Streetcar

[dcsooner]

I have. Well, not the entire system, but quite a bit of it. I've also ridden the full loop, and it was very slow for the distance traveled. I am really hoping they get it going quicker. I also wish they would've taken it further north and had a park and ride. As it is now, anywhere I normally park I can walk anywhere I want to go quicker.

+1 the glut of parking garages directly impacts sc ridership imo.

[Plutonic Panda]

Is the streetcar going to be on Apple and Google Maps?

[Urban Pioneer]

Good question. Embark, can you weigh in on this?

[jn1780]

Is the streetcar going to be on Apple and Google Maps?

It would go a long way in helping people use the streetcar more effectively. The Embark route planner is just Google's route planner. I'm not sure how all this ties together on the back end. Embark doesn't even have real-time street car information yet on its website yet. Its being treated like its own separate entity from the buses. The main Embark page just has a link to the streetcar page which if you ask me shouldn't even exist if the idea is to promote mass transit as a whole.

[Midtowner]

The system was shut down for about 45 minutes this afternoon because one BMW driving doofus parked his vehicle over the line. I had a nice chat with the supervisor. I could hear one of the drivers getting a little agitated because he was wireless and his battery was at 45%--this requires a maintenance person to come and manually allow the streetcar to continue running as they don't normally operate below 50%.

He said police are now more aggressively ticketing drivers who park over the line. He also said that the police are now in charge of getting wreckers there. I understand it's not uncommon for people to illegally park. I wonder why no enterprising wrecker service hasn't offered to patrol the lines and impound illegally parked vehicles on the spot?

[OKC Guy]

The system was shut down for about 45 minutes this afternoon because one BMW driving doofus parked his vehicle over the line. I had a nice chat with the supervisor. I could hear one of the drivers getting a little agitated because he was wireless and his battery was at 45%--this requires a maintenance person to come and manually allow the streetcar to continue running as they don't normally operate below 50%.

He said police are now more aggressively ticketing drivers who park over the line. He also said that the police are now in charge of getting wreckers there. I understand it's not uncommon for people to illegally park. I wonder why no enterprising wrecker service hasn't offered to patrol the lines and impound illegally parked vehicles on the spot?

Just put a cattle plow on the front of each SC and be done with it. After a few cars get moved word spreadsand problem solved (sarcasm)

I agree get tow companies contracted with city. Make it required the tow company takes a pic of offending car with tag showing and send to city to post on a perp type website, hall of shame.

[Urban Pioneer]

This story just sucks. In the recent past we’be had a tow truck within five minutes. I guess Arrow was busy pulling wrecked cars out of highway medians from the ice storm​.

[Midtowner]

Just put a cattle plow on the front of each SC and be done with it. After a few cars get moved word spreadsand problem solved (sarcasm)

I agree get tow companies contracted with city. Make it required the tow company takes a pic of offending car with tag showing and send to city to post on a perp type website, hall of shame.

I actually did suggest they take pictures and put them up on insta and was told they may already be doing that? I was told most of the offending vehicles are high dollar imports, mostly near Red Prime.

I like the plow idea.

Other interesting ideas discussed was that signal prioritization itself doesn't speed up the routes. The trolleys are spaced out just so, and if they get a couple minutes ahead of the next train, they stop and let the other trolley catch up. It is assumed they will speed up the routes. It seems like a bit of a juggling act.

[Urban Pioneer]

Other interesting ideas discussed was that signal prioritization itself doesn't speed up the routes. The trolleys are spaced out just so, and if they get a couple minutes ahead of the next train, they stop and let the other trolley catch up. It is assumed they will speed up the routes. It seems like a bit of a juggling act.

Not sure who you talked to but that is half right. TSP has sped up travel times on average 4-7 minutes on the five recently installed. Operators are instructed to dwell at certain stops if streetcars become unevenly spaces to maintain consistent frequency. The issue with TSP is being the average arrival at every stop between 10 - 12 minutes instead of the 12 - 15 minute averages we are seeing. There is also a ride quality aspect to this as well. Riders don’t like to stop unnecessarily at red lights all of the time. It reduces the sense of momentum.

[turnpup]

Just curious...once the towing company arrives at the offending vehicle, how long does it generally take to get it hooked up to the tow truck and out of the way?

[Ross MacLochness]

As much as I love the streetcar, these two issues are the biggest flaws for me. It absolutely sucks to have to wait for several minutes for a flagger or a tow truck to come out. This shuts off the whole system and traps people inside the streetcar. This happens to me about 1/3 of the time i ride and I ride almost every day. What can be done about this?

also,
I understand the necessity for cars to dwell from time to time, but since you never know when it might happen, it's hard to rely on a consistent ride time. It also stinks if you check the app and see that a streetcar will arrive at say, the Midtown stop in three minutes. So you head over to the stop but then have to wait 7 minutes due to the fact that the streetcar dwelled for a few minutes at the Dewey stop. The screen just says 3 minutes away the whole time and there is no communication to the person waiting that a car has dwelled or that there will be a delay.

[TheTravellers]

Just curious...once the towing company arrives at the offending vehicle, how long does it generally take to get it hooked up to the tow truck and out of the way?

I would imagine companies that have repo experience can do it in 3-5 minutes, they have to be that quick. No idea how good our towing companies are at this, though, and if they can do it like that or not, sorry, didn't really answer your question, actually.

[Midtowner]

Just curious...once the towing company arrives at the offending vehicle, how long does it generally take to get it hooked up to the tow truck and out of the way?

About 5 minutes.

It's a whole process, it seems, to get a car towed. Since the Police Department finally got serious about ticketing illegally parked vehicles, they have also insisted their wreckers be utilized. So now, the Streetcar team has to call the police, the police have to actually show up (this can take a great deal of time) the police then has to contact the wrecker service and the wrecker service has to come to the scene and do its thing. I don't see how this doesn't always take ~45 minutes.

[Anonymous.]

About 5 minutes.

It's a whole process, it seems, to get a car towed. Since the Police Department finally got serious about ticketing illegally parked vehicles, they have also insisted their wreckers be utilized. So now, the Streetcar team has to call the police, the police have to actually show up (this can take a great deal of time) the police then has to contact the wrecker service and the wrecker service has to come to the scene and do its thing. I don't see how this doesn't always take ~45 minutes.

If this is truly how it works, then that is a really poor system. The city could easily work out a deal with one of the tow companies to have a truck on standby at all streetcar operating times. Isn't there like a handful of tow companies just west of downtown out along the Reno/May area?

There is a lot of videos of modern tow trucks pulling cars out in seconds. And often times the truck driver doesn't even get out of the cab. There is no reason streetcars should be blocked for more than 15 minutes.

[baralheia]

If this is truly how it works, then that is a really poor system. The city could easily work out a deal with one of the tow companies to have a truck on standby at all streetcar operating times. Isn't there like a handful of tow companies just west of downtown out along the Reno/May area?

There is a lot of videos of modern tow trucks pulling cars out in seconds. And often times the truck driver doesn't even get out of the cab. There is no reason streetcars should be blocked for more than 15 minutes.

That made me think of an oddly entertaining YouTube channel called gtoger - an employee of a web hosting business in Dallas Texas, located near a popular entertainment district, has been posting videos of vehicles getting towed from their private lot. They contracted with a couple of wrecker services to keep their lot clear, and the wreckers are able to hook up most cars and pull them out in under a minute. You can see just how fast cars can get hooked up and towed on their channel, located here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPL...2zSIMNZjjSRjQw

[Anonymous.]

That's funny. I was actually going to link that channel in my post, but i decided not to since they are kinda gimmicky with subtitles and the clickbait thumbnails. But yes, that channel shows how fast you can actually pull cars out. Those are some really good tow operators.

[TheTravellers]

If this is truly how it works, then that is a really poor system. The city could easily work out a deal with one of the tow companies to have a truck on standby at all streetcar operating times. Isn't there like a handful of tow companies just west of downtown out along the Reno/May area?...

Man, how many times can the city screw the streetcar project up? I understood that they would have a wrecker company (or companies) on-call (which I think of as sitting near the route somewhere, or at least close by), and the streetcar operator (maybe not the actual driver) would just call them, they come out, tow the car, and boom, streetcar's going again.

Hopefully this police BS system will get overturned, changed, or something because it's really ridiculous. Do other cities with non-grade separated rail do this kind of idiocy if someone's parked on the tracks are is OKC "exceptional" in this regard?

[LordGerald]

Man, how many times can the city screw the streetcar project up? I understood that they would have a wrecker company (or companies) on-call (which I think of as sitting near the route somewhere, or at least close by), and the streetcar operator (maybe not the actual driver) would just call them, they come out, tow the car, and boom, streetcar's going again.

Hopefully this police BS system will get overturned, changed, or something because it's really ridiculous. Do other cities with non-grade separated rail do this kind of idiocy if someone's parked on the tracks are is OKC "exceptional" in this regard?

Kansas City has a guy in a pickup truck who drives the route in advance of the streetcar. When he spots violators, a tow truck is called immediately. KC doesn't mess around.

[Ross MacLochness]

Whelp. Currently stuck on a streetcar due to a track obstruction.

[TheTravellers]

Kansas City has a guy in a pickup truck who drives the route in advance of the streetcar. When he spots violators, a tow truck is called immediately. KC doesn't mess around.

Paging our online/social-media-maven Mayor Holt - take note, do this!

[jerrywall]

Kansas City has a guy in a pickup truck who drives the route in advance of the streetcar. When he spots violators, a tow truck is called immediately. KC doesn't mess around.

Begs the question of does the current system wait until the streetcar operator calls? Or are the various parking enforcement folks on patrol also watching and proactively calling in when they see one parked illegally on the route?

[Rover]

Put cow-catchers on the front of the streetcars and just push them out of the way. 😎
After a few bashed up cars, maybe people would pay attention.

(I kid, I kid.... maybe 😉

[LordGerald]

Begs the question of does the current system wait until the streetcar operator calls? Or are the various parking enforcement folks on patrol also watching and proactively calling in when they see one parked illegally on the route?

I'm not sure about OKC. I do know that KC's crew works for the KCSA. During the time we ate dinner, this plain Ford F-150 pickup with a KCSA logo on the door drove by every 15 minutes. I'm assuming it's probably cheaper to have both a spotter and a tow truck under contract or employed. KC also had the disctintion of an streetcar/vehicle accident within the first hour of operation, so growing pains are not that unusual.

[Zorba]

+1 the glut of parking garages directly impacts sc ridership imo.

For me it isn't really that there is parking downtown. Its that there isn't a good park and ride option. If I could park at like 23rd and ride it in I would do it every time I went downtown. I do foresee my mom using the SCs any time she goes downtown, as she isn't nearly as mobile as me.

[Zorba]

As much as I love the streetcar, these two issues are the biggest flaws for me. It absolutely sucks to have to wait for several minutes for a flagger or a tow truck to come out. This shuts off the whole system and traps people inside the streetcar. This happens to me about 1/3 of the time i ride and I ride almost every day. What can be done about this?

If they are delayed more than a couple of minutes they should really let people out of the streetcar if they want to get out. I could see that single handedly driving many people away.