KCRag Forum

flyingember wrote:Real world vs "I can walk that far"

https://twitter.com/JenDeMeyer/status/7 ... 1502280704

the other real world: wheelchair

DaveKCMO wrote:
people are being drawn from a few blocks away where there are lots of residents and workers who might not normally venture to/across main. it's easy to downplay the north loop stop, but there is residential on all three sides of that sea of surface parking. my friend at the view -- who said he would never walk that far to the streetcar stop and complained about his assessment -- has instantly taken to making that trek.

so imagine the 3,000 units of residential coming on line in the next year, eight hotels, increased convention business, wednesday night farmers market, late night MAX...

I live in the Garment District adjacent to the sea of parking lots. I made three round trips on foot through those lots this weekend going to/from the north loop stop. Suddenly, multiple Crossroads restaurants are all walking distance from my place and I don't have to worry about futzing around driving or finding parking of any sort. I seem to dine out a lot on the weekends and the streetcar is adding a lot of potential destinations to my hit list that I wouldn't have so readily considered before.

Incidentally, I've always considered the north loop lots ugly, but walking through them repeatedly is really amplifying that opinion. It's not a long walk and yet those few minutes click by with my brain only thinking, "asphalt, asphalt, asphalt." It's really an incredible waste of space.

I hope those lots end up as hirises (like new tallests) and not mid/lowrise.

HalcyonKC wrote:

DaveKCMO wrote:
people are being drawn from a few blocks away where there are lots of residents and workers who might not normally venture to/across main. it's easy to downplay the north loop stop, but there is residential on all three sides of that sea of surface parking. my friend at the view -- who said he would never walk that far to the streetcar stop and complained about his assessment -- has instantly taken to making that trek.

so imagine the 3,000 units of residential coming on line in the next year, eight hotels, increased convention business, wednesday night farmers market, late night MAX...

I live in the Garment District adjacent to the sea of parking lots. I made three round trips on foot through those lots this weekend going to/from the north loop stop. Suddenly, multiple Crossroads restaurants are all walking distance from my place and I don't have to worry about futzing around driving or finding parking of any sort. I seem to dine out a lot on the weekends and the streetcar is adding a lot of potential destinations to my hit list that I wouldn't have so readily considered before.

Incidentally, I've always considered the north loop lots ugly, but walking through them repeatedly is really amplifying that opinion. It's not a long walk and yet those few minutes click by with my brain only thinking, "asphalt, asphalt, asphalt." It's really an incredible waste of space.

what a great statement. thanks for sharing!

ridership per day since opening:

5/6 - 12,000
5/7 - 15,000
5/8 - 5,000
5/9 - 4,000
5/10 - 4,367
5/11 - 4,826

transit ridership is very fickle. i expect to see this fluctuate wildly with the weather since the core of ridership (anecdotally) is casual/non-commute trips. official daily average was estimated at 2,700. if you've heard any other number, that is not official (looking at you, blow-me institute).

for comparison, we are nipping at the heels of main street MAX for #3 ridership by route in the region (~5,000 daily). the nextrail plan estimated 8,000-13,000 daily for streetcar to UMKC.

will be really curious what this weekend's numbers will be with rockfest and a 'normal' sunday schedule -- two cars instead of the three running on 5/8.

I think a random week next fall will be the first time we can really see ridership numbers that doesn't include a bunch of touristy looky loos

Two other points

Is pointing out daily ridership numbers actually hurting somewhat? It's good to show its being used but also number of riders isn't a pass/fail for the line.

2...does kc streetcar plan to publish all the data they collect (ridership by hour, by stop, run times) via data.kcmo.org or somewhere else? Lot of us data dorks would love that.

KCPowercat wrote:I think a random week next fall will be the first time we can really see ridership numbers that doesn't include a bunch of touristy looky loos

Two other points

Is pointing out daily ridership numbers actually hurting somewhat? It's good to show its being used but also number of riders isn't a pass/fail for the line.

2...does kc streetcar plan to publish all the data they collect (ridership by hour, by stop, run times) via data.kcmo.org or somewhere else? Lot of us data dorks would love that.

i don't think pushing out daily ridership stats is a bad thing. it's good for people to see fluctuations, even if there's a dip.

an open data policy is being discussed. my preference would be to use the city's existing portal.

You know the haters are waiting with baited breath for that under 1000 ridership day (if it ever comes).... Don't want success defined by riders alone but if that's the single metric given out, that's what that number will turn into.

Interesting that it's gone up every day starting Monday. I figured there would have been the biggest crowd on Monday with office workers trying it for the first time.

TheBigChuckbowski wrote:Interesting that it's gone up every day starting Monday. I figured there would have been the biggest crowd on Monday with office workers trying it for the first time.

Me too. Or maybe even Tuesday and some people like to take Mondays off or are less likely to go to lunch that day in my experience. Shocked yesterday was the highest with the morning weather.

What's the method to count passengers?

earthling wrote:What's the method to count passengers?

quite interesting, actually! there are infrared (FLIR) sensors above each door. data is loaded off the cars at the end of the day.

Wonder what margin of error is, could be difficult to differentiate direction - if boarding or departing.

Not high, one imagines. It shouldn't be very difficult at all for a computer to distinguish which direction the giant glowing heat signature is traveling if the resolution is even minimal.

earthling wrote:Wonder what margin of error is, could be difficult to differentiate direction - if boarding or departing.

It wouldn't need to differentiate direction, everyone gets on and off by the end of the day. Divide the total passes by 2!

DaveKCMO wrote:i expect to see this fluctuate wildly with the weather since the core of ridership (anecdotally) is casual/non-commute trips.

If you look at all the big events they tend to be in April to May and September to October for the weather reason.

I expect it to start with these four big months of use and the rest are slower until more of the corridor projects come online.

Should we start a petition!?

I petition your right to petition.

continuing to snip away signal priority. one of the two systems was activated today.
also, real time arrival signs should be back on some time today.
expect some discussion about possibly purchasing a 5th vehicle...

You know I was thinking yesterday.... With long hours and 3 cars running those hours, keeping up on maintaining them must be tough.

Feel like I saw signal priority hold the green at 10th today