Public Transportation In Cincinnati (Kent, Madison: home, employment, transfer to)

[lovetravel]

Hello,
I am considering a move to mid wesr from NY and wanted to know on a scale of one to ten how would you rate public transportation in cincy?

I was looking at the neighborhoods like Hyde Park and wanted to know if you have to have a car to get around?

[TomJones123]

Originally Posted by lovetravel

I was looking at the neighborhoods like Hyde Park and wanted to know if you have to have a car to get around?

Yes you will need a car to get around Cincy. Basically, we depend on the bus system. Here's a link to a page that has maps and schedules. I ride the bus as often as I can since I live on a main route with stops across from my house. But in Cincy, I am dependent on my car at times nonetheless.

Maps and Schedules: Cincinnati Metro - Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority

[ArtVandalay84]

Public transportation is essentially nonexistent in Cincinnati. There's a bizarre stigma attached to using it in this city.
I'm hopeful about the streetcar system they're putting into place but I have doubts that it will be used by very many people.
When I tell people in Cincy about using the CTA in Chicago, I get the feeling people around here are either afraid of taking the train, or they feel they're too good for public transportation.
Again, it's very strange to me.

[13th Alphabet]

Cincinnati doesn't have a robust public transit system that you will find in many eastern and larger cities. As TomJones mentioned, there is only have the "Metro," which is the bus system here. One's experience with Metro and how they would rate its efficiency highly depends on where they live in the city. I live along a main route, so I would probably rate it as a 6. There are time however when the bus can come 3-4 minutes early, but if they are running off schedule, you can almost bet on them being 4-8 minutes late.

Hyde Park is one of the better neighborhoods to live in if you do not want to be strictly dependent on your car (granted you stick close to Erie, Madison, and Observatory Avenues).

Living car-free in Cincinnati is doable, but it would probably be highly inconvenient, so I would suggest having a car. During off peak hours, some of the buses can be scarce, making getting around a real adventure. I can sometimes leave my car parked for a couple of days, maybe 3, but it is virtually impossible for me to go more than 5 days without jumping in my car.

I don't know what your employment situation will be like, but you will more than likely find that you will need a car, especially if you are not working downtown.

[jmecklenborg]

Public transportation is massively underfunded in Cincinnati. It still operates with the "temporary" .3% earnings tax enacted in 1973. It is weak compared to the east coast, but doable as primary transportation if you live and work very close to one of the higher frequency lines. Downtown is actually the single best place to live if you want to be car-free, since nearly all of the bus lines radiate from Government Square.

[motorman]

Originally Posted by ArtVandalay84

Public transportation is essentially nonexistent in Cincinnati. There's a bizarre stigma attached to using it in this city.

These two comments are both inaccurate and misleading. Although Cincinnati's public transit isn't comparable with the large coastal cities which possess rail, it can be favorably compared with other Midwestern cities with buses only. In fact, to imply that public transportation in the city is "essentially nonexistent" is ludicrous.

The Queen City Metro's routes not only converge at downtown's Government Square, but many of them are also intersected by crosstown buses in the suburbs. For example, if the OP were to reside in Hyde Park/Oakley, he not only would have several ways to reach the CBD, but also could connect with the the #51, which would easily take him past Xavier University, the hospital district, the Gaslight District, and the University of Cincinnati. (And there are at least four other crosstown routes.)

Also, what needs mentioning is that although the communities of northern Kentucky are served by TANK (Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky) buses, all these buses enter downtown Cincinnati, most of them stopping at busy 4th & Main Streets and/or Government Square before traveling back across the river. So, essentially, the combined bus routes of Cincinnati and NKY resemble the spokes of a wheel.

Sadly to say, however (with the exception of the AM/PM express buses to the outlying suburbs), the Metro's ridership is largely the less affluent, mainly because so many of Cincinnati's inner-ring suburbs are comprised of poor people. And the buses can be painfully slow, as contrasted to limited stop rail transportation of other cities. However, for a bus-only Midwestern city, Cincinnati is adequately served. (I'll bestow it with a "7")

[abr7rmj]

While the public transportation system is antiquated and inconvenient, construction is under way on the city's new streetcar line. The line will initially link the riverfront with the OTR neighborhood north of downtown, but plans are in the works to extend it in the near future to points uptown. Links/spurs into Covington and Newport have also been discussed.

Bigger picture, light rail to the city's eastern suburbs is also on the drawing board and seems to have some momentum. But it's still years away.

[Ohiogirl81]

If you live close to a bus line and work downtown, or work along a bus line that you can transfer to easily, and are traveling during rush hour, public transportation is great. The buses are reliable and reasonably pleasant to ride in.

Otherwise, public transportation is nothing to write home about.

[t45209]

Recently, I was with a group of friends and we were going to go downtown for an event, and we thought, "let's take the bus." It seemed like the responsible thing to do, right? Not when we did the math...at $1.75 a head, we decided we could drive and park cheaper than taking the bus, not to mention that we could come and go without have to be on the bus schedule.

Years ago I took the bus to work downtown, and if I ever had to work late and I had missed the Sun Run, it was a nightmare trying to figure out how to get home.

[13th Alphabet]

Originally Posted by t45209

Recently, I was with a group of friends and we were going to go downtown for an event, and we thought, "let's take the bus." It seemed like the responsible thing to do, right? Not when we did the math...at $1.75 a head, we decided we could drive and park cheaper than taking the bus, not to mention that we could come and go without have to be on the bus schedule.

Years ago I took the bus to work downtown, and if I ever had to work late and I had missed the Sun Run, it was a nightmare trying to figure out how to get home.

Oh yeah, I forgot how expensive the bus can be. Luckily for me, Metro is subsidized by my place of employment so it costs next to nothing for me to ride the bus. I'm actually waiting for the bus right now.