RTA: What's good, bad, and improvable (Cleveland, Lakewood: mortgage, calculating, centers)

[WRnative]

Originally Posted by Princessroja

Another RTA (potential) positive--I'd wager a guess that if the pre-news about SW's move to Public Square-adjacent lots is accurate, that'll spike ridership. If even a fraction of the employees take transit, that's a pretty big increase.

It will spark RTA ridership because it will eliminate over 900 very convenient and relatively affordable parking spaces. Reportedly, Cleveland is trying to figure out how to replace them. One obvious solution is to improve utilization and transit service to the municipal lakefront lot.

https://www.cleveland19.com/2020/02/...own-cleveland/

It also would be great if the Stokes/Windermere transit hub was improved, especially with increased security and the elimination of loiterers/aggressive panhandlers as that is a greatly underutilized RTA free park 'n ride. It would be a favorite of mine if not a pit IMO currently (as of a couple years when I last used the station; at the time, in mid-summer, Euclid Ave. through financially distressed East Cleveland also was riddled with big potholes).

Regardless, it's very likely that once construction is underway and those 900 parking spaces disappear, that parking fees will increase in downtown. It would be interesting to document current rates so that a before-and-after comparison could be made. Will those cheap $5 lots on Prospect Ave., convenient for the free bus trolleys, double in price?

[1watertiger]

RTA has so many opportunities. I don’t know if it’s just a lack of leadership or what. I see great ideas and suggestions all the time on city data and other forums.
But I do think RTA will turn around ridership with the building boom happening in many neighborhoods . The TOD around RTA stations like Ohio city , University Circle and Little Italy are very good starts but this must continue at every station.
I know I have said this before along with others, but RTA really needs to loop the downtown business district with light rail extensions. maybe with the proposal of an outlet mall at the end of the Muni lots and building boom around Playhouse Square it may become a reality sooner than later.

[andrew61]

Now if we could only do something about the ghouls, goblins, and other assorted mutants that, apparently, comprise the bulk of RTA's customers -- at least during off-peak hours.

[216facts]

Originally Posted by 1watertiger

RTA has so many opportunities. I don’t know if it’s just a lack of leadership or what. I see great ideas and suggestions all the time on city data and other forums.
But I do think RTA will turn around ridership with the building boom happening in many neighborhoods . The TOD around RTA stations like Ohio city , University Circle and Little Italy are very good starts but this must continue at every station.
I know I have said this before along with others, but RTA really needs to loop the downtown business district with light rail extensions. maybe with the proposal of an outlet mall at the end of the Muni lots and building boom around Playhouse Square it may become a reality sooner than later.

The free trolleys do a much better job than a loop around the outskirts of downtown. Current Waterfront line ridership pretty much proves that out. Even if the Waterfront line was looped around with a subway station that popped up at Playhouse Square and then somewhere in Gateway - I don't see any significant increase in ridership to the train. The best a downtown train loop could do would be to rob the Trolley ridership.

Its a moot discussion, we can only hope to save the existing red/green/blue lines. Rail expansion in downtown will not get any further funding.

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by andrew61

Now if we could only do something about the ghouls, goblins, and other assorted mutants that, apparently, comprise the bulk of RTA's customers -- at least during off-peak hours.

Yes, you really dont know what you're going to see on an RTA bus after 6 PM. I've seen people screaming at each other on the 22, 76, and 90f in the last 2 months.

I really wish we had more normal people riding public transit for more than downtown events. I admit, sometimes it does feel exhausting when i want to go somewhere at a strange time. The customers are truly a bit of a deterrent.

[TheProf]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

Yes, you really dont know what you're going to see on an RTA bus after 6 PM. I've seen people screaming at each other on the 22, 76, and 90f in the last 2 months.

I really wish we had more normal people riding public transit for more than downtown events. I admit, sometimes it does feel exhausting when i want to go somewhere at a strange time. The customers are truly a bit of a deterrent.

RTA can, and should, enforce better behavior, at least on the trains with on-board, traveling RTA cops (I realize the agency is cash-strapped, and there are a lot more bus runs to police than trains). But RTA is incompetent in addition to being broke. They station a bunch of cops at the Tower City turnstiles at all hours, which makes no sense. Tower City is the only gate-controlled station (and staffed all hours by attendants both at the Red Line as well as at the Blue/Green/Waterfront entrances) and is the busiest and probably the safest in the entire system. Why post cops there when they could be hopping on and off random trains and posted at certain low volume and high interest stations, like W. 25., or E. 116 (near lots of people and businesses) or W. Boulevard/Cudell or Cedar-University? Those stations immediately come to mind, but there's no reason why more cops can't be riding trains after hours. RTA cops currently are only half-way visible (usually at W. 25th) is around 3-4p weekdays when school lets out and are mainly used for kid control.

[bjimmy24]

Any thought?

https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2020...qR3CpAetDU-MQg

[216facts]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

Any thought?

https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2020...qR3CpAetDU-MQg

I think they should make it an extension of the Healthline, going out to Metro. So have it go across the Detroit-Superior bridge, then up W 25 to metro. One complete Healthline connecting the big 3: CCF, UH, Metro.

[TheProf]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

Any thought?

https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2020...qR3CpAetDU-MQg

I'm one part positive and 2 parts, skeptical. First, the idea of improving, speeding and coordinating service in this busy and improving (RE wise) corridor is a good one.

My skepticism lies, first in the fact that the Healthline is being poorly run with no priority signaling and, now, now POP fare collection. Second, as one board member questioned in a previous PD article on the topic, good luck in speeding buses through the oft-crowded, car clogged Market Square area (which is, happily, about to become even busier, esp with pedestrians, once the massive Harbor Bay mixed use project goes online at the current Market Square Shopping center site).

One solution could be rerouting buses on a roadway behind Riverview Tower apts south onto W. 24th Street behind the Market Sq strip, then passing directly in front of the Red Line Rapid station, zigzaging over to Columbus Road, then south back to W. 25th. Not only could RTA move its BRT buses faster, but they would directly connect to the Rapid as opposed to now, where transferring commuters must hike a block (and across a busy intersection) between modes.

[TheProf]

Originally Posted by WRnative

Downtown Cleveland as commonly defined does NOT include Ohio City or Tremont, Cleveland neighborhoods just across the Cuyahoga River from downtown, and the Cuyahoga River is not comparable to Pittsburgh's great rivers in size. Ohio City includes the Market District that surrounds the West Side Market, an integral part of the downtown Cleveland experience. Ohio City has several multi-story residential buildings serving the downtown market with more under construction.

NEOtrans: Ohio City's Church+State rising to be a Hingetown hub

Ohio City has very robust mass transit connections to the downtown area on the other side of the Cuyahoga River, and is walkable from downtown across the Hope Memorial Bridge, Cleveland's equivalent of the Brooklyn Bridge with great views of the Cleveland Skyline from the bridge's north side pedestrian/bike lane.

Introducing the Ohio City Connector | Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority

Good points... I love NEOtrans street shot of Detroit Av with the new Church+State apt tower rising in the distance... This is becoming a very dense, walkable neighborhood.

That said, I seriously believe RTA should consider a subway/surface LRT starting in Tower City (at the old, unused Shaker Rapid station), then running through the Detroit-Superior (Veteran's Memorial) Bridge subway (using the extant W. 25th/Detroit subway station) then rising to the surface along Detroit at around W. 28th then running along the street, through Gordon Sq and ending at the W. Blvd. Red Line station -- with possible extension along Lake Ave. to/through the Edgewater neighborhood. The accelerated apartment building this Ohio City/Hingetown neighborhood has seen, and will likely see in coming years, is off the hook and it's becoming one of Cleveland's densest neighborhoods in terms of population. A fast LRT line through here, connecting to TC and other rail lines there would be a hit, esp with the new Sherwin-Williams headquarters on the Square with 6,000 employees.

By connecting to the Tower City rapid station and using the subway, this LRT line would shave several minutes off the current No. 26 bus line up Detroit which, the last time I used it during rush hour, spent 7 extra minutes picking up passengers between Public Square and W. 9th, and then losing almost 2 minutes sitting at the traffic light at W. 25th at the bridge's western end... (my proposal would not have an LRT station at the east end of the bridge (at/near W. 9th)... I don't think there needs to be given the short walk from TC, and the number of bus and trolley routes that currently serve this area -- there's not enough there, currently, to warrant an expensive station at W. 9th slowing down trains... plus, there's already the Waterfront Line from TC where riders could connect, which much more intimately serves the Flats East Bank at its lower level...

I would also reduce the number of stops for the LRT vis the current No. 26 bus which, if it were me, would be cut back to the Red Line Station at W. Blvd. in light of this new LRT service.