Riverside Avondale Night Trolley Ridership Plummets

[exnewsman]

So painting a couple lines down a shoulder of a highway for cyclists or having some rinky dink trolley/bus thing rolling once a month at god knows what days or times, then wondering why no one is using these half-assed attempts, is the problem. And our leadership unfortunately seems clueless to this obvious fact, like they just crawled outta the backwoods of Macclenny or something instead of a major metropolis.
[/quote]

I don't think this R/A trolley was done in a vacuum. Folks from RAP and other urbanites were involved in the planning, route design and hours. So it wasn't a "we're JTA and we'll just throw something out there" kind of thing. Carmen Godwin and Mike Field were two of those involved.

The route covers the major "nightlife" areas in those neighborhoods - Five Points, Shoppes of Avondale, King/Park, Brewery district. The initial interest was quite high (1200-1400 trips).

My original post was about how to keep it running and the tactics that could be used to do that. Comments about MacClenny don't really move the needle much.

[mtraininjax]

What's wrong with having a bus route down Edgewood?

The people who live along Edgewood did not want stops there, nor were they consulted on this, as part of the community. Interesting to note though, JTA has STOPPED construction on the platforms, and covered up the ground with grass. So this may not happen.

[peestandingup]

So painting a couple lines down a shoulder of a highway for cyclists or having some rinky dink trolley/bus thing rolling once a month at god knows what days or times, then wondering why no one is using these half-assed attempts, is the problem. And our leadership unfortunately seems clueless to this obvious fact, like they just crawled outta the backwoods of Macclenny or something instead of a major metropolis.

I don't think this R/A trolley was done in a vacuum. Folks from RAP and other urbanites were involved in the planning, route design and hours. So it wasn't a "we're JTA and we'll just throw something out there" kind of thing. Carmen Godwin and Mike Field were two of those involved.

The route covers the major "nightlife" areas in those neighborhoods - Five Points, Shoppes of Avondale, King/Park, Brewery district. The initial interest was quite high (1200-1400 trips).

My original post was about how to keep it running and the tactics that could be used to do that. Comments about MacClenny don't really move the needle much.

I don't know those people so I can't comment, I'm just calling it like I see it. But if any one of these neighborhood "planners" were consulted & thought that having some erratic non-consistent schedule was a good idea that would ultimately increase ridership/was something that weekenders could rely on, then yeah. That was stupid. Of course ridership is going to end up going down, no matter what the initial interest was. Did they expect people to plan their weekend around those 2 nights a month the trolley runs? C mon.

I thought my post pretty much laid out the actual issues regarding alternate modes of transit in this city pretty well. They never want to go "all in" & end up with these half-assed efforts that ultimately bomb. There's no cohesive plan. Skyway that never gets built out as planned, so people don't ride it or can rely on it for really anything. Buses with hour long wait times at stops with broken benches (and no cover) that a dog looking for shelter would even snub his nose at. Bike lanes scattered throughout that stop abruptly and/or don't connect to anything or are out in the middle of nowhere that go nowhere. Bike paths (like the S-Line) that aren't extended into places where actual people live & isn't taken care of at all & is filled with broken glass every 2 feet.

Its the same story every single time. Build it, water it down, don't maintain it or build upon it, failure. Then everyone acts shocked when things don't pan out. But it isn't shocking, its quite typical. And everyone who's been here long enough knows it. At least those of us who actually get out there & experience all of these things first hand & aren't confined to our steel cages on wheels every time we're outside.

And if the people running & influencing these things aren't backwoods Florida hicks then they sure plan like they are.

[fieldafm]

And if the people running & influencing these things aren't backwoods Florida hicks then they sure plan like they are.

Well, I'm a backwoods Florida hick, but the stupid neighborhood 'planners' didn't want an 'erratic non-consistent schedule'

[tufsu1]

What's wrong with having a bus route down Edgewood?

The people who live along Edgewood did not want stops there, nor were they consulted on this, as part of the community. Interesting to note though, JTA has STOPPED construction on the platforms, and covered up the ground with grass. So this may not happen.

correction....SOME of the people living along Edgewood did not want stops there

[JHAT76]

What's wrong with having a bus route down Edgewood?

The people who live along Edgewood did not want stops there, nor were they consulted on this, as part of the community. Interesting to note though, JTA has STOPPED construction on the platforms, and covered up the ground with grass. So this may not happen.

correction....SOME of the people living along Edgewood did not want stops there

I am thinking more like MTRAIN who lives on Edgewood doesn't like buses on his street and wasn't consulted. Keep the unwashed masses and city noise on the other streets.

[Know Growth]

Some envisioned Trolley as development impact mitigation.

Use may increase not due to dutiful Avondale & Riverside March,but rather thanks to emerging residential development on the relative edge of Downtown/RAP

[mtraininjax]

correction....SOME of the people living along Edgewood did not want stops there

LOL! As if you know!

So why didn't the buses come all the way past Councilman Love's house too? He lives on Edgewood. Fact of the matter is that the JTA had 1 meeting, then the next week went out and put the posts in the ground and said to the residents in Avondale, "You had your 1 meeting", now you have to live with it.

Yet its the residents having the last laugh, as the proposed "covered stops" now have grass growing on their spots and if not for the new JTA posts, you'd never know a bus stop is proposed there. Its not over yet! With an existing stop at Edgewood and Park, and Jacksonville listed as the 10th most unhealthy city in America, it would do a few of the citizens of Jacksonville to walk a bit further up and down Edgewood to the stop on the East West route along Park Street. As it is the buses would turn onto Park Street, so having 2 more bus stops between Park and US17 accomplishes......what exactly? Oh, yeah, a quicker ride to the Hardage-Giddens funeral home further down the road in Murray Hill.....nice!

[tufsu1]

I know someone who lives on Edgewood who does want the bus stops...and aother who lives a block off who also is in favor.

[Know Growth]

I know someone who explained to me, reliably, why "Edgewood" was named.