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Location: Cleveland, OH USA / formerly Chicago for 20 years
4,069 posts, read 7,321,711 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TheProf
I've heard GPS/computerized station calls on several transit systems, and RTA's is the worst. On the Blue and Green lines, either it doesn't work for many/most stations or the driver's disable them, probably because of ego (see low self esteem) issues. And it's stupid because, when these driver's announce, half the time you can barely understand them, often because the sound system sucks, ... or the opposite extreme, they pot it up so loud the announcements blow your eardrums out...
And 'that guy' voice they use on the Red and Health Lines, is beyond annoying with his cutesy, small-talk comments after his station calls (ie, at West 25th ... re the West Side Market... "... mmm, mmm, (as in the food there is so good)." Just give us the station and bus connections.... and shut the hel- up, thank you...
I actually like the guy voice. At least he sounds like a real person. But they only use him at stops where there are important attractions/destinations, apparently.
In Chicago there was an actual man (I once read a news article about him) who recorded his voice for every single stop in the CTA system, bus and train. He was clear as a bell and all the callouts were coordinated perfectly.
I actually like the guy voice. At least he sounds like a real person. But they only use him at stops where there are important attractions/destinations, apparently.
In Chicago there was an actual man (I once read a news article about him) who recorded his voice for every single stop in the CTA system, bus and train. He was clear as a bell and all the callouts were coordinated perfectly.
I haven't been on either the L or a CTA bus (use them frequently up/down Michigan Ave -- to/from the Mag Mile). All I can recall vaguely is when a train is about to depart there are 2 doorbell-like chimes and a guy comes on saying "doors are closing" which is pretty standard. Then IIRC he announces the next stop... both when the train leaves the prior stop and when it pulls into the next one... RTA's driver practice is to only call stops when trains pull away from the prior stop.
Location: Cleveland, OH USA / formerly Chicago for 20 years
4,069 posts, read 7,321,711 times
Reputation: 3062
Here's an interesting and informative article I just came across about the history and current state of mass transit in the US. Although not Cleveland-specific, the article does mention Cleveland's Waterfront Line (toward the end of the article, in the section on light rail).
Hadn't ridden the Red Line in a while (note my Birdtown visit in the Lakewood thread). We traveled from East to West including stopping at the new, beautifully urbanized/urbanizing Little Italy station. While Tower City downtown, of course, is by far the busiest stop, I noted a significant amount -- more than I'd recalled -- of casual riders going from non-downtown station-to-station... That's real rapid transit. There were a number of visitors to Little Italy and, of course, Ohio City -- there were more people boarding westbound/outbound trains from Ohio City than westbound toward downtown (and even many of these were heading beyond downtown to UC, Little Italy or beyond).
The mushrooming TOD at/near Rapid stations is giving me hope this trend will continue... the latest to begin opening, while still largely unfinished, are the huge Centric mixed use apt/retail complex at UC Uptown adjacent to the Little Italy stop, and the Van Aken shopping, apt, retail complex at the end of the Blue Line. Little Italy was already a great, dense old-style walking neighborhood, but the addition of the tightly-configured Rapid Station and the growing TOD, make this area the closest to a New York/Chicago type neighborhood as there is in Greater Cleveland.
Does anyone know why RTA is still using single cars on the Red Line? Way back in January they said something about orders for replacement wheels was delayed for some reason and that during the elongated process of replacing the worn out wheels on some cars, they would have to pull some cars out of service resulting in some usage of single cars.
Well now we're practically into the fall and, not only is RTA still using single cars, it appears that this usage has increased -- it seems there are more single cars than double cars and RTA is using them in the teeth of rush hour. We saw people heading westbound at Tower City who decided to wait for the next train because the single car was packed to the gills. Then a second single car came about 10 minutes later. What's up with this? Does anyone know what's going on with RTA? <--- yeah, I realize this is always a loaded question.
Hadn't ridden the Red Line in a while (note my Birdtown visit in the Lakewood thread). We traveled from East to West including stopping at the new, beautifully urbanized/urbanizing Little Italy station. While Tower City downtown, of course, is by far the busiest stop, I noted a significant amount -- more than I'd recalled -- of casual riders going from non-downtown station-to-station... That's real rapid transit. There were a number of visitors to Little Italy and, of course, Ohio City -- there were more people boarding westbound/outbound trains from Ohio City than westbound toward downtown (and even many of these were heading beyond downtown to UC, Little Italy or beyond).
The mushrooming TOD at/near Rapid stations is giving me hope this trend will continue... the latest to begin opening, while still largely unfinished, are the huge Centric mixed use apt/retail complex at UC Uptown adjacent to the Little Italy stop, and the Van Aken shopping, apt, retail complex at the end of the Blue Line. Little Italy was already a great, dense old-style walking neighborhood, but the addition of the tightly-configured Rapid Station and the growing TOD, make this area the closest to a New York/Chicago type neighborhood as there is in Greater Cleveland.
Good to hear the Rapid Transit rail lines were busy Labor Day Weekend. Labor Day Weekend is generally busy with the Air Show going on and, this year, the Indians at home and even the visitor magnet Infinity Mirrors going on at the Art Museum. Even the Waterfront Line was busy (see Air Show).
While all that weekend riding is good, RTA needs to attract the bread-and-butter of any transit system: daily commuters (M-F going to and from work). When is there going to be employment TOD along the train lines? TOD in general is fine, but the RTA needs to see employers building or relocating along all of the train lines. Even downtown worker ridership is anemic though but driving to and parking in downtown is not really a challenge.
As much as it's nice to see the proposed housing development at Lorain/W25, I would much rather see a commercial structure bringing in x thousand/s of employees and using the Red Line for daily commuting. Building urban core residential developments adjacent to rapid stations is fine but will mostly result in occasional rapid transit use for these residents (ie downtown sporting event, airport, WSM).
Good to hear the Rapid Transit rail lines were busy Labor Day Weekend. Labor Day Weekend is generally busy with the Air Show going on and, this year, the Indians at home and even the visitor magnet Infinity Mirrors going on at the Art Museum. Even the Waterfront Line was busy (see Air Show).
While all that weekend riding is good, RTA needs to attract the bread-and-butter of any transit system: daily commuters (M-F going to and from work). When is there going to be employment TOD along the train lines? TOD in general is fine, but the RTA needs to see employers building or relocating along all of the train lines. Even downtown worker ridership is anemic though but driving to and parking in downtown is not really a challenge.
As much as it's nice to see the proposed housing development at Lorain/W25, I would much rather see a commercial structure bringing in x thousand/s of employees and using the Red Line for daily commuting. Building urban core residential developments adjacent to rapid stations is fine but will mostly result in occasional rapid transit use for these residents (ie downtown sporting event, airport, WSM).
Kamms, I'm on board with everything you're saying here. I've long said RTA's biggest hits, rider-wise, was the decline of downtown as an employment center. While it's great seeing all the old office buildings re-purposed into apts and turning downtown into an actual living 'neighborhood', you're not going to get as many butts on trains and buses because there are barely 100K downtown workers, now, which is less than half of the total of the booming 1980s before Eaton, Sohio and other corporate HQs either exited downtown or exited the State, entirely. The Millennials racing into downtown apts either live-work at home, walk to downtown jobs or (too many) hop in their cars and reverse commute out to the burbs.
I do think the TOD is a good, if not great thing, because it transforming stations, like Ohio City, W. 25th and, soon, Van Aken into places for people to go for entertainment, leisure and services, rather than everything begining centered around the one downtown station. Also it's looking like the Opportunity Corridor, after much prodding, is going to cause some businesses and apts to locate at (to date) desolate stations, like E. 105, where already Cleveland Clinic (and related businesses, like IBM) are moving south of Cedar along the rebuilt E. 105th Street to the Red Line station,... which btw recently reopened (finally) the rebuilt longer platform ending the horrible front-door-out policy of the last decade-plus.
The Red Line is generally pretty busy during regular commuting times. I haven't utilized the other lines to commute so I won't comment on those, but I've definitely encountered the Red Line cars having standing room only, even before the reduction of some trains to a single car.
I would think a useful threshold would be to see a sustained increase in ridership during non-peak hours as that indicates people are using the system in a manner that's central to their lives beyond just commuting.
As much as it's nice to see the proposed housing development at Lorain/W25, I would much rather see a commercial structure bringing in x thousand/s of employees and using the Red Line for daily commuting. Building urban core residential developments adjacent to rapid stations is fine but will mostly result in occasional rapid transit use for these residents (ie downtown sporting event, airport, WSM).
The West 25th St./Lorain project reportedly will have 137,000 square feet of office space.
Mixed-use IMO is even better than TOD to the extent that employees can walk to work. It lowers the city's energy footprint and increases greatly its economic vitality, as commuting, especially by a personal vehicle is expensive and time consuming.
Residents in the new complex likely will use RTA to reach downtown, Playhouse Square, Little Italy and University Circle. I've known persons who commuted to the Cleveland Clinic using RTA from Ohio City's Market District, and this property is even more convenient for such a commute.
Mixed-use IMO is even better than TOD to the extent that employees can walk to work. It lowers the city's energy footprint and increases greatly its economic vitality, as commuting, especially by a personal vehicle is expensive and time consuming.
Residents in the new complex likely will use RTA to reach downtown, Playhouse Square, Little Italy and University Circle. I've known persons who commuted to the Cleveland Clinic using RTA from Ohio City's Market District, and this property is even more convenient for such a commute.
Mixed-use can be TOD. Whatever it takes to get people on the rapid but in 2018 people have lots of options to get around. Also, there’s an assumption that the new residents work downtown. Unless I worked real close to tower city, if I lived at centric and worked in playhouse square, I would opt for the heLthline, Cleveland’s former full BRT Line.
The going to little Italy, playhouse square, and other destinations on the rapid equate to occasional use. This isn’t a bad thing. Don’t know how many people use the rapid to tower city, walk out to public square, and transfer to the Euclid Avenue bus to playhouse square to catch Hamilton. Not to say it doesn’t or can’t happen but RTA still needs to bring back lots of dIly commuters and the buses are most likely to see the ridership boost than the rapid.
Last edited by Kamms; 09-13-2018 at 05:10 PM..
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