Downtown Date Night Via JTA

[fieldafm]

Ridership is at a peak during lunch hours.  I have the numbers sitting in front of me.  

Ridership was VERY high(standing room only) during 2 of the 3 times they tested it at Art Walk(the last time the weather was FREEZING, myself and the lady friend were the only ones in NOLA that night for a good hour and a half, Art Walk was beyond empty due to weather).  

The route is going to have it's peak ridership times, and times when ridership isn't as high.  That is no different than any public transit route in the country.  During the non-peak times, headways are very inconvenient, to the point that I have to go out of my way to use the service.  I once walked from Chamblins to RAM on a Saturday, waited at the trolley stop in front of RAM for 17 minutes... and FINALLY the trolley that was sitting at the Landing when I started my walk picked me up in front of RAM.  I could have walked to the Shoppes of Avondale(my final destination) from RAM in about 22 minutes.  So I literally could have walked the entire way and SAVED time(and money).  You are not going to attract choice riders if it is not convenient.  That's Choice Ridership Attraction 101.

Say you had a store that sold women's shoes.  Your customers tell you 'you know, it would be really great if you would offer purses as well'.  Then you buy three different lots of purses, and they all sell out quickly.  Furthermore, the shoe store you have on the other side of town sells purses too and people buy them.  THEN, you turn around and say 'you know what, until more people buy more shoes... I ain't selling no purses'

I mean, you don't have to have an MBA to figure that one out.

JTA also refuses to enact a merchant transit program.  Retailers have approached JTA about buying bulk RT passes at a discount in order to give to their customers to encourage ridership(and reduce the strain on their limited parking).  JTA says no b/c it reduces fare box revenue.  Well, in ECON 102(microeconomics) I learned that when you cut a price and revenues increase b/c of it, you still make more profit than you would have b/c of the increased revenue.  JTA mucked this up when they essentially turned their back on the beaches merchants Year 2 of the Beaches Trolley service.  It is beyond me why they are turning their backs on the Riverside/Avondale/Downtown merchants yet again.

[johnnyroadglide]

I work near Hemming Plaza so just for the heck of it I decided to see what my options were with mass transit.  I need to walk from my house on Dellwood out to Stockton near the Gate station, which is not too unreasonable. Pick up WS6, which drops me off at the bus/skyway station by FSCJ. Then walk 4 blocks to the office. But getting home is not the same. Walk back to the bus/skyway station and catch the R5 which drops me off at Park and King. Walk about 8 blocks to Dellwood. Then east 2 blocks. While not perfect, it is doable. But I don't understand why JTA doesn't have busses or trolleys that run past city hall, the library, the Ed Ball Building, Hemming Plaza, etc..I guess because of the Skyway which as has been pointed out closes early.
oh and by the way, check out JTAs website. They are changing some routes starting May 2.

[fieldafm]

Yes, evening mass transit service SUCKS.  There is no other way to sugarcoat that fact.

[urbanlibertarian]

I would never expect JTA to behave like a business.  I wonder if a private jitney could make a profit on Fri and Sat nights running a circuit past bars in the nothbank, southbank and Riverside?

[jaxlore]

great idea. just sucks you cant get anything later on the way back. In Detroit we were able to catch a bus outside of a club at 2am back to our hotel.

[Jimmy]

Well, it's a "school night."  So we weren't going to paint the town.  Just go out for an experience.  Sounds like we're going to at least get that.

[JHAT76]

I work in the ATT building.  The Greyhound station can get sketchy, and you will get a few bums, but as long as you know what you are getting into you are going to be OK.  I have walked around at all hours, 5PM, midnight, 5 AM, and there isn't much going on downtown to be too worried about.  I am not scared necessarily walking downtown, more annoyed late at night or at 5 AM when walking past Greyhound and getting hit up for cash.  Personally I feel "safer" in the Landing, Library, Bay St, Burrito Gallery area.  Even more so if you are like me with kids and aren't out too late. 

[Jimmy]

Yeah, I worked downtown for years.  I know the "hot pockets" of activity, both above board and sketchy.

[Doctor_K]

You may want to make it a date day or morning.  The skyway only operates on the weekends during special events and stops running at 7pm during the work week. The library closes at 8pm on weekdays and earlier on the weekends.  So, if you start your date too late, you may end up walking for a while or coming up on a locked public facility.

Ok now a couple of weekends ago my wife and I definitely saw the Skyway cars running at closer to 8:00 than 7:00.  I can't imagine that they were just 'being shuttled' back to the maintenance facility that late.

What gives?

[thelakelander]

Unless things have recently changed, it officially stops running at 7pm.  There have been plenty of times where I've seen empty cars in operation, while station gates are locked.

[Jimmy]

From jtafla.com

Skyway Hours

The Skyway will open for fireworks Sunday, July 4 from 6 p.m. to midnight. It will be closed in observance of Independence Day, Monday, July 5.

Monday-Friday: 6 a.m.to 9 p.m.
Saturday-Sunday: Special Events Only

Obviously, their website hasn't been updated in some time...?

[thelakelander]

Cool, its nice to see the evening hours have been extended to 9pm. When we moved to our Northbank office last year, we declined to seriously consider skyway related park & ride options due to the earlier cut off time.

[fieldafm]

Ok now a couple of weekends ago my wife and I definitely saw the Skyway cars running at closer to 8:00 than 7:00.  I can't imagine that they were just 'being shuttled' back to the maintenance facility that late.

What gives?

They definately do shuttle them back and forth for maintenance on the weekends.  A few weeks ago they shut down one of the tracks for maintenance and were running a lot of the cars on a Saturday for testing/maintenance-related issues.

Lake is right, or at least was right until about 4 weeks ago.  Central station's gates were locked at 7:15pm on a Thursday 4 weeks ago when I tried to take it over to the Southbank.  Of course, Central station is the worst one they have b/c nothing never seems to work there... but I wound up walking across the Main Street Bridge to get where I needed to go.

I walk downtown at all hours, except for getting hit up for money... there has never been a time where I have been unsafe.  My car has gotten broken into in Riverside more(3) than it has ever gotten broken into downtown(0).

[Ocklawaha]

Remember when you speak folks, "We don't need streetcars in Jacksonville, we already HAVE trolleys!" Louise DeSpain, as executive director SPAR.  DING!

How about we boarded the "faux trolley" or my personal favorite, the potato-chip-truck or "PCT Trolley." Assist us in educating the unwashed masses so they'll know, "WE NEED STREETCARS, and we DON'T have trolleys!"

OCKLAWAHA

[exnewsman]

The ridership when they have offered service downtown on Art Walk nights would tend to make your point null and void.  There is certainly demand for evening hours.  Parking is becoming a big problem as the three commercial districts grow.  Also, the headways b/w 5-7pm and on Saturdays are EXTREMELY inconvenient for choice riders.

I rode the trolley nonstop during the 'R'ides of March promotion and I was amazed at the first time users of the system that either A) didnt know it existed before and B) ALL talked about how convenient evening service would be.

The Beaches Trolley runs until 3AM Thursday-Saturday.  To put THAT into perspective, the Riverside Trolley has MORE riders than the Beaches Trolley.

Those times are NOT correct. The final Beaches Trolley stop is actually 12:43 a.m. every night at the South Beach REgional Shopping Center at JTB/A1A.

BTW - the Skyway runs until 9 p.m., not 7 p.m.