R/A late night trolley service test

[fieldafm]

Nearly two years after we put on pub crawls using JTA trolleys as a demonstration event for the viability of a late night trolley service, some of the business owners in the area are trying out this service.

On August 10th from 6pm to midnight the PCT trolleys will run with stops at Bold City Brewery, Intuition Ale Works, Kickbacks, Pele’s, European Street Cafe and across the street from The Brick in Avondale with additional stops along select surfacearking lots.

A trolley ticket will run $5 and can be used unlimited during the hours of service the night of the 10th.  Participating bars will be selling tickets to ride, so STOCK UP!!!!

[Ocklawaha]

If they'd loop a bus/PCT all the way from downtown to Fairfax and Roosevelt Plaza they'd pick up a much better ridership. It would be a great compliment to the new night service. A Roosevelt PCT could quit running when Publix closes.

[fsujax]

Do we know whcih surface lots will be serviced?

[peestandingup]

But then how will the cops & prisons who rely on pulling over drunk drivers feed their children? Will someone PLEASE think of the children!

[FSBA]

If done right this would be a great service for the area. Depending on how well the idea takes off this could be a major step forward towards the issue of parking along the Kings St district.

[Captain Zissou]

This should make for a pretty epic night at all venues that support the trolleys.  This should also make for a pretty epic hangover for Field the next morning

[funwithteeth]

Looking forward to blacking out for the last half of this!

[JayBird]

So happy to see this, there is a large crowd that truly wishes R/A would get something similar to the Beaches trolley for at least Thursday - Saturday nights.  Oh wait, this probably infringes on those trying to get parking permits there. Guess that's why it's a one night shot deal.

[fsujax]

Running the trolley at night is a great idea and one that should be expanded to connect with downtown. If the businesses are willing to help support it, then its a win-win.

[tayana42]

I remember a meeting in the King Street Baptist Church about Kickbacks expansion.  I suggested the bar trollley as one means of reducing the parking overload to Jim Love and Kevin Kuzel.  Perhaps they were the ones who convinced JTA to do this.  Whoever is responsible deserves recognition and thanks.

[fieldafm]

I remember a meeting in the King Street Baptist Church about Kickbacks expansion.  I suggested the bar trollley as one means of reducing the parking overload to Jim Love and Kevin Kuzel.  Perhaps they were the ones who convinced JTA to do this.  Whoever is responsible deserves recognition and thanks.

This is NOT a JTA led effort.  We've tried beating that drum for over 3 years now.  JTA at one point at least extended the Riverside Trolley hours during Art Walk (and had phenomenal ridership), however they pulled the plug on that quickly without much reason as to why.  Community leaders have lobbied JTA to run a loop hitting three R/A commercial districts on Friday and Saturday nights and MetroJacksonville even rented trolley busses to put on (again wildly successful) demonstration events.  Instead of listening to the community's concerns, the Riverside Trolley route structure and operating times were changed time and time again.  Each change brought about decreased ridership (gee, wonder why).

Yet again, this newest demonstration event is being paid for by several merchants in the area.... NOT JTA. 

All the more reason to support this effort being led by locally owned small businesses that are contributing to the area's vibrancy. 

Incidentally, it should be noted that Mark Hemphill (owner of Marks and Dive Bar on Bay Street) has also been beating this drum for years.  He once famously walked out of a meeting with JTA in frustration.  When you hear 'no' at every turn, you'd get pretty frustrated yourself 

I have a lot of hope for Nat Ford.  I hope he is successful changing the culture at JTA, b/c aside from a few very bright individuals there... this is the kind of experience most of us deal with.  I really HATE to be negative, but it's hard not to have a negative attitude when you constantly feel like you are talking to a brick wall.

[Garden guy]

Can we please not call it a trolly...its a bus....its like pissing on my leg and telling me its raining..lol

[mbwright]

Tallahassee is looking to do a similar service, with some free buses from West Palm Beach.  Not sure how far it will go, since there is a good bit of vocal opposition. 

Yes these are not Trolleys, but 'cute buses'.  If there is no rail, and there is no gantry, it is not a trolley.

http://www.wctv.tv/home/headlines/A-Tallahassee-Trolley-213081971.html

[Intuition Ale Works]

We are glad to participate in this test and hope this happens on a regular basis.

Allan DeVault, of Black Sheep fame and a longtime friend, has spearheaded this "experiment" and I believe that RAP will subsidize the expense not covered by the participating businesses. I am glad to see RAP take a proactive and business friendly approach to solving a problem.

I truly hope that solutions like this gain momentum in the R/A district in spite of attempts by many that want to  build a wall around our awesome neighborhood and determine who can come in and out. Is that a run on sentence?

FYI...JTA charges a $100/hr per trolley or whatever you want to call it.

[fieldafm]

We are glad to participate in this test and hope this happens on a regular basis.

Allan DeVault, of Black Sheep fame and a longtime friend, has spearheaded this "experiment" and I believe that RAP will subsidize the expense not covered by the participating businesses. I am glad to see RAP take a proactive and business friendly approach to solving a problem.

I truly hope that solutions like this gain momentum in the R/A district in spite of attempts by many that want to  build a wall around our awesome neighborhood and determine who can come in and out. Is that a run on sentence?

FYI...JTA charges a $100/hr per trolley or whatever you want to call it.

Allan really deserves a lot of accord in advancing a more multi-modal transportation approach throughout R/A.  He's been trying to work with JTA for going on 4 years to get reliable transit options with realisitc headways to attract choice riders.  He's (along with Carmen) also responsible for the Riverside Trolley Art Walk experiment and lining up Home Tour properities along the Riverside Trolley route a few years ago (all experiments that were successful).  He also spearheaded a merchant program with JTA (incidentally, one that took almost 3 years to happen... JTA should have jumped on the word go b/c at the time it was presented, the Riverside Trolley had a more substantial route tree along with faster headway times).

We need more voices like Allan Devault (btw, he's also working on getting funding to make Five Points more pedestrian friendly). 

There's no reason a 'Later Gator' type service could work in Gainesville, but not Riverside/Avondale/Downtown.  We've proven that. 

I encourage all of you to buy a trolley ticket for August 10th and participate!