Then again, there are some idiots in there as well:

 

This bone headed street car is worthless and does nothing but appease the homosexual community that thinks a bus on rails is some kind of innovative transportation of the future.

 

If you're on Reddit, go chime in!

With the Reds back in town, downtown traffic at evening rush hour was ugly yesterday...

 

From Cincinnati Bell Connector via Twitter: "Please be advised: due to extreme congestion from work on the Brent Spence Bridge, service is experiencing delays."

With the Reds back in town, downtown traffic at evening rush hour was ugly yesterday...

 

From Cincinnati Bell Connector via Twitter: "Please be advised: due to extreme congestion from work on the Brent Spence Bridge, service is experiencing delays."

 

I'm no longer going to use the streetcar for my evening commute until the Brent Spence Bridge construction is complete.  South of Fifth Street is a complete disaster during rush hour which is causing an addition 15-20 minute extra delay to do the southern-most part of the loop.

I'm not down there but I suspect that the chaos will settle down by this time next week.  People will soon settle on a new pattern, at least until Trump decides to show up again at 4:45. 

 

The new Skyhouse will pay $200,000 a year toward steetcar operations. Best of all the city does not have to put any cash toward the project like the Kroger building.

Not only that, but Skyhouse will be paying into the streetcar fund for 30 years, much longer than the 12 or 15 years that most other projects are paying in.

WLWT reported that over 11,000 people rode the streetcar over the extended holiday weekend.  Also, 600,000 people have been on the streetcar, which is below projections of 722,000.

So streetcar ridership, overall, is only 18% below the planners' estimates. Add a few more apartment buildings along the route with a few hundred more residents who will ride it to work; fix the traffic signals to make it faster; and I think we'll hit our numbers easily.

^It was running a limited schedule on the 4th of July too.  I saw one message board that said next train was in 40 minutes, which seemed to indicate that there was only a single streetcar making the loop all day.

I really doubt that there was only a single streetcar out. If they were running the Sunday schedule there would have been two. Transdev seems to be doing a better job of predicting high ridership days and putting extra streetcars into service when needed.

^It was running a limited schedule on the 4th of July too.  I saw one message board that said next train was in 40 minutes, which seemed to indicate that there was only a single streetcar making the loop all day.

 

The message boards were screwed up every time I walked or biked past one.  We're 10 months into this and they still are broadcasting all sorts of inaccurate information, or none at all. 

The city value engineered the system and decided to use radio signals instead of hard-wiring all of the stations. It's not that Metro/Transdev "can't figure it out", it's that the infrastructure is bad. Either hardwire the stations or switch the real time arrival signs to use cellular data instead of radio frequencies. It's a solvable problem that the Cranley administration won't solve.

The city value engineered the system and decided to use radio signals instead of hard-wiring all of the stations. It's not that Metro/Transdev "can't figure it out", it's that the infrastructure is bad. Either hardwire the stations or switch the real time arrival signs to use cellular data instead of radio frequencies. It's a solvable problem that the Cranley administration won't solve.

 

I know nothing about radio, but is it possible that they are trying to go from the cars to the individual stations at the most direct (thru buildings) route? If so can they change it to hop from one station to the next since they are pretty much in site of each other or at least put repeaters (again, I know nothing) in the blind spots?Are they only tweaking the software and not the hardware? Crazy.

 

Streetcar ridership is up, but Torbeck-led committee struggles to find marketing money

 

The latest ridership numbers for the Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar show the number of people boarding was up in June, but the chairman of a committee set up to improve its operations remains concerned that the project has little money for marketing.

 

Ted Torbeck, the chairman and former CEO of Cincinnati Bell who leads the committee, believes the $148 million project needs marketing help to boost ridership and because it is a best practice in other cities with streetcars. But the City Council, which sets the budget for the project, did not include enough money for marketing when it approved the spending and revenue plan in June.

 

“We need someone who gets up every morning and thinks about how to improve ridership,” Torbeck said. “If other cities see it as that important, Cincinnati ought to see it as that important.”

 

Council approved a $4.4 million budget on June 21, but Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority officials do not believe it will accommodate more than $100,000 in proposed marketing costs, including one employee devoted to the effort.

 

Full article below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2017/07/12/streetcar-ridership-is-up-but-torbeck-led.html

The bottom line is that Cincinnati Bell stepped up and agreed to put a lot of money into the streetcar. Then the city (based on Kevin Flynn's proposal) slashed the streetcar budget to the bare minimum... less money for marketing, less money for security, less money for overhead, etc. If I were Torbeck, I'd be mad too. Kevin Flynn was the council member that flipped and supported finishing the streetcar, and now he doesn't want to properly fund it?

Honestly, the streetcar doesn't need a marketing budget. If they increase frequency and decrease delays, they will increase ridership. Put money toward making it reliable and efficient, and you won't need to market for it. Not sure what kind of marketing they want to do.

I found this bit from the article to be the most interesting and useful: "The city’s transportation director, Michael Moore, said a contract for a long-awaited study of downtown’s traffic and pedestrian grid, is expected to be awarded this summer. The goal of the study is to optimize downtown’s traffic signals to ease the flow of cars, people and transit through the urban core. Such a study has not been done in more than two decades. The work probably won’t be done until the fourth quarter of 2017, with implementation of changes coming in early 2018, a year behind schedule."

 

^Yeah, no doubt Cranley pushed it back so that no improvements could appear during campaign season. 

I found this bit from the article to be the most interesting and useful: "The city’s transportation director, Michael Moore, said a contract for a long-awaited study of downtown’s traffic and pedestrian grid, is expected to be awarded this summer. The goal of the study is to optimize downtown’s traffic signals to ease the flow of cars, people and transit through the urban core. Such a study has not been done in more than two decades. The work probably won’t be done until the fourth quarter of 2017, with implementation of changes coming in early 2018, a year behind schedule."

 

 

The silver lining for this delay is that most of the Lytle Tunnel work and BSB bridge work will be finished or finishing up by the time it starts. So they may have a mostly normal downtown traffic pattern to study.

Honestly, the streetcar doesn't need a marketing budget. If they increase frequency and decrease delays, they will increase ridership. Put money toward making it reliable and efficient, and you won't need to market for it. Not sure what kind of marketing they want to do.

 

Flynn's cuts also drastically reduce the streetcar's security budget. You can pretty much ride without paying the fare because there will almost never be an office on board to check tickets. Thanks, Kevin!

How often should there be an officer on board to check tickets?  Isn't the whole point of it that you are incentivized to buy a ticket due to the fine and also to speed up boarding times when compared to a bus?  Either we want quick boarding or everyone checked but lets not play both sides for political reasons.

Flynn's cuts also drastically reduce the streetcar's security budget. You can pretty much ride without paying the fare because there will almost never be an office on board to check tickets. Thanks, Kevin!

 

He's Standing Up for Cincinnati. 

^^The officers check tickets while the streetcar is moving. They aren't stopping people from boarding. So having officers checking tickets doesn't slow anything down. I also don't think anyone is advocating having someone check tickets on every streetcar at all times.

Yeah, exactly, it's not like a bus where everyone shows their tickets when they get on. An officer is on board and periodically will walk through and ask everyone to show their tickets. Similar to how many commuter rail systems work.

^^The officers check tickets while the streetcar is moving. They aren't stopping people from boarding. So having officers checking tickets doesn't slow anything down. I also don't think anyone is advocating having someone check tickets on every streetcar at all times.

 

Streetcar opponents advocate for it since having someone do that all the time is really expensive, combative, and it suits their narrative of poors fare-jumping all the time.

According to John Schneider, Flynn's cuts reduce spending on onboard security, parking enforcement, ticket machine maintenance, the app, and IT infrastructure. Because apparently the ticket machines are so good right now that we don't need to invest any money into maintaining or improving them. Get ready for more blockages, more fare evasion, and more inaccurate arrival time screens. Thanks, Kevin!

I spent two months in Denmark, taking the train daily, and I think there was only ever one fare check.  While traveling around the rest of Europe for a month, taking buses, subways, and streetcars everywhere, there were only three fare checks, two of which were in Munich.

Statistically speaking "almost never" is how often you want someone checking tickets.  Maybe slightly more often initially. How often has anyone had a ticketed checked on a system that self validates?  I'm guessing we are doing it here a lot more than other places do.

If anyone is curious where City Council candidate Cristina Burcica stands on the issue of the streetcar, she has posted this statement on her Facebook page:

 

I am against the wasting of our money. We have a strong history of trains but only one was left at Union Terminal. When it opened in 1933, Cincinnati Union Terminal was widely hailed as an artistic,architectural, and organizational marvel. The station was designed to accommodate 17,000 passengers and 216 trains a day. Today trains are our first priority in our independent platform for the best interest of everyone because the streetcar is considered not a good business/service. I am against those that promote a 2nd phase without understanding the expenses and suffering they are creating. I am against self centered individuals that rise to power on the work of others. Right now a small loop of a few miles does nothing for all 52 neighborhoods while costing over $140k million. It caters to a special category of individuals downtown and it doesn't help all our communities to prosper. They will come to us to tell us we need to spend more money! Our money! Those are the irresponsible individuals that rise to power for their personal needs and greed.

What will help the mess downtown is individuals that will implement plans in the best interest of all citizens. Raising taxes on people is just an inhuman way to revitalize something that hasn't been able to be revitalized for the last 20 years. Those "advocates" are the ones not able to understand what intelligent and humane leadership is all about in transportation.

 

Ummm.... wow...

If anyone is curious where City Council candidate Cristina Burcica stands on the issue of the streetcar, she has posted this statement on her Facebook page:

 

I am against the wasting of our money. We have a strong history of trains but only one was left at Union Terminal. When it opened in 1933, Cincinnati Union Terminal was widely hailed as an artistic,architectural, and organizational marvel. The station was designed to accommodate 17,000 passengers and 216 trains a day. Today trains are our first priority in our independent platform for the best interest of everyone because the streetcar is considered not a good business/service. I am against those that promote a 2nd phase without understanding the expenses and suffering they are creating. I am against self centered individuals that rise to power on the work of others. Right now a small loop of a few miles does nothing for all 52 neighborhoods while costing over $140k million. It caters to a special category of individuals downtown and it doesn't help all our communities to prosper. They will come to us to tell us we need to spend more money! Our money! Those are the irresponsible individuals that rise to power for their personal needs and greed.

What will help the mess downtown is individuals that will implement plans in the best interest of all citizens. Raising taxes on people is just an inhuman way to revitalize something that hasn't been able to be revitalized for the last 20 years. Those "advocates" are the ones not able to understand what intelligent and humane leadership is all about in transportation.

 

Ummm.... wow...

 

Lol that's a very angry and misguided person.

What?? I don't get it.  Does she think there's a trade off between trains and streetcars, like the city has funds stashed somewhere that can be spent on one or the other but not both? Most people who support trains also like streetcars because in most cities that have both, streetcars take passengers to train stations!  Somebody please buy her an escorted trip/tour to Union Station in Toronto!???

^ Wow, someone actually posted that online? What a poorly written statement.

Thank you, sir.

 

Streetcar project director leaving Cincinnati for out-of-state job

 

 

After many years in Cincinnati, the "streetcar czar" is moving on.

 

John Deatrick, who for the past three years oversaw the Cincinnati streetcar project, will begin a new job in Maryland in August, the Enquirer reports.

 

Deatrick had applied to replace Cincinnati Parks Director Willie Carden Jr., who retired this year. But the Cincinnati Park Board instead chose Wade Walcutt, former parks director in Greensboro, N.C., for the position. Walcutt started with Cincinnati Parks this week.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2017/07/19/streetcar-project-director-leaving-cincinnati-for.html

Thank you, sir.

 

Streetcar project director leaving Cincinnati for out-of-state job

 

 

After many years in Cincinnati, the "streetcar czar" is moving on.

 

John Deatrick, who for the past three years oversaw the Cincinnati streetcar project, will begin a new job in Maryland in August, the Enquirer reports.

 

Deatrick had applied to replace Cincinnati Parks Director Willie Carden Jr., who retired this year. But the Cincinnati Park Board instead chose Wade Walcutt, former parks director in Greensboro, N.C., for the position. Walcutt started with Cincinnati Parks this week.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2017/07/19/streetcar-project-director-leaving-cincinnati-for.html

 

Did Cranley do this???

JD is an asset anywhere he goes.

Deatrick was abuptly fired by the city at the end of 2016. (They should've kept him on to fix the remaining problems with the streetcar, but of course this city administration wouldn't do that...) Then Cranley ran a commercial blasting Deatrick during the mayoral primary campaign season. That's a pretty disgusting move on Cranley's part... Deatrick is not a politician, he's a private citizen who served his city and delivered the streetcar project to us ahead of schedule and under budget.

 

Best of luck to John, hopefully the city administration in his new home will appreciate him for his skills and abilities.

Jay Hanselman‏ 

@JayHanselman

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There were 61,404 streetcar rides in June.  The highest number so far for 2017. Compares to 53,116 in May. July numbers not available yet.

12:52 PM - 31 Jul 2017

 

1 Retweet

 

July numbers not available yet.

12:52 PM - 31 Jul 2017

 

 

Yeah, because it's still July. 

 

Those are some decent numbers. Hopefully similar gains in July. Still quite a bit below the necessary average of 83,333 to get to 1,000,000 annual riders, but moving in the right direction.

I had some buddies in town this past weekend and we took the connector from the Banks to Findlay on Saturday around 1.  It had on there delay but kept saying 3 mins, took about 15 minutes to get there.

 

Like so many others have said here, doing a simple fix like light timing would speed it up so much.  You get picked up at the Banks, it stops right after, then you go, then stops again right away.  Also on the run at Main and 12th there was a delay, three cars had pulled all the way into the streetcar turning lane, they all had to back up, all three in line.  Once you get past around 6th street or so, it moves pretty well.  It was also very packed, but it was frustrating sitting there and waiting on it...

^We're a year into this and the real-time arrival signs rarely work.  People get frustrated and just call Uber or walk. 

 

I don't hesitate to speculate that because of the non-functioning and/or deceptive signage, the long waits between streetcars due to red lights and most streetcars sitting in the car barn most of the time, ongoing problems with the fare machines, and competition from Uber/Lyft, the system is missing at least 1,000 riders per day, even before any consideration of making it free to ride. 

 

It's my observation that most of the streetcar ridership to and from Rhinegeist is older tourists and visitors with kids.  The 20/30 year-olds who take transit in other cities gave up on riding the streetcar between The Banks and Rhinegeist a long time ago. 

All easily fixable problems. Just need an administration that wants to fix them.

 

Detroit opened their streetcar less than three months ago. They are already making changes to get more cars on the tracks and give it signal priority to make it faster.

 

Detroit's administration wants their streetcar to succeed. Cincinnati's current administration doesn't.

Yeah, I was just thinking dang, how silly is this that they have so much issues which could easily be fixed... I also agree with Jake, there could be an extra 1,000 riders per day if they got the timing issue figured out.

there could be an extra 1,000 riders per day if they got the timing issue figured out.

 

Precisely why Cranley doesn't want the issues fixed.

^And ridership would be much, much higher if we ran four streetcars all the time and made the thing free.  That's what Kansas City is doing and they're regularly getting weekend ridership that compares or exceeds our opening weekend ridership.  That was the only time in the streetcar's history when we had good headways and the thing was free and we got 50,000 rides. 

 

KC just had triple our ridership for June 2017 for a system with a lightly shorter track and one fewer streetcar.  Its highest ridership day was 17,000+ and it has had 50+ days with over 10,000 rides. 

 

The formula for high ridership is clear -- run a lot of streetcars and make it free. 

i hate real time arrival signage. its never accurate. well maybe in spurts, but never over time.

 

it may be that the gps tech is glitchy over small distances if that is what is used or something like that, but i suspect the staff dont want it to be accurate so they can take more time jibber jabbering or having coffee.

 

what i like better i found in of all places on the tashkent metro, where the countdown clocks marks when the last train left rather than when the next one is supposed to arrive. seems much less open to transit employee shenanigans or accuracy issues.

Real time arrival works great for grade separated transit systems, because there are few things that can throw them off. Mechanical troubles or a boarding that took unexpectedly long time could disrupt, but that's about it. The times given on the platforms on the LA red line are pretty much exactly right.

 

For busses and streetcars that operate in mixed traffic, it's much harder. The bus I take to get to the subway each morning and afternoon offers a live tracking system on the LADOT website. You see the map of the route, and th bus icon moving around in real time. Works great, even though there is no arrival info at the stops. 

We shouldn't ever have to worry about accuracy of the system beyond 10 minutes because there should never be a 10-minute wait.  Meanwhile, if streetcars came every five minutes, large groups wouldn't be able to purchase their tickets in time to catch the thing.

^That's the impression I got, why not have it arrive every 12 minutes, do everything you absolutely can to make that happen, even if it means spending *gasp* one million dollars to give it signal priority and some more of it's own lanes in certain choke points. 

 

It seems it could use some cones or flashing LED's on some of the turns too.

 

All that said, my buddies really liked Cincinnati and the historic areas and thought the streetcar / lightrail was really cool and honestly there isn't a better way to get from the Banks to Findlay than that, even if we walked that would take a long time on a hot day with 3 friends from out of town.

For busses and streetcars that operate in mixed traffic, it's much harder. The bus I take to get to the subway each morning and afternoon offers a live tracking system on the LADOT website. You see the map of the route, and th bus icon moving around in real time. Works great, even though there is no arrival info at the stops. 

We have this too - its called bus tracker (http://bustracker.go-metro.com)

 

It's been documented that the locations are not always correct, but they do seem to eventually correct themselves and it's still pleasing to be able to see car movement.

 

The problem is that this is a barely passable app when used in a desktop web browser. It is nearly unusable on a phone. Thus, it is effectively useless.

 

Why SORTA refuses to do the work to make a great mobile friendly app that features this, is mind-boggling. It has data for many bus lines too.

^That's the impression I got, why not have it arrive every 12 minutes, do everything you absolutely can to make that happen, even if it means spending *gasp* one million dollars to give it signal priority and some more of it's own lanes in certain choke points. 

At least, we've heard that they finally will do the downtown traffic study. In the best case, the BSB and Lytle tunnel work will be finished, a good traffic study and recommendations for efficient transit will come next, and we'll kick Cranley out in November and have an administration that actually wants to do meaningful things for citizens - like improve traffic flows - instead of pandering to rich donors.