"When you look at transit service, you want reasonable fares and for it to be reliable," said airport Director Ricky Smith. "I think they have a great service."
Joe Calabrese, general manager of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, said the airport line remains a great asset. "But it could be better utilized," he said."
Here you have it - "The transit system extended its Red Line rapid four miles to the airport in November 1968, becoming the nation's first city with a rail link connecting downtown to its airport. Hopkins remains one of a few airports in the country with an indoor rapid station.
In planning the line, officials envisioned packed trains because it could get people downtown faster than by car. But Interstate 71 in Cuyahoga County was completed in August 1968, just ahead of the airport line. The interstate allowed motorists to make the trip at about the same speed."
Wow! What a good example of bad urban planning. Even today, these RTA follks need to speak with ODOT. Exactly the same thing is being proposed with the moniker "the opportunity corridor". Now in my humble opinion that idea is a great waste of taxpayer money.
I have said before that we need to get the guys at University Circle and Cleveland Clinic a map so that they could learn how to easily get to Cleveland's east side via Woodland Avenue or Quincy or some such beautiful east west avenue route. But the PD continues to hawk the opportunity corridor. Now I propose AGAIN the other no brainer for these geography challenged travelers - the rapid! Duh! Leave your car and forget paying to park.
Now University Circle will soon have two new fabulous rapid stops [2]. More recent new of Cedar Glen Rapid stop was just in the news [3]. I can connect the dots, can you? More importantly, can our leaders? OK let's add another issue - we have aging water, sewer infrastructure, struggling schools and safety services; we have a collapsing innerbelt bridge, we have a soon to be moribund lakefront airport and we have a budget crunch [4]. Is the vision beginning to come together for us now?
I heard in a conversation over the holiday from some folks who lived here before the interstate cut cleveland in half. They said they recalled real rush hours. The city had a larger population, more folks worked downtown and they said that the green, blue and red line trains were crowded at rush hours - SRO. I suggest we return to that transport model. For the hospital workers who are concerned that they may need to travel away from the hospitals mid workday - lobby your employers to invest in CityWheels [5], so you'll have a company car to use. UH and CCF can save money and improve air quality. This is the triple bottom line. We're going to have to conserve; let's start now. We have the infrastructure to do so. Let's use it and stop dreaming of opportunity corridors - (NEO does not need more pavement). The opportunity already exists. CCF shuttles ad Circlelink can pull right up to the Cedar Glen rapid stop and E120th rapid stop at regular intervals - in nice weather workers can improve their personal health by walking from the stop to work. Now we're gonna have to work on the bus connectors, but to drive business to the rapid, we've gotta park the Mustang and ride, Sally, ride. [6] Ford's goin' outta business after all.
Links:
[1] http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/12/rtas_airport_line_is_reliable.html
[2] http://blog.cleveland.com/architecture/2007/09/regional_transit_authority_unv.html
[3] http://www.cleveland.com/arts/index.ssf/2008/11/rta_plans_dramatic_improvement.html
[4] http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2008/12/ohio_faces_major_budget_cuts_a.html
[5] http://www.mycitywheels.com/
[6] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQyWmaTSzNs