Today's e-newsletter from the GCRTA asks me to click a link so that I can inform my legislative representatives that I think more money should be supporting public transportation. Which I do. I believe that wholeheartedly. I believe it with a deep seated burning passion that easy and logical public transit is paramount to livable communities. When I say "livable communities" I don't just mean those places you just feel safe and warm all alone in your house watching (ironically?) episodes of House ignoring your family and neighbors before you go off to work and have your electronic twitter relationships with people you will never see (but will know intimate details of). I mean livable as in you can be alive there and people would know because other people are being alive there. They are interacting and seeing each other and perhaps even conversing and god forbid touching (not in a perverse manner, just in the lend a hand, hold a door, shake hello sort of manner, geeze). There is a humanity to a "livable" community because your life means something to other "real" people and this knitting of existence gives some sense of purpose. Your couch will not win the eternal battle with gravity and fly off into space without your butt holding it firmly down. I swear, you have nothing to worry about. Also, contrary to popular belief, television actors have no idea when you are not watching them during their antics. They cannot see or hear you. Even at a movie theater (I don't understand the clapping thing).

However apparently all this costs a ton of money. All the making people live by each other and want to talk to each other and see each other and accept the fact that although some of the people may look and act just like the people you may see on the television or interweb they may not be as funny without the team of mac/hack writers at their disposal and the cold harsh reality of paying attention and being polite may be a burden to bear but there it is.

At some reasonable point I think the logic behind the argument of how tough sprawl is upon infrastructure (including transit and what not) is going to become more of a reality to those who depend upon it the least. Those of us who find public transportation an option because we own a car or bike or have legs that work pretty reliably will eventually notice that it won't be an option because it will be completely gone. Our city won't have been able to take the strain as it spreads out and spreads thin. Will gas be (I actually hope that soon it will be) $10 a gallon by then? What will our human reaction be? Hide in a cave and pray to Dr. House for sweet merciful death or will we try again to concentrate into a dense area to interact and shop and play?

Why is a state so unwilling to fund public transit so full of people willing to invest millions and millions and more millions and then a few extra millions and how about a secret few billions of dollars to expand highway infrastructure (making it easier for people to spread further and increase the burden upon our infrastructure which is GOING TO KEEP COSTING US MORE)? Is this a quick fix to a problem I don't understand? Are the sprawling suburbs of the state so damn enticing that our suburban tax base is going to grow enough to offset the constantly starved and ill treated urban cores? Seriously? I would like to know what the heck people in NOACA are thinking promoting interchanges in Avon and the like. How about trying to imagine what it will take to keep the ridiculously vital parts of the region (such as Cleveland) not just shuffling along on Life Support but actually work to inject some sort of this LIFE everyone keeps talking about.

I want to live.

So when you are writing your emails or snailmail or texting or twittering your state reps and the like about how you wouldn't at all mind being able to take the bus or train to work instead of having to find a new job or just move out of state ask why it is so very hard to inject a little humanity into planning/money allocation process as well. I mean, this is all being done for us people, isn't it? Isn't it?

In an effort to rectify budget shortfalls the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) has identified a savings in discontinuing the many local Circulator routes that services many of Cleveland's neighborhoods to staunch local opposition. GCRTA seems to recognize the that their proposed solution is putting many customers in a bind and is planning to start a one-year pilot project in January 2010 in attempt to alleviate this problem.

The Weekly Shopper Service pilot program will offer one day a week, 6 hour long Circulator service from "major residential complexes and high density areas to shopping and medical facilities".

It sounds better than nothing and is still in the planning stages which means that input from the public and elected officials is needed to shape and finalize plans. Therefore it is up to the public to prod RTA and our officials to fulfill the services we require. My main concern is that areas of "high density" will already be close to shopping and medical facilities (such as in Lakewood) so the service won't be serving those that need it the most. I understand that GCRTA feels that they can concentrate efforts in order to achieve more but I wonder how easy such a thing (service vs need vs operational cost vs quality of life vs cost cutting justification) is to quantify.

And I am not going to complain about how high our fares are just yet, because I think we all agree that they are a bit high.

And by a bit I mean ridiculously high.

If the city and GCRTA would team up to get rid of the surface lots downtown to increase the value of the public transit service I think they could then justify the fare increase, until then it is becoming increasing cheaper for me to drive myself.

Ohio's 3C "Quick Start" Passenger Rail Plan Public Meeting
Wednesday, September 16th
Cleveland Airport Holiday Inn, 4181 W. 150th St., Cleveland.
4-7pm

With Ohio’s 3C “Quick Start” Passenger Rail Service, more than 60% of Ohio’s population will have increased travel options by 2011.

Trains, operating at up to 79 miles per hour in 2011 and up to 110 miles per hour in the future, will connect Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati, generating jobs and economic development along the way.

The service will be safe, efficient and cost effective, connecting Ohio to the nationally-prioritized Chicago Hub Network – all using federal stimulus dollars.

You can check also pay attention to the 3C "Quick Start" Passenger Rail website.

The Ohio Rail Development Commission has also put an online survey regarding the public's concerns and comments about the proposed 3C rail project. I highly suggest you take the time to get your opinion counted. You can also look at the bar graphs and see how the topics are fairing. Last time I checked there were 2592 people surveyed which in the scheme of things isn't that many.

I noticed these new articulated buses along bus line #26 about a week ago and tried in vain to capture the image of the articulated older style bus (not quite as fancy and streamlined as those new numbers cruising up and down Euclid Avenue, strutting like they own the place) on my cell phone but darned if those guys aren't too quick to capture. All the photos I have of them on my phone, and I have quite a few, are all cropped in strange places like the bus was streaking out of frame, which in essence it was.

Is this news? I don't know. Gas prices seem to be down and everyone and their mother got $4.5k to put down on some "fuel efficient" jobby (even though the mpg ratings aren't what I would consider efficient, most of the people I know have cars that were too efficient to qualify. Where is our cash money?) . Sure the ratings for walkable cities have been tied to Real Estate values and it is easier to walk when first traveling to an area by bus than by car (since you can hop back on the bus along your path instead of having to backtrack) but is GCRTA really that in tune? Especially as they are planning to cut Circulator Routes and raise fares?

I ask these questions because they haven't been addressed in the weekly RTA emails I get (but don't read too closely so maybe it WAS in there) and I would like to hear reasoning such as "strengthening the main corridor lines to service more people with more efficient vehicles that get not only better mileage but due to passenger capacity and layout can get more people off and on quicker so that funds can be shifted to bringing back heavily used circulators or routes that had to be changed/removed inconviencing the riders who most rely on GCRTA".

That is what I would like to hear or even read. Soon or something.

Even an added influx in public transportation monies (at least to cover rising fuel costs and to keep the system running normally) would do well to bide people over until the corridor project can be proven and/or enough citizens move to using public transit to remove all stigma and ingrain its usage into everyday life.

A third suggestion would be directly in line with the first two in designing streetscapes around pedestrian movement including proper orientation of commercial and residential entries, street scale and the reintroduction of neighborhood or community based development similar to the intents of the tenants of new urbanism but thoughtfully applied to the specific location in question.