April 13, 20178 yr ^The alignment of the route sacrificed the higher initial ridership of an all-Vine St. route in order to motivate development of The Brewery District -- the most remote section of Over-the-Rhine. In short, we built this streetcar line into the most abandoned section of the city in order to attract private investment, and considering the fact it's coming from absolute rock bottom, it's going to take a few years before it is fully built-out.
April 13, 20178 yr ^Right, think also about all of Vine Street itself north of Liberty, E. McMicken, etc. That is a huge area. I don't know of any Vine Street buildings under renovation now but that is a more built up urban area than even around Findlay it seems to me, maybe I'm wrong, but it's in rough shape and looks almost completely abandoned. All those new future residents will for certain take the streetcar
April 13, 20178 yr ^The alignment of the route sacrificed the higher initial ridership of an all-Vine St. route in order to motivate development of The Brewery District -- the most remote section of Over-the-Rhine. In short, we built this streetcar line into the most abandoned section of the city in order to attract private investment, and considering the fact it's coming from absolute rock bottom, it's going to take a few years before it is fully built-out. I agree. I think that what depresses some of us is that we expected that finally, once this thing is built and operational, people will see the light. And we'd be seeing calls for extensions as well as real transit plans being dusted off. At least I thought so - but I was naive. It will take time, probably even if the operational aspects were ideal. Just sucks to listen to Cranley use the streetcar as part of his scorched earth class warfare campaign. If he can get beat while using that strategy it could be big.
April 13, 20178 yr 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. This is really the problem. Partly because of the Cranley administration, but honestly I don't think some of the Streetcar's biggest advocates on council even really have this down. There should have been and should be a concentrated effort at densifying the route. That means new construction without any parking. I'm sorry but there's no getting around it. The biggest disappointment to me regarding the streetcar is that new development of single family residences on the west side of Elm Street north of 15th Street (or thereabouts). Such a missed opportunity for dense housing that would be streetcar focused. The route had been known for over a decade. There's simply no excuse for allowing the same car dependent development anywhere near the route. The only parking within three blocks of the streetcar should be parking facilities that are city owned.
April 13, 20178 yr Agreed, and I think a huge improvement would be to get parking minimums eliminated from the zoning code in the CBD, OTR and Pendelton neighborhoods. This would make redeveloping buildings simpler, cheaper and would allow for greater density. How does one go about updating the zoning code?
April 13, 20178 yr How does one go about updating the zoning code? Get Cranley out of office first. He put the kibosh on a reworking of the zoning code that was already in progress.
April 13, 20178 yr ^Back in 2011 or 2012 Roxanne Qualls led a group of 10 or 20 people to tour the code changes in Nashville, TN. In the absence of any real rail transit or a robust bus transit system, the code changes alone have motivated an explosion of infill development in every corner of every neighborhood within a 3-5 mile radius of their downtown. The great thing about it is that it enables small and medium-sized players to get in the game since many people are building 2-5 houses per year, not the 200+ that Cranley's donors build.
April 15, 20178 yr Saw a streetcar jam-packed with families with small children today at 1:30pm. Almost nobody got off at Findlay Market or the Rhinegeist stop. In 800 pages and 8-9 years of speculation leading up to the opening of this system, nobody suggested that a large number of families visiting Smale Park were going to board streetcars at The Banks and do a lap without getting off. Also, I'd bet that many of these people are buying multiple all-day $2 tickets rather than $1 single-ride tickets, which helps explain why revenue is higher than ridership should suggest.
April 15, 20178 yr I'm surprised that so many suburbanites use it as a "sightseeing" trip to "see what's going on downtown". It almost serves the same purpose as those double-decker tourist buses that big cities have, for that particular crowd of people.
April 15, 20178 yr If they ride around once, maybe they will get the idea to get off at a stop along the way next time! “All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” -Friedrich Nietzsche
April 15, 20178 yr As soon as the market area becomes more developed the streetcar is going to take off more.
April 15, 20178 yr Hey, kids, do you want to ride the train? :-) Whitewater Valley Railroad: Drive to Connersville, Indiana, pay $25 per adult, $15 per child, arrive on their schedule. Lebanon Railroad: Drive to Lebanon, Ohio, pay $15 per adult, $10 per child, arrive on their schedule. Cincinnati Zoo Train: Drive to zoo, pay $10 parking, pay for zoo admission. Train is $7 on top of that. Kings Island Train (live steam!) - Drive to Kings Island. Train is included in park admission. Daily ticket is $45. Delta Train: Drive to airport, go through security. Normally, one wouldn't do this without an airline ticket. Amtrak - oh, nevermind. Any more? Is the Strickers Grove train still operating? Coney Island? Cincinnati Streetcar: $2, whenever you want. What a bargain! :clap: Oh, I almost forgot about the Cincinnati Cindersniffers, near Bright, Indiana, modelers of live steam toy trains you can ride: https://www.youtube.com/embed/WQz-cxJFWgw
April 15, 20178 yr Nobody suggested that a large number of families visiting Smale Park were going to board streetcars at The Banks and do a lap without getting off. So true! I'm glad that these families are riding the streetcar, but wow, who would have guessed?
April 18, 20178 yr 32x61 lot at 14 Findlay St. listed for $70,000. Owners bought it in 1998 for $2,800. https://www.sibcycline.com/Listing/CIN/1533180/14-Findlay-St-Cincinnati-OH-45202 https://www.google.com/maps/place/14+Findlay+St,+Cincinnati,+OH+45202/@39.1169128,-84.5178203,104m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x8841b3f99d20c445:0x8bf7de5ba53e863a!8m2!3d39.1168681!4d-84.5176989
April 19, 20178 yr It's looking like the Streetcar monthly pass will be priced at $33/month. I think that's a good deal considering that Portland's streetcar pass is $40/month but they have about double the track length that we have.
April 19, 20178 yr ^Indeed. http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2017/04/19/heres-how-much-a-monthly-streetcar-pass-will-cost.html "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
April 20, 20178 yr From breweries to emergencies, here's why the streetcar's been stopped hundreds of times CINCINNATI -- The Queen City's love of beer is literally stopping the streetcar in its tracks. Popular Over-the-Rhine brewery Rhinegeist has become a hot spot for cars parking on the streetcar tracks, sometimes even throwing it off schedule. In February, the city’s parking officers found the streetcar tracks were blocked somehow -- from cars on the tracks to people parking too close to the streetcar lane -- more than 135 times near the brewery. That spot, 1900 Elm St., has had more track issues than any other block on the passenger car’s 3.6-mile route. Cont "It's just fate, as usual, keeping its bargain and screwing us in the fine print..." - John Crichton
April 20, 20178 yr ^ ha now that is pretty funny. this kind of thing is entirely to be expected at this point in the streetcar rollout. are there any other quirks along the route similar to that?
April 20, 20178 yr ^ ha now that is pretty funny. this kind of thing is entirely to be expected at this point in the streetcar rollout. are there any other quirks along the route similar to that? By chance, the tracks are on the same side of the street as the brewery entrance. If the tracks had been constructed one lane over, the problem wouldn't be so acute. Part of the problem are the chartered party buses, part of the problem are all of the rideshare vehicles which drop-off and pick-up in the curb lane, which is also the lane with the tracks.
April 20, 20178 yr This really demands some collaboration between parking, streetcar, and Rheingeist.
April 20, 20178 yr Here's the area where the problem is: https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1169496,-84.5203113,3a,62y,4.69h,76.2t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1se2teC1RwsT2dk9YkLiMSkQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1 The city has since put up about a dozen signs stating something along the lines of "do not stop on tracks." They are very big signs and they are on every single pole. You literally can't turn your head in any direction and not see a sign. People who stop on the tracks here either ignore the signs or are so oblivious that they shouldn't be behind the wheel of a car to begin with.
April 20, 20178 yr Inside the streetcar operator’s plan to boost ridership The operator of the Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar is proposing to offer more service during weekday lunch times in order to increase ridership, a new memo obtained by the Business Courier proposes. More below: http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2017/04/20/exclusive-inside-the-streetcar-operator-s-plan-to.html "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
April 22, 20178 yr Cranley's Simpson attack ad of course centers around the streetcar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmqRlFwN2pc
April 23, 20178 yr Please tell me the average Joe is just tired of this line. At some point the CBC has to become an object of sympathy if nothing better. Compare and contrast how KC mayor has treated their streetcar. Cranley only loves himself. He's willing to use what could otherwise be a competitive advantage as a political football to ensure his future.
April 24, 20178 yr Inside the streetcar operator’s plan to boost ridership The operator of the Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar is proposing to offer more service during weekday lunch times in order to increase ridership, a new memo obtained by the Business Courier proposes. More below: http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2017/04/20/exclusive-inside-the-streetcar-operator-s-plan-to.html There we go ... thinking outside the box!
April 29, 20178 yr I just witnessed the streetcar rear-end a Honda CRV on Elm St. at 15th. Totally the fault of the streetcar operator. There were 6-7 cars cued at a red light at Liberty St., with the last 2-3 cars creeping up a few feet each because the light had just turned green. I was jogging north on Elm's west sidewalk and looked over as the streetcar passed and then it slammed on the brakes and hit the Honda. Perfect weather. Nothing weird was going on. Some of these streetcar operators have lead feet. I have seen people complain about it elsewhere, and we've all experienced it on city buses. The difference is that the streetcar has way more power and can accelerate very quickly, even with 80~ people aboard as it did in this case. The streetcar needed 2-3 more feet to come to a complete stop, but again, there is no reason why the streetcar needed to be accelerating when traffic was stopped but anticipating a green light.
April 30, 20178 yr Yea bus drivers definitely do that. I see them blow through lights all the time all over the city.
April 30, 20178 yr There was an accident earlier in the day that was obviously the car driver's fault. The streetcar was heading west on 12th between Main and Vine. A car was traveling north on Clay and gunned it across 12th, right in front of the streetcar. The car got t-boned and massively torn up.
April 30, 20178 yr Just imagine how the media would have blown up if something like this happened during streetcar construction: http://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/warren-county/part-of-old-jeremiah-morrow-bridge-just-wont-budge
April 30, 20178 yr The latest John Cranley commercial attacks John Deatrick, despite the fact that he was able to complete the streetcar's construction ahead of schedule and under budget with no major accidents or mistakes. Perhaps ODOT should have brought in John Deatrick to manage the demolition of the old Jeremiah Morrow Bridge.
May 1, 20178 yr The latest John Cranley commercial attacks John Deatrick, despite the fact that he was able to complete the streetcar's construction ahead of schedule and under budget with no major accidents or mistakes. Perhaps ODOT should have brought in John Deatrick to manage the demolition of the old Jeremiah Morrow Bridge. The western hills viaduct will cost $400 million. that's cheap compared to the Jeremiah bridge. Since that bridge is far in the hinterlands. They don't care about costs. Eg. The Portsmouth bypass. Only rail receives scrutiny in the local media.
May 1, 20178 yr How behind schedule and over budget is the MLK project? I haven't seen any financials but it's at least 5 months behind schedule. The MLK>N71 ramp just opened a week ago.
May 1, 20178 yr They started working on the MLK project before they had even finished acquiring all of the property, and therefore, before they knew what the final costs would be.
May 1, 20178 yr They started working on the MLK project before they had even finished acquiring all of the property, and therefore, before they knew what the final costs would be. Seems like a great way to pull off some scheming (collude with a holdout) while not technically breaking the law or ODOT's policies.
May 2, 20178 yr Streetcar now offering monthly passes for June, July, and August. $33/month available online, in person, or through the app: http://cincinnatibellconnector.com/news/41/35/Connect-to-Summer-Fun-With-Unlimited-Ride-Monthly-Passes-For-The-Cincinnati-Bell-Connector-Streetcar
May 2, 20178 yr Are the physical passes just paper, or are they plastic or some other material that might make them something of a collectible?
May 2, 20178 yr Are the physical passes just paper, or are they plastic or some other material that might make them something of a collectible? My understanding is that they're plastic passes if purchased online, at City Hall, or the Metro sales office. Obviously just digital if through the app.
May 2, 20178 yr Lokita Matthews, of East Price Hill, wasn’t exactly sure Tuesday was Primary Day in Cincinnati. It was her day off, she was taking a walk, and she saw a sign posted near the driveway of her precinct at the Price Hill Recreation Center. “Vote Here,” it read. She bolted inside with her mind already made up, driven by anger over Cincinnati’s street car. “Mark Mallory started the street car and he was supposed to stop it,” Matthews said, referring to Mayor Cranley. “The city is already crowded enough. We have the buses. We have TANK. We did not need a street car.” She volunteered that she voted for Simpson, whom she hopes will "get rid of the street car," she said. (Actually, Simpson is an ardent supporter of the streetcar.) “I’ve seen her issues and she has my vote. It’s not because she is a woman. It’s never about that. This is about issues.” Matthews said. “I’ve been a citizen of Cincinnati all my life, so my opinion matters.”
May 3, 20178 yr Lokita Matthews, of East Price Hill, wasn’t exactly sure Tuesday was Primary Day in Cincinnati. It was her day off, she was taking a walk, and she saw a sign posted near the driveway of her precinct at the Price Hill Recreation Center. “Vote Here,” it read. She bolted inside with her mind already made up, driven by anger over Cincinnati’s street car. “Mark Mallory started the street car and he was supposed to stop it,” Matthews said, referring to Mayor Cranley. “The city is already crowded enough. We have the buses. We have TANK. We did not need a street car.” She volunteered that she voted for Simpson, whom she hopes will "get rid of the street car," she said. (Actually, Simpson is an ardent supporter of the streetcar.) “I’ve seen her issues and she has my vote. It’s not because she is a woman. It’s never about that. This is about issues.” Matthews said. “I’ve been a citizen of Cincinnati all my life, so my opinion matters.” Ladies and gentlemen, this is the average voter.
May 3, 20178 yr The average voter: - doesn't know whether they live in the city - didn't know today was Election Day - didn't know who the candidates were
May 3, 20178 yr The city is installing electronic LRV signs at special intersections along the route. These signs will flash a LRV signal (see below) when cars have a red light but a streetcar is allowed to proceed through the intersection. I feel like this will really eliminate much of the confusion that occurs when drivers see a streetcar proceed through a red light. With the new signals, the cars will have a red light but then the train symbol will start to flash as the streetcar proceeds through the intersection. This should really make it much more obvious to drivers that "oh, the streetcar gets to go now", and reduce the number of people who end up blocking the tracks, as well as the false belief that streetcar "run red lights" because people don't understand that the streetcars have their own signal phase. I'm actually a bit surprised that the city is installing these. I wrote to the city and suggested they install these signs while the streetcar was still in its testing phase. I'm guessing it took awhile to convince some traffic engineers that they were truly needed, but...here we are. Also of note: these signs are typical for LRT systems but not as much on streetcar systems. It really goes to illustrate that our streetcar is just a short light rail system.
May 3, 20178 yr I assume these are just augmenting the streetcar signals already in place (seen in the twitter photo)?
May 3, 20178 yr I assume these are just augmenting the streetcar signals already in place (seen in the twitter photo)? Right, the vertical and horizontal bars will stay and will continue to be used as the signal to the streetcar operator when it's safe to go. The new signs are just to alert car drivers that there may be a streetcar proceeding through the intersection.
May 4, 20178 yr I think the streetcar should by default stop at every station. Get rid of the stop request button. Many times I've forgotten to press the button because I was talking with someone. Today during a heavy rain at 4th/Main the streetcar sped past me as I stepped up onto the platform. This driver is much faster than the others and as a result there is a long gap between him and the next streetcar. Its like he's trying to catch up to the third one.
May 4, 20178 yr At peak hours or during inclement weather I see the argument for stopping at every stop (maybe not opening the doors if no one is getting on/off) to make sure you don't miss someone. Off peak though, you are going to go much faster if you fly past some of those stops and greatly decreases the time between cars.
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