Do most of the OTR restaurants offer carryout?  If I worked in the CBD, I would definitely order takeout from somewhere like Senate or Bakersfield, then hop on the streetcar, pick it up, and then hop back on to head back to the office.

 

You can place a to-go order at Pho Lang Thang at Findlay Market and even pre-pay. So you can get off at the Findlay—Elm station, pick up your food, and get back on the same streetcar at Findlay—Race to head back to the CBD.

Funny how somewhat lower weekday ridership but robust weekend and event ridership after just three months of operations and thus not much time for people to move jobs/homes/etc. constitutes a "massive failure." 

 

Many residential projects will be coming online in the CBD and OTR in 2017.  580 Walnut + the apartment & hotel at 7th & Sycamore will add at least 500 bodies to the streetcar route in the CBD.  Maybe 200 more will move to OTR along the route in 2017. 

 

 

 

 

 

I think the takeaway from the recent ridership numbers should be this:

 

The projections said the streetcar would average about 3000 riders per day.

-Back in the Fall when it opened it well exceeded expectations and proponents celebrated it

-Now ridership has fallen off as weather has gotten colder and less going on downtown, along with Thanksgiving and other low ridership holidays, and the opponents are calling it a boondoggle.

 

Point is, the average ridership numbers are over a year and things tend to even out. Taking a one or 2 month snapshot is not the same picture as a year snapshot. At the end of the year, I am sure the numbers will be in line with projections.

 

I think the big mistake the people may have made when they came up with the numbers may have been overestimating the amount of people who would use it as a commuting tool to go to and from work and underestimating the people who will use it to go between the banks and Rhinegeist and Washington Park, and Findlay market on the weekends.

 

I do not think the new apartments will effect ridership too heavily during the week but will be seen mostly on weekends. If you live at the Banks and work downtown, or at AT580, you are probably working in the central business district. It is still much easier for you to walk to work 3-4 blocks than take the streetcar, so you will not get a bump in ridership then. However, on weekends, those people will go to Findlay, go to Rhinegiest or even Smale and be more inclined to take the Streetcar

 

 

 

I've always thought the notion that business people would ride the streetcar at lunch time was a bit spurious. The streetcar is a North-South circulator, and the vast majority of CBD activity (offices, restaurants, services, etc) are clustered between 3rd and 7the Streets.  With the small blocks we have, it's really nothing to walk 4 blocks.  If you're on the southern end of that zone, getting to the Banks is easy, and if you're on the northern end of that zone, getting to Court street and other parts of the northern CBD is easy too. Most people don't have time to go from the CBD to Findlay Market or OTR for lunch, so that leaves very few weekday daytime users. I've always worried about this aspect of the streetcar. It just doesn't seem to go far enough to make sense for the vast majority of trips people will be taking. Waiting 20 minutes (or even really 10) for a streetcar to take you ~5-6 blocks just doesn't make sense, when the walk time would be much less than just the waiting time.

 

First of all, 5th and Main is the centroid of the office district, where most downtowners work. The center of lunchtime dining in OTR is 13th and Vine. That's not 5-6 blocks, that's 10 blocks, roughly a mile.

 

Second, people are definitely using it to go to lunch. I took it to Findlay today @ Noon, and several people got off there to go to lunch.

 

Sorry this doesn't comport with your "thought" on this.

 

Centroid

cen·troidˈ /sentroid/ MATHEMATICS

noun: centroid; plural noun: centroids

 

the center of mass of a geometric object of uniform density.

I think the takeaway from the recent ridership numbers should be this:

 

The projections said the streetcar would average about 3000 riders per day.

-Back in the Fall when it opened it well exceeded expectations and proponents celebrated it

-Now ridership has fallen off as weather has gotten colder and less going on downtown, along with Thanksgiving and other low ridership holidays, and the opponents are calling it a boondoggle.

 

Point is, the average ridership numbers are over a year and things tend to even out. Taking a one or 2 month snapshot is not the same picture as a year snapshot. At the end of the year, I am sure the numbers will be in line with projections.

 

I think the big mistake the people may have made when they came up with the numbers may have been overestimating the amount of people who would use it as a commuting tool to go to and from work and underestimating the people who will use it to go between the banks and Rhinegeist and Washington Park, and Findlay market on the weekends.

 

I do not think the new apartments will effect ridership too heavily during the week but will be seen mostly on weekends. If you live at the Banks and work downtown, or at AT580, you are probably working in the central business district. It is still much easier for you to walk to work 3-4 blocks than take the streetcar, so you will not get a bump in ridership then. However, on weekends, those people will go to Findlay, go to Rhinegiest or even Smale and be more inclined to take the Streetcar

 

Fair analysis, though I do feel that there should be a concentrated effort to get the traffic study done, improve signal timing and at the very least get the silly tracking system up and running. 

 

I've seen this sort of thing before (re the real time tracking system) The CTA f-d up next gen contactless cards (Ventra Cards) when they were first introduced due to vendor issues, and there was near constant pressure on Ventra's vendor to get the stupid thing fixed even down to threatening them with lawsuits.  It took time but it was eventually fixed and for the most part Ventra now works well (it didn't when it was started). One instance where the CTA still hasn't fixed stuff was with smartphone tap payment, its something people didn't put enough pressure  (its kind of technical) and they still haven't fully implemented after like 2 years of ventra being in service.  I cannot stress enough how important it is to keep the pressure on the stakeholders else you'll not get what you want.

 

Cincinnati and SORTA need to take a similar approach and people need to be constantly pressuring both of them to do the same, otherwise it will never get fixed.  Its the people's job to keep the pressure on especially those of us who know transit. 

 

Also, Jake mentioned Boston, and he's right in Chicago I rarely take the train for lunch as there already is enough near me that's pretty good, however frequently I take trains after work for after work outings usually to a bar as a means to get to know co-workers a bit better.

 

Rhinegeist is ideal for something like that :).

I think the takeaway from the recent ridership numbers should be this:

 

The projections said the streetcar would average about 3000 riders per day.

-Back in the Fall when it opened it well exceeded expectations and proponents celebrated it

-Now ridership has fallen off as weather has gotten colder and less going on downtown, along with Thanksgiving and other low ridership holidays, and the opponents are calling it a boondoggle.

 

Yes, exactly. When ridership was off the charts for the first month, even the streetcar opponents were saying, "We can't judge the success of the streetcar yet. We need to wait for a full year of numbers." And now that it's had one bad month, those same people are calling it a failure. It's complete hypocrisy.

...I do feel that there should be a concentrated effort to get the traffic study done, improve signal timing and at the very least get the silly tracking system up and running.

 

I've seen this sort of thing before (re the real time tracking system) The CTA f-d up next gen contactless cards (Ventra Cards) when they were first introduced due to vendor issues, and there was near constant pressure on Ventra's vendor to get the stupid thing fixed even down to threatening them with lawsuits.  It took time but it was eventually fixed and for the most part Ventra now works well (it didn't when it was started). One instance where the CTA still hasn't fixed stuff was with smartphone tap payment, its something people didn't put enough pressure  (its kind of technical) and they still haven't fully implemented after like 2 years of ventra being in service.  I cannot stress enough how important it is to keep the pressure on the stakeholders else you'll not get what you want.

 

To those points, shouldn't we be asking for A LOT MORE from City Council, and then negotiating down from there?  I'm thinking about things like making Main and/or Walnut transit-only streets (streetcars, busses, bikes), one way to two way street conversions, etc.  And then if they want to do the easy rational thing like adjusting signal timing, we can meet them there and get something.  Right now we're just asking for the easy stuff and getting a ton of pushback.

The traffic light situation is its most ridiculous when riding late at night early in the week with zero traffic.  It's feast or famine...the streetcar sometimes gets green lights the entire length of Race St. and zooms down Walnut with maybe one stop.  But under those exact same conditions, the streetcar sometimes gets caught up at 3+ red lights in a row.  So waiting while the signal turns green for cross traffic, but nobody's there...over and over again.  And some of the red light waits are very long, including some at very minor intersections.  For example, the red light at Findlay & Race is ridiculously long. 

 

The streetcar should be getting full signal priority in off-peak hours.  Cranley and the rest would have a hard time arguing against giving the streetcar priority when nobody else is around (a single car, after all, usually triggers a green light during off-peak hours).  If they want to fight over the extent of signal prioritization during rush hour then fine.   

 

 

 

 

They could some of the intersections on flash late at night in the meantime.

They could some of the intersections on flash late at night in the meantime.

 

Not sure if that's a great idea judging from how many idiot drivers have driven their cars into the streetcar or made an illegal turn in front of it thinking they'd beat it. Opposing traffic needs a solid red.

5th and Main to 13th and Vine is 0.8 miles by foot, a bit different than 1.0 miles (according to google maps). That'd take a good jaywalker 12-15 min. max to walk. Unless the service headway is every 3-5 minutes or the streetcar is there when they walk up to the stop, I can't imagine many people would take the streetcar to 13th and vine from 5th and main. The walk is quicker (and more enjoyable)than the streetcar. If you've got loads of things you're lugging around, being a busy business person and all...maaaaaybe.

^God if there ever was a tired and worn out discussion, this would be it. Recalling Barry Horstman, RIP

Barry Horstman world champion speedwalker.

Do most of the OTR restaurants offer carryout?  If I worked in the CBD, I would definitely order takeout from somewhere like Senate or Bakersfield, then hop on the streetcar, pick it up, and then hop back on to head back to the office.

 

You can place a to-go order at Pho Lang Thang at Findlay Market and even pre-pay. So you can get off at the Findlay—Elm station, pick up your food, and get back on the same streetcar at Findlay—Race to head back to the CBD.

 

Ditto for Eli's

The rise of Findlay Market as a dining and entertainment destination above and beyond the market itself would be a significant driver of streetcar ridership. That was something completely unanticipated when the streetcar was proposed but it appears to be happening. 

Yeah, I think Findlay Market is huge and is going to change so much in the next few years and is already underway.  There are so many abandoned buildings in that immediate area.  When the immediate area starts to shape up, I'll predict it slides over to Vine Street.  A ton of room for re-population and development. 

 

I also feel like the city needs to do as much as it can to get a lot more apartments downtown in the core.  I know developments take a long time, but it seems they are only catering to rich folks when we need to have places for young professionals with salaries in the $50-60k range who would like to rent and are already working downtown.

 

I know a lot of people back 2-3 years ago who lived in Mt. Adams and worked at Fifth Third, US Bank, etc. who wanted to live downtown but they couldn't afford anything or the market was too tight.  I bet we could easily add 500 apartments at this very moment in that segment with minimal parking requirements, driving overall rents down to the $700-$800 range.

 

If they can get the mobile app and timing figured out downtown with the new traffic study, people will absolutely use the streetcar for commutes, etc.  And then, they would use it for all the in-between errands.

 

Also, I believe with the current trends and where things are that OTR is going to end up being more or less the entertainment district with very expensive single family homes and condos, while downtown really needs to become the place to pack in more people and density and a younger crowd to frequent the entertainment parts of OTR.

I posted about 20 photos of various small and medium-sized renovation projects along the streetcar project on The Enquirer's facebook page in response to their ridership hit piece.  The photos were from the first week of October and just two months later there has been a lot of progress.  For example, the long-stagnant OTR Adopt buildings on Findlay St. appear to be moving ahead, with electricity on in one of them for probably the first time in 30 years.  If you stand at the corner of Findlay and Republic there is a panorama of underway renovations visible backing up to the Findlay Playground. 

 

Not only do the followers of the Enquirer's facebook group dismiss the influence of the streetcar, they also seem to be indifferent at best if not outright hostile to the rebirth of Over-the-Rhine.  So the exact same people who have been complaining about how bad the area was since the 1980s are now complaining that it's turning into an attractive place. 

 

I posted about 20 photos of various small and medium-sized renovation projects along the streetcar project on The Enquirer's facebook page in response to their ridership hit piece.  The photos were from the first week of October and just two months later there has been a lot of progress.  For example, the long-stagnant OTR Adopt buildings on Findlay St. appear to be moving ahead, with electricity on in one of them for probably the first time in 30 years.  If you stand at the corner of Findlay and Republic there is a panorama of underway renovations visible backing up to the Findlay Playground. 

 

Not only do the followers of the Enquirer's facebook group dismiss the influence of the streetcar, they also seem to be indifferent at best if not outright hostile to the rebirth of Over-the-Rhine.  So the exact same people who have been complaining about how bad the area was since the 1980s are now complaining that it's turning into an attractive place. 

 

 

  Keep in mind that the economists who studied our streetcar between 2007 and 2011 last estimated that by 2034, the streetcar would cause $408 million in permanent property investment -- which is a proxy for repopulation -- that wouldn't have happened but for the streetcar.  And property investment was estimated to comprise 85% of the total benefits of the streetcar. Last month, Harry Black estimated that there has been $1.55 billion in investment along the line since 2007, much of which is due to the streetcar. We are absolutely killing it in terms of the principal objective of the streetcar. And as those buildings are occupied, ridership is bound to increase too.

Still though to ensure that growth is consistent, pressure does need to be on the city to make the streetcar perform better.  This is a critical time to get things fixed, the longer it festers the more it gains a reputation as being unreliable.

Citylab picked up the Enquirer's angle: http://www.citylab.com/commute/2016/12/cincinnati-has-a-streetcar-problem/510143/

The rise of Findlay Market as a dining and entertainment destination above and beyond the market itself would be a significant driver of streetcar ridership. That was something completely unanticipated when the streetcar was proposed but it appears to be happening. 

 

Findlay and Wash Park are the 2 key Cogs IMO, because it gives people a daytime activity and purpose to ride the streetcar. During the week, you can commute to your office, but outside of the hours of 8-10AM and 4-6PM it would have little use. With the market and the park, people have a reason to go there during the day, it provides purpose. There are plenty of nightly, weekend reasons to use it, but the market makes it during the day.

Citylab picked up the Enquirer's angle: http://www.citylab.com/commute/2016/12/cincinnati-has-a-streetcar-problem/510143/

I am actually happy for this. It seems the only way things will get studied and fixed is after sh$t hits the fan and forces council to do it. It's much better for us that this gets boiled down to the real cut-and-dried technical arguments as quickly as possible, preferably before it has the chance to become completely politicized.

 

^Cincinnati doesn't have a streetcar problem, it has a mayor problem. 

 

This is one of the small cadre of blog writers who hates streetcars.  If you dig into local boards like this on in Seattle and elsewhere, there are a lot of those people out there.  Their basis for hating streetcars stems from very specific issues in their respective cities and they project those out to wherever.  As has already been noted, all of these operations problems wouldn't exist if Roxanne Qualls had been elected mayor in 2013. 

^Cincinnati doesn't have a streetcar problem, it has a mayor problem. 

 

This is one of the small cadre of blog writers who hates streetcars.  If you dig into local boards like this on in Seattle and elsewhere, there are a lot of those people out there.  Their basis for hating streetcars stems from very specific issues in their respective cities and they project those out to wherever.  As has already been noted, all of these operations problems wouldn't exist if Roxanne Qualls had been elected mayor in 2013. 

The best guard against those who would exploit these initial streetcar problems for political gain is to face them, and demand that the well known solutions be implemented. The thing that scares me more than anything is the silence (to my eyes and ears) from supporters on council about why we are not moving forward aggressively with these solutions - the traffic study to name one. If that is being held up by Cranley and his allies, then I sure don't know about it, and it hasn't been widely reported that way.

 

I would think supporters on council would be trying every which way to force a vote on authorizing the studies, so that those in opposition could be tied to those votes.

Cranley could simply be strong-arming all of the Democrats on council by threatening to pull party endorsements and financial support for their 2017 campaigns if they move ahead with this traffic study.   

 

 

The city facing a steep deficit this coming fiscal year brought on by steep wage hikes? I'm not sure there is any political will for a $300,000 traffic study for a project Cranley personally opposes.

The city facing a steep deficit this coming fiscal year brought on by steep wage hikes? I'm not sure there is any political will for a $300,000 traffic study for a project Cranley personally opposes.

Oh please. You're talking about $300,000 as though it was coming out of your home budget.

 

"Political will" is generated by how the argument is made. I think we've all seen enough evidence for that in the last year.

 

If jmecklenborg[/member] is correct in assuming the Dems on council are being held down by Cranley for a freaking traffic study, then in my opinion they should all quit. If you are unable to make a bullet proof and objective case for a traffic study that hasn't been done in 20 years, in downtown, where traffic conditions have changed drastically, and you've just installed $130MM of transit infrastructure, then I'm not sure what you would be able to do, effectively, as a politician.

 

 

The money for the traffic study is coming out of the surplus from the streetcar construction fund, so it could not be repurposed for plugging the hole in the city budget.

 

City Council passed an ordinance instructing the City Manager to do the traffic study. I'm not sure what Council can do if the City Manager refuses... pass it again with an explicit timeline?

Cranley has been on a spending spree from the moment he (re)took office.  He was of course reckless back when he was head of the finance committee (blew the $50 million Anthem pension payout buying votes for himself back in 2003) and since taking the mayor's seat has been going crazy with police and fire, again to buy votes for his 2017 campaign.  Cranley has to buy votes because he can't earn them. 

City Council passed an ordinance instructing the City Manager to do the traffic study. I'm not sure what Council can do if the City Manager refuses... pass it again with an explicit timeline?

 

Has the City Manager refused?  Or is the ordinance just waiting endlessly with no response?

City Council passed an ordinance instructing the City Manager to do the traffic study. I'm not sure what Council can do if the City Manager refuses... pass it again with an explicit timeline?

 

Has the City Manager refused?  Or is the ordinance just waiting endlessly with no response?

These are very important questions. This is something that this group might be able to rally around. If anyone has any ideas about what council could do, or how citizen efforts could help them move this forward with Black, then please share...

 

This inaction on a mundane but critical study is an example of what people expect from Washington, but don't have patience for in their local government.

 

Cranley's "argument": "Why spend $300K on a 'traffic study' designed to slow thousands of cars getting to and from downtown, just to make the streetcar a little faster for a hundred or so people wanting to go to lunch on the streetcar?"

 

A good answer is needed. I'd rather bring this back to non-confrontational, "good policy" arguments, like "No. That's not what a traffic study does. It will find out how to move the most people, to and from downtown, in the quickest way possible. We haven't measured traffic in our downtown in 25 years. Since then we've changed the configuration of vine street, witnessed the rebirth of OTR, reconfigured our highway system and built The Banks, built the first streetcar line in over 50 years, and repopulated our urban core. It makes no sense to pretend these things didn't happen, or don't matter. We need a logical, fact-based study of downtown traffic, and we need it now. Everybody should get behind this; doing otherwise is just obstructing the cause of good government."

The money for the traffic study is coming out of the surplus from the streetcar construction fund, so it could not be repurposed for plugging the hole in the city budget.

 

City Council passed an ordinance instructing the City Manager to do the traffic study. I'm not sure what Council can do if the City Manager refuses... pass it again with an explicit timeline?

 

Pretty sure Council hasn't passed the ordinance yet. Many months ago, the Feds said it was OK to use money in the streetcar budget for this

Last week on Twitter, Jay Kincaid informed me that "the traffic study is being done." So there is a lot of confusion or misinformation about the current status of the traffic study.

If the traffic study is underway, who is conducting it?  What is stopping Cranley from giving signal priority to once obscure intersection in Over-the-Rhine but none of the others the study recommends?  He can just go out there and make something up that those desperate to get a job in his administration The Enquirer's reporters will repeat verbatim. 

Planetizen says that the streetcar is "floundering" -- feel free to respond to their article.

I haven't heard of any of these websites putting out negative articles, and won't give them clicks now. Are there any ridership numbers from this past weekend? Between the ugly sweater bar crawl and SantaCon there were a LOT of people on the streetcar Saturday, myself included.

Based on a search of council documents http://city-egov.cincinnati-oh.gov/Webtop/ws/council/public/documents/SearchForm, there are two documents containing the word "traffic", after 1/1/2016, that are relevant to a downtown traffic study:

 

1. A motion from 9/14 that refers to a "... traffic count study already authorized and funded..." and that very specifically mentions traffic signal prioritization for the streetcar: http://city-egov.cincinnati-oh.gov/Webtop/ws/council/public/child/Blob/46045.pdf?rpp=-10&m=1&w=doc_no%3D%27201601278%27. However this motion was never voted on and has a final disposition of "filed."

 

2. A motion from 10/12 that appears to be a significant revision of the above, and references a traffic study much more vaguely, "... a downtown traffic signal timing and traffic study will result in recommendations to the Administration for updating traffic signal timing in downtown Cincinnati" and that eliminated all specific references to traffic signal prioritization: ...http://city-egov.cincinnati-oh.gov/Webtop/ws/council/public/child/Blob/46219.pdf?rpp=-10&m=1&w=doc_no%3D%27201601373%27

 

Maybe someone who has a better idea of the inner workings of city council can illuminate what, exactly, these mean, and what work is authorized by city transportation. Two months have gone by and people on this list, who are much more in the know than anyone else, don't have a clue. Given the importance of this study, if indeed one exists, we'd be good to focus our energies on paying attention to this and finding out what is going on, and what pressure is being exerted from different factions.

Based on a search of council documents http://city-egov.cincinnati-oh.gov/Webtop/ws/council/public/documents/SearchForm, there are two documents containing the word "traffic", after 1/1/2016, that are relevant to a downtown traffic study:

 

1. A motion from 9/14 that refers to a "... traffic count study already authorized and funded..." and that very specifically mentions traffic signal prioritization for the streetcar: http://city-egov.cincinnati-oh.gov/Webtop/ws/council/public/child/Blob/46045.pdf?rpp=-10&m=1&w=doc_no%3D%27201601278%27. However this motion was never voted on and has a final disposition of "filed."

 

2. A motion from 10/12 that appears to be a significant revision of the above, and references a traffic study much more vaguely, "... a downtown traffic signal timing and traffic study will result in recommendations to the Administration for updating traffic signal timing in downtown Cincinnati" and that eliminated all specific references to traffic signal prioritization: ...http://city-egov.cincinnati-oh.gov/Webtop/ws/council/public/child/Blob/46219.pdf?rpp=-10&m=1&w=doc_no%3D%27201601373%27

 

Maybe someone who has a better idea of the inner workings of city council can illuminate what, exactly, these mean, and what work is authorized by city transportation. Two months have gone by and people on this list, who are much more in the know than anyone else, don't have a clue. Given the importance of this study, if indeed one exists, we'd be good to focus our energies on paying attention to this and finding out what is going on, and what pressure is being exerted from different factions.

 

Here's the story. This passed in the form of a Motion. Now the mayor wants an Ordinance. Some have told me that a Motion wasn't even necessary, that this was well within the city manager's authority to do on his own. The Ordinance is overkill -- and requires a sixth vote. In any case, this could have been done months ago. They have known there are problems with the signals since early this year.

A new ordinance was drafted by Flynn, but to me it would move all leftover streetcar construction money into a capital account that could only be spent on streetcar related maintenance and repair, effectively eliminating the use of those funds for conducting a traffic signal study.

 

I could be wrong... here's the description of the ordinance:

 

ORDINANCE, submitted by Councilmember Flynn, AUTHORIZING the establishment of new capital improvement program project account no. 980x233x172378, "Streetcar System Maintenance and Repair," for the purpose of maintaining the streetcar system, including making major repairs and replacing components, in order to ensure proper operation of the system in the Central Business District and Over-the-Rhine; AUTHORIZING the transfer and return to source, Streetcar Operations Fund 455, of the amount of $1,500,000 from existing capital improvement program project account no. 980x233x03678, "Cincinnati Streetcar System"; AUTHORIZING the transfer and appropriation of $1,500,000 from the unappropriated surplus of Streetcar Operations Fund 455 to newly established capital improvement program project account no. 980x233x172378, "Streetcar System Maintenance and Repair"; and further AUTHORIZING the use of streetcar construction contingency dollars to reimburse $550,000 in capital startup costs incurred by the City of Cincinnati prior to the start of streetcar revenue service.

Here's the story. This passed in the form of a Motion. Now the mayor wants an Ordinance. Some have told me that a Motion wasn't even necessary, that this was well within the city manager's authority to do on his own. The Ordinance is overkill -- and requires a sixth vote. In any case, this could have been done months ago. They have known there are problems with the signals since early this year.

Given we are running up to an election year, and that the streetcar once again figures to be part of the attacks, the fact that this story gets buried says that people all around are really unsure whether they will end up on the winning side of this argument.

 

Sounds like the makings of a good investigative piece to me...

I could be wrong... here's the description of the ordinance:

When?

I could be wrong... here's the description of the ordinance:

When?

 

Ordinance has a 12/14/2016 date on it but has to go through Transportation and Regional Cooperation Committee first.

Here's the story. This passed in the form of a Motion. Now the mayor wants an Ordinance. Some have told me that a Motion wasn't even necessary, that this was well within the city manager's authority to do on his own. The Ordinance is overkill -- and requires a sixth vote. In any case, this could have been done months ago. They have known there are problems with the signals since early this year.

 

Unfortunately, that's how this administration operates. When Council passes a motion instructing the City Manager to do something, if the Mayor doesn't also want it to happen, it gets ignored. Council has to pass an ordinance (which carries more weight) to require him to do something. So much for that saying about the City Manager having 10 bosses.

A new ordinance was drafted by Flynn, but to me it would move all leftover streetcar construction money into a capital account that could only be spent on streetcar related maintenance and repair, effectively eliminating the use of those funds for conducting a traffic signal study.

 

I could be wrong... here's the description of the ordinance:

 

ORDINANCE, submitted by Councilmember Flynn, AUTHORIZING the establishment of new capital improvement program project account no. 980x233x172378, "Streetcar System Maintenance and Repair," for the purpose of maintaining the streetcar system, including making major repairs and replacing components, in order to ensure proper operation of the system in the Central Business District and Over-the-Rhine; AUTHORIZING the transfer and return to source, Streetcar Operations Fund 455, of the amount of $1,500,000 from existing capital improvement program project account no. 980x233x03678, "Cincinnati Streetcar System"; AUTHORIZING the transfer and appropriation of $1,500,000 from the unappropriated surplus of Streetcar Operations Fund 455 to newly established capital improvement program project account no. 980x233x172378, "Streetcar System Maintenance and Repair"; and further AUTHORIZING the use of streetcar construction contingency dollars to reimburse $550,000 in capital startup costs incurred by the City of Cincinnati prior to the start of streetcar revenue service.

 

Nothing to see here. Just introduced, "ORDINANCE, (EMERGENCY) submitted by Councilmember Flynn, on 12/14/2016, AUTHORIZING the use of streetcar construction contingency dollars to fund a downtown traffic signal timing study."

Council will consider plan that could help streetcar, north-south traffic move faster

 

 

The city of Cincinnati will spend $300,000 to look at ways to rework downtown’s traffic system to more efficiently move all users of public roads – cars, buses, the Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar, bicycles and pedestrians – under an ordinance introduced by Councilman Kevin Flynn.

 

More below:

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2016/12/15/council-will-consider-ordinance-that-could-help.html

^ Yeah it is good to have clarity on this important issue. The article goes on to mention that this Ordinance requires that council vote on any specific recommendations prior to implementation, which is unusual but, according to Flynn, possibly appropriate for this important study. In terms of timing, looks like we should expect the status quo for the next 3-6 months.

The Enquirer posts clickbait on Citylab's clickbait article based on the original clickbait Enquirer article:

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2016/12/15/atlantic-cincy-has-streetcar-problem/95485054/

What do you think the article will say when numbers go back up for December? Are we really going to have an real-time article every month on numbers? This is non-news, but we all know that.

Why don't they write articles about how many cars use some of the very expensive overpasses and roads we build? How many cars per day use the Monmouth Avenue overpass? What's the net gain on I-75 so far given the hundreds of millions invested there?

^ Yeah it is good to have clarity on this important issue. The article goes on to mention that this Ordinance requires that council vote on any specific recommendations prior to implementation, which is unusual but, according to Flynn, possibly appropriate for this important study. In terms of timing, looks like we should expect the status quo for the next 3-6 months.

 

Cranley is setting up this up so that he can score political points. Let's say that the study comes back and recommends adding signal priority for the streetcar. If only 5 council members vote in favor of implementing that plan, Cranely will veto and say that the streetcar shouldn't be prioritized over other vehicles. Even if 6 vote in favor, he might veto it anyway (then council can vote to overrule his veto) so that he can say that he "stood up to the elitist train cult" or whatever.