Cincinnati streetcar
All the sudden everyone online is all streetcar all the time. Maybe they’ve been emboldened by the Banks news. I for one can’t wait until the streetcar is running but I still think it would be better if it ran past Fountain Square. One more development that I think would be positive is the development of an independent corporation set up ala 3CDC, or even under their umbrella. I've also thought about financing, and why I think we would be better served with a quasi-private corporation in charge, what Wired calls the Future of Business, Free.
I imagine something like during baseball season the cars are total Reds and anyone with a game day ticket rides free. Taste, the various restaurants sponsor different cars and everyone rides free. Oktoberfest, beer sponsors all over the place and that weekend everyone rides free. Riverfest, the cars are all WEBN and everyone rides, yep free. Buy something in the Q, ride home free. Eat on Fountain square, ride home free. You could go on and on. I don’t think there will be any buy-in from hotels because their business model is designed to try and keep customers from leaving. I also like the idea of a surcharge for parking in the CBD that goes to the streetcar. But with the right marketing and some thinking outside the box, the streetcar
I had been thinking of this over the weekend, and then I saw Jackie's video with Brad Thomas talking up the streetcar and also Sean Fisher.
cincinnati ohio downtown
All I've heard about the routes doesn't differ from the way the metro already runs. What is the benefit of the streetcar that the metro doesn't do? The metro is already having money trouble, this will only make it worse!
ReplyDeleteBecause the metro isn't ideal for moving around downtown. Why do I need to memorize schedules if I want to go to Findlay Market? Actually I hardly go there so Lavomatic or Grammer's would be a better example. I can jump off the streetcar and walk back to the tracks, 5 0r 10 minutes later a streetcar will come by. A bus? who knows, and I would need to go to a completely different street to come home.
ReplyDeleteGood point, ok so it's more for people who work or live downtown then. It probably will not benefit me at all, but if it does anything for the city it'll be good.
ReplyDeleteExactly right! The permanent tracks eliminate any uncertainty about where the streetcar is going to go (take you). A bus (let’s say rout #17) can have many different peripheral routes depending on the time. Also, as far as development goes...the stationary line encourages people/businesses to invest. You (the investor) know that you will always have passengers passing in front of your business, where with a bus, the route could change or be eliminated at any time.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the route point....I tend to agree. My preferred rout would be: North on Main street, Left at 12th street, Right at Elm Street, Right at McMicken, Right at Vine Street (may require adding a southern traffic lane or southern dedicated Streetcar lane all the way to the Banks) back to the Banks. This will hit all the major pieces of our Downtown/OTR community (Banks, Stadiums, Aronoff Center, Main Street Entertainment District, Gateway Quarter, Washington Park, Music Hall, Findlay Market, Brewery District, and Fountain Square, etc).
I like the monorail system they have in Denver, which goes up and down a pedestrianized area of downtown, but it was in Prague last year that I totally fell in love with the streetcar concept. It was easy to use, very convenient, very safe, and totally reliable. If we missed our car, we knew another would be along in less than ten minutes.
ReplyDeleteLoved. It.
nobody better break into that Simpson's monorail song.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, I think that is what everyone is hoping for, that ease of use.