Tag: downtown

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Business Development Transportation

Metro to debut real-time arrival screens at transit centers

Metro will debut real-time arrival screens at its Government Square transit center on Friday. The announcement is part of a recent series of moves by the transit agency to modernize its operations.

Since 2010, Metro has implemented a new electronic fare payment system, GPS tracking, GoogleTransit interface, articulated buses, and a new westside commuter hub.

“We’re collecting more feedback from our riders with our Way To Go initiative,” explained Metro’s Public Affairs Manager, Jill Dunne. “We have already received close to 2,000 surveys online and in person at various events this summer, and these changes are adding the types of improvements that our riders want.”

The new real-time arrival screens at Government Square cost $11,200 each and will be positioned at each of the transit center’s eight shelters, with a master information board at the front of the Government Square booth at Fifth Street and Walnut Street.

According to Metro officials, bus departure times will appear on the boards 45 minutes before a bus is scheduled to depart from Government Square. The boards will then begin a real-time countdown once the bus is within 20 minutes of its scheduled departure time.

The real-time arrival upgrades were made possible thanks to an $8.2 million American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grant that funded Metro’s computer-aided dispatch and automatic vehicle location (CAD/AVL) technology in 2011, in addition to the new video boards.

The implementation of the real-time arrival boards at Government Square is just the beginning. Metro officials say that they will soon install the same technology at the new Glenway Crossing Transit Center and the Uptown Transit Hub which is scheduled to begin construction later this year.

In addition to the physical upgrades, transit officials say they plan to leverage the GPS tracking data to add real-time arrival information to its website, and debut a smartphone application within the next year.

The system updates do not, however, include open-source GPS data which is increasingly being more closely studied throughout the United States. Dunne says that Metro is working with their data vendor, and is working on developing these types of interfaces in 2013 through Google Transit Real Time Feed.

Real-time arrival board photograph by Jake Mecklenborg for UrbanCincy.

Categories
Business News

UrbanCincy launches new monthly networking event for urban professionals

On Tuesday, July 3, UrbanCincy will host the first of what will become a monthly networking event for urban professionals. The event, called URBANexchange, will take place from 5:30pm to 7:30pm on the first Tuesday of every month at the Moerlein Lager House.

URBANexchange is meant to not only engage active urban professionals, but also those who have a general interest in urbanism and want to exchange thoughts and ideas with others with similar passions. The event will be casual in nature and is meant to serve as a place to exchange ideas and build personal networks.


The Moerlein Lager House along Cincinnati’s central riverfront. Photograph by Cory Klein.

UrbanCincy has partnered with The Urbanists, who previously helped foster iRhine, to activate the region’s network of individuals interested in continuing the urban renaissance taking place in Cincinnati.

“In previous years the collection of engaged urbanists in Cincinnati has grown, but it has largely been focused in center city neighborhoods,” explained UrbanCincy owner, Randy Simes. “This event is meant to serve as a gathering place for urbanists throughout the region in an effort to grow that base of individuals advocating for better public policy.”

The inaugural event will take place at the Moerlein Lager House’s second-floor bar overlooking the new Smale Riverfront Park and historic Roebling Suspension Bridge. Thanks to Metro, those who sign-in will have a chance at winning four tickets to the World Choir Games’ Champions Concert on Saturday, July 14.

Future URBANexchange dates will be announced on UrbanCincy.com and through Facebook. URBANexchange is free and open to the public, and those attending are encouraged to use Metro bus service to get to the Moerlein Lager House and the World Choir Games should you be the lucky winner of the free tickets.

Categories
Up To Speed

Cincinnati comes back to its Ohio River shoreline

Cincinnati comes back to its Ohio River shoreline.

Cincinnatians can finally feel the results of decades worth of work to reclaim the city’s riverfront. More than a billion dollars worth of investment has brought new stadiums, museums, a riverfront park, and an entire new neighborhood still rising from the ground. More from The New York Times:

Cincinnati is experiencing a strong revival in urban core business and residential growth, much of it prompted by development along a scenic river that state and federal water quality data show is cleaner and more ecologically vital.

On a bright blue afternoon, just the sort of day that prompted Alexis de Tocqueville in 1831 to describe this part of the Ohio River as “one of the most magnificent valleys in which man has made his stay, ” the full sweep of Cincinnati’s new development, clearly designed as the city’s gateway, comes into full view.

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Arts & Entertainment Development News

Cincinnati’s new riverfront park immediately exceeding expectations

If you have yet to visit the first phase of the Smale Riverfront Park, then you need to do yourself a favor and go visit the beautiful new park. From a personal perspective, out of all of the new developments along the central riverfront, the new park is by far the best product and is a true civic asset for Cincinnati.

In the latest video update from project manager Dave Prather, he takes viewers on a tour of the now completed features of the Smale Riverfront Park that are open to the public. Prather also gives some insight into the elements that are soon to come including the continuation of the tree grove, Women’s Committee Garden, Adventure Playground, construction of the river’s edge and the transient boat dock.

“We’re proceeding with design and grant application for the transient boat dock, which will be aligned with the Main Street Fountain,” Prather explained in the project video. “That grant application is due the end of July, and award will be announced around early March next year. So we’re planning on next May to present the completed portion of the tree grove and break ground on the boat dock.”

In addition to the boat dock, Prather says that plans call for construction to begin on the Vine Street Steps next May as well, and would complete the framing of the Roebling Suspension Bridge.

One of the attractions of the first phase of the park is the new Cincinnati Bike Center which is now open to bicycle commuters 24 hours a day, and boasts a retail shop that includes merchandise and allows for people to rent various types of bicycles and Segways.

Reports from various media outlets and first-hand accounts highlight the immediate popularity of the park. One problem, according to Prather, has been that visitors want to play in the dramatic water curtain along Mehring Way which was not designed for interaction.

The early summer project update is nearly 13 minutes in length, and is the first video of the series to highlight a finished product.

Categories
News Transportation

Bicycling shifts gears in Cincinnati’s urban basin

Bike Month festivities may have concluded at the end of May, but activities for cyclists in Cincinnati seem to keep growing regardless of the month. The Urban Basin Bicycle Club (UBBC) is one of the newer activities for bicyclists, and features a different night ride every Tuesday.

“The Thursday night rides, which begin and end in Hoffner Park in Northside, with a stop at Fountain Square, seemed kind of backwards,” explained UBBC founder Casey Coston. “Sometimes people from the basin would join the group at the half-way point at Fountain Square, then ride back to Northside and back downtown. It seemed cumbersome.”

To make things easier for the growing number of bicyclists in the downtown area, the UBBC starts each of their weekly rides at Fountain Square, and ends somewhere in Over-the-Rhine or the Central Business District. So far, the bicycling club has ended their rides at a variety of locally owned watering holes including Neon’s Unplugged, Mayberry, MOTR, The Drinkery and The Lackman.

The Urban Basin Bicycle Club gathers on Fountain Square before departing for a ride through the center city. Photograph by 5chw4r7z.

The popularity of these social bicycling groups has grown throughout the city over recent years, with the UBBC boasting close to 500 followers on Facebook, and approximately 20 to 50 people on each of their rides.

The basin has also seen the opening of three new bicycle businesses over the past month. Reser Bicycle Outfitters opened a location on Vine Street in Over-the-Rhine, a new bicycle repair shop just began operations on Central Parkway adjacent to Segway of Cincinnati, and the Cincinnati Bike Center opened at Smale Riverfront Park.

While the new businesses are a sign of progress, Coston cautions that the city still has a long way to go before it rests.

“There is still a lot of hostility towards sharing the road with bicyclists,” explained Coston. “Our bike lines are also something of a decidedly mixed batch. For example, Gest Street inexplicably has bike lanes on both sides; moreover they were filled with debris and sand. Bike lanes that actually mean something and connect you to places that you need to go would be helpful.”

The sentiment expressed by Coston comes just after the public gave the City of Cincinnati a “C” grade on its annual Bicycle Report Card. In that survey, cyclists gave the City the lowest grades for the completeness of its bicycle network, and the respect shown to bicyclists by motorists.

In terms of improving the system, 85 percent of the respondents to the survey said that they would bike more if the City installed more bike lanes.

“We’re working to create a bicycle friendly city, so that Cincinnatians of all ages and abilities can use bicycles for everyday trips,” stated Michael Moore, Director of the Department of Transportation & Engineering (DOTE), in a prepared release. “This report card is a great tool for publicly measuring our progress.”

In the meantime, those interested in joining the weekly Urban Basin Bicycle Club rides should meet at Fountain Square on Tuesday nights at 6:30pm. The next scheduled ride will take place on Tuesday, July 19. Follow the group on Facebook for updated information about upcoming rides and events.