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I just drove through Public Square today for the first time in 20 years and accidentally got in one of those “Bus Only” lanes. I had never seen those before and didn’t know where I was going. An RTA driver jumped in front of my car and tried to flag down a police officer, waving his arms and yelling “that’s a $350 fine...give him a $350 ticket.” Fortunately the officer just waved me through. What a rude jerk.
Yeah, those bus only lanes are kinda confusing, even if one's pretty familiar with downtown Cleveland as I am. Many times, like along Euclid where the Health Line BRT runs, there grooves in the pavement between the car and bus lanes just to remind you. Still one huge problem is the large number of delivery vehicles (FedEx, UPS, etc), party shuttles (those so-called drinking, bar-hopping limos), cops from several jurisdictions (esp RTA cops) and just plain rude auto drivers who double-park in the car lane forcing you to go around them into the bus-only lane -- and oftentimes this places you in direct conflict, even danger, with one of those long Health Line stretch buses. Also ubiquitous construction or paving projects also force drivers into the bus lanes as well...
Given this situation as well as the even greater slowing of the Health Line without dedicated traffic signals and, for the last 2 years, the return of on-board fare payment due to a ruling by a local judge triggered by RTA's roving fare-enforcement cops, it makes me all the more sadder than Cleveland couldn't step to the plate, bite the bullet (add your metaphor) and simply build the Dual Hub subway project connecting Tower City to University circle with rail rapid transit. While there undeniably has been development at CSU and in the Midtown Corridor, a REAL rapid transit (as in the RAIL kind) would have been infinitely preferable.
Yeah, those bus only lanes are kinda confusing, even if one's pretty familiar with downtown Cleveland as I am. Many times, like along Euclid where the Health Line BRT runs, there grooves in the pavement between the car and bus lanes just to remind you. Still one huge problem is the large number of delivery vehicles (FedEx, UPS, etc), party shuttles (those so-called drinking, bar-hopping limos), cops from several jurisdictions (esp RTA cops) and just plain rude auto drivers who double-park in the car lane forcing you to go around them into the bus-only lane -- and oftentimes this places you in direct conflict, even danger, with one of those long Health Line stretch buses. Also ubiquitous construction or paving projects also force drivers into the bus lanes as well...
Given this situation as well as the even greater slowing of the Health Line without dedicated traffic signals and, for the last 2 years, the return of on-board fare payment due to a ruling by a local judge triggered by RTA's roving fare-enforcement cops, it makes me all the more sadder than Cleveland couldn't step to the plate, bite the bullet (add your metaphor) and simply build the Dual Hub subway project connecting Tower City to University circle with rail rapid transit. While there undeniably has been development at CSU and in the Midtown Corridor, a REAL rapid transit (as in the RAIL kind) would have been infinitely preferable.
(sigh...)
As I recall, the dual hub cost was projected at around $600M and the BRT that we bought was $200M. My guess is the dual hub probably would have cost closer to $1B after it was done.
As some have noted, until our government starts funding public transportation like they do highways, many 2nd and 3rd tier cities just won't be able to make the necessary investments to get middle and upper income households to embrace public transportation. (How many people living at One University Circle will be riding the red line? ) There are some other interesting TOD projects proposed and we'll have to wait and see if they can turnaround the decreasing ridership on the rail.
Cleveland does have a good rail system for a city its size. Few cities have train stations downtown, University /Medical hub, airport, entertainment areas, and some suburban. Hopefully the TOD projects help rail ridership.
As I recall, the dual hub cost was projected at around $600M and the BRT that we bought was $200M. My guess is the dual hub probably would have cost closer to $1B after it was done.
As some have noted, until our government starts funding public transportation like they do highways, many 2nd and 3rd tier cities just won't be able to make the necessary investments to get middle and upper income households to embrace public transportation. (How many people living at One University Circle will be riding the red line? ) There are some other interesting TOD projects proposed and we'll have to wait and see if they can turnaround the decreasing ridership on the rail.
Cleveland does have a good rail system for a city its size. Few cities have train stations downtown, University /Medical hub, airport, entertainment areas, and some suburban. Hopefully the TOD projects help rail ridership.
Sadly it did come down to money, but Cleveland was penny wise and pound foolish. For those cities that bite the bullet and build subways and rapid transit lines, the exponential positive impact and dividends so far outweigh the costs and inconvenience, residents never look back at these aspects once they're built.
And yes there needs to be a literal and psychological 'buy in' to invest in mass transit as we do highways. While City officials scoffed at the, then $600M 1990s-era price tag (which would likely be double today), they thought nothing of dropping a cool $350M for the so-called Opportunity Corridor which has many aspects of an urban highway mainly to speed West Side suburbanites to the Cleveland Clinic... Priorities.
[Note: sadly Ohio just took a large step backward in its just voting in conservative Mike DeWine as guv along with a decidedly right-wing Statehouse, so the status quo anti-transit mentality in this State is likely not going anytime soon, which is a shame -- even northern neighbor, car-crazy Michigan has/is investing in quality passenger rail service.]
And to answer your question: How many people living at One University Circle will be riding the red line?
ANSWER: plenty if the Dual-Hub Red Line was built with a stop almost literally at their doorstep... which was the plan... The brand new whopping Centric bordering Uptown and Little Italy, although not quite as upscale as One University Circle, with a lot more studio units for CWRU grad students and young profs (though units still run from $1,415 to $2,665 -- well above avg), still situated its 272 rooms adjacent to RTA's new Little Italy-University Circle Red Line station -- and many residents, already, have taken to the Red Line to commute to work, play ... and the airport (that last of which, I have no doubt, even the foo-foo-crowd at One University Circle avail themselves). NOTE: Aside from Centric and already-built Uptown (with about 120 units), there are 3 other Little Italy apartment buildings going up: Mayfield Lofts (right next to the Red Line station), the substantial Quattro on Random Road and La Collina, on Mayfield Road, as a substantial infil project -- all are TOD marketing the convenience of the nearby Red Line service.
And yes, Cleveland does have a far better transit network than most cities its size. Dual Hub represented an opportunity, however, for the City to hit one out of the park. Dual Hub has Cleveland's legacy rapid transit at both ends, no less.... I still believe that, someday, Dual Hub will happen in some form -- most likely a Boston Green Line-type subway-surface LRT connecting underground to the Tower City complex via the existing Huron Road subway turn-out. You or I may not live to see it, but it makes too much sense not to happen, esp given the fact that the Health Line already built fully electric power stations with ticket dispensing machines which could easily accommodate LRT's, just with some platform lengthening.
... As I noted elsewhere, the old Shaker Rapid station still sits, unused, with 2 live tracks and an island platform (this was used when RTA re-routed westbound Red, Blue and Green Line trains through the station while through westbound track was being rebuilt (and this will be repeated as other decaying tracks get rebuilt).... Dual Hub trains could access the old Shaker Station then continue through, bend around, then head westbound on the still existing subway deck of the Detroit-Superior (Veteran's Memorial) Bridge, stopping at the still-existing station at the west portal under W. 25th and Detroit then either surfacing along Detroit to the West and/or W. 25th to the south; perhaps traveling as far as Parma.
A quiet quote buried in the PD's article regarding St. Paddy's RTA service:
The Waterfront Line will be replaced with buses so additional trains can be added to the Blue and Green lines, RTA spokeswoman Linda Krecic said during Thursday’s news conference.
This is a huge indictment in Ohio's lack of funding for urban mass transit: Cleveland's rail system lacks the operable trains (12 or 14 is the number I've heard kicked around) to cover a major event like St. Patrick's Day... So much so they literally have to cut service on one of the rail lines...
... not to mention the fact that there are a number of the bars served by the Waterfront Line in Flats East Bank. The transit situation in Cleveland these days is very, very shaky and, yet, the Republicans who caused this problem were heartily voted back into office last November. Sometimes I wonder.
A quiet quote buried in the PD's article regarding St. Paddy's RTA service:
The Waterfront Line will be replaced with buses so additional trains can be added to the Blue and Green lines, RTA spokeswoman Linda Krecic said during Thursday’s news conference.
This is a huge indictment in Ohio's lack of funding for urban mass transit: Cleveland's rail system lacks the operable trains (12 or 14 is the number I've heard kicked around) to cover a major event like St. Patrick's Day... So much so they literally have to cut service on one of the rail lines...
... not to mention the fact that there are a number of the bars served by the Waterfront Line in Flats East Bank. The transit situation in Cleveland these days is very, very shaky and, yet, the Republicans who caused this problem were heartily voted back into office last November. Sometimes I wonder.
Wow! That really is a dire situation.
The bolded part is probably a bigger factor than it sounds like for those bars. Big events draw in a lot of riders who only ride a few times a year. Those types of riders are not interested in transfers and re-learning the RTA system. Rail is popular, in part, because it is so straightforward and easy to understand.
Heck, it wouldn't surprise me if there were half drunk people waiting at Waterfront line stops for trains that would never come.
The bolded part is probably a bigger factor than it sounds like for those bars. Big events draw in a lot of riders who only ride a few times a year. Those types of riders are not interested in transfers and re-learning the RTA system. Rail is popular, in part, because it is so straightforward and easy to understand.
Heck, it wouldn't surprise me if there were half drunk people waiting at Waterfront line stops for trains that would never come.
RTA has a complete Browns-focused approach toward the Waterfront Line.... Yeah, I get it: normal, every-day traffic on the WFL is paltry with several empty trains and now RTA dominates FEB service with corporate sponsored C-Line trolleys... But St. Paddy's day is traditionally the busiest RTA rail day of the year ... by far. Many people frequent Flats bars even in the new FEB configuration. Not only this, roughly 1/3 of the RTA network (track-wise/somewhat less-than patron-wise) enters town (esp on St. Patrick's day) on the Blue-Green Lines offers direct, 1-seat service (as in no transfers) to the Flats. Moreover, it seems foolish on huge days like St. Patrick's Day to focus all outbound riders on Tower City -- it's absolutely crush capacity there, with lines up to street level.
But I've seen it worse -- ie, warm-day St. Patty's Days (esp on weekends) and, of course, the Cavs' championship parade the summer of 2016, when over 1 million people traveled downtown. Many Shaker Riders (and some Red Line/East riders) boarded Waterfront trains and rode through Tower City (some trains didn't even stop there). Whereas the Blue/Green riders continued through to SE Cleveland, Shaker Square and beyond, Red Line riders got off at E. 34th and E. 55 and transferred (some even reversed to the West Side just to get seats!
. . .
And yesterday, with the cold temps, it was estimated that normal St. Paddy's crowds were "down" to about 300K (not sure of the final count, though). -- and if the system has to cannibalize service with a less than usual St. Patrick's Day crowd... well,...
RTA has a complete Browns-focused approach toward the Waterfront Line.... Yeah, I get it: normal, every-day traffic on the WFL is paltry with several empty trains and now RTA dominates FEB service with corporate sponsored C-Line trolleys... But St. Paddy's day is traditionally the busiest RTA rail day of the year ... by far. Many people frequent Flats bars even in the new FEB configuration. Not only this, roughly 1/3 of the RTA network (track-wise/somewhat less-than patron-wise) enters town (esp on St. Patrick's day) on the Blue-Green Lines offers direct, 1-seat service (as in no transfers) to the Flats. Moreover, it seems foolish on huge days like St. Patrick's Day to focus all outbound riders on Tower City -- it's absolutely crush capacity there, with lines up to street level.
But I've seen it worse -- ie, warm-day St. Patty's Days (esp on weekends) and, of course, the Cavs' championship parade the summer of 2016, when over 1 million people traveled downtown. Many Shaker Riders (and some Red Line/East riders) boarded Waterfront trains and rode through Tower City (some trains didn't even stop there). Whereas the Blue/Green riders continued through to SE Cleveland, Shaker Square and beyond, Red Line riders got off at E. 34th and E. 55 and transferred (some even reversed to the West Side just to get seats!
. . .
And yesterday, with the cold temps, it was estimated that normal St. Paddy's crowds were "down" to about 300K (not sure of the final count, though). -- and if the system has to cannibalize service with a less than usual St. Patrick's Day crowd... well,...
The city essentially needs to close down Burke airport for redevelopment (even if a third of it was redeveloped and the rest was greenspace, that is a massive amount of land in a city center) and either cover or tunnel a portion of the memorial shoreway (essentially needs much better and more frequent pedestrian crossings of the highway and rail tracks) for the Waterfront Line portion to have significant ridership.
The city essentially needs to close down Burke airport for redevelopment (even if a third of it was redeveloped and the rest was greenspace, that is a massive amount of land in a city center) and either cover or tunnel a portion of the memorial shoreway (essentially needs much better and more frequent pedestrian crossings of the highway and rail tracks) for the Waterfront Line portion to have significant ridership.
I think FEB Phase III can boost the WFL quite a bit: not only will it make FEB a bigger, more diverse all-day kinda place (a la West 25th St) with some kind of grocer, upscale film theater, more eateries, retail, etc. If I recall (I don't have the FEB proposal at hand), Phase III will double the number of apt units contained in Phase II, so there will be more people living near the Rapid. But perhaps the biggest potential for Waterfront Line riders is the fact that the huge surface parking will disappear under the development, eliminating the bountiful, easy in/out parking existing parking forcing folks to pay (likely) more for the FEB Phase III garage, hunt for other lots or meters along Old River Rd, W. 10th, etc ... or Ride WFL trains!
Also apparently the City is inching forward with some kind of multi-modal transportation complex at/near WFL's E. 9th Street station, which will include Greyhound and perhaps other inter-city bus carriers. Then there's still a loose proposal to build an outlet mall just past the end of the WFL at the end of the Muny parking lot off the Shoreway. Both of the latter could also make the WFL more useful. We'll see.
A quiet quote buried in the PD's article regarding St. Paddy's RTA service:
The transit situation in Cleveland these days is very, very shaky and, yet, the Republicans who caused this problem were heartily voted back into office last November. Sometimes I wonder.
They certainly were not voted back into office by the residents of Cleveland or Cuyahoga County:
We should consider splitting everything north and east of Columbus (including Columbus) into a new state.
I fantasize this... Although the NE area around Youngstown and Warren went solidly red in 2016 and 18.
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