Rain, Rain…

It feels like it hasn’t stopped raining all week.  It would be great to be able to hop on a streetcar to get out of the rain on your way to lunch, a meeting, or to return materials to the library.

 

Cincinnati Streetcar Virtual Tour

Queen City Discovery presents a Virtual Tour of the Cincinnati Streetcar:

 

First Streetcar Open House Today

The first Streetcar open house is today at the Aronoff Center.  Please attend and show your support for the Cincinnati Streetcar. Details follow:

Streetcar Open House

Tuesday, September 22

5-7 pm

Aronoff Center for the Arts

650 Walnut Street 45202

 

What’s the Best Way to Get 150 UC Students Home from the Fireworks?

We have previously examined the difficulties of large groups of UC students wanting to use public transportation to go a Bengals game.  What if the same 150 students wanted to take the bus back to UC from the fireworks?  As in the previous post, we will assume that any public transportation that comes to pick up the students will be about ¼ full (probably a low estimate as the streetcar and buses would be busy after the fireworks).

The first firework goes off at 9:05pm and the show lasts about 30 minutes.  Google estimates a 16 minute walk from Yeatman’s Cove back to Government Square, which doesn’t account for fighting the crowd.

If the students are lucky, the first group will catch the 9:50pm bus, a 17, but given the crowds that seems unlikely they will make it up to government square in time. (Even without the crowds, they would probably be late).

If the Students arrive at Government Square at around 10pm, the first bus to UC, a 17, will come at 10:20pm. Around 35 students would add to those currently on the bus and fill it to capacity.  This group would be back in their dorms studying away by 10:35pm.

The second bus, a 46, would arrive at 10:35pm, and would fill to capacity.  This group makes it home before 11pm.

The third bus, a 17, would arrive at 10:55pm, after the students had been waiting for almost an hour.

The fourth bus and the fifth bus, a 17 and 46 both arrive at 11:50pm.  This group of students will make it back after midnight.   Hopefully there aren’t many other students, who weren’t a part of this 150 that thought the fireworks were a good idea, because there is only one more bus that runs from Government Square to UC for them to catch.

After Cincinnati invests in a streetcar and it begins operations, the students would walk about 10 minutes to Main and Freedom way, wait about ten minutes (maybe less if a streetcar was approaching when they arrive), would all board the same streetcar, and return to UC.

Building the Cincinnati Streetcar will make it easier to take transit between some of our densest neighborhoods, neighborhoods where parking comes at a premium.  A Streetcar will boost transit ridership, introduce new riders to public transportation and create jobs in our center city—helping all 52 neighborhoods by growing our tax base. Make Riding Transit Easier—Build the Streetcar

 

Moerlein Lager House, Another Destination on South End of Streetcar Line

The Enquirer is reporting that the Christian Moerlein Lager House, a restaurant and microbrewery, is planned to anchor the new Central Riverfront Park.  This unique Cincinnati attraction will be yet another destination on the streetcar line.

 

Serving 81 Home Games Per Year

According to WCPO, the Cincinnati Reds are averaging 23,292 fans per game this year.  With 81 home games that means 1,886,655 fans will attend a home game this year.  The Cincinnati Streetcar will allow those 1,886,655 potential riders to save money by parking further away from the stadium and riding the streetcar to the game.  By reducing the cost and hassle of parking near the stadium and fighting post game traffic, the streetcar will make more convenient to go to a ballgame, hopefully increasing attendance.  Support the Reds–Build the Streetcar.

The Streetcar will also bring riders to the Reds Hall of Fame in the off season.

 

Streetcars Will Boost Usage of Riverfront Park

Cincinnati is constructing the new Central Riverfront Park just south of the Banks project, reconnecting Downtown with the region’s most valuable natural resource—the Ohio River.  The park will cover 45 acres and cost $66 million to build. The city estimates 1.1 million people will visit the park every year, but a question remains – how are over a million people going to access the park?

Unlike virtually every other park in the city, the Central Riverfront Park will have zero dedicated parking spaces. Sawyer Point, which draws about 750,000 people per year, has a parking lot with 406 spaces. Only one Metro bus, the No. 85 parking shuttle, goes to the new park, and it doesn’t run on the weekends. Visitors could park downtown and walk to the park, but it is more than a mile round trip from Fountain Square to the new River Promenade. As the average American walks less than 1.5 miles day, many people won’t want to make that trip on foot.

The Banks parking garages will be available, but the Reds are in town nearly every other day in the summer, and park-goers will have to pay the cost of parking right next to the ballpark. The Bengals, Freedom Center and Banks residents and visitors will be using the garage as well. Think about it – who wants to pay to park in a huge underground garage to go to a park?

The Cincinnati Streetcar will connect the Central Riverfront Park with Downtown, Uptown, Over-the-Rhine and the University of Cincinnati. A streetcar ride from Fountain Square to a block away from the park will take about two minutes. Walking would take more than 10 minutes each way – not an option for office workers on their lunch breaks.

The streetcar will help visitors access the park, and make sure The Banks is part of Downtown and easily accessible.  It will connect the 62,163 residents who live along the line, the employees that work in the City’s two largest employment centers (containing 54% of the jobs in the entire city), the 35,000 students of the University of Cincinnati, and the millions of visitors, hotel guests, and conventioneers that come to Downtown each year with our new investments along the riverfront.

The Cincinnati Streetcar will generate more than a billion dollars in new economic activity and support the investments the city has made in the Riverfront, Fountain Square, and Findlay Market—leading to increased tax revenues that can be used in all 52 neighborhoods.  Support the Central Riverfront Park—Build the Streetcar.

 

48.2% of Households Along Phase 1 of the Streetcar Have Zero Cars

The table below shows, according to the most recent census, the number of households with zero cars in the Census Tracts that are directly on the first phase of the Cincinnati Streetcar, running from the University of Cincinnati to the Riverfront.  With almost half of the households on the alignment not having an automobile, there is a clear need for improved public transportation options like the streetcar.

	Census Tract	Percent of Households with No Car
South Central Business District	6	33.1%
North Central Business District	7	59.1%
Southwest Over the Rhine	9	84.6%
Southeast Over the Rhine	10	60.8%
Northwest Over the Rhine	16	77.9%
East Vine St. Hill	23	46.1%
West Vine St. Hill	25	26.1%
South East CUF	30	31.2%
Southwest Corryville	33	29.9%
	Total Percentage with Zero Cars: 48.2%