Even if you don’t ride the Cincinnati Streetcar on a regular basis, you will still benefit by saving money on parking when going down to a big game or the fireworks. Another way the Streetcar will help occasional riders is by getting you places when you don’t have access to a car.
One of the biggest hassles of getting your car repaired (aside from the cost) is getting to and from the repair shop. A lot of times, the car can make it there, but it will take hours to fix it. During that time you can either wait in the waiting room reading a six month old People Magazine or drop the car off and do something else.
With over half of the jobs in the entire city in Downtown and Uptown, a worker could drop their car off and take the streetcar to their office.
If you don’t work along the line, you could take the streetcar up to the Zoo, downtown to the Riverfront or Findlay Market, or instead of waiting in a car repair shop, go to one of the many museums along the line. The map below shows the Google results for automobile repair along the line. There are several mechanics to choose from.
Unfortunately technical difficulties prevented the route from being shown as well as the results. The route runs from the Zoo in Avondale to the Riverfront.
September 11, 2009 at 7:26 pm
This actually happens in Portland. Two leading auto dealers have their operations on the light rail lines, one west of the CBD, the other to the east.
Many times, I’ve seen people get off the train late in the afternoon and walk in the direction of these dealers, probably to pick up their cars.
And there’s an obvious precedent for it here. Drive Gilbert Avenue and Reading Road someday. Note the low buildings with wide column spans, many still with showroom windows. The first car dealers located here because the streetcar lines were rich on these boulevards. What better way to capture a new market than to locate your business right where it operates?
September 12, 2009 at 6:49 am
This actually happens in Portland. Two leading auto dealers have their operations on the light rail lines, one west of the CBD, the other to the east.
Many times, I’ve seen people get off the train late in the afternoon and walk in the direction of these dealers, probably to pick up their cars.
And there’s an obvious precedent for it here. Drive Gilbert Avenue and Reading Road someday. Note the low buildings with wide column spans, many still with showroom windows. The first car dealers located here because the streetcar lines were rich on these boulevards. What better way to capture a new market than to locate your business right where it operates?
September 14, 2009 at 1:02 am
In Portland the Les Schwab tire place by the streetcar line is the most successful in the city, people take their cars there, drop them off and go to work on the streetcar. Then they come back in the afternoon to pick it up.
November 28, 2009 at 6:15 am
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January 11, 2010 at 1:22 pm
I actually do this now — I work in Over-the-Rhine, and have my car repaired in Walnut Hills, so it’s very convenient to drop it off in the morning and use Metro (11,24,69) to get to and from work/mechanic if needed.