Forge Ahead Columbus releases 90 page report on the future of transit in Columbus

[jbcmh81]

Originally Posted by ayoskillz

Detroit has no light rail, orlando, san Antonio, tampa florida, kansas city, Raleigh-Durham are all cities with no light rail. Busses only. I dont count amtrak cause it doesnt count

Detroit has a "people mover" and is just about finished with its first streetcar line, Orlando has SunRail, which is expanding and Tampa and Kansas City have streetcars. San Antonio is listed to have 3 streetcar lines on the VIA transit page, but I'm not sure if it actually does. It does have BRT for sure. So you may be right about them, and Raleigh. Raleigh has about 6.5-7 million in its bus ridership and San Antonio has 46 million. Columbus will have its own first BRT line toward the end of next year, and it is redesigning its entire route system which should also be done next year. Yesterday, there was news that a company has been in talks with COTA about providing a live tracking service as well as an on-board payment system. All of these should help increase bus ridership quite a bit, as they all address the existing complaints.

[WRnative]

Originally Posted by ayoskillz

Not including heavy rail. That has nothing to do with a city's public transportation.

??????

Cleveland's "heavy" RTA Red Line is a dedicated transit line; it is not a commuter rail line sharing track with freight trains. The Red Line has the same gauge as the light rail lines, and they share some common track on the east side of Cleveland. The big difference is that the Red Line has high platforms, whereas the light rail lines are converted street car lines that have low platforms.

Cleveland's RTA actively is considering whether or not to convert its rail transit lines to the same platform heights so that it can use the same rolling stock on all of its rail lines.

Note that Cleveland's overall mass transit ridership, including rail, bus rapid transit, free downtown bus trolleys, and buses, is about 47 million annually.

[WRnative]

A big question regarding mass transit in Columbus and everywhere is whether at some point, likely due to higher energy prices, population densities will increase significantly once again.

If the answer is yes, Columbus would be smart to secure the rights of way now for rail mass transit.

Most persons believe driver-less cars are inevitable. One of their first uses will be as an on-call shuttle service to take customers to and from transit transit hubs, whether rail, bus rapid, or regular bus lines.

I wonder when rail transit trains can eliminate drivers. This will significantly lower their cost of operation.

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by WRnative

A big question regarding mass transit in Columbus and everywhere is whether at some point, likely due to higher energy prices, population densities will increase significantly once again.

If the answer is yes, Columbus would be smart to secure the rights of way now for rail mass transit.

Most persons believe driver-less cars are inevitable. One of their first uses will be as an on-call shuttle service to take customers to and from transit transit hubs, whether rail, bus rapid, or regular bus lines.

I wonder when rail transit trains can eliminate drivers. This will significantly lower their cost of operation.

Prices went way up in the seventies, people continued to flee the cities. Just not sure I'd bank on that necessarily.

As for what innovations could come along that would be way better than what we have now, there are certainly fun things to speculate about.

[ohioaninsc]

Originally Posted by jbcmh81

The High and Broad corridors are more than dense enough to handle light rail. This is especially true when you consider that many cities have rail in corridors that have lower densities than the potential routes in Columbus, including Cincinnati's streetcar. The average density of the entire city is approaching 4000 ppsm, including all the low density suburban areas on the fringe. There is way more density around the core city than people seem to ever believe. The High and Broad corridors generally have a density range of 6,000-12,000 and peak near 30K around Campus. Also, rail routes tend to promote increased construction along the route, which increases population density along and near the line. I agree that routes have to be carefully chosen to maximize ridership, though.

Charlotte has a far lower population density than Columbus has but they have been moving ahead on Light Rail lines...when I lived down there they were building the Blue Line from down near Pineville on the south 485 loop into the Center City...it went through a very low density sprawl area through the Southend which was a very dilapidated area similar to our Short North area...once they began building that line, development blossomed in the Southend...I moved into one of the first new apartments to open there called Camden Southend...then I bought a condo along the tracks in a new development called the Spectrum. Needless to say, that line has created a ton of density between Downtown Charlotte and nearly down the entire line now. So to say we aren't dense enough to handle light rail is incorrect...especially since light rail leads to new denser development in almost every case.
Cleveland's Shaker Square was laid out w/ the Blue and Green Lines of the Rapid.

[Mplsite]

Wow, to those saying college students won't ride LRT, you are clueless. Yeah, college students don't use light rail, that's why some of the stations with the highest number of passengers boarding and exiting the Green Line between the Twin Cities are at the U of M with over 50,000 students. Not to mention smaller colleges near the Green Line and served by buses that run frequently. Clearly, if Columbus does it then OSU and some of the dense neighborhoods that need it (Broad St) are the best candidates to ensure a successful first line. Why? Because that's where the highest ridership is.

[ZnGuy]

Originally Posted by ohioaninsc

Charlotte has a far lower population density than Columbus has but they have been moving ahead on Light Rail lines...when I lived down there they were building the Blue Line from down near Pineville on the south 485 loop into the Center City...it went through a very low density sprawl area through the Southend which was a very dilapidated area similar to our Short North area...once they began building that line, development blossomed in the Southend...I moved into one of the first new apartments to open there called Camden Southend...then I bought a condo along the tracks in a new development called the Spectrum. Needless to say, that line has created a ton of density between Downtown Charlotte and nearly down the entire line now. So to say we aren't dense enough to handle light rail is incorrect...especially since light rail leads to new denser development in almost every case.
Cleveland's Shaker Square was laid out w/ the Blue and Green Lines of the Rapid.

unbelievable the development that has happened along the light rail in southend in the last 5 years or so which was not a nice area, cranes everywhere, Charlotte's booming. My daughter graduated last year and moved into Camden Southend as well, she is enjoying Uptown, big draw for college grads..