiling:

 

1) Why would the RTA knowingly promote their service for yesterday knowing they couldn't handle that capacity?

 

2) Why don't county residents, who pay taxes to fund the system, get a fare discount?

 

I'm not happy, but I feel the worst for people who rely on the Rapid year round, who got bumped yesterday for people that don't even live in Cleveland or Cuyahoga County.

 

I feel bad but it was one day. Now county residents need a discount? How about a wristband that denotes you live in Cuyahoga County so you get to go the front of the line. Or a placard over every station that says for Cuyahoga County residents only. Greater Clevelanders have a tendency to telegraph that "no outsiders allowed" mentality when things get hectic and it's caused by people coming from out of town. It's not a good look.

 

These problems even happen in annual events like the Macy's Day Parade. I had to drive out of Manhattan during the last one to go to DC. Ended up going all the way out to the Outerbridge Crossing to get into New Jersey. People were stuck on the all the subway lines trying to get out. Same with PATH, MetroNorth and LIRR. Nobody was saying New Yorkers first and, yes, people work on Thanksgiving.

 

RTA was absolutely atrocious yesterday, and I'm not prone to give them a bye.  Yes, RTA like the City and everybody else had to act on the fly from the time the Cavs won the title Sunday night until Wednesday, but RTA could have done waaaaaay better than they did.

 

We knew better than deal with the Green line, which we live closer to, because of the heavy end-of-the-line train packing which leaves us on the outside.  So we drove Warransville over to Van Aken.... When we got to Farnsleigh at about 9a, there was an amazing, massive line of people wrapped around the now almost empty Van Aken shopping center.  When we drove down Farnsliegh to Van Aken, the crowds got worse and were duplicated as we drove down Van Aken.  We drove all the way to Shaker Square... same thing.  It was so bad that, when we looped over through Shaker Town Center on Chagrin, crowds were leaving Rapid stops and were crowded around 14 Kinsman bus stops; folks were telling us that Rapids were going by not stopping.  Some people decided to Uber into town; others simply went home to watch on TV.

 

Back on Van Aken, there was 1 constant: no trains... until finally, amazingly, we saw a 1-car train and our jaws dropped.... Why?  Regardless of the day, RTA runs 3-car trains on Blue/Green for every St. Patrick's day which, we know now, was a mere shadow of yesterday's 1.2 million (at last count).  For Sunday Browns games they run, at least, 2-car Rapids; often 3.  Fortunately, since we went home and saw on TV that the parade was being delayed due to the crowds on E. 9th, we decided to wait until 12:30p to ride in... It worked; the crowds died down and the 1-car trains were still crowded, but we got down, caught the tail end of the parade, watched the entire rally and then, unfortunately, caught within a few feet of the shooting outside Tower City (more on that another time)....

 

I'm sorry, but I've had it with the excuses.  This is a poorly run system that is hiding behind unions and costs.  RTA encouraged people to use the Rapid and, yet, they got this crap. 

 

Joe Calabrese continues to whisper about the inadequacy of State funds, which are absurdly tiny.  Local pols and transit advocates need to be raising a humongous stink about this.  We just seem to be trapped in this loop that nobody can fix... It's really that nobody really WANTS to fix it; at least, they don't want to enough.  We know how we got their: the combination of transit disinterest not willing to deal with good old conservative, regressive Republican politics. 

 

Regarding the disappearing LRT trains due to age and lack of parts, Calabrese reacts by saying everything is cool and attacks Ken/AAO for needlessly spreading panic... and we get yesterday.  Cleveland still has a very good transit system.  We have a rail system that many mid-sized cities would love to have and yet, we don't even seem interested enough to keep running.  Somebody's got to stand up, or we won't have a viable transit system much longer.

 

I am a frequent park-and-ride passenger on the Red and Green lines, and yesterday I knew that RTA would be a better bet than driving from Cleveland Heights to Ohio City. I had to park at Superior instead of Windermere and, on the way home, had a long wait for an eastbound train. The trains were much more crowded than usual. I think RTA did a good job of moving people around, especially considering that buses could not even travel on downtown streets and that a majority of the day's passengers were people who were not frequent transit users.

 

All the RTA staff I came in contact with were friendly and made a point of thanking people for their patience. I also got the impression RTA was continuously assessing how to deploy its strained resources throughout the day. For example, I tried to beat the system by walking to W. 65th St. to catch the eastbound train for my trip home, because I knew there would be no crowds waiting there. When I got on the train, though, the operator said she didn't know if she would go through to Windermere or be turned around at Tower City to help with the crush of passengers headed west. Ultimately, the train was turned around at Tower City and my wait there for a through train to the east side was the only unpleasant part of my travels yesterday.

 

My RTA experience yesterday, which was not so bad, made me appreciate how pleasant and uneventful my RTA experience is on most days.

 

The whole event of yesterday was something I had never experienced in the 20 years I have lived in Cleveland. It was a huge crowd downtown, and it seemed like all of Greater Cleveland was represented. It was not a drunken mess like St. Patrick's Day. It would be great if we could tap more continuously into the regional unity that we have indulged in over the past week.

 

 

While I can't speak to the Clifton Line, there was a lot of unscheduled overtime via special shuttles to alleviate the overflowing Rapid Stations on the west side. There may have been 10-40 people on Clifton, but there were hundreds if not thousands of people still waiting at the rapid stations at 9:30 AM (lines started at 4 AM), forming lines so long they wrapped into the neighborhoods.

 

Let me rephrase that a little more clearly... There were 10-40 people waiting AT EACH STOP. Along the #55's route across Lakewood and Cleveland's Edgewater neighborhood, there are 24 stops. That works out to 240 to 960 people waiting to get onto buses that can carry only 70 passengers seated/standing and running every 30 minutes at that point. Thus it would take up to 2.5 hours to get all those people onto buses -- assuming no other passengers showed up to get in line.

 

My purpose of stating this isn't to get into a hardship competition with you. Instead, it is to reveal that the hardship wasn't limited to the rail lines.

All RTA trains that could be put into service were put into service. That means running 1-car trains every 15 minutes on the Blue & Green lines.

 

However I saw #55 Clifton buses returning to the Triskett garage at 9-9:30 am as they usually do at the end of morning rush hour when 10-minute frequencies decrease to 30-minute frequencies. But this wasn't a usual day. There were still 10-40 people waiting at each bus stop along Clifton at 9:30am. Several jammed-full buses had already passed by when my friend and I gave up and called Lyft. We arrived downtown 15 minutes later.

 

I realize RTA can't afford to pay its drivers overtime to continue rush hour bus service after 9:30am. But it's not a good look to have buses coming out of service when so many people are being left at the curb. Perhaps RTA could have done some preemptive PR and informed the public what it can and cannot do and why. An informed consumer can be a powerful ally to RTA.

 

And the "informed consumers," at least from my sampling of coworkers and friends, chose to ignore the advice to "Ride RTA" and drove their own cars downtown.  The ones that go their frequently and are saavy enough to know where to park (not the Gateway sports crowd who only know one exit), said they had no issues at all.  Zipped downtown, found a space, and were back home right after since traffic wasn't all that bad. 

 

I find it reprehensible that RTA actively pitched their services without pulling out all the stops, then when it turned into a disaster chose to point the finger the other way.   

^I get the impression that the Red Line was handled better than the Blue and Green Lines, even though I did hear some grumbling from West Side riders.  I saw mostly the usual 2-car Red Line trains, but there were a few 3-car trains I saw later that day. 

 

Btw, after Tower City was shut down after the shooting, we drifted around and eventually went over to E. 4th to eat.  We then, in the evening, went over to TC and caught the Waterfront Line down to FEB, which was busy with people... But, as usual, the WFL train was empty save 1 other couple who was staying in the Aloft Hotel.  When I asked them 'why' they were taking the WFL I got the usual response (I frequently ask the few WFL riders this question) the male said, "It's so convenient; only 5 minutes and puts you right there."  I guess unlike so many UOers, notably PHS14, the few minutes wait for a train down/uphill from the Flats beats zig-zag walking through the WHD then waiting at a crosswalk to cross river-wide Superior, etc...

 

I wish more UOers would use the WFL since posters here are more transit wise.

Let me rephrase that a little more clearly... There were 10-40 people waiting AT EACH STOP. Along the #55's route across Lakewood and Cleveland's Edgewater neighborhood, there are 24 stops. That works out to 240 to 960 people waiting to get onto buses that can carry only 70 passengers seated/standing and running every 30 minutes at that point. Thus it would take up to 2.5 hours to get all those people onto buses -- assuming no other passengers showed up to get in line.

 

My purpose of stating this isn't to get into a hardship competition with you. Instead, it is to reveal that the hardship wasn't limited to the rail lines.

 

Thats fair, as you say, all service was affected yesterday. However the decisions made yesterday was to relive passenger congestion at its worst points. Even at your highest estimate for all of the Clifton line, it is still only equal to maybe one of the 9 west side rapid stations, of which at least 6 were heavily affected. Resources had to be allocated, they chose to allocate them where that had the largest impact.

When we got to Farnsleigh at about 9a

 

Boarding a train at 9AM for an 11AM start super parade is like showing up at the airport 25 minutes before an international departure with 5 pieces of luggage and expecting to get on without an issue.

 

We were up at 5AM and lucky enough to have a drop-off ride downtown. When we did Macys we were up at 4AM and we had a hotel on 7th Av.

 

Not saying RTA couldn't have handled things better but it was clear this would be huge event when people started taking spots the night before.

 

People needed to be on the first bus or train out even if it meant getting up at an ungodly hour. Until we got the ride we were going to get up at 4AM to get the first bus off of Ridge. And we didn't arrive in Cleveland until Midnight the night before.

Joe Calabrese continues to whisper about the inadequacy of State funds, which are absurdly tiny.  Local pols and transit advocates need to be raising a humongous stink about this.  We just seem to be trapped in this loop that nobody can fix... It's really that nobody really WANTS to fix it; at least, they don't want to enough.  We know how we got their: the combination of transit disinterest not willing to deal with good old conservative, regressive Republican politics. 

 

And here is where some of my anger stems. Many of the same people living way out in outer-ring suburbs, ride the train on days like yesterday yet don't pay to fund the system. These same people tend to vote for politicians that support throwing money at highway projects over public transportation. That's why I would strongly support raising rates across the board on the busiest days (except for people that have prepaid for passes well in advance and use the system all the time), or just raising rates on non-residents on busy days. If nothing else, let the laws of supply and demand do their magic on days when everyone wants to be downtown. Raising rates could mean funding for more staff on those days to then maybe allow them to put more trains on the tracks.

It is not true that only Cuyahoga County residents fund RTA. Its main funding source is a dedicated one-percent sales tax, which is paid by anyone, regardless of where they live, who buys any taxable goods or services in Cuyahoga County.

Joe Calabrese continues to whisper about the inadequacy of State funds, which are absurdly tiny.  Local pols and transit advocates need to be raising a humongous stink about this.  We just seem to be trapped in this loop that nobody can fix... It's really that nobody really WANTS to fix it; at least, they don't want to enough.  We know how we got their: the combination of transit disinterest not willing to deal with good old conservative, regressive Republican politics. 

 

And here is where some of my anger stems. Many of the same people living way out in outer-ring suburbs, ride the train on days like yesterday yet don't pay to fund the system. These same people tend to vote for politicians that support throwing money at highway projects over public transportation. That's why I would strongly support raising rates across the board on the busiest days (except for people that have prepaid for passes well in advance and use the system all the time), or just raising rates on non-residents on busy days. If nothing else, let the laws of supply and demand do their magic on days when everyone wants to be downtown. Raising rates could mean funding for more staff on those days to then maybe allow them to put more trains on the tracks.

 

You know, Uber does it.

 

Perhaps they could up the price for daily passes on certain days, with the monthly passes still working and still costing the same.

^That's an interesting idea. You could also allow the regular 5-trip cards. All the people buying one-way and day passes from RTA personnel during crazy peak periods impose a real cost on RTA, so there's a real logic to it.