CincyStreetcar Blog

A few days ago, the Enquirer ran this piece.

Streetcars stopped running on the streets of Cincinnati.

A PCC Car painted in Cincinnati colors still in service in San Fransisco

This was posted by UrbanCincy last year.

The first graphic is from almost 100 years ago. The second graphic represents the modern day update, from UrbanCincy:

Ford Taurus dimensions were used for average auto size with an average of 1.2 passengers. Skoda ST10 dimensions were used for average streetcar size with an average of 85 passengers. What was seen is an increase in both the average space taken up by streetcar passengers and auto passengers. Auto space saw a 142% increase which dwarfed the 26% increase for streetcar passengers.

Modern Day

Its Saturday, the 9-7 Reds are at home coming off a wining series against the Cubs, the Cyclones have a home playoff game tonight, Findlay Market is attracting its large Saturday crowd in  Over-the-Rhine, and there should be the typical throngs of people forming lines down the street for the 7th Street bars (last night was packed). The forecast: 86 degrees and sunny.

With so much going on, wouldn’t it be great to have a Streetcar to tie this activity all together?

Its Friday, the 9-6 Reds are at home coming off a wining series against the Cubs, the Cyclones have a home playoff game tonight, there is an event on Fountain Square, the Final Friday Art Gallery Walk is being held in Over-the-Rhine, and there should be the typical crowds forming lines down the street for the 7th Street bars.  The forecast: 80 degrees and sunny.

With so much going on, wouldn’t it be great to have a Streetcar to tie this activity all together?

The Enquirer is reporting that Findlay Market will now be open until 6pm Tuesday-Friday.  When the Streetcar connects Findlay Market with Downtown, Uptown and the rest of Over the Rhine, hopefully they will be able to stay open even later and become, as they once were, the ‘grocery store’ for the city.

According to the City of Cincinnati Climate Protection Plan, building the Cincinnati Streetcar will reduce pollution and CO2 emissions. The environmental benefits of the streetcar are numerous. People riding the streetcar rather taking private automobiles or taxis will prevent 4,321 tons of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere each year.

The streetcar will increase the number of residents in Downtown, Uptown and Over the Rhine. These dense, walkable neighborhoods allow residents to run errands and do their shopping without ever having to use an automobile. With the Streetcar linking all these neighborhoods together, someone living along the line could access virtually everything they need by streetcar. In addition, dense settlement patterns reduce greenhouse gases because housing units are generally smaller, more energy-efficient, and have reduced thermal losses because of attached construction compared to older, single-family homes. The Climate Protection Plan estimates that the denser settlement patterns of along the streetcar line will result in an additional 25,995 tons of CO2 not being emitted a year.

Powering the Streetcar may result in emissions, but because the Streetcar is run on electricity, it gives the City considerable flexibility in determining a power source. Renewable energy like wind, solar, hydroelectric or geothermal could be purchased for the Streetcar through programs like this one from Duke Energy. Even if the Streetcar is run on conventional electricity, generation would only result in 2,248 tons of CO2, resulting in a net reduction of 28,068 tons of CO2.

The Streetcar not only reduces emissions, but it also displaces them. Cincinnati sits in the middle of a valley that traps pollution and smog. The streetcar will transfer the emissions that would otherwise be emitted by tailpipes at street level to distant smokestacks outside of the valley—moving the emissions off the streets on which children play and the elderly and other sensitive groups traverse.

Help the Environment—Build the Streetcar.

This article about streetcars in the New York Times discusses Cincinnati’s Streetcar.  It is not a new article. Its publication pre-dates this blog, but it is linked here for people who have only recently begun following the Cincinnati Streetcar.

Photo: Dana E. Olsen/The Oregonian