Riverside Avondale Night Trolley

[fieldafm]

The trolley returns this Friday and Saturday night.

There will be no volunteers on board selling passes as you board the trolley. In order to ride, you will either need exact change for a one way fare ($1.50) or you will need to buy a STAR card ahead of time in order to ride all night for $4. Drivers cannot make change, nor sell you a STAR card on board. If you do not have exact change and do not have a STAR card, then you cannot ride the trolley.

STAR cards can be purchased at Grassroots Natural Market, European Street Cafe, Let Them Eat Cake, Open Road Bicycles of Avondale, Bold City Brewery and Intuition Ale Works.

As always, you can track the trolley in real time by visiting trolley.jaxmob.com from your smartphone. This mobile optimized website gives you a map of the route, including stops.. and shows a trolley icon which moves along with each trolley.. so you won't have to worry about missing the bus.

Your support is CRITICAL. The overwhelming majority of people that have rode the trolley have complimented the ease and convenience of the service. Bring someone new on board this Friday and Saturday night. Ridership must grow in order to continue to offer this service on a permanent basis.

It's easy, convenient, fun and far cheaper than taxi services... and certainly smarter than drinking and driving.

I encourage every single person that reads this to ride the trolley Friday and Saturday night.

Find out more by following Riverside Avondale Night Trolley on Facebook, or visit the website www.riversideavondalenighttrolley.com

[fieldafm]

Wanted to bump this up.

Your ridership experience is important. Please let your friends know that they cannot purchase cards on board any longer, nor can change be made on board the trolley.

[tufsu1]

sweet...thanks for the reminder!

[fieldafm]

..

[ronchamblin]

Why leave the DT core out of the route?  I would open the bookstore cafe on Friday and Saturday night until 10:00 or 11:00 P.M. if the trolley would operate every Friday and Saturday evening throughout the year, and if the route would extend east out Bay Street to cover the bars, and up Laura to Hemming.  Any DT businesses opening these two evenings would allow the hiring of new workers to cover the expanded hours. 

And who else in the often forgotten DT would benefit by extending the route?   Pho .... The Volstead ..... Burro Bar ... La Cena .....Burrito Gallery ....... all the bars and restaurants on and around Bay Street, Forsyth, and Adams. 

This one extension of the Trolley could be an important and effective catalyst to encourage more interest in the DT core .... and perhaps provide a small motivation for people to move into the DT core as residents ......... for more investors to open a business in the core.

I can envision a "split" route; that is, if there are two trolleys available, and if the one route seems too large.  One trolley would cover the west half of the route ... toward Avondale, and the other would cover east half ... toward the DT core.  In the center would be a "transfer" location ... perhaps a new bar or shop called "The Transfer". 

This could also be the beginning of a mentality encouraging the riding of something other than an auto ... and thus, to please Ock, encourage thinking about a "real" mass transit system. 

The extended trolley might also reduce the occasions of drinking and driving in these areas.

I wonder who makes decisions about the trolley operation?

[fieldafm]

Ron
Riverside/Avondale MUST be consistent and sustainable first. If people don't ride in the next three months of this trial period (which took three years to get), then talk about extensions/permanency are irrelevant.

That's the bottom line.

[ronchamblin]

The "testing" stage you refer to makes sense.  But does it make complete and good sense? 

In other words, those in power, those who never make mistakes, might entertain the possibility that, whereas the "limited" Avondale/Riverside circuit might not pass muster in support and ridership, the expanded run to the DT core might.

Oh ..... these experiments.......I hate them because they sometimes don't produce good results.

Limiting the run to just Avondale/Riverside now, might kill if forever.  Expanding the run to DT, might allow the experiment to live..... and grow.

On the other hand, expanding to DT right off the bat, might kill it.  In any case, I only offer options in thinking about these things. 

   

[Bridges]

I would speculate that of all the things that hold back potential ridership, the inability to purchase tickets at a stop or on the bus without exact change might be one of the biggest.  Not the lack of routes to other surrounding urban core areas. 

But Field is right, they've thrown us a bone here, and we have to show them we won't just bury it for later.  I just hope that there is a solid metric that takes the limitations into account.  That's going to take trust in some of those making the decisions.  All we can do is show out in support of the Trolley and hope they use that information wisely. 

Will be hopping on Friday. 

[ronchamblin]

Makes good sense Bridges .... about the tickets.  We are fortunate to have people like fieldafm to work these things through.

Does anyone know if there are posters on the trolley, so I can post them in both my stores?  If not, I will make some kind of poster to let people know of the trolley schedule.

I plan to ride the trolley this weekend, to "feel" it ..... and to gain a first hand opinion of it. 

[fieldafm]

they've thrown us a bone here, and we have to show them we won't just bury it for later.

I can assure you, if the trolley isn't successful... it won't be because of the person writing this post... it will be because of the person reading this post.

Ridership this weekend is critical. Get out of your car this weekend and use it. It's super convenient due to the mobile app that shows you trolley locations in real time... super fun (you'll meet fun people)... and super cheap (FAR cheaper than those unreliable cabs, and far-far-far cheaper than a DUI)

[Bridges]

Just had someone go by Let Them Eat Cake and they said they were sold out of the day passes. 

[exnewsman]

they've thrown us a bone here, and we have to show them we won't just bury it for later.

I can assure you, if the trolley isn't successful... it won't be because of the person writing this post... it will be because of the person reading this post.

Ridership this weekend is critical. Get out of your car this weekend and use it. It's super convenient due to the mobile app that shows you trolley locations in real time... super fun (you'll meet fun people)... and super cheap (FAR cheaper than those unreliable cabs, and far-far-far cheaper than a DUI)

And if the testing on JTA's NextBus program continues to be successful, then all routes, trolleys included, will be able to monitor the trolleys/buses location in real time. I like the DT idea, but I do think its a better approach to make the Avondale/Riverside portion work first better bringing that on. A phased approach seems wisest. If riding the trolleys becomes second nature to do each weekend, then the success will be there. Conquer R/A - then DT.

[exnewsman]

Getting the "how to pay" issue worked out though will be critical. But it doesn't seem insurmountable.

[mtraininjax]

Why leave the DT core out of the route?

Because Brooklyn and LaVilla are a ghost town at the moment. In-Fill here and then it makes the trolley experience more fun, no one wants to travel down Riverside and the stop lights passing acres of empty-ness on their way to DT.

Lobby your investors and businesses to grow Brooklyn and Lavilla.

[fieldafm]

Bumping up, really important to bring someone new with you this weekend to ride the trolley.