Streetcar

[Jersey Boss]

You are being kind, but I understand you need to tread softly.

[OKC Guy]

Today was an embarrassing failure.

https://journalrecord.com/2019/01/24...uns-off-track/

It sounds like a typical big city political mess with some strutting their power.

What I find as a problem is spending over $130,000,000 that the city did not see the light probem at original planning stage to be part of funding. I know a lot goes into planning but they blew this aspect imo.

1. Plan route
2. Decide on type/model/qty of cars
3. Look at the route to factor any issues in like obstacles, overhead and lights

I don’t know how the lights got missed in original costs. I am not pitting this on any one person just generically. Would think original planners brainstorm all the issues from start to finish. If we put something on regular city streets then it has the same rules as cars unless we make a priority system. It would be like building a tall building and forgetting to add elevators so everyone has to walk up stairs.

To me this is a major failure. I would assume the city planning or streets/lights were on initial committees and missed this. But to spend all that money and not realize until its open we need to add more money for light priority to make it work is a failure to properly spend our tax dollars. Adding it to the project should have been a no brainer just like adding in street cars. We are talking less than 1/2 of 1% of the total spend. Its a bad look askikg for money once it goes live (I know it was asked prior to go-live but it was still at tail end).

What it does (askikg for immeditate money at end of project) sends a signal there will be continual “asks” for money to support this already expensive project.

My guess is the board is sending a signal today that they are not happy with the ask so close to the finish, not the need. And some power brokers needed to shove their weight around. So now its all politics and not need.

I also did mention some pages ago that changing lights could have other ripple effects. Back up traffic not backed up now. Hurt pedestrian crossings if light does not recycle right back to where it left off before.

I also think had the system been set up as north/south and east/west (up and down with no turns) it would have been better served. This would not have required the extra protection for turns since there would be no turns. But thats something we have to live with now.

Having said all of the above, they should have approved this today. I think this whole fiasco sends a bad vibe to citizens for future MAPS projects, that issues will end up in these cat fights. And thats the travesty in this whole thing. If they cannot come to a fast resolution on this $450,000 issue (they have the money) then whats to become of giving them a MAPS 4 and over $500,000,000 to spend and make bigger decisions.

Have we now become too “big city” where everything grinds to a halt so a few can throw their weight around? If the planners said we need this then it should have been given. But the “weighty” players had to show who is boss it seems.

What a mess, for 1/2% of of the total project cost. I could not imagine if we built a new high speed road and forgot to paint the lane divider lines on said road thus causing traffic to go much slower. And then at a meetimg to release funds for said job some cat fights ensue.

I hope this is resolved soon. And thanks for all you did/do for project, my beef is not with you its overall with some elements out of your control.

[Urban Pioneer]

OKC Guy, the lights and the issues the potentially would cause were not missed by the committee. They were regularly brought up as a potentially major flaw in the design.

We we had a City Manager, Jim Couch, who instructed staff to do the absolute minimum required to enable the streetcars to make critical turns. Couch and City Staff insisted that we “wait and see if we needed it”. The committee’s concerns were overruled for nine years.

Now that the committee’s concerns have been proven right, some of the same people who originally caused the problem want to resolve it piece meal. They oppose our unanimous mandate that it be dealt with at every signal immediately.

[dankrutka]

Sorry, UP. This sounds incredibly frustrating. Keep up the good fight!

[OKC Guy]

OKC Guy, the lights and the issues the potentially would cause were not missed by the committee. They were regularly brought up as a potentially major flaw in the design.

We we had a City Manager, Jim Couch, who instructed staff to do the absolute minimum required to enable the streetcars to make critical turns. Couch and City Staff insisted that we “wait and see if we needed it”. The committee’s concerns were overruled for nine years.

Now that the committee’s concerns have been proven right, some of the same people who originally caused the problem want to resolve it piece meal. They oppose our unanimous mandate that it be dealt with at every signal immediately.

The point remains the original designers missed it and now its just politics. I am still wondering how original designers missed this? Maybe in their computer model it had green lights all the time.

I am glad you are fightimg for it but overall this problem is not a good look for OKC. It hurts current users including out of towners and now all the petty squabling is another bad image.

Here the are talking expansion yet can’t resovle an issue giving the overall project a black eye.

Kinda related our city services are going downhill. We are stretched too thin. I use the OKC Connect App and my last 4 proem submissions have been signed off as fixed yet were never touched. I had to call to get 3 fixed. The 4th was over a month old and signed off yet not fixed so I put another one in over a week ago and still not touched. I called my councilman and his answering aide suggested to resubmit which I did. My point is in past years I felt we had great services and every time Iised App it was completed in less than 4-5 days. Throw in other problems like street lights out and general upkeep and oir city is struggling. If this 5th complaint (pothole first reported in early Dec and then again in mid Jan when first one was signed off but work not done) is not resolved I will contact my councilman and provide him my voting record imformation and let him know we have a major problem with city work. Some of the jobs are done by contractors paid by city so city tax dollars are being paid for work now done and its possibly being covered up by city. We may have a big scam going on, with no one being held accountable.

This ties in to street car lights funding and where it appears some are pushing their weight around. With services getting worse its possible few are trying to make sure the money is needed (not saying its not).

We need to put a halt on these major projects and refocus on some core infrastructure and smart growth. We can’t keep adding projects without funding existing problems and sourcing future expenses. Eventually we’ll get stretched too thin. This street car light issue shows the future, we are going to have people on both sides of issues where nothing ends up getting done.

[LocoAko]

Board member Sue Hopper said she was concerned that improving streetcar stop times was a move toward “immediate gratification” and perhaps people should simply adjust their own schedules by 10 minutes.

With all due respect, how are people like this in charge of planning our city's urban transit system? How? What an embarrassment.

[Anonymous.]

So the streetcar is still getting $4MM of the MAPS 3 excess funds, but isn't allowed to use less than half a million on signal prioritization????

What a total crock. Jeff, do not give up - you are responsible for a lot of the success of this project, and it isn't over. We are counting on you, and we support you.

[onthestrip]

Today was an embarrassing failure.

https://journalrecord.com/2019/01/24...uns-off-track/

Have to agree. Sue Hopper says people should adjust their schedules and Kimberly Lowe says to adapt. People will adjust their schedules and adapt, and it'll be in the form of using something other than the streecar. I dont understand the board here, this is such a small price in the overall streetcar costs. Just do it already.

Board member Sue Hopper said she was concerned that improving streetcar stop times was a move toward “immediate gratification” and perhaps people should simply adjust their own schedules by 10 minutes. When board member Kimberly Lowe said nothing in life is perfect and people adapt, a clearly agitated Bezdek quickly moved to the lectern to respond in the middle of her comments. McDaniel asked him to be seated and wait his turn.

Do these board members have public emails or a way to reach out to them and voice concerns?

[TheTravellers]

Idiots. Here's a list of the members of the board. The only email address I know is Mike Dover's (MikeDoverForOKC@cox.net) because he's running for City Council. If he voted against the proposal and you're in Ward 2, please vote for someone other than him for City Council (he's in my ward, so I'll be contacting him to find out how he voted).

https://www.okc.gov/government/maps-...advisory-board

[LakeEffect]

Idiots. Here's a list of the members of the board. The only email address I know is Mike Dover's (MikeDoverForOKC@cox.net) because he's running for City Council. If he voted against the proposal and you're in Ward 2, please vote for someone other than him for City Council (he's in my ward, so I'll be contacting him to find out how he voted).

https://www.okc.gov/government/maps-...advisory-board

The other option is to let your Council-member know that this needs to be a priority. And the Mayor.

[Pete]

Just to be clear, this matter is now out of the hands of the MAPS 3 Board.

They merely send recommendations to city council who will formally vote.

[TheTravellers]

Just to be clear, this matter is now out of the hands of the MAPS 3 Board.

They merely send recommendations to city council who will formally vote.

Good to know, thought that the MAPS 3 Board had to recommend it for the council to vote. Already emailed Shadid a few weeks ago to ask him to vote for it (all of the signals, not just some).

[OKC Guy]

Just to be clear, this matter is now out of the hands of the MAPS 3 Board.

They merely send recommendations to city council who will formally vote.

Thats how I read it and thus my comments on them throwing their weight around now. It seems its all politics now with council divided or just trying to cause problems.

Regardless my sentiments on how it happened the council needs to resolve this soon so riders can have a better experience. Right now the early out of town riders are going back to home towns and likely talking about their OKC street car experience. And its not good but can be fixed if they release funds. Its hard to change public opinion once it gets a foundation built.

In my opinion our city services have declined in the last few years and grandstanding by council regarding SC is adding more fuel to that fire so to speak. The SC is here and paid for and the council is letting $400k ruin the overall experience of the $130M outlay. Less than one half of one percent of total cost is giving the overall project a black eye.

[amocore]

I notice the Bricktown loop trams are much emptier than the regular full line one. Any interest in using materials for the BT loop instead if reinforcing the frequency on the full loop ?
Also, around 1pm, today, the driver of the DT green car in BT thought he was collecting for the salvation army. He rang his bell 20 times at least in 40 yards for no obvious reason as traffic was slow and pedestrians on the sidewalk.
Very useless and overall obnoxious and annoying !

[midtownokcer]

I met a couple of friends for dinner last night. I've ridden the streetcar many times over the past month, but neither of them had ridden, so we decided to hop on at the Midtown stop and ride the entire loop. There were a couple of homeless people riding, one slept the entire loop and the other chatting it up with other riders who seemed a little uncomfortable that they were being spoken to by a homeless person. However, what disappointed me most was that one driver came into the main carriage and announced that we would be stopping for about 5 minutes. He hopped out of the car and smoked a cigarette next to the Dewey stop. Even though we weren't stopped for a long time, I found this to be off-putting and unprofessional.

[d-usa]

My guess is that it was a regular “adjust the distance” stop (at least I think Dewey is one of those spots). But if you don’t know that these breaks are build in and designed to space the cars apart it would seem like the driver just wanted to smoke, and perception is a big deal.

I would hope for a “no smoking on duty” policy.

[Midtowner]

I ride several times a week (so far). I rode on a car today which made stops so they could even out the cars better. This will get better if we get signal prioritization.

[CCOKC]

Rode this morning. It didn't seem to be faster. It was almost completely empty. Transit employees outnumbered riders. Also, some dummy parked his white van in front of that running shop on Broadway and held us up a decent amount of time while they tried to dispatch a crew to flag the streetcar through. The driver eventually came out and simply drove off without receiving a citation. I would hope that drivers would take down tag numbers and take pictures so that the city could issue citations to these illegally parked vehicles. If you frequent downtown, you should know by now where you can and cannot park.

I was waiting to get on that streetcar. We were going to take it to Midtown for lunch. We ended up going to Cultivar instead of waiting. The cop showed up and was in Cultivar while the guy just drove off. Not only was he parked over the line, he was in an illegal spot to begin with. We were none to pleased to say the least.

My husband and I ride the streetcar most mornings from the transit center to Auto Alley at 8am ish. There are usually only 1 or 2 other riders with us at that time. At 5:30 pm on our way home we take the Library stop to the business district. There are usually more people on the car at that time.

[CloudDeckMedia]

Brian Brus of the Journal Record just tweeted a photo showing a car being towed that was parked over the white line.

[OKC Guy]

Brian Brus of the Journal Record just tweeted a photo showing a car being towed that was parked over the white line.

Good

To make it easier they should just put cattle plows on front. Scrape up a few cars and problem solved as that word would travel fast

[OKC Guy]

My guess is that it was a regular “adjust the distance” stop (at least I think Dewey is one of those spots). But if you don’t know that these breaks are build in and designed to space the cars apart it would seem like the driver just wanted to smoke, and perception is a big deal.

I would hope for a “no smoking on duty” policy.

At least he wasn’t drinking out of a brown paper bag right?

If they had a way for people to see all of them on a map it would help. Then can announce this is a spacing stop so people ahead won’t miss the bus (if going by assigned time)

[kukblue1]

So it's still going to have to stop at red lights? Yeah ok then I'll just drive myself then. If it's not going to be quicker to use than what's the point?

[shawnw]

what disappointed me most was that one driver came into the main carriage and announced that we would be stopping for about 5 minutes. He hopped out of the car and smoked a cigarette next to the Dewey stop. Even though we weren't stopped for a long time, I found this to be off-putting and unprofessional.

This happens A LOT on buses if they're ahead of schedule, which happens quite a bit during non-rush times. One time my bus stopped in front of a McDonalds and the driver went in and got food.

[Bits_Of_Real_Panther]

I met a couple of friends for dinner last night. I've ridden the streetcar many times over the past month, but neither of them had ridden, so we decided to hop on at the Midtown stop and ride the entire loop. There were a couple of homeless people riding, one slept the entire loop and the other chatting it up with other riders who seemed a little uncomfortable that they were being spoken to by a homeless person. However, what disappointed me most was that one driver came into the main carriage and announced that we would be stopping for about 5 minutes. He hopped out of the car and smoked a cigarette next to the Dewey stop. Even though we weren't stopped for a long time, I found this to be off-putting and unprofessional.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

There were a couple of homeless people riding

How do you know there were homeless, were they the wearing the EMBARK approved HOMELESS PERSON badges?

[Uptowner]

I know I’m late to the party. And I don’t want to add salt to the wounds...but why are we calling this a TRANSIT system? How many people actually live within a few blocks of the route? How many people actually commute on it. To me it blatantly serves the tourist and entertainment tax dollar. It seemed like the so called “heavy players” got the route right through their business districts with little to no consideration for the people who could actually use it to reduce car traffic and surface parking. It just feels like the monorail at Disneyland...next stop, retail bar and restaurant land!!