KCRag Forum

I just noticed an uncomfortable and unecessary amount of stops at intersections. Maybe I'm just missing the point of signal priority.

I love the streetcar though. So much so that I blew up at this person riding in my streetcar who spent her whole ride preaching at everyone about the evils of the streetcar project. She sucked and I couldn't help but let her know.

One old guy was complaining that it only went to Union Station! "That's KC for you", I just smiled.

New normal!

How are the lines for the streetcar today?

It's still pretty packed

On now, packed and most every stop. Also running extra overflow bus and extra Max buses.

Lot of Bcycle riders about.

JBmidtown wrote:I just noticed an uncomfortable and unecessary amount of stops at intersections. Maybe I'm just missing the point of signal priority.

I noticed it would be at a street with no cross traffic coming and it would be waiting at a red light. From way too much experience with the 8th St and 7th St lights, I don't think signal priority is turned on yet. If it is, it's not working.

Just like the ped sensors. No cars coming, lots of people standing under one and nothing triggered.

ldai_phs wrote:How are the lines for the streetcar today?

We parked at 7th St, which was a dead zone, and the NB train was almost totally full and half got off at Walnut at about 9am with another half train worth waiting to get on.

Then at 10:15 two got stuck on Grand just past our stop (thank you real time) and we walked around the corner to Delaware from Walnut and caught the first train which was very full.

The city market is going to be a problem spot. Worth watching further. There was no car traffic south of the city market but I saw a three block long backup EB on 5th.

Got off at 9th and hopped back on the next train which was half empty. Had to hit the door button twice for a guy on crutches that stopped halfway out at the next stop.

Went to Science City which was not busy but not empty. The carnival was full of families with small kids.

Got back on at Union Station at 1:00 and it filled up. The line was about a train length in size when we were waiting and there wasn't a band playing yet.

Hopped off at 7th and it was still full.

A lot of people are clearly using it for long distance rides. Making it a very good sign people would ride it to the Plaza, and I would argue to NKC as well. Clearly there's interest in avoiding driving through the core of downtown.

Was delayed for at least 45 min around 3PM today, not sure why they didn't run overflow buses. Most were cool about it but there really should be a backup plan with overflow bus. We ended up walking over to MAX from near Consentino's and took it home.

Streetcar was overall slower than I'd like getting from US to City Market. It really needs to control streetlights (at least somewhat) to be more effective. Other than being free, for those who already use bus it really has no benefit - it didn't mean anything to me as an existing bus rider. I'm still 110% for it since it attracts transit timid and TOD - and that it has. There was a significant amount of foot traffic along entire line middle of Sat afternoon. City Market was kajammed at 2PM, the biz along DE street was jammin as well as foot traffic, Opera House coffee house was kapacked and it's big.

Also, I didn't see pull cords or buttons to push. It stopped at every stop anyway given there were people at every stop anyway but how can this work w/out pull cords? Under normal conditions, I thought it only stops when requested.

JBmidtown wrote:so...uh...was there any reason signal priority was non existent today?

Contact your council people.

Dave, have any news on why it was delayed significantly around 3PM? Is there not a backup plan using buses?

earthling wrote:Also, I didn't see pull cords or buttons to push. It stopped at every stop anyway given there were people at every stop anyway but how can this work w/out pull cords? Under normal conditions, I thought it only stops when requested.

There are red stop buttons instead of a pull cord. Near the doors and the wheelchair area.

Hmm, I specifically looked and didn't notice anything. I saw one red pull thing that I couldn't get to and looked like an emergency fire thing. That could be an issue. Might need pull cords or stop at every stop until getting something more intuitive figured out.

Button at the bottom of the window

earthling wrote:Dave, have any news on why it was delayed significantly around 3PM? Is there not a backup plan using buses?

Twitter was saying the 4th train was out for a while with a door issue.

Buses were definitely definitely running today

grovester wrote:

earthling wrote:Dave, have any news on why it was delayed significantly around 3PM? Is there not a backup plan using buses?

Twitter was saying the 4th train was out for a while with a door issue.

it was back out for the evening, btw.

24K+ for the two day grand opening. i'd call that a success.

can't wait for 'normal' to kick in and ride to work on monday!

If there was significant continued demand. Would we be able to acquire more vehicles?

ldai_phs wrote:If there was significant continued demand. Would we be able to acquire more vehicles?

the TDD is doing well enough that it's financially possible and cincinnati has additional 'options' we could use. would need to get the ratepayers and maybe even council to agree (protections are in place for such requests), and i'm not sure how that would go over so quickly after the opening.

grovester wrote:Button at the bottom of the window

Might need to put a sticker on each button 'Press to Request Stop'.