A five minute time savings is pretty significant... How do we get the city to act on this?

Edited November 4, 20213 yr by Dcs3939

7 hours ago, 10albersa said:

Hopefully they push OKI to apply like bananas for grants.

 

OKI doesn't apply for grants. That's on DOTE and other city departments. OKI gets a chunk of money annually from the feds and applies a formula to decide how to distribute it based on the applications they get from municipalities. So a hypothetical streetcar would go up against other projects in the region for OKI money and the money would be split based on the existing formula. So the impetus on the city to move if they want streetcar expansion.

On 11/4/2021 at 1:47 PM, DEPACincy said:

 

OKI doesn't apply for grants. That's on DOTE and other city departments. OKI gets a chunk of money annually from the feds and applies a formula to decide how to distribute it based on the applications they get from municipalities. So a hypothetical streetcar would go up against other projects in the region for OKI money and the money would be split based on the existing formula. So the impetus on the city to move if they want streetcar expansion.

Is it realistic to think of pressuring OKI to change their grant formulas though? Does the wiggle room exist to update the funding formulas to encourage TOD or at least deprioritize auto focused projects?

Seems like they're more focused on warehouses right now.

4 hours ago, Dev said:

Is it realistic to think of pressuring OKI to change their grant formulas though? Does the wiggle room exist to update the funding formulas to encourage TOD or at least deprioritize auto focused projects?

 

Honestly, it seems like bike/ped/transit projects do really well. We just need communities to submit more of those types of projects. And fewer road expansions.

With the infrastructure bill passed, which includes 35 billion for public transit. Cincinnati should make the case for federal money for a streetcar expansion. 

Streetcar ridership was updated through 11/2/2021.

 

Despite the cold snap in late October, ridership did not dip below 1,000 on any given day through November 2nd. The Streetcar had 59,161 riders in October. And has had 451, 165 riders thus far in 2021. Despite the pandemic keeping ridership down until Mid March, ridership will probably get just at or below where it was in 2019, which I think is quite remarkable. 

 

Next council not only needs to implement the changes described by bradley, but needs to plan for extensions to uptown, west end and NKY. A plan and study will determine the cost, etc and will give definitive policy.

 

Daily 9/1/2016 - 11/2/2021

 

 

Monthly 9/1/2016 - 10/31/2021

 

 

Years 2016-2021(thus far)

There's a nearly 100% chance that 2022 will be the highest ridership year of all time 

Councilman-elect pushes for expansion of Cincinnati’s streetcar route

Quote

“The streetcar now covers a very narrow swath of the city and allows of mobility in a small section,” Councilman-elect Reggie Harris said. “We want to think about the opportunity to connect neighborhoods that are really populous but otherwise geographically disconnected.”

https://www.fox19.com/2021/11/19/councilman-elect-pushes-expansion-streetcar-project/

I rode the streetcar Saturday evening from the banks and we were held up for about 10 minutes due to a vehicle blocking the track.  I'm not sure why it's such a hard concept to grasp for some. 

18 minutes ago, richNcincy said:

I rode the streetcar Saturday evening from the banks and we were held up for about 10 minutes due to a vehicle blocking the track.  I'm not sure why it's such a hard concept to grasp for some. 

Was it someone waiting to pick up someone, happens all the time after reds games *sigh* like what do u think that rail is for lmao

I'm 100% in favor of any/all streetcar extensions but at some point you're going to blur the line between a streetcar and light rail so I'm of the mind of Cincinnati pushing for LRT. Either way, I'd love to see a way to connect UC to downtown and an East-West streetcar line. 

24 minutes ago, JaceTheAce41 said:

I'm 100% in favor of any/all streetcar extensions but at some point you're going to blur the line between a streetcar and light rail so I'm of the mind of Cincinnati pushing for LRT. Either way, I'd love to see a way to connect UC to downtown and an East-West streetcar line. 

 

Yea, a streetcar running up Spring Grove or across the WHV in a dedicated land with signal preemption would behave like light rail and would be a huge benefit to those neighborhoods.

I wonder if it might make sense to cordon off the streetcar lanes in parts of downtown to prevent people from parking on the streetcar line. You might be able to have a shared bike lane or an adjacent lane. 

46 minutes ago, JaceTheAce41 said:

I wonder if it might make sense to cordon off the streetcar lanes in parts of downtown to prevent people from parking on the streetcar line. You might be able to have a shared bike lane or an adjacent lane. 

For Walnut, making the lane the streetcar is in a transit only lane is no brainer. 

 

Good news, the streetcar has already surpassed November ridership for 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 through only the 20th of 2021, and is on pace to set the record for highest November ridership of all time. 

 

It's possible we could have the highest monthly ridership totals recorded for a particular month for several months in a row coming up. 

 

2021 will also likely be the year with the second highest ridership total of all time and 2022 will likely take the #1 spot. 

 

Keep in mind that SORTA was down -38% in October compared to pre-pandemic, so there's definitely a lot of growth potential remaining. 

 

This guy gets it-

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2021/11/30/council-needs-to-step-on-the-gas-to-resolve-transp.html

12 hours ago, thomasbw said:

This guy gets it-

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2021/11/30/council-needs-to-step-on-the-gas-to-resolve-transp.html

If you don't subscribe to the Business Courier, the op-ed is based off of this twitter thread- 

 

September 2021 was an all time monthly high for September as well (Blink throws off the October numbers)

Might as well do a September one too- 

 

 

September 2021 Data (most recent available) 

 

I'm actually surprised that the ridership for November wasn't a little higher with the USA vs Mexico game and Bengals games. Either way, great numbers and the system needs to be expanded post haste.

39 minutes ago, thomasbw said:

September 2021 Data (most recent available) 

 

 

San Francisco?

25 minutes ago, Miami-Erie said:

 

San Francisco?

Incomplete data set in the FTA database for that month. 

47 minutes ago, JaceTheAce41 said:

I'm actually surprised that the ridership for November wasn't a little higher with the USA vs Mexico game and Bengals games. Either way, great numbers and the system needs to be expanded post haste.

Ridership was up 62% compared to pre-pandemic numbers. For comparison Metro was down -38% in October (most recent data available) 

1 hour ago, thomasbw said:

September 2021 Data (most recent available) 

 

 

Is Philly just the Girard Avenue Trolley? Or does it include the subway-surface trolleys? The subway-surface lines have to be higher than that.

3 minutes ago, DEPACincy said:

 

Is Philly just the Girard Avenue Trolley? Or does it include the subway-surface trolleys? The subway-surface lines have to be higher than that.

I do not know the specifics, it's whatever is classified "Streetcar Rail" by the FTA. I can tell you that there were a total of 1 million riders on "SR" in Philly in September 2021. By comparison their commuter rail system had 1.02m riders and their heavy rail had 3.7 million riders. 

45 minutes ago, thomasbw said:

I do not know the specifics, it's whatever is classified "Streetcar Rail" by the FTA. I can tell you that there were a total of 1 million riders on "SR" in Philly in September 2021. By comparison their commuter rail system had 1.02m riders and their heavy rail had 3.7 million riders. 

 

That does probably include the subway-surface lines then, actually. There are multiples lines. I'd love to see it broken down by riders per hour for each line.

Weekday ridership is what's driving the streetcar's growth- 

On 12/2/2021 at 2:03 PM, thomasbw said:

September 2021 Data (most recent available) 

 

 

Gosh, we used to talk about Portland and Milwaukee in an aspirational tone and now Cincinnati is ~2X them.

 

But BOAST and WLW said only homeless guys would ride it

In September, Portland and Milwaukee were down -47% and -44% respectively compared to pre-pandemic. Cincinnati was up 20%. 

Any of the local media outlets covered these new ridership gains? 

2021 was the second highest ridership year ever. Only 15k away from the #1 spot

I know I'm repeating myself but the new city council needs to get planning on extensions post haste.

I saw a bunch of Kansas City fans this weekend riding the streetcar, they probably felt right at home onboard though they were also probably wondering why the headways were so long compared to theirs. Bengal's pregame streetcar rides from the brewery district to the Banks/PBS is underrated and especially in the cold is far superior to tailgating. 

Making progress

On 1/4/2022 at 2:16 PM, ucgrady said:

I saw a bunch of Kansas City fans this weekend riding the streetcar, they probably felt right at home onboard though they were also probably wondering why the headways were so long compared to theirs. Bengal's pregame streetcar rides from the brewery district to the Banks/PBS is underrated and especially in the cold is far superior to tailgating. 

Kansas City runs 23.2% more service than we do and that service is 15.2% faster. 

I think/hope that if the city implements all the service improvements that you've mentioned here and on Twitter that the push to expand the system will really take off.

I know nothing has functionally changed yet (the new Council and Aftab have only been on the job for 2 days), but it so nice to read that the new administration won't be actively kneecapping public transportation in the city like Cranley.

2 hours ago, JaceTheAce41 said:

I think/hope that if the city implements all the service improvements that you've mentioned here and on Twitter that the push to expand the system will really take off.

Councilman Jeffreys is also going to raise the 14th/15th and Race lights with DOTE. 

America's modern streetcars, ridership as a percentage of pre-pandemic levels. 

If you're so inclined, you can vote to help ArtsWave select a new design. Top 3 vote-getters advance to the final round of competition: https://artswave.org/discover/StreetcarContest

Already beat 2019, 2021 and 2018 in ridership. We'll likely pass 2020 today and are on pace to pass 2017 to set a January ridership record. Would be the third month in a row where we set a new monthly record and fourth out of the past five months 

 

If we break the January record, February and March should be record breaking months as well. April will be tough to break if the Reds are locked out. 

How confident do we feel about the Bengals' chances? 

 

Having a sixth streetcar in the fleet would allow us to get peak frequency down to, what, every 8 minutes?

January is pace to set the third consecutive all time monthly record 

Realistically, I think we could break every record except for October this year.

 

Weekday usage is now consistently pretty strong so we're not relying on big weekend numbers for ridership. 

 

I wonder how free fares coupled with a return to in-person events has helped this year. Something to think about. 

Reds, Cyclones, FCC and theater/concerts all happen during the week. You're right, we're not relying on weekends but we are having some weekday events.

Edited January 26, 20223 yr by JaceTheAce41

It has been a lot more crowded for weekday lunch than in the past, when offices were completely full before Covid, which I assume is basically just because it's free. Even though it's cold as hell, no one wants to walk in this weather, and because it's free hopping on for just a stop or two seems worth it where in the past people would have just stayed in their building.

 

Anecdotally, I think all the working from home has gotten people eating out more in downtown for lunch or even a happy hour. People are sick of their own home cooking, ready to get 'back to normal', to socialize, or they just feel that eating out is good for businesses and that you are helping out the restaurants. 

If Blink comes back in October, they could easily shatter the monthly record. They almost did it in 2019 with fares.