No they are into BRT.

 

Randall O'Toole and the like always propose BRT as an alternative to rail, but oppose any BRT proposal that is not competing with a rail proposal (Nashville, Indianapolis).  Well now he's got another trick -- suggesting that cities should abandon their rapid transit lines for BRT.  You can't make this stuff up.

 

Randal O’Toole

Cato Institute senior fellow

 

I love trains, and the first time I stepped into a Washington Metro station in 1977, it was like entering Stanley Kubrick’s 2001. Today, it’s like entering Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner.

 

The problem is that rail lines are expensive to build and even more expensive to maintain, especially after they reach 30 years of age. The federal government paid most of the cost of building Metrorail and local governments pay the subsidies required to operate it, but funds to rehabilitate the lines that are over 30 years old are sorely lacking, so the system is falling apart.

 

Rather than assist with rehabilitation, the federal government has a slush fund dedicated to new rail construction. This enticed the region to build the Silver and Purple lines, when the matching funds required to build those lines should have been spent rehabilitating Metrorail instead. One way the region can solve the problem is to kill the Purple Line and stop construction on the Silver Line and rededicate those funds to the existing system.

 

WMATA may also have to accept the painful reality that rail was probably the wrong choice for D.C. in the first place. Rail transit is both expensive and inflexible, while Curitiba, Brazil has shown that a well-designed bus corridor can actually move more people per hour than WMATA’s eight-car trains. Rather than rehabilitate the existing lines that are falling apart, WMATA should consider replacing them with bus-rapid transit lines.

 

Over the next ten years, shared, self-driving cars are going to replace most transit. WMATA’s cost of moving one passenger one mile by rail is more than twice as expensive as moving them by automobile today, and Uber (which recently hired 40 self-driving car engineers) has promised that its shared, self-driving cars will cost less than owning a car.

 

This means transit won’t be able to compete with self-driving car sharing. Until this becomes a reality, WMATA and other transit agencies should focus on low-cost bus service rather than expensive and clunky rail systems.

 

 

 

Eric Jaffe, who writes for CityLab always criticizes streetcars but talks glowingly of BRT and efforts in the U.S. to get the "gold" level of BRT. There are also many transit experts who believe that if we just could change the social stigma against buses they would be just as good as rail.

 

I don't disagree, but as we are seeing with our streetcar, rail brings new transit riders in a way buses do not. Hopefully some of these riders bleed off into becoming bus riders. But if they do they will see the considerable difference in the way we run our buses compared to the streetcar.

 

 

The best way to reduce the bus stigma is to build rail. Get people to rely on the streetcar as their primary transportation method so they don't need to own a car, and they will start using buses for their secondary trips.

I think the biggest concern regarding the streetcar's success isn't internet commentary, but rather that we've gone about as far as we can with dumb luck.  It sounds harsh to say, but this project is one of the best there is nationwide in part because, even though there wasn't a central authority overseeing everything, the way it worked out (and I recognize that many of the people involved were aware of this and that it was part of the plan) with the Findlay Market rebuild by the City in the early 2000s at the northern end of the line; the Banks redevelopment starting in earnest in the mid to late 2000s at the southern end of the line; and the Washington Park redevelopment (finished early 2010s) holding the middle of the line together.  Findlay Market was the City, the Banks a joint City/County development, and Washington Park was 3CDC.

 

Anyway, I'm less concerned about taking the system up the hill than I am about the City not leading small development to enhance the present system- I'm mostly talking about making sure surface parking lots adjacent to the system start getting developed, and without additional parking. Getting more people onto the system by removing structural incentives for car use, while at the same time increasing structural preferences for more people to live within the streetcars range, and for those people to use the streetcar, coupled with buses and redbike (and perhaps cabs/Uber) as their primary method of transportation, should really be what we are focused on.

I'm curious to see how the numbers keep up as we move toward winter months. I am a bit concerned on the week day numbers so far. What really needs to happen is that the we keep adding residential downtown.  I wish someone would build a 60 unit spec residential or conversion with no parking and see how it rents out. You can aim that towards $1 sq ft, and probably get filled quick by downtown workers. They got to keep doing it!

 

Why would you need to go so low? I know it's not rentals, but the development  I owned in (Westfalen Lofts) had no parking and 42 units and had no trouble selling at price points ranging from 99k to half a million or so. My condo just resold for $304/square foot and has no attached parking. There's a market for units that don't need the burden of cost associated with fixed parking spots.

Hold up you all are talking way different measurements. $1 a square foot per month means $800/mo for an 800sqft. unit. $304/sqft. sale means you sold the same 800sqft. for $243,200.

I'm curious to see how the numbers keep up as we move toward winter months. I am a bit concerned on the week day numbers so far. What really needs to happen is that the we keep adding residential downtown.  I wish someone would build a 60 unit spec residential or conversion with no parking and see how it rents out. You can aim that towards $1 sq ft, and probably get filled quick by downtown workers. They got to keep doing it!

 

Why would you need to go so low? I know it's not rentals, but the development  I owned in (Westfalen Lofts) had no parking and 42 units and had no trouble selling at price points ranging from 99k to half a million or so. My condo just resold for $304/square foot and has no attached parking. There's a market for units that don't need the burden of cost associated with fixed parking spots.

 

Sorry I wasn't being clear, I meant in terms of rental $.

 

I think in terms of rental that is a good cost to get people who aren't highest wage in downtown, say working as reps at Pure Romance or more towards customer service wages of around $40k per year.  Making certain we can cover those salary types with housing will bring a lot more people downtown IMO and allow them to do so without a car, it would add a ton of vibrancy to downtown and OTR while we can also at the same time hit some higher price points.  I think entry level is big and I believe companies could then recruit even better in the Chicago and Indianapolis area saying, hey you can live in a vibrant urban area, for much less than Chicago, without a car.

 

Then when people get their wages up enough they could upgrade their housing situation in downtown. 

Sorry, I wasn't clear either. I know you were referring to rental income. But $1/square foot/month is super low. A few people rented out their condos in my building for over $2/square foot/month with ease.

 

But if you're trying to capture an entry level salary range, then I could see that being a useful development. I thought you were saying we'd need to go that low in order to have rentals with no parking attached which I don't believe is true.

OK, all good!

 

Yes, I know $1/sq. ft/month is low, but I think if companies can make it work for a decent amount of housing, most likely in rehabs that aren't in horrible shape, then they can make it happen.

 

I rented at that rate or a little bit more, maybe $1.25/sq. ft, in a rehab on East 15th Street, so it probably is possible in some situations, but they offered parking as an add on rate of $50/month on a nearby surface lot.  I think if it's possible to get a lot more of those types moving it will fill a void that is there right now for young professionals starting out, just my opinion though.

I was renting for about $0.60/SF at Main and Woodward until the end of 2014. It hadn't been recently renovated, but it was in good condition.

Something too that I would like to see happen at some point but which is a bit off topic, but is adding some type of ball fields or such.

 

I am certain that Ziegler Park could help fill a void, but I was thinking if they could add some softball fields or soccer type fields somewhere maybe west of Paul Brown Stadium or somewhere, I don't know exactly where you could fill it, but that would give them the Chicago type lifestyle on a much smaller scale, helping attract more entry-levels. 

 

That said, a ton would have to happen.  Just spitballing but the old Bucktown with all those surface lots could possibly work to fit a couple softball fields and a couple soccer fields.  Also, the tennis courts in Sawyer Point are hardly ever used.  I am not certain when those were built, but maybe converting some of that to a soccer field and some outdoor basketball courts could help a ton with getting them more activated.  Just my opinion though of something I think could really help attract more entry level

Also, the tennis courts in Sawyer Point are hardly ever used.  I am not certain when those were built, but maybe converting some of that to a soccer field and some outdoor basketball courts could help a ton with getting them more activated. 

 

This is certainly venturing well off topic, but those tennis courts actually do get used pretty often. They have classes, lessons, and leagues that use the courts on weekday mornings and afternoons. My old HS tennis coach is the director of the Sawyer Point tennis courts now, and I know he stays super busy, mostly with the 'ladies who lunch' crowd that live Downtown, Mt. Adams, and the East End.  Also, St. Ursula uses those courts as their home courts.

Ah OK, whenever I went by I would see next to no activity but can certainly see it being busy at other times, thanks for the update and good to hear they are used quite often

Wow, it's been 28 years since those tennis courts opened, in 1988, for the Cincinnati Bicentennial.

^I smell '80s with any tennis court installation

Wow, it's been 28 years since those tennis courts opened, in 1988, for the Cincinnati Bicentennial.

 

I remember when that area was a scrap yard.  We watched the fireworks there one year with piles of random stuff all over the place.  The railroad approach to the L&N Bridge was still up.  The city got the funding for a bunch of the bicentennial stuff including that park with the payout from a lawsuit against Norfolk-Southern over the Southern Railroad lease.  If I remember correctly the one-time payout was $8 million and then the annual lease went from under $1 million to several million annually. 

 

There was and might still be a combination ice rink and roller rink that has never gotten a lot of use.  I remember seeing people skating on it back then but not in the last 10 years, at least. 

 

Tennis court activity has definitely picked up a lot in the past few years.  10 years ago I would agree that they were not used much but they are for sure seeing a lot of usage now, especially at night as they are one of the few lighted courts.

No they are into BRT.

 

Randall O'Toole and the like always propose BRT as an alternative to rail, but oppose any BRT proposal that is not competing with a rail proposal (Nashville, Indianapolis).  Well now he's got another trick -- suggesting that cities should abandon their rapid transit lines for BRT.  You can't make this stuff up.

 

Randal O’Toole

Cato Institute senior fellow

 

I love trains, and the first time I stepped into a Washington Metro station in 1977, it was like entering Stanley Kubrick’s 2001. Today, it’s like entering Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner.

 

The problem is that rail lines are expensive to build and even more expensive to maintain, especially after they reach 30 years of age. The federal government paid most of the cost of building Metrorail and local governments pay the subsidies required to operate it, but funds to rehabilitate the lines that are over 30 years old are sorely lacking, so the system is falling apart.

 

Rather than assist with rehabilitation, the federal government has a slush fund dedicated to new rail construction. This enticed the region to build the Silver and Purple lines, when the matching funds required to build those lines should have been spent rehabilitating Metrorail instead. One way the region can solve the problem is to kill the Purple Line and stop construction on the Silver Line and rededicate those funds to the existing system.

 

WMATA may also have to accept the painful reality that rail was probably the wrong choice for D.C. in the first place. Rail transit is both expensive and inflexible, while Curitiba, Brazil has shown that a well-designed bus corridor can actually move more people per hour than WMATA’s eight-car trains. Rather than rehabilitate the existing lines that are falling apart, WMATA should consider replacing them with bus-rapid transit lines.

 

Over the next ten years, shared, self-driving cars are going to replace most transit. WMATA’s cost of moving one passenger one mile by rail is more than twice as expensive as moving them by automobile today, and Uber (which recently hired 40 self-driving car engineers) has promised that its shared, self-driving cars will cost less than owning a car.

 

This means transit won’t be able to compete with self-driving car sharing. Until this becomes a reality, WMATA and other transit agencies should focus on low-cost bus service rather than expensive and clunky rail systems.

 

 

 

 

O'Toole is a real tool, alright.  He's a rail hater of the 1st order.  I can't believe he actually stated that D.C. would be better off with BRT over the Metro.  Any fool would recognize that, although the DC Metro is obviously going through a really bad period due to deferred maintenance issues, it is still one of the ideal transit networks in the nation and world -- once the fix is made, however long and expensive it may be, people will once again realize this.  Metro is the 2nd leading rapid transit network behind New York, in terms of both track miles and patronage. 

 

Then O'Toole really sounds like a fool in prognosticating that shared self-driving cars will replace most transit.  really!? even in light of things like car costs vs. personal income and traffic congestion (what, is he suggesting self-driving cars will fly?) ... O'Toole must exist in some parallel, right-wing universe. 

No they are into BRT.

 

Randall O'Toole and the like always propose BRT as an alternative to rail, but oppose any BRT proposal that is not competing with a rail proposal (Nashville, Indianapolis).  Well now he's got another trick -- suggesting that cities should abandon their rapid transit lines for BRT.  You can't make this stuff up.

 

Randal O’Toole

Cato Institute senior fellow

 

I love trains, and the first time I stepped into a Washington Metro station in 1977, it was like entering Stanley Kubrick’s 2001. Today, it’s like entering Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner.

 

The problem is that rail lines are expensive to build and even more expensive to maintain, especially after they reach 30 years of age. The federal government paid most of the cost of building Metrorail and local governments pay the subsidies required to operate it, but funds to rehabilitate the lines that are over 30 years old are sorely lacking, so the system is falling apart.

 

Rather than assist with rehabilitation, the federal government has a slush fund dedicated to new rail construction. This enticed the region to build the Silver and Purple lines, when the matching funds required to build those lines should have been spent rehabilitating Metrorail instead. One way the region can solve the problem is to kill the Purple Line and stop construction on the Silver Line and rededicate those funds to the existing system.

 

WMATA may also have to accept the painful reality that rail was probably the wrong choice for D.C. in the first place. Rail transit is both expensive and inflexible, while Curitiba, Brazil has shown that a well-designed bus corridor can actually move more people per hour than WMATA’s eight-car trains. Rather than rehabilitate the existing lines that are falling apart, WMATA should consider replacing them with bus-rapid transit lines.

 

Over the next ten years, shared, self-driving cars are going to replace most transit. WMATA’s cost of moving one passenger one mile by rail is more than twice as expensive as moving them by automobile today, and Uber (which recently hired 40 self-driving car engineers) has promised that its shared, self-driving cars will cost less than owning a car.

 

This means transit won’t be able to compete with self-driving car sharing. Until this becomes a reality, WMATA and other transit agencies should focus on low-cost bus service rather than expensive and clunky rail systems.

 

 

 

 

O'Toole is a real tool, alright.  He's a rail hater of the 1st order.  I can't believe he actually stated that D.C. would be better off with BRT over the Metro.  Any fool would recognize that, although the DC Metro is obviously going through a really bad period due to deferred maintenance issues, it is still one of the ideal transit networks in the nation and world -- once the fix is made, however long and expensive it may be, people will once again realize this.  Metro is the 2nd leading rapid transit network behind New York, in terms of both track miles and patronage. 

 

Then O'Toole really sounds like a fool in prognosticating that shared self-driving cars will replace most transit.  really!? even in light of things like car costs vs. personal income and traffic congestion (what, is he suggesting self-driving cars will fly?) ... O'Toole must exist in some parallel, right-wing universe. 

 

I just wonder whether O'Toole, at the end of his scurvy life -- after maybe two or three dozen more of these rail systems open and others are rapidly expanding -- I just wonder whether he'll look back and think,"Did I waste the best years of my life?" Also something I wonder about .. why he never came to Cincinnati to blast our streetcar. I mean, he has shown up everywhere else over the years. I was disappointed, actually. I had a well-crafted news released to send out upon his arrival here talking about what a creep he is .. his applauding the Madrid train station bombings, preaching to cities how to re-fashion themselves as car meccas while living in an Oregon mountain village with one stoplight and one minority resident. I guess he does it because CATO pays him so much to do it.

He's a technocrat who thinks advancements in 1s and 0s can break the laws of physics.

Wow, it's been 28 years since those tennis courts opened, in 1988, for the Cincinnati Bicentennial.

 

I remember when that area was a scrap yard.  We watched the fireworks there one year with piles of random stuff all over the place.  The railroad approach to the L&N Bridge was still up.  The city got the funding for a bunch of the bicentennial stuff including that park with the payout from a lawsuit against Norfolk-Southern over the Southern Railroad lease.  If I remember correctly the one-time payout was $8 million and then the annual lease went from under $1 million to several million annually. 

 

There was and might still be a combination ice rink and roller rink that has never gotten a lot of use.  I remember seeing people skating on it back then but not in the last 10 years, at least. 

 

 

That rink is still there. I believe that's where they had the tree when fountain square was under construction. Now that rink is used mostly for bike polo and as an event space for the Montgomery Inn Boathouse. (which is also wonderfully '80s)

^I smell '80s with any tennis court installation

Unless you are actually good at it, which is rare, badminton is more fun than tennis. Can be played anywhere, and someone good can play with someone inexperienced and still both have fun.

O'Toole is a classic shill.  He's paid for his anti-transit opinions, regardless of what his actual beliefs may be. 

^I smell '80s with any tennis court installation

Unless you are actually good at it, which is rare, badminton is more fun than tennis. Can be played anywhere, and someone good can play with someone inexperienced and still both have fun.

 

When I was down in the largest retirement community in the country I played pickleball; that's a lot of fun

Ok--back to streetcar-related conversation please...

^I smell '80s with any tennis court installation

Unless you are actually good at it, which is rare, badminton is more fun than tennis. Can be played anywhere, and someone good can play with someone inexperienced and still both have fun.

 

When I was down in the largest retirement community in the country I played pickleball; that's a lot of fun

 

That must've been the group I saw on the streetcar this evening.

New festival mashes streetcar, Lumenocity

 

 

A new four-day light and art festival will be held in connection with Cincinnati’s streetcar, the Enquirer reports.

 

Blink Cincinnati will feature dozens of large-scale architectural projection mapping locations along the Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar route from Oct. 12-16, 2017.

 

More below:

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2016/09/30/new-festival-mashes-streetcar-lumenocity.html

New festival mashes streetcar, Lumenocity

 

 

A new four-day light and art festival will be held in connection with Cincinnati’s streetcar, the Enquirer reports.

 

Blink Cincinnati will feature dozens of large-scale architectural projection mapping locations along the Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar route from Oct. 12-16, 2017.

 

More below:

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2016/09/30/new-festival-mashes-streetcar-lumenocity.html

 

    ^ Christopher Smitherman reportedly on suicide watch

    ^ Christopher Smitherman reportedly on suicide watch

 

With high ridership and the city expecting a $16 million surplus, he's nowhere to be found these days. 

 

Amy Murray and Chris Seelbach were on Cunningham's show earlier this week.  Bill dismissed the strong opening and expects that nobody will be riding it in the middle of January and February.  Ridership might go down in the winter months when there are fewer events in town, but I think in a year we'll have a pretty solid idea of how the public is using it and then give the whole thing a thumbs up or thumbs down. 

 

What a shocker -- all of the politicians who said "wait and see" and continuing to say that even after the system has given 120,000 rides. All of the people who predicted "75 riders/day at most" are now saying, "give it a few weeks", as if suddenly 97% of the people who ride it are going to lose interest one day and not ride it anymore.

Well I know that once my 60 day founder's club card runs out I will never ride it ever again.

\sarcasm

The fact that the streetcar was even able to get built gives me hope for the future of Ohio's cities. 

From your lips... Here in Cleveland it seems just as hard to get the Rapid extended as it was for Cincy to build it's streetcar.

I saw this around 5:10pm on Sunday...only two streetcars running so I believe that the police felt it was okay to block the tracks for a few minutes.  They did move out of the way by the time the streetcar visible in the distance came through, so so there was not any delay. 

 

This was during the Reds game and ridership appeared to be pretty robust on the two streetcars that were running.  So I think it's reasonable to expect that there will be people on the streetcars on Sundays when there is no event in town.  The weird thing was that they were definitely running the two streetcars on a schedule, meaning each left the two ends of the line at the top of the hour, but the expected arrival times were off just minutes into the run.  So obviously there is something wrong with how the signs anticipate the timing of a typical run when there is no traffic obstructing the streetcars.  I suspect that the loading and unloading is a lot slower than was was anticipated during testing.  It seems like it's taking 60-90 seconds for the commotion to settle at the stations, way slower than on a rapid transit line in a big city.   

^The "expected" arrival times were supposed to be replaced with "actual" arrival times by end of last week. Hopefully that will happen soon.

 

It seems like it's taking 60-90 seconds for the commotion to settle at the stations, way slower than on a rapid transit line in a big city.

 

 

In Paris, I estimated that 100 people got on or off the subway at one stop. It happened too fast to get an exact count. My buddy timed it with his watch and it took only 20 seconds. Of course, the subway is set up to move a lot of people.

 

I've had stops on Metro buses that took minutes, mainly because only one person can pay the fare at one time.

 

From your lips... Here in Cleveland it seems just as hard to get the Rapid extended operational as it was for Cincy to build it's streetcar.

 

It's bad up here. But looking forward to visiting Cincy in a few weeks.

That almost seems cultural. The big cities view themselves as transit cities whereas Cincinnatians don't feel that way yet. "Mind the gap" and all that.

So obviously there is something wrong with how the signs anticipate the timing of a typical run when there is no traffic obstructing the streetcars.  I suspect that the loading and unloading is a lot slower than was was anticipated during testing.  It seems like it's taking 60-90 seconds for the commotion to settle at the stations, way slower than on a rapid transit line in a big city. 

 

Even in larger cities there is a slight delay with transit tracking, where a bus could arrive up to 1 min later than where it says its coming.  Due to congestion, downtown tracking is more off than outside of downtown too.

 

One of the biggest culture shocks when I visit Cincy is how slow paced basic things are like getting through a line at a restaurant or a store - I wouldn't be surprised if the same applies to entering and exiting a train vehicle even if everything possible has been done to speed things up.  FYI Metro bus stops are agonizingly slow, adoption rates of stored value passes is pathetic and way too many people still use change and even when people use change on buses the driver is more likely to remain stopped than they are in Chicago where the bus driver will pull out as the people are paying with cash.

Heard some negative feedback this weekend from friends riding it for the first time.  Some of these things are understandable growing pains, but it would be great to iron out these things as quickly as possible.  (That said, I was obviously still encouraging about the system and how they should give it another try.) 

I think the slowness in lines, etc. is somewhat of a symptom of being further south.  People move a bit slower in southern areas compared to northern areas like Chicago or Minneapolis.  Even in Iowa people move at a faster pace than they do here.  Sometimes I am pulling my hair out at how slow the check out people are at UDF or the like...

FYI Metro bus stops are agonizingly slow, adoption rates of stored value passes is pathetic and way too many people still use change and even when people use change on buses the driver is more likely to remain stopped than they are in Chicago where the bus driver will pull out as the people are paying with cash.

 

They pretty much always pull out and get going in Cincinnati.  I pay with coins all the time and it's not a big deal because I have the exact change ready.  But so many people seem to have questions for the driver or some sort of petty matter to discuss.  The main problem with the slowness of Metro, as has been noted here many times, is that there are simply too many stops. 

 

The streetcar seems to rarely be able to skip stops because there is usually someone at every station.  That is obviously an indication that it is being well-used.  When you do see one skip a stop and get a string of green lights, it's pretty impressive to see how quickly it gets through the area.

 

 

Heard some negative feedback this weekend from friends riding it for the first time.  Some of these things are understandable growing pains, but it would be great to iron out these things as quickly as possible.  (That said, I was obviously still encouraging about the system and how they should give it another try.) 

 

Yeah I had someone at work declare it's "already a disaster" because they saw a homeless guy sleeping on it with a pool of chewing tobacco on the floor in front of them.  Not sure it actually happened -- people exaggerate or just make things up in order to make something fit their predetermined view of it. 

 

 

   

 

 

^From riding it this weekend, it was absolutely packed. I'm guessing that negative feedback had to do with people waiting excessive amounts of time at the stops, and being packed in when they finally came. I waited 35 minutes for a streetcar at mid afternoon on Sunday. And saw folks at the stops who had been waiting not squeeze into the car because they are too polite or whatever.

 

This is all exacerbated, of course, by not having a clue when to actually expect the next car.

 

I don't know if SORTA is planning on being more adaptive with adding cars on the weekends in the future, but I sure hope so.

I think the slowness in lines, etc. is somewhat of a symptom of being further south.  People move a bit slower in southern areas compared to northern areas like Chicago or Minneapolis.  Even in Iowa people move at a faster pace than they do here.  Sometimes I am pulling my hair out at how slow the check out people are at UDF or the like...

 

Not true at all ... It seems everything in Minneapolis is slow.

^From riding it this weekend, it was absolutely packed. I'm guessing that negative feedback had to do with people waiting excessive amounts of time at the stops, and being packed in when they finally came. I waited 35 minutes for a streetcar at mid afternoon on Sunday. And saw folks at the stops who had been waiting not squeeze into the car because they are too polite or whatever.

 

I don't believe that Portland ever experienced what we have happening here because their sports venues and primary nightlife area was never located on the line.  Because that was our model, we didn't anticipate the high weekend ridership and crush-loaded streetcars.  Kansas City, of course, was a better indication of what was going to happen here, and we had a few months to adapt our planned schedule, but didn't.  That said, we are lucky to have five streetcars initially whereas KC only has four. 

 

Given the fact that we're regularly getting overcrowded streetcars, it means we need to think about getting bigger ones if the system is expanded to UC.  Can the car barn service longer streetcars than the ones we have?  I haven't been inside.   

 

 

 

I think the slowness in lines, etc. is somewhat of a symptom of being further south.  People move a bit slower in southern areas compared to northern areas like Chicago or Minneapolis.  Even in Iowa people move at a faster pace than they do here.  Sometimes I am pulling my hair out at how slow the check out people are at UDF or the like...

 

Not true at all ... It seems everything in Minneapolis is slow.

 

Just visited Minneapolis and yeah checkout lines were slow, however the Twin Cities are pretty used to transit and I didn't really experience problems getting on or off buses/trains in an orderly fashion.

City Manager Black sent a letter to SORTA telling them to address the headway issues, and run more cars (at SORTA's/Transdev's expense) if necessary.

 

http://city-egov.cincinnati-oh.gov/Webtop/ws/fyi/public/fyi_docs/Blob/3715.pdf?rpp=-10&m=1&w=doc_no%3D%273174%27

 

The City has held up its end of the bargain under the OMIGA [Operations and Maintenance Intergovernmental Agreement] by constructing first-class streetcar infrastructure, actively policing the streetcar route to prevent track obstructions, and implementing countless additional traffic and streetcar coordination and optimization requests from SORTA. If the headway problem is not resolved once streetcar operations normalize in the coming weeks, the City expects that SORTA will motivate Transdev to take any and all necessary steps to meet its contractual obligations. We have every reason to hope that Transdev will cooperate with SORTA and the City to meet its obligations, but it is important to be clear about expectations.

We had some friends in from England this past weekend so we took them downtown and got them an all day streetcar pass to use all day (they were not comfortable driving in the US), and at a certain point we had to leave them to go to a family party. Later that night when we met back up they were telling us about how many people came up to them to ask how to use the fare machines or ask them how to get places etc. They found it very entertaining that even with their British accents in a city they had never been in, just because they were confidently using the streetcar people assumed they were experts. The one thing they pointed out is that there are not enough maps on the interior of the cars. In most subways or light rail vehicles I've ever been in there is a line map or diagram above every door, which I think helps to orient out of towners.

Running only 2 streetcars on the weekends is absurd.  The city needs to change its contract and run more every weekend, not just for special events.  People waiting 35 minutes for a streetcar is crazy.  You could walk most of the loop in that amount of time.  And there's no reason the cars should be so jam packed (I saw one Saturday night after the reds game and people were literally squished against the doors).  This is a good problem to have because it shows there is a demand and that people want to use it, but if they don't quickly fix these problems, the system will gain a negative reputation and ridership will go down.  There is no reason they can't pay to have 3 or 4 streetcars running on the weekends, especially when there are Reds games and Bengals games going on.  I have to say though that I'm not surprised.  SORTA doesn't even know how to run a modern bus system correctly (for example, only 1 place downtown and 1 place uptown to buy bus passes, otherwise you need exact change...that is so stupid I can't stand it), so I wasn't very happy when they were hired to be in charge of the streetcar as well.  We all need to be vocal about these problems or they will persist.

SORTA doesn't even know how to run a modern bus system correctly (for example, only 1 place downtown and 1 place uptown to buy bus passes, otherwise you need exact change...that is so stupid I can't stand it)

 

It's all about funding. SORTA barely gets enough funding to keep the buses running, let alone upgrade their fare boxes and install ticket vending machines. They rely on federal funding to buy new buses because the tax revenue they get from the city is so minimal. That's one reason why it was such a big deal that all of the streetcar ticket vending machines sell bus passes & stored value cards as well.