April 20, 20223 yr I'm wondering if there needs to be a movement to make a few streets entirely car free along the streetcar route? I think Elm and Race north of Liberty and/or the block surrounding Washington Park could be made into a pedestrian/streetcar only section. I'm also not going to stop beating the horse about expanding from CUT to the casino and up Reading a little way as a backbone of an East/West light rail corridor.
April 20, 20223 yr 2 hours ago, JaceTheAce41 said: I'm wondering if there needs to be a movement to make a few streets entirely car free along the streetcar route? I think Elm and Race north of Liberty and/or the block surrounding Washington Park could be made into a pedestrian/streetcar only section. Parking lots and garages prevent car free but car-lite, by disallowing through traffic, might be the better ask. It would still be a big ask politically though.
April 28, 20223 yr I drive by this location fairly often and as the weeks go on, notice that more bollards have been hit my motorists and gone missing. As of these week there are zero bollards left. Time to replace it with something more permanent, like a concrete curb?
April 29, 20223 yr I've witnessed a car drive right through them get into the garage. They didn't want to wait the 15-20 seconds for the stopped streetcar. "It's just fate, as usual, keeping its bargain and screwing us in the fine print..." - John Crichton
May 2, 20223 yr ^I wonder if there's anything keeping them from upgrading it to a setup with concrete blocks and pylons like the Clifton Avenue and Central Parkway bike lanes. It just seems like they will just get damaged within a year. From my limited experience, it seems like DOTE staff is annoyed with having to replace this stuff all the time so I'm curious if there's some other context.
May 4, 20223 yr On 4/29/2022 at 11:15 AM, Cygnus said: I've witnessed a car drive right through them get into the garage. They didn't want to wait the 15-20 seconds for the stopped streetcar. That’s incredibly dangerous and a way to have your car smashed by a streetcar.
May 4, 20223 yr Author April 2022 was the third highest ridership month of all time and the highest April of all time. 6 months highest of that month in a row.
May 4, 20223 yr 57 minutes ago, thomasbw said: April 2022 was the third highest ridership month of all time and the highest April of all time. 6 months highest of that month in a row. Glad to see the local media covering it...... But seriously what a great thing for this city!
May 4, 20223 yr ^ Bad news bias. Nobody wants to read a story that something is working as good or better than expected; where's the rage in that story to generate clicks? What I do wish is that we had more local leaders talking about how to get the streetcar to Uptown to reach campus and the innovation district and the hospitals and all the jobs up there. It hasn't been that long, but people seem to have forgotten or moved on from the fact that this was designed as just the first phase after it was trimmed of the state dollars and now that we have all these months of improved ridership as ammunition there needs to be a push to finish the damn thing while we have a well funded federal DOT.
May 6, 20223 yr Author 6th best in the country for ridership compared to pre-pandemic levels. Overall transit is down 39.3% nationally. 93.5% of systems have lower ridership in March 22 compared with March 19th.
May 6, 20223 yr Author I wish I had the data broken out for individual Metro routes to compare the streetcar to the 43, 17 and 33
May 6, 20223 yr Author 4th most productive streetcar system in the country in terms of passengers per hour
May 7, 20223 yr On 5/6/2022 at 11:42 AM, thomasbw said: I wish I had the data broken out for individual Metro routes to compare the streetcar to the 43, 17 and 33 I've been records'ing it periodically but don't have March. 33's been hovering in the 17-25 range, 43 in the 11-14, 17 in the 12-15 range.
May 9, 20223 yr We had friends visiting from out of state this weekend and used the streetcar to get around town. The headways were really short this weekend and it made the streetcar much more convenient. Here's hoping this keeps up.
May 25, 20223 yr They've updated the logo on social media for the Cincinnati Bell Connector. I imagine this is part of a full rebrand to an "altafiber" branded streetcar. new on top. old on bottom
May 25, 20223 yr yep. we rode last night and the signage inside the streetcar has the new logo and maps with the different color scheme. Seems like they're just running with "Connector" as the name for now.
May 25, 20223 yr Didn't realize Cincinnati Bell changed their name. That's a shame as it was one of the last remnants of the Bell System. Not sure why these historic companies always feel the need to ditch their history for some generic BS like "altafiber."
May 25, 20223 yr I'm not fluent in Italian but I'm pretty sure alta fiber is what people say to describe whole wheat pasta.
May 25, 20223 yr 1 hour ago, mu2010 said: Didn't realize Cincinnati Bell changed their name. That's a shame as it was one of the last remnants of the Bell System. Not sure why these historic companies always feel the need to ditch their history for some generic BS like "altafiber." They were acquired, not a rebrand.
May 31, 20223 yr The streetcar was packed for the Reds and Taste this Sunday when we went. I don't know what they've done to improve headways but I've noticed a marked improvement this year. I've never had to wait more than 10 minutes at the very most.
June 2, 20223 yr On 5/25/2022 at 10:16 AM, mu2010 said: Didn't realize Cincinnati Bell changed their name. That's a shame as it was one of the last remnants of the Bell System. Not sure why these historic companies always feel the need to ditch their history for some generic BS like "altafiber." They rebranded to altafiber to promote their FiOptics internet/television products, and get away from their telephone legacty. Ironically I was just told that my address, located in a dense area within Cincinnati's urban core, is not eligible for FiOptics and my only internet option from them would be DSL via the good ol' copper phone line. I have heard similar complaints from others in the urban core. A little strange that they'd rebrand to promote fiber and then not have it available in some of the densest neighborhoods in their hometown.
June 2, 20223 yr It's a little disappointing that 6 months into the new administration, there don't seem to be any meaningful improvements made to the streetcar. Some of the simple improvements that were recommended by the traffic study (maybe like 5 years ago at this point?) still have not been implemented. I know they are still searching for a permanent streetcar CEO. @thomasbw, have you heard any updates on that?
June 3, 20223 yr 8 hours ago, taestell said: It's a little disappointing that 6 months into the new administration, there don't seem to be any meaningful improvements made to the streetcar. Some of the simple improvements that were recommended by the traffic study (maybe like 5 years ago at this point?) still have not been implemented. I know they are still searching for a permanent streetcar CEO. @thomasbw, have you heard any updates on that? Agreed. What's up with that?
June 3, 20223 yr Hopefully they are waiting to look at it after they name a permanent CEO but that sounds highly unlikely. Probably going to take legislative action from City Council, which would have to wait until this budget cycle is over.
June 3, 20223 yr A lot of the fixes are no cost or low cost, and could probably be accommodated within the existing streetcar and DOTE budgets. My understanding is that a lot of the signal priority hardware is already installed and essentially just needs to be turned on.
June 14, 20223 yr The streetcar is back running today after the building collapse closed Main Street... but only the OTR loop from Washington Park to Henry Street.
June 17, 20222 yr With Main Street still closed as the Davis Furniture building gets demolished, the temporary Bus Bridge plan has been activated...
June 29, 20222 yr Does anyone know the status of the Transdev contract? It was supposed to be for five years starting in September 2016, which would have ended in September 2021. Is the City extending the contract using the options?
July 25, 20222 yr Last weekend I visited Cincinnati for the first time in the streetcar era. The streetcar has really taken the city to a new level. It was very useful and smooth, and I experienced very short wait times.
July 27, 20222 yr On 6/3/2022 at 11:30 AM, taestell said: A lot of the fixes are no cost or low cost, and could probably be accommodated within the existing streetcar and DOTE budgets. My understanding is that a lot of the signal priority hardware is already installed and essentially just needs to be turned on. I was crossing Vine St at 12th just the other day and it sure had the appearance that the Streetcar had the ability to 'hold green' at that intersection. The No Crossing signal came on well before the traffic light for 12th street went yellow, and then changed immediately after the Steetcar went through. I am curious if others can confirm if any of these signal improvements have been made? (Or am I just going crazy)
August 5, 20222 yr On 7/27/2022 at 4:20 PM, Moonstruck0 said: I was crossing Vine St at 12th just the other day and it sure had the appearance that the Streetcar had the ability to 'hold green' at that intersection. The No Crossing signal came on well before the traffic light for 12th street went yellow, and then changed immediately after the Steetcar went through. I am curious if others can confirm if any of these signal improvements have been made? (Or am I just going crazy) That would actually be great if they are just silently doing things to make the streetcar work better. No need for big announcements, it's just a regular part of what the city is supposed to do to accommodate the service.
August 8, 20222 yr 15th & Race, Saturday just after 11PM Streetcar had a dozen plus passengers, mostly FCC fans. A supervisor showed up and permitted them to disembark. The truck's driver eventually ran up and took off. Not sure where he was coming from but he wasn't actively delivering goods. "It's just fate, as usual, keeping its bargain and screwing us in the fine print..." - John Crichton
August 15, 20222 yr On Saturday I went downtown early for the FCC game and decided to park at Fountain Square and use the streetcar to get around. Everything was great until after the FCC game. The streetcar was stuck at the Elm and Liberty intersection for several light cycles with cars not getting out of the way. The city really needs to get that kind of stuff locked down for events. The streetcar needs dedicated ROW and traffic signal priority.
August 15, 20222 yr On 8/8/2022 at 9:09 AM, Cygnus said: 15th & Race, Saturday just after 11PM Streetcar had a dozen plus passengers, mostly FCC fans. A supervisor showed up and permitted them to disembark. The truck's driver eventually ran up and took off. Not sure where he was coming from but he wasn't actively delivering goods. I think it could have squeezed by
August 17, 20222 yr I just noticed that the official Twitter account handle has changed to @Connector_cincy and the account's name is just Connector (Cincinnati Bell branding removed, but not replaced by Altafiber). Not sure what this means for the name of the system in the long run.
August 19, 20222 yr Cincinnati lands transportation veteran Lori Burchett to oversee streetcar By Chris Wetterich – Staff reporter and columnist, Cincinnati Business Courier Aug 19, 2022 A 17-year veteran in the transportation field will be in charge of the Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar. Interim City Manager John Curp named Lori Burchett as deputy director for streetcar services earlier this month. She will replace Travis Jeric, who left for the private sector. Matthew Hulme, who was serving in the role as interim director, is returning to his previous role as transit coordinator and division manager on the streetcar team. MORE
August 22, 20222 yr 18 minutes ago, thomasbw said: New all time record Hopefully this shows up in the local media. Huge win! Let's get to 100k!
August 22, 20222 yr Author 3 hours ago, Dcs3939 said: Hopefully this shows up in the local media. Huge win! Let's get to 100k! Currently on pace for the 2nd highest monthly ridership total in August. September will probably be in the top 3 as well. With Blink in October, they have the possibility to break 100k. Previous annual record is 571k, we'll pass that sometime in September. I'm guessing around 750k for the year.
August 23, 20222 yr Wasn't able to snap a picture but crews are down on 2nd Street today removing the floppy plastic delineators along the streetcar lane. Anyone know what's going on here? Plans to replace with sturdier delineators?
August 24, 20222 yr While we all know that an aerial tram is a viable form of transit, I could see COAST and WLW having a field day with it. They'd paint it as an amusement park ride.
August 24, 20222 yr 13 minutes ago, JaceTheAce41 said: While we all know that an aerial tram is a viable form of transit, I could see COAST and WLW having a field day with it. They'd paint it as an amusement park ride. The streetcar became the "choo choo train." I bet an aerial tram would become "the chairlift." Boil it down to something most people are familiar with that is only useful in a certain scenario. It's an annoyingly successful tactic of getting people riled up and against public projects.
August 24, 20222 yr Author 59 minutes ago, jmicha said: The streetcar became the "choo choo train." I bet an aerial tram would become "the chairlift." Boil it down to something most people are familiar with that is only useful in a certain scenario. It's an annoyingly successful tactic of getting people riled up and against public projects. I think the collective memory of the inclines is pretty universally positive and most people think it's a shame we go rid of them.
August 24, 20222 yr 56 minutes ago, thomasbw said: I think the collective memory of the inclines is pretty universally positive and most people think it's a shame we go rid of them. True, but I don't know if that extends to the COAST crowd or not. I would bet on it not.
August 24, 20222 yr 4 hours ago, jmicha said: The streetcar became the "choo choo train." I bet an aerial tram would become "the chairlift." Boil it down to something most people are familiar with that is only useful in a certain scenario. It's an annoyingly successful tactic of getting people riled up and against public projects. Which is ironic because "chairlifts" are incredibly popular. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
August 24, 20222 yr On 8/23/2022 at 1:25 PM, dnymck said: Wasn't able to snap a picture but crews are down on 2nd Street today removing the floppy plastic delineators along the streetcar lane. Anyone know what's going on here? Plans to replace with sturdier delineators? Those get replaced periodically, so that's probably what's happening. Although the ones near The Banks didn't look that beaten up to me. The ones at Main & 2nd are always missing a few bollards and the ones at Main & 5th typically look like a semi drove directly over them.
August 25, 20222 yr Quote While we all know that an aerial tram is a viable form of transit, I could see COAST and WLW having a field day with it. They'd paint it as an amusement park ride. Reminded me of this old Jim Borgman cartoon when the tram was first proposed.
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