I was downtown last night and saw the street car driving around empty. Ok. Maybe there was one or two people in it.

I rode it after the Thunder game and it arrived soon after the game and got us to Midtown pretty quickly. Of course, it was packed with fans since the game had just ended.

Hey I saw a thing! Streetcar was waiting behind this.

https://i.imgur.com/VcG8Ast.jpg

I really don't understand people. I would think they would be afraid their car would be hit if they aren't bothered by the possibility of it being towed. so crazy

I really don't understand people. I would think they would be afraid their car would be hit if they aren't bothered by the possibility of it being towed. so crazy

I honestly don't think most people realize that those tracks they're parking next to are for the streetcar.

OKC should allow private tow companies to impound cars automatically that are parked illegally along the street car route. This is a solution that is quickly implemented, and doesn't cost the city anything. The tow companies become the parking enforcement along the route, because they'll be patrolling the route looking for $$$$ from impound fees.

I honestly don't think most people realize that those tracks they're parking next to are for the streetcar.
What other possible uses would these folks think they were for?

OKC should allow private tow companies to impound cars automatically that are parked illegally along the street car route. This is a solution that is quickly implemented, and doesn't cost the city anything. The tow companies become the parking enforcement along the route, because they'll be patrolling the route looking for $$$$ from impound fees.
That idea makes too much sense to be implemented.
I would be for it.

OKC should allow private tow companies to impound cars automatically that are parked illegally along the street car route. This is a solution that is quickly implemented, and doesn't cost the city anything. The tow companies become the parking enforcement along the route, because they'll be patrolling the route looking for $$$$ from impound fees.

Yes, that would be GREAT

OKC should allow private tow companies to impound cars automatically that are parked illegally along the street car route. This is a solution that is quickly implemented, and doesn't cost the city anything. The tow companies become the parking enforcement along the route, because they'll be patrolling the route looking for $$$$ from impound fees.

I like the idea but since its a city ordnance being broken they can’t let tow companies be the decider. Lots of lawsuits would happen is my guess.

What they need is to hire and train enforcers and have them patrol just the downtown area focusing on SC routes and put tire clamps on and then assign rotating tow companies the rights to tow. Tow company could bid and pay city money for that right and then recoup as part of impound fee. But to make it a hassle for the improperly parked car require they come to city courthouse and pay fine in person and then given the paperwork which the tow company would need prior to releasing.

This would make it expensive and a huge hassle for illegal parkers. The trained ticket writer/clamper would take a picture showing violation and date/time for documented proof. Then just clamp it down and put ticket on window and call tow company who by contract would be required to move it within 5 minutes (thus why they bid and agree to terms one being having a truck in time vicinity). Based on potential of money earned the tow company could make a killing to pay for driver with truck being close by.

Might need to modify a few things but the clamp keeps illegal car driver from escaping fines and tow fees plus makes it a hassle to go to court to pay (if after 4pm Fri have to wait til Mon no car either).

If we make the penalty for parking illegal stiff enough problem will get better. I think for legality we’d need a city trained officer to write tix and clamp it down vs allowing tow trucks to randomly decide and end up suing city since its a city ordnance and not private property.

Something like that.

What other possible uses would these folks think they were for?

I suspect a lot of people either don’t pay close enough attention to notice them or they think they’re just old, out of use railroad tracks... which is the only thing some people have seen like this.

Approaching a year later and the yellow construction fencing is still ziptied to all the railings of the stops. Whyyyy?! Tomorrow we will be voting at our committee meeting on approving the contract that includes adding glass panels to the railings. The yellow fencing was required for us to get the system open. City ordinances and ADA compliance did not require any sort of barrier. However, the new rail safety office at ODOT mandated that a barrier be installed for children and animals. The city did a preliminary bid to add a cable-stay type system added to the existing railings. The numbers came back exorbitent and the project was re-bidded with glass panels instead. The city pretty much moves at its own pace with processes for bidding that are hard to accelerate. The glass railings are bundled with other improvements to system operation, redundancy systems, and additional safety features as well. From our internal summary-"Upon completion of an audit performed for the Oklahoma Department of Transportations's State Safety Office, additional improvements were identified for the streetcar system, including a new generator pad, new skirting and ground wire covers at traction powered substation locations, new in-fill panels at platform railings, new bumpers at platforms, new handrails along the Oklahoma City Boulevard between South Robinson Avenue and South Hudson Avenue, and additional improvments related to the NW 5th Street turn-back.Addenda Nos. 1, 2 and 3 were issued during bidding to revise the bid date and to modify and clarify the plans and specifications. Bids were opened November 13, 2019. The project engineer and City staff reviewed the bid and recommend awarding Base Bid No. 2 to the only bidder, Traffic & Lighting Systems, LLC. This bid does not include the 5th Street turnback improvements.Staff requests funding for the contract and change order contigency in the amount of $700,000 be paid from excess collections and/or interest from the Oklahoma City Capital Improvements Sales Tax Fund."

I had the day off yesterday and after we walked through Scissortail we took a ride on the street car at about 10:30 AM... Rode the entire loop and the only other person to get on was a guy wearing a Fare Enforcement vest.... He didn't ask to check our tickets.Otherwise we had fun on the ride and if we hadn't of had other obligations would have made several stops to grab a drink/snack or shopped along the route. Time just didn't permit it yesterday.I can definitely see using it before or after a Thunder game... Especially during the cold weather months.

I would like to add my anecdotal observation; one of the streetcars was about 80% full on Sunday.

My experiences are anecdotal too. I have been on jam packed streetcars and have been the only passenger as well. One thing that will improve convenience is that we are launching the real time location map app this month. I have many questions to pose at the meeting today. Some relate to parking blockages. Others to our signal priority stats. Regardless, the best way to increase ridership averages during the week is to make the streetcar system convenient, speedy, and reliable. We also need to stop wasting land on more parking, improve sidewalks, and build more housing units.

My experiences are anecdotal too. I have been on jam packed streetcars and have been the only passenger as well. One thing that will improve convenience is that we are launching the real time location map app this month. I have many questions to pose at the meeting today. Some relate to parking blockages. Others to our signal priority stats. Regardless, the best way to increase ridership averages during the week is to make the streetcar system convenient, speedy, and reliable. We also need to stop wasting land on more parking, improve sidewalks, and build more housing units.

Ooooo, nice. So, by the end of November?

My guess is sometime in December. We were informed that our committee will be some of the Beta testers. I was wrong about the app. It will be a website so you don’t have to download an app. Apparently it is a more user friendly version of what we see in the Control Room.

Will the web site be properly mobile friendly such that users on their cell phones will have a good experience?

I would sure hope so!

My family and I rode the streetcar from Scissortail to Bricktown for All About Cha last night. Something strange happened along our journey back from Bricktown after we had coffee. While the streetcar was waiting to turn back west by the ballpark, someone came up and pushed the door button from the outside. Mind you, the streetcar was stopped at the light waiting to proceed through the turn. This activated the blue light for the next stop. When we arrived at the next stop the doors did not open. Now there was a different person waiting at the stop to get on the streetcar. The driver never opened the doors, despite a rider pressing the door button to allow the waiting person onboard. Was this a glitch caused by the person pressign the door button at the light, or did the driver notice the person waiting to get onboard as appearing to be homeless?

My family and I rode the streetcar from Scissortail to Bricktown for All About Cha last night. Something strange happened along our journey back from Bricktown after we had coffee. While the streetcar was waiting to turn back west by the ballpark, someone came up and pushed the door button from the outside. Mind you, the streetcar was stopped at the light waiting to proceed through the turn. This activated the blue light for the next stop. When we arrived at the next stop the doors did not open. Now there was a different person waiting at the stop to get on the streetcar. The driver never opened the doors, despite a rider pressing the door button to allow the waiting person onboard. Was this a glitch caused by the person pressign the door button at the light, or did the driver notice the person waiting to get onboard as appearing to be homeless?
Home ownership is not a current requirement to get on the streetcar.
Although, according to some of these forum posts, neither is having a paid fare.

Anyone seen the Nov ridership numbers?

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/streetcar120519a.jpg

Definitely see the bump in ridership for the nice weather weekends. It has been nice to not have to purchase tickets though, just one less step I have to worry about when jumping onboard.

Those numbers during the week are not so pretty. 251 on the 11th? Ouch

Those numbers during the week are not so pretty. 251 on the 11th? Ouch

federal holiday maybe impacted?

federal holiday maybe impacted?

Columbus Day was observed on Monday Oct. 14th

Columbus Day was observed on Monday Oct. 14th

Oh oops I thought those were November numbers making 11/11 Veterans day but nope....

Oh oops I thought those were November numbers making 11/11 Veterans day but nope....

Aren't they? It says Monday, November 11th on the chart....

Aren't they? It says Monday, November 11th on the chart....

nov 11th was a bitterly cold and windy day .. as well

Aren't they? It says Monday, November 11th on the chart....

If it was Nov. 11 and not Oct 11 it was a Fed. Holiday. If i misread it than I stand corrected.

federal holiday maybe impacted?

Shouldn't that impact it positively? The whole argument for the street car was for tourists, so numbers should increase on 3 day weekends.
If street car is for office worker transport, that's a different story. Considering that a loop still takes close to one hour and cars still block the tracks, you really have to decide what your time is worth.
Make the streetcar free. All the time. Accept that it will always be a loss for the city $ wise, but a boon for tourism. Increase the hotel-motel tax if it gets too dicey with free ride maintenance.
And don't start with the whole it can't be free cause Embark isn't free. City Link is free and it interfaces with Embark.

Shouldn't that impact it positively? The whole argument for the street car was for tourists, so numbers should increase on 3 day weekends.
If street car is for office worker transport, that's a different story. Considering that a loop still takes close to one hour and cars still block the tracks, you really have to decide what your time is worth.
Make the streetcar free. All the time. Accept that it will always be a loss for the city $ wise, but a boon for tourism. Increase the hotel-motel tax if it gets too dicey with free ride maintenance.
And don't start with the whole it can't be free cause Embark isn't free. City Link is free and it interfaces with Embark.

I believe there are legal issues for OKC WRT Embark and the streetcar and equal-type service, or at least the threat of legal issues (couldn't do Sunday service for streetcar unless buses were also expanded to run on Sunday, or else lawsuits would happen). Don't remember the exact details, but they're out there.

Shouldn't that impact it positively? The whole argument for the street car was for tourists, so numbers should increase on 3 day weekends.
If street car is for office worker transport, that's a different story. Considering that a loop still takes close to one hour and cars still block the tracks, you really have to decide what your time is worth.
Make the streetcar free. All the time. Accept that it will always be a loss for the city $ wise, but a boon for tourism. Increase the hotel-motel tax if it gets too dicey with free ride maintenance.
And don't start with the whole it can't be free cause Embark isn't free. City Link is free and it interfaces with Embark.

Very few people get off on Veteran's day, but a lot of Government gets off on veterans day and there is a lot of gov't downtown. It makes sense.

Was on the streetcar several times this weekend. It was packed. The no-fares thing is a total game changer and removes this huge barrier we have all talked about. It isn't about the cost, it is about the convenience and psychological commitment.


One odd thing, on one of my trips this weekend - the fare officer interrupted everyone in the car asking for their attention. Then he proceeded to explain that he was a fare officer and that this was a free weekend so he wouldn't be checking for passes. Then said if we need any assistance, to go to him. It was very strange and there was like an awkward silence afterwards while everyone collectively had an "okay?" response. I think he was just trying to be helpful, but it came across as very serious in a totally non-serious atmosphere before he spoke.

I like what I am seeing with these free-weekends. Also I am liking all the sponsorships showing up inside the streetcar and displaying on the screens, this all gives me hope to have a fully sponsored streetcar that is permanently free. I say we even need to sell the space on the exterior, let corporations display wraps on the cars. Anything to get these things free.

we did a bar crawl to the Myriad gardens last night getting on and off the streetcar at a few locations for drinks. the streetcars were all pretty busy and full which was good to see. I almost thought we would be on mostly empty cars but only a few times was it not really packed. the times displayed at the stops were pretty accurate as well.

The mayor on the streetcar system, these points seemed relevant to recent discussions...

https://twitter.com/davidfholt/status/1203506904372305920

We don’t really have any major challenges. We’ve had over 400,000 riders and costs to the city have been as expected and planned for.

https://twitter.com/davidfholt/status/1203530426863759362

1. As per the MAPS model, our system opened w/o debt. Not sure about STL, but lots of systems are still making payments, which puts added pressure on them.

https://twitter.com/davidfholt/status/1203530818309775360

2. City leaders laid out the operating costs from Day One. They’re baked into our budget and policymakers have long accepted it. There’s no real pressure to change unless maybe it simply wasn’t meeting a need, but with 400k+ riders that hasn’t been a concern.

Proof the streetcar is driving downtown development. This project is huge. This building hasn't been open on the ground level during my lifetime.

https://oklahoman.com/article/5650464/life-returning-to-okcs-first-high-rise

^

One thing that article does not say is that the insurance company has actually purchased 80% of that building.

And as mentioned some time ago on the Pioneer Building thread, Lagoon water systems is the other company moving in.

Failure to pay the "Brand Insight" fee perhaps?

Its a totally baseless hunch, but l bet ridership increases significantly in 2020. From a distance, l would also like to see it fare-free.

^

But keep in mind both the convention center and Omni Hotel will open in the fall, and that could change things dramatically.

Plus, there is a lot of new development coming on-line in 2020, such as Heartland, the Monarch and the Benz.

City of OKC
@cityofokc
Replying to
@cityofokc

@EMBARKOK
and 3 others
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@EMBARKOK
and
@OKCStreetcar
fares are free on New Year's Eve to offer riders a safe and free transit option. The streetcar will operate until 2 a.m.
9:50 AM · Dec 26, 2019·

I have been getting very inconsistent experiences lately while riding.

Why do some drivers stop at every platform regardless of ‘stop request’ button and no one standing at the platform. This makes the trip incredibly annoying, especially when it causes the streetcar to get stuck at lights and such.

I have some drivers that go past the stops properly, but the majority of the time it seems this isn’t even a policy. Can anyone clarify what official procedure is on this?

Just a wild guess but maybe the dispatcher is requesting some trains to make stops in order to maintain spacing between trains. The train in front may be instructed to only stop when requested in order to pace up, whole the train behind could be instructed to make all stops to decrease its pace.

I have been getting very inconsistent experiences lately while riding.

Why do some drivers stop at every platform regardless of ‘stop request’ button and no one standing at the platform. This makes the trip incredibly annoying, especially when it causes the streetcar to get stuck at lights and such.

I have some drivers that go past the stops properly, but the majority of the time it seems this isn’t even a policy. Can anyone clarify what official procedure is on this?

Like previous poster said its closed loop with multiple cars. To keep pacing if any are delayed the others have to do so equally to keep spacing

#FreeStreetcarin2020

I thought dwelling zones were the purpose of keeping the cars spaced out. It makes no sense to keep current passengers moving slower than they could be. Unless there is two streetcars following directly behind each other, have the cars use the proper dwelling zones.

You would prefer no movement in lieu of slow movement?

https://i.imgur.com/f1eZutV.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/FQjQgGh.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/UHTzn6H.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/inDQkUz.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/f1eZutV.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/FQjQgGh.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/UHTzn6H.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/inDQkUz.jpg

Noticeable jump in December, the free weekends I assume?

^

Free the entire month of December.

Still waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many blockages, ridiculous that it's still happening at the rate of 3 per day.

^

Free the entire month of December.

only on the weekends

Still waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many blockages, ridiculous that it's still happening at the rate of 3 per day.

Increase the fine for blocking it, and use that to fund a city owned tow truck and have a driver on call during operating hours.

^^^ And it just baffles me that this common sense solution that damn near everybody that has two neurons to rub together can figure out hasn't been adopted by OKC after a freaking year....

Increase the fine for blocking it, and use that to fund a city owned tow truck and have a driver on call during operating hours.

Or just allow private towing companies to patrol it.

Or just allow private towing companies to patrol it.

THIS! Allow private companies to impound cars that block the track (with proper documentation and photographic evidence taken) and you won't be seeing cars blocking the lines for long. The towing companies will be competing with each other to hook up and haul off the cars first.

THIS! Allow private companies to impound cars that block the track (with proper documentation and photographic evidence taken) and you won't be seeing cars blocking the lines for long. The towing companies will be competing with each other to hook up and haul off the cars first.
Could also offer increased fees for blocking the streetcar line.

I know this hasn't set well with many here but converting those parking spaces along the streetcar line to protected bike lanes(two way if enough space is present) would go a long ways.

The city should also look into closing some low traffic count streets off and allowing only buses and streetcars to use certain lanes.

Still waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many blockages, ridiculous that it's still happening at the rate of 3 per day.

i will say that i believe the the type of blockage has improved

a tire 1 inch on the white line (which should be red lines but that is a different topic) counts as a "blockage" and the streetcar stops but all it requires is an inspection that the streetcar can pass safetly and it lots of cases happens very very fast