Cincinnati Bell had a closed door meeting with council members. If I was them I would be pissed too after the investment they have made for 10 years.

I'm wondering aloud if 3CDC has been anti-streetcar this whole time because they knew it would inflate property values from Liberty St. north and inhibit their ability to control the entire neighborhood from Central Parkway north to Findlay Market. 

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2017/03/17/3cdc-acquires-big-parcel-on-liberty-street.html

 

They just paid $80,000~ per 25-foot lot, a massive inflation in OTR land costs since streetcar construction began in 2013.  That's when you could still get a lot for $20k, and just a year or two before that you could get them for $5k. 

 

Yep. They were anti-streetcar all along because they didn't want other developers to come in and do their own projects, raising overall property values in the neighborhood in an organic way. They wanted to have total control over the supply and demand in the neighborhood, buying everything dirt cheap and fixing up one block at a time in an orderly manner. That's the great thing about the streetcar. It's an equalizer. Anyone who owns a property within a block of the route is now a streetcar ride away from downtown. It allowed Model Group to leap right over 3CDC and do a massive project at Findlay Market.

Yep. They were anti-streetcar all along because they didn't want other developers to come in and do their own projects, raising overall property values in the neighborhood in an organic way. They wanted to have total control over the supply and demand in the neighborhood, buying everything dirt cheap and fixing up one block at a time in an orderly manner. That's the great thing about the streetcar. It's an equalizer. Anyone who owns a property within a block of the route is now a streetcar ride away from downtown. It allowed Model Group to leap right over 3CDC and do a massive project at Findlay Market.

 

I think this is a little overly cynical. More likely there was political triangulation going on so their organization wasn't retaliated against by the usual suspects. Also in my recollection they were neutral.

In a recent podcast Steven Leeper said that 3CDC was very lucky to have been well-established when the huge recession hit in 2008.  That allowed them to assemble the parcels in 2009-10 that became Westfallen I & II, Mercer Commons, etc.  They're not going to be able to do that anymore unless they want to go over to the West End and buy up industrial properties, church portfolios, etc.   

As an organization they were neutral but I would bet that many of the high level people within 3CDC were opposed to it. In a recent interview they were asked about some project they did along the streetcar line, and their comments was something like, "We would've done this project with or without the streetcar." Every other developer doing big projects along the line is using it as a selling point.

In a recent podcast Steven Leeper said that 3CDC was very lucky to have been well-established when the huge recession hit in 2008.  That allowed them to assemble the parcels in 2009-10 that became Westfallen I & II, Mercer Commons, etc.  They're not going to be able to do that anymore unless they want to go over to the West End and buy up industrial properties, church portfolios, etc. 

 

I think their charter confines them to a specific geographic area (I seem to remember ~80 blocks for some reason,) Im not sure if that extends a even a block over Central Parkway into the West End or not.

As an organization they were neutral but I would bet that many of the high level people within 3CDC were opposed to it. In a recent interview they were asked about some project they did along the streetcar line, and their comments was something like, "We would've done this project with or without the streetcar." Every other developer doing big projects along the line is using it as a selling point.

 

Well, of course they'd do it with or without the streetcar. It's what they were specifically set up to do. Whether there would be all the momentum that we have now is a different story.

Taste of Cincinnati makes way for streetcar, moves two blocks east

 

CINCINNATI -- Taste of Cincinnati is making way for Cincinnati's streetcar.

 

The annual Memorial Day food fest is shuffling two blocks east, organizers announced Wednesday.

 

It's the second event the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber has moved to accommodate the city's newest transit system; Oktoberfest Zinzinnati moved to Second and Third streets last year for its 40th anniversary celebration.

 

The festival's relocation shows Cincinnati "can walk and chew gum at the same time," Vice Mayor David Mann said.

 

Cont

"In past years, the event hugged Fountain Square, which now has streetcar tracks running north and south on either side."

 

This is incorrect.

One of these days, the Chamber will realize that they can keep Taste and Oktoberfest on Fifth Street and just allow the streetcar to run through the festival. Again, there are streetcar and tram systems in dozens of cities around the world that run through pedestrian plazas. People just move out of the way and it's not a big deal.

"In past years, the event hugged Fountain Square, which now has streetcar tracks running north and south on either side."

 

This is incorrect.

 

It also gives people who avoid the Downtown except for the 'heritage days' the impression that this is how they have to get to Fountain square now...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNgb4EdgCFc

 

 

One of these days, the Chamber will realize that they can keep Taste and Oktoberfest on Fifth Street and just allow the streetcar to run through the festival.

 

I sense a trap by Cranley.  If Walnut and Main remain open, there will be tons of uber pickups and drop-offs, and 5th St. traffic will dead-end into Main.  It's going to be a total disaster since the streetcars wont' be able to pass through on either Walnut or Main. 

I also want to point out that while the downtown loop is closed for track repairs this week, MSD is taking advantage of the closure and doing some sewer repair work at 5th & Walnut under the track. The reason I point this out is that Hamilton County was given the option in 2011 to do this work at a 50% discount during the construction of the streetcar, when the streets were already ripped up. Due to pressure from COAST and opposition to anything related to the word "streetcar", Hamilton County foolishly turned down the offer, and as a result, only the bare minimum sewer repair work was done at that time. (I think they discovered a big sewer collapse under Elm Street in front of Music Hall, and that was repaired before the track was installed.) So thanks to COAST, Hamilton County taxpayers are spending more money to do these repairs, and they're ripping up a street that just got repaved about a year ago.

Lol so basically coast, which is against taxes is causing tax money to be wasted, which could have the result of increasing taxes.

The goal of organizations like COAST is not to save the people money but rather break the government.

The goal of organizations like COAST is not to save the people money but rather break the government.

 

Let us never forget the time they planned a rally for the city hall steps, it rained, the city hall staff wouldn't let them move the rally into the lobby and block the metal detectors, so they sued the city and won. 

The number of times that COAST has sued the city over incredibly dumb stuff and won, therefore getting Chris Finney's legal fees covered by the city, is enough evidence to show that they don't care about saving the taxpayers money.

 

Another example that comes to mind is when they dug and found out that Laure Quinlivin visited her campaign website from her "work" laptop, so they claimed that she was using city property to assist in her campaign.

The number of times that COAST has sued the city over incredibly dumb stuff and won, therefore getting Chris Finney's legal fees covered by the city, is enough evidence to show that they don't care about saving the taxpayers money.

 

Another example that comes to mind is when they dug and found out that Laure Quinlivin visited her campaign website from her "work" laptop, so they claimed that she was using city property to assist in her campaign.

 

Coast loves the streetcar.  It has been good for business.  Cranley shut them up with the $600k he ordered the city to pay them back in January of 2014.  So Chris Finney moved onto frivolous Title IX lawsuits. 

 

 

 

 

Letter warns of ‘[glow=red,2,300]catastrophic[/glow]’ systems failures in Cincinnati’s streetcars

 

 

An explosive new letter from the company that operates the Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar says three major systems regularly fail and that the company that manufactured the vehicles has not adequately addressed the problems.

 

More below:

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2017/03/22/exclusive-letter-warns-of-catastrophic-systems.html

How frequently do Cincinnati streetcar failures affect service?

 

Systems failures have affected service on the Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar 17 out of the first 78 days of 2017, sidelining streetcars and causing delays at times, according to documents obtained by the Business Courier through a records request.

 

In many cases, the delays are a side effect of several systemic problems with the city’s five streetcars built by CAF USA, a Spain-based manufacturer of transit vehicles. Transdev, the streetcar system’s operator detailed the failures in a recent letter, calling some of them “catastrophic.” They include problems with grounding devices that help power the streetcar, heating units and air compressors.

 

More below:

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2017/03/28/exclusive-how-frequently-do-cincinnatistreetcar.html

As Cincinnati Bell-led panel tries to boost streetcar, monthly passes unveiled

 

Riders of the Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar will be able to buy a monthly pass this summer for the first time, Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority officials announced Thursday.

 

The promotional passes will cost $50 and be good for one month. The passes only will be available in June, July and August.

 

More below:

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2017/03/30/as-cincinnati-bell-led-panel-tries-to-boost.html

^ Cincinnati Bell's CEO gets it:

 

“From 11 a.m. to 2 (p.m.) everyday, that thing should rifle through the city,” Torbeck said. “I guarantee the ridership would go up.”

 

It's a shame our mayor won't let that happen!

^ Prioritizing and even preempting signals from 11 to 2 shouldn't even be debated much. There's virtually no traffic downtown during those hours. It'd be interesting to see traffic counts broken down by time of day but I bet it would show that aside from the usual rush hours around 8:00AM and 5:00PM there's not really much traffic downtown at all.

The traffic study currently being done is not considering signal priority for the streetcar. This is despite the fact that city council passed a motion directing the city to study signal priority for the streetcar and Metro Plus buses. As we have learned over the past four years, motions do not carry the weight of law and are only "suggestions" that the city administration can choose to ignore.

^Please do tell. Where does this information come from? Is the study currently in progress, and does this come from actual direction being given to the engineers from the City?

I can't really say the source of my information. But I am told that the city is doing the most minimal possible traffic study. Signal priority won't be a part of it. The signals will be re-timed to give more green lights to north-south traffic on Main and Walnut, but they are only taking into consideration the size of the vehicles, not the number of passengers. Ideally we would weight a bus or streetcar with 50 riders 50× more than a single passenger car when putting together the simulations...but that's not what's happening. The other factor is that the length of time given to pedestrians to cross the street is also being increased, as the current timing plan is in violation of current ADA rules. While this will be good for pedestrians, this could hurt the streetcar at the two places downtown where the streetcar waits for a pedestrian phase to complete before getting a transit signal to change lanes. Also, I'm not sure if the study is currently in progress or not...I have heard different things from different people.

Kansas City doesn't seem to be having any of these problems.  They put management of the streetcar under control of a new board.  I assume that board members were appointed by the pro-streetcar mayor.  Obviously, when that guy's gone, future board appointees could collude to turn their streetcar into a boogey man.  But under our setup, there will always be 2-3 elected officials harassing the streetcar.   

The city really doesn't / shouldn't have much to do with the day to day operations, except that we are still having problems with the infrastructure (which the city owns) and with the city's traffic enforcement. They are slowly adding more signage and paint but cars still pull too far into intersections, park over the line, or stop on the tracks (especially at Rhinegeist).

 

As a Regional Transit Authority in Ohio, SORTA has the ability to deputize their own police department. I wonder if it would be more effective to put Metro officers in charge of traffic enforcement along the route and ticketing for fare violations, and cut the city completely out of the picture.

A smiling, waving Cranley and his campaign entourage appear to have successfully negotiated the Race St. tracks. 

The streetcar's twitter account announced that service began at about 3:50pm. 

So apparently the average headways in practice are 13 minutes during peak hours and 17 minutes during off-peak. That's not too bad, only 1-2 minutes slower than what was expected. What's frustrating is that this makes it painfully obvious, if the streetcars would just hit one or two more green lights per round trip, instead of getting stuck at red lights, they would meet their scheduled headways (12 minutes peak, 15 minutes off-peak). If the traffic signal retiming can give even a slight advantage to the streetcars, we'll be set.

 

The bigger issue is blockages. It was held up 82 times in March due to vehicles blocking the tracks. (64 of those times were for less than 2 minutes.) And yet City Council refuses to increase the fine for blocking the tracks.

 

(This info is coming from the transportation committee meeting being held right now.)

I forgot about yesterday's update... Based on the fact that there has been no Streetcar headlines in the Enquirer the past 24 hours, ridership must have been up in March and it continues to run in the black.

According to Jay Hanselman of WVXU, the ridership in March was 34,679. Average of 1,006 on weekdays (removing the 4 days it was shut down for concrete repairs. Average of 831 if you include those 4 days, but I don't think that's fair). Average of 2,760 on Saturdays, and 1,130 on Sundays.

 

September: 133,322

October: 95,286

November: 49,920

December: 52,209

January: 35,334

February: 36,677

Kansas City had 30,021 riders last weekend.

Do we know what the monthly cost is going to be yet? I heard $50 and $30. I'll probably buy one just to support the cause.

$50, unless it gets changed. But that looks like the cost.

Metro proposed $50 but some council members were suggesting a lower price. I'm not sure if any decision was made because I haven't seen an article about it yet. For comparison, Portland's monthly pass is $40, but strangely, their 2.5 hour pass is $2, double the rate of Cincinnati's 2 hour pass. (Portland does not offer an all-day streetcar-only pass.)

Kansas City had 30,021 riders last weekend.

Jesus. I have to say, I sense a depressing stall here.

 

It is so sad that Cranley had to get elected at just this time. He is doing everything he can to keep the streetcars empty.

Wow, makes me think we made some significant errors in our system design. Some of the ridership issues can be explained by the operational screwups, but those alone are not leading to such a discrepancy in use between our system and KC's. I believe their system essentially follows one street up and down. I've been to KC several times, and their downtown doesn't seem as lively or large as ours, and their semi-abandoned district outside of downtown is nowhere near as cool or intact as OTR.  So by all conventional logic, our system should be at least comparable to theirs in terms of ridership.

 

One thing that definitely helps their ridership is the fact that their streetcar is free. Their block size might be larger too, which could work to their advantage. But I also think there might be something to the linear alignment of their system. All the turns make our system a bit confusing, and they definitely slow it down, too. The lights are probably also easier to time on just one street as opposed to 5 here. Psychologically, I think a straight line path probably seems like it covers more distance than our turning system. In retrospect, a simple rectangle that used Race to go south, Main to go north, or just a N-S alignment on Vine would have probably been much better than what we have. I know the alignment was partly dictated by the reinforced FWW bridges, though.

 

I don't think our system is a failure, and I do think ridership will improve as OTR continues to redevelop, especially around Findlay Market. But I do think Troy isn't too far off when he says that most of the route is pretty walkable for most people. Unless you're really going from one of the poles, it's a tough sell to tell someone to pay, wait at the station, and ride a slow streetcar when you could walk 5-6 short blocks to get where you're headed. I've made this claim for years, and usually have been shouted down by the streetcar mafia. If the streetcar isn't going to be expanded to actually exceed that walkable threshold for more people, then we should seriously look into dedicated lanes to speed the thing up. As it stands now, it just doesn't make a lot of sense to use in many scenarios.

^it needs improved headways and a higher average speed. It's fixable if the political will is there to fix it (or should I say the political obstruction isn't there to stop the fixes.) to do this  It needs signal priority, one or two more blocks where it has dedicated lanes (that it can share with busses,) and some service schedule tweaks that would increase the vehicles in service during high demand times. And better response from CAF to service the vehicles.

But I also think there might be something to the linear alignment of their system. All the turns make out system a bit confusing, and they definitely slow it down, too. The lights are probably also easier to time on just one street as opposed to 5 here. Psychologically, I think a straight line path probably seems like it covers more distance than our turning system.

 

A surprising number of people, including educated professionals that you would think are smart enough to figure it out, don't understand the two way aspect. If you are standing at Aronoff for instance, and want to head north, the vast majority of people get on at 7th and Walnut! I have experienced this first hand many times and have actually gotten into arguments with co-workers. Instead you should walk to 8th and Main, because Main street is a Northbound Street. This seems simple, but is lost to many, especially out of towners who just go the stop they see closest. This dilemma is removed by having both directions on a single two-way street, as Kansas City does, and as Denver's 16th street shuttle does. People will figure it out eventually but a two-way system is a lot more idiot proof.

 

A linear, two-way alignment up Vine Street, turning around at the Banks and near Findlay, would have had less development potential because of it's narrower alignment, but would have been much much simpler and easier to understand.

A surprising number of people, including educated professionals that you would think are smart enough to figure it out, don't understand the two way aspect. If you are standing at Aronoff for instance, and want to head north, the vast majority of people get on at 7th and Walnut! I have experienced this first hand many times and have actually gotten into arguments with co-workers. Instead you should walk to 8th and Main, because Main street is a Northbound Street. This seems simple, but is lost to many, especially out of towners who just go the stop they see closest. This dilemma is removed by having both directions on a single two-way street, as Kansas City does, and as Denver's 16th street shuttle does. People will figure it out eventually but a two-way system is a lot more idiot proof.

 

I think this is a side effect of calling it a "loop". It makes people think, you just get on and ride it around to where you need to go. It makes much more sense if you think about it as a north/south route with an S-bend in the middle.

^Nooooo!

 

A north south route with an S-bend would look like this:

  _

I  I

I  I___

I___  I

      I  I

      I_I

 

This would be a continuous loop that always travels in the same direction, either clockwise or counterclockwise. That's not what it is at all. It is a figure-8, with the north half travelling clockwise and the south half travelling counter-clockwise.

 

Say you are travelling from Fountain Square to Music Hall and back. From Fountain Square, you can ride south around 2nd street, or walk one block east to take a shortcut. From Music Hall, you can ride north all the way around Henry Street or walk one block to take the shortcut. But which way do you walk, east or west? It depends on whether you are north or south of Central Parkway. What if you don't know? Well, I guess to be safe you have to ride the whole loop all the way around.

The primary issue affecting ridership on our system is that it is still lined by many parking lots and vacant buildings.  The north third of the line above Washington Park is still largely vacant.  Adding 1,000 residents to that area will generate more ridership than 1,000 more at The Banks.   

 

^Nooooo!

 

A north south route with an S-bend would look like this:

  _

I  I

I  I___

I___  I

      I  I

      I_I

 

This would be a continuous loop that always travels in the same direction, either clockwise or counterclockwise. That's not what it is at all. It is a figure-8, with the north half travelling clockwise and the south half travelling counter-clockwise.

 

Say you are travelling from Fountain Square to Music Hall and back. From Fountain Square, you can ride south around 2nd street, or walk one block east to take a shortcut. From Music Hall, you can ride north all the way around Henry Street or walk one block to take the shortcut. But which way do you walk, east or west? It depends on whether you are north or south of Central Parkway. What if you don't know? Well, I guess to be safe you have to ride the whole loop all the way around.

 

If you call it a "loop" or "figure 8", it makes it sound like Detroit People Mover or Miami MetroMover, where it goes around in one direction. That's not how our system works.

The primary issue affecting ridership on our system is that it is still lined by many parking lots and vacant buildings.  The north third of the line above Washington Park is still largely vacant.  Adding 1,000 residents to that area will generate more ridership than 1,000 more at The Banks.   

 

I don't think people should get hung up on the current ridership numbers. The reason it's low on weekdays is because we haven't seen a ton of development along the northern end of the route yet. Five years from now, there will be major new developments at both the NW and SE corners of Liberty & Elm, and two phases of Broadway Square will be complete. And probably a lot more. That's a huge number of residents being added north of Liberty. If those people work downtown or need to go downtown, they will take the streetcar.

 

The number one thing that we can do to ensure ridership is make the fixes that are needed so that the system is reliable for all of the new potential riders that will be added along the route in the coming years.

^I think the KC streetcar is being used much more by downtown visitors than it is by its resident population.  I have read that KC's resurgence is nipping at the Plaza, which is like a really big Hyde Park Square four miles south built back in 1920, which killed off Downtown KC's shopping well before it died in most other cities.  OTR has already eroded the Mt. Adams bar scene and kept its housing prices in check.  Findlay Market + Gateway Quarter could come to dominate restaurants and Cincinnati's nightlife in a few years. 

The primary issue affecting ridership on our system is that it is still lined by many parking lots and vacant buildings.  The north third of the line above Washington Park is still largely vacant.  Adding 1,000 residents to that area will generate more ridership than 1,000 more at The Banks.   

 

I don't think people should get hung up on the current ridership numbers. The reason it's low on weekdays is because we haven't seen a ton of development along the northern end of the route yet. Five years from now, there will be major new developments at both the NW and SE corners of Liberty & Elm, and two phases of Broadway Square will be complete. And probably a lot more. That's a huge number of residents being added north of Liberty. If those people work downtown or need to go downtown, they will take the streetcar.

 

 

I agree with you on the Findlay Market /Market Square point, but not with the Broadway Square one. You really think residents and employees in that area of OTR/Pendleton are going to walk all the way over to either the Central Parkway or 8th and Walnut stops? Mayyybe if they're headed down to the Banks, but CP is pretty far out of the way from that area, and by the time you're at 8th, what's a few more blocks to the core of the business district? With a Vine alignment, at least all parts of OTR and downtown would only be a few blocks from the line. Our alignment really only serves the west side of OTR and the east side of downtown.

^ Sorry, I meant to say Market Square, Model Group's other project.