RTA: What's good, bad, and improvable (Columbus, Cleveland: loan, places to live, versus)

[Kamms]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

https://www.cleveland.com/datacentra...-once-was.html

Greater Cleveland RTA ridership hits record low - now less than a third of what it once was

Not surprised. Hope ''Dr." Valerie McCall reads this story, otherwise she'll never know about this...not that she'll do anything about it. Recall her ''discovery'' of the Airport Red Line and the continuous mounds of trash along it in prepping the city for the 2016 RNC.

[TheProf]

RTA asks public if it should design service for maximum frequency or geographic coverage
Updated 7:20 AM; Today 5:00 AM

By Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Should transit in Cuyahoga County maximize frequent service on its most highly traveled routes? Or spread service as widely as possible while sacrificing frequency?

The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority is looking for responses to those alternatives in an online survey and meetings over the next month.

The new survey and meetings are the latest steps in a yearlong “system design’’ process aimed at guiding RTA’s strategic planning for the next decade and beyond. The public is invited to respond to a pair of starkly different maps showing how RTA’s bus and rapid transit routes would look if configured to suit each alternative.

The maps assume no increase in RTA’s current funding. The agency’s 2019 budget is $292 million.

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2019/...-coverage.html

[bjimmy24]

^ frequency for sure

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by TheProf

RTA asks public if it should design service for maximum frequency or geographic coverage
Updated 7:20 AM; Today 5:00 AM

By Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Should transit in Cuyahoga County maximize frequent service on its most highly traveled routes? Or spread service as widely as possible while sacrificing frequency?

The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority is looking for responses to those alternatives in an online survey and meetings over the next month.

The new survey and meetings are the latest steps in a yearlong “system design’’ process aimed at guiding RTA’s strategic planning for the next decade and beyond. The public is invited to respond to a pair of starkly different maps showing how RTA’s bus and rapid transit routes would look if configured to suit each alternative.

The maps assume no increase in RTA’s current funding. The agency’s 2019 budget is $292 million.

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2019/...-coverage.html

That's a tough one for me. When I'm standing at the bus stop in zero degree weather and the bus is 30-40 minutes late I would definitely say "frequency."

But when I find I can't "get there from here" on public transportation I would say, "geographic coverage."

I guess I'm greedy and want both.

[andrew61]

Originally Posted by Minervah

That's a tough one for me. When I'm standing at the bus stop in zero degree weather and the bus is 30-40 minutes late I would definitely say "frequency."

But when I find I can't "get there from here" on public transportation I would say, "geographic coverage."

I guess I'm greedy and want both.

This sums up my view too.

[TheProf]

Frankly, I resent the question. Why should we have to choose? Answer: because, primarily, we have a bunch of stingy pols in Columbus (I won't say which party because I don't want this to be a partisan thing, but...) who allocate less to urban transit than even largely rural states.

Studies have shown over and over again that, once you start cutting transit, the cycle feeds on itself, leading to more and more cuts down the road. A poster on another website stated that only a small percentage of RTA routes, as it is, connects riders to jobs … and that's largely because of the unbridled sprawl in the area that's taken place in recent decades... and continues. Why, for example, do institutions like Cleveland Clinic, Tri-C and others locate their campuses in places like Westlake and Solon and other places at the fringes of the RTA grid... or off it completely, like in the next county where RTA doesn't even reach?

And yes, this study promotes cutting rail severely: rush hour only on the Green Line and eliminating the Waterfront Line all together... Are you ready for that? I know folks aren't riding the Waterfront line in numbers anywhere near expected, frankly, hardly at all. But are you ready to make it disappear? … especially with all the planned development of Flats East Bank Phase III (the last portion just approved last week by the planning commission), or the planned transportation (bus, Amtrak, WFL station near E. 9th... And why was there never talk of connecting the new Convention Center with the WFL? -- a big convention center window looks out directly upon the WFL/Amtrak station...

... oh yeah, are you ready to go back to the 3/4 mile hike up W. 3rd to/from Tower City to Browns Games once the WFL is eliminated, which currently drops fans at FE Stadium's doorstep? And, with its jammed packed 2-car trains every few minutes, nobody can deny the utility and popularity of the WFL on Browns home Sundays (and now Monday and Thursday nights, too).

And what about all the people who park at Green Road for ball games, and fireworks and Taste of Summer events and Browns games (oops, those latter 2 require the Waterfront Line, too, so if disappears...). And what about the Shaker Middle School and High School kids who use the Green Line outside of rush hour?... John Carroll students use the line, too.

Cleveland would certainly be a pioneer in cutting rapid transit lines in modern times -- it hasn't been done anywhere. Is this the kind of pioneering Cleveland needs -- cutting rail lines? And just like cutting buses, cutting train lines will feed on itself until, likely, all we'll have left is the Airport-to-downtown portion of the Red Line (certainly City fathers/mothers won't late that high profile tourist advertisement go)… Are we bucking to be Detroit? Is Detroit Cleveland's new role model. (B. Jimmy????)

Planners also want to make the popular 55/Cleveland State Line (BRT-lite) into a peak/rush hour only line too. Do you really think it wise, outside of rush hour, to force 55/CSU Line riders to walk several blocks to much slower moving #26 buses along Detroit? (the road not the city, that is...)

Do you really want to make these cuts to needed bus routes (which have been pruned to the bare minimum anyway under the now-gone Calabrese administration) just for a little extra frequency? And what good does extra frequency do you if you can't connect with where you need to go anyway?

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by TheProf

Frankly, I resent the question. Why should we have to choose?

It's a real "rent or food?" isn't it?

Answer: because, primarily, we have a bunch of stingy pols in Columbus

This is the root cause, but permit me to be a bit cynical for a minute. The direct cause might be that RTA leaders want to pass the buck on to the public. If the decision on what to cut goes poorly, they don't have to take responsibility for it. They can just say "it's what the public wanted!"

and that's largely because of the unbridled sprawl in the area that's taken place in recent decades... and continues. Why, for example, do institutions like Cleveland Clinic, Tri-C and others locate their campuses in places like Westlake and Solon and other places at the fringes of the RTA grid... or off it completely

This drives me nuts. But y'know, "free parking"

[j_ws]

To try and look on the positive side, concentrating on strengths and achieving better frequency could lead to ridership increases that facilitate wider system coverage. This does, obviously, do a disservice to those combating disparities such as the mismatch between population density (where people live) and job density (where people work) which is a big issue in Cuyahoga County.

[TBideon]

RTA leadership has been abysmal, even criminal, but in the end so much of the business sector has abandoned the downtown core that RTA sits in an unwinnable position. It's a miracle they run as many trains as they do.

[RaisedRustbelt]

Originally Posted by TBideon

RTA leadership has been abysmal, even criminal, but in the end so much of the business sector has abandoned the downtown core that RTA sits in an unwinnable position. It's a miracle they run as many trains as they do.

What exactly do you mean the business sector has abandoned downtown?

What's a miracle is that the RTA even exists with how little the state government funds public transit -

$0.63 per capita! (according to NOACA)