KCMO Downtown Streetcar

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wahoowa
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by wahoowa »

saw multiple streetcars running on friday night and throwing sparks from the cable thing on top. is that just the effect of ice buildup on the cable? made for a cool show!
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by KCPowercat »

Did we do nothing regarding ice mitigation on the wires? Streetcar simply cannot be down longer than buses. This has to improve. Even moreso of expansion happens.
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by TrolliKC »

was it because of ice or because of the SUV that crashed on the sidewalk?

https://twitter.com/kcstreetcar/status/ ... 8881682432
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by KCPowercat »

ice from about 11am - 4p? then this dumbass later in the evening.
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by Anthony_Hugo98 »

Can’t wait to see the ridership numbers from the Super Bowl through the Parade, I imagine they’ll bump it up quite a bit for sure.
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by normalthings »

Anthony_Hugo98 wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2020 2:42 am Can’t wait to see the ridership numbers from the Super Bowl through the Parade, I imagine they’ll bump it up quite a bit for sure.
I think the size of the crowds could actually negatively impact ridership. Main was at a standstill this evening which certainly didn’t help the streetcar numbers. The parade will see a lot of riders but I doubt anything above the theoretical current record of 20k. That would change if they decide to close main (which they should regardless) and run more streetcars
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by KCPowercat »

Main should be shut down to cars Wednesday
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by GRID »

KCPowercat wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2020 1:13 pm Main should be shut down to cars Wednesday
Close Main Street. Run max number of streetcars and even additional buses. It's a no brainer. If not, you may as well leave the streetcars in the barn.
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by KCPowercat »

Yup
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by earthling »

The city should run major bus lines for free that day if not all, encouraging suburbanites to park along one of the major bus lines and take in. Even if only 10%-20% do it would help.
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by KCPowercat »

They will. They did last parade
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by earthling »

Need to highly publicize it. Encourage local news to bring it up often to help reduce traffic.
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by flyingember »

We don't need to publicize it. The city needs to create one day bus only lanes that have no cars on them instead. It's a great opportunity to show what bus lanes can do.

There needs to be point at which no more cars are allowed past certain points, which barricades on streets entering downtown and all the ramps. It should be if you want to drive you must arrive by 8am or you're parking elsewhere and then it becomes bus only.

You can tell the city was already planning based on how quickly they announced so hopefully they learned from 2015 that they need to keep paths clear into downtown. This would be important for ambulance access at least.

https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/a ... 08343.html
She said the authority used all of its 256 buses, plus 125 school buses and 40 buses from Johnson County, to help transport people from seven park-and-ride assembly points.

The bus agency acknowledged that thousands of people were still waiting at 11 a.m. at Kemper Arena, the Country Club Plaza, the Northland, Red Bridge and other spots, trying to get to the noon parade.

The buses were trying to pick them up as quickly as possible, but they were caught in the same traffic jams that snarled cars also trying to get to the Royals celebration.

Nearly all regular Metro bus service was suspended while the agency responded to the overwhelming numbers at the gathering spots. The KCATA averages 55,000 riders on a normal day, Baker said.

At noon, when the parade was supposed to start, Tim Deveney told The Star that he, his wife, three kids and some friends from Independence were still waiting at a shuttle spot at the Kansas City Zoo, where they had gone at 10:15 a.m.

He said a huge crowd was waiting there. The Deveneys planned to stick it out to try to get to the Royals rally, even if they missed the parade.

Also at noon, Shelly Schuman of Raytown told The Star that she, her daughter and two grandkids had just gotten on a bus to downtown after waiting about two hours at the Country Club Plaza.

She had followed the city’s advice to take public transportation. But she had watched one man in a wheelchair give up and leave before a bus arrived.

“It broke my heart,” she said.

Schuman wished the city had done a better job of anticipating the enormous crowd, the need for more buses and the need to start collecting people even earlier in the day.

Another rider said that by the time she and four teenage boys got downtown after waiting more than three hours at Metro North Mall, the parade was over and the streets around the rally at Union Station were so packed that they couldn’t get to it.

City officials initially had thought that about 200,000 people would come downtown Tuesday, but by all indications the numbers far exceeded that. Baker said the numbers were simply much greater than anyone anticipated and probably resulted because so many school districts canceled classes.
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by KCPowercat »

GRID wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2020 2:07 pm
KCPowercat wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2020 1:13 pm Main should be shut down to cars Wednesday
Close Main Street. Run max number of streetcars and even additional buses. It's a no brainer. If not, you may as well leave the streetcars in the barn.
And in the barn they will stay. Mixed feelings about the message this sends but when it's only two miles and going to have a million people walking around this is for the best
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by grovester »

I took note that they mentioned killing the power to the overhead lines.
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by scooterj »

grovester wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2020 5:12 pm I took note that they mentioned killing the power to the overhead lines.
I didn't even think of that but I can totally see people being stupid enough to climb the poles.
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by gfenn11 »

flyingember wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2020 2:28 pm We don't need to publicize it. The city needs to create one day bus only lanes that have no cars on them instead. It's a great opportunity to show what bus lanes can do.

There needs to be point at which no more cars are allowed past certain points, which barricades on streets entering downtown and all the ramps. It should be if you want to drive you must arrive by 8am or you're parking elsewhere and then it becomes bus only.

You can tell the city was already planning based on how quickly they announced so hopefully they learned from 2015 that they need to keep paths clear into downtown. This would be important for ambulance access at least.

https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/a ... 08343.html
She said the authority used all of its 256 buses, plus 125 school buses and 40 buses from Johnson County, to help transport people from seven park-and-ride assembly points.

The bus agency acknowledged that thousands of people were still waiting at 11 a.m. at Kemper Arena, the Country Club Plaza, the Northland, Red Bridge and other spots, trying to get to the noon parade.

The buses were trying to pick them up as quickly as possible, but they were caught in the same traffic jams that snarled cars also trying to get to the Royals celebration.

Nearly all regular Metro bus service was suspended while the agency responded to the overwhelming numbers at the gathering spots. The KCATA averages 55,000 riders on a normal day, Baker said.

At noon, when the parade was supposed to start, Tim Deveney told The Star that he, his wife, three kids and some friends from Independence were still waiting at a shuttle spot at the Kansas City Zoo, where they had gone at 10:15 a.m.

He said a huge crowd was waiting there. The Deveneys planned to stick it out to try to get to the Royals rally, even if they missed the parade.

Also at noon, Shelly Schuman of Raytown told The Star that she, her daughter and two grandkids had just gotten on a bus to downtown after waiting about two hours at the Country Club Plaza.

She had followed the city’s advice to take public transportation. But she had watched one man in a wheelchair give up and leave before a bus arrived.

“It broke my heart,” she said.

Schuman wished the city had done a better job of anticipating the enormous crowd, the need for more buses and the need to start collecting people even earlier in the day.

Another rider said that by the time she and four teenage boys got downtown after waiting more than three hours at Metro North Mall, the parade was over and the streets around the rally at Union Station were so packed that they couldn’t get to it.

City officials initially had thought that about 200,000 people would come downtown Tuesday, but by all indications the numbers far exceeded that. Baker said the numbers were simply much greater than anyone anticipated and probably resulted because so many school districts canceled classes.
We have already heard from hospital admin that there will be a path shut down by KCPD for ambulance/emergency room access. For how far or encompassing that is, who knows, but they already have that part planned.
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by scooterj »

(I know this is getting off-topic for Streetcar.) I don't remember if they did this for the Royals parade but there is a crew out right now setting up temporary No Parking signs along both sides of Main in the general area of the Federal Reserve. There is some roadwork in the area (which they hopefully pause and re-open the lanes closed for that on Wednesday) but based on the timing this has got to be parade-related.
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by flyingember »

scooterj wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2020 5:55 pm
grovester wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2020 5:12 pm I took note that they mentioned killing the power to the overhead lines.
I didn't even think of that but I can totally see people being stupid enough to climb the poles.
Don’t need to be stupid, just drunk. There’s zero chance the city could monitor 2.2 miles well enough with tens of thousands of people drinking.
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Re: KCMO Downtown Streetcar

Post by normalthings »

January 2020 #kcstreetcar ridership numbers are in with 136,662 passenger trips, an 18% increase from January 2019.

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