WHAT JTA NEED'S

[Ocklawaha]

PHOTO: South Lake Union Trolley - Seattle's SLUT

San Francisco, California, how do your streetcars run? Just take a look through the eyes of "Next Bus" a global gps based service. Just click the link then just stare at the map and the little trolley symbols for about 60 seconds... Amazing. Just click around and explore the site, very well done, and JTA is always talking about "Real Time Information?" Well here it is baby.

I am hoping that JTA could be the first system in North Florida to jump onboard this network. It can be reached through your PDA, or I-connection. The following is the San Francisco Muni (STREETCAR) "F" line.

http://www.nextbus.com/predictor/publicMap.shtml?a=sf-muni&r=F

If you'd rather watch the SLUT in Seattle, you can peek in on her too!
http://www.nextbus.com/predictor/publicMap.shtml?a=seattle-sc&r=southlakeunion

Fort Myers is onboard with an hourly PCT Beach Faux Trolley line, but doesn't show it's other routes.

OCKLAWAHA

[jbm32206]

One of the nicest light rail systems that I've seen is the LUAS in Dublin...
Here's the link to the site about their light and metro rail systems
http://www.subways.net/ireland/dublin.htm

[I-10east]

You'd think that the city of Seattle would've rethought using the word "SLUT" for short; Then again, it IS the city that lost the Sonics, and Boeing; Geniuses. "Slut"__That's pretty funny

[winthropf]

SLUT is not the official term for it... it's just a funny local nickname, because it is a "trolley" in South Lake Union. Kind of like calling the Intercoastal the Ditch....
The real acronym is SLUS - South Lake Union Streetcar

My wife and I go to Seattle every year to go Bumbershoot and usually stay in the Queen Anne neighborhood...  from that neighborhood you can take their monorail from Seattle Center to Westlake Terminal, which is in the middle of the downtown (imagine that, a monorail with attractions at both end points).  The Westlake Terminal is also kind of one end point for the SLUS....

While the SLUS and the Monorail in Seattle look cool...  one could argue that Seattle has not had a good implementation of their mass transit.  The monorail was put in for the Worlds Fair in 64...  it only goes about a mile and I'm guessing it doesn't get a lot of use, even though it has the destinations.  We have been on it several times and we are usually the only people on it.  One of the times we were there it wasn't running because the 2 monorail trains had wedge against each other because the 2 track lines are too close at one point...  due to a redesigned station.
The SLUS has had several collisions with cars and the end station at Westlake is about a block and a half from the entrance to the Westlake monorail station and tunnel (which will soon, if it doesn't already, have a light rail option to the Mariners/Seahawks stadium and eventually to the airport, the LINK i believe its called)...  while it doesn't sound bad it would have been nicer to find a way to connect in a central station given the weather in Seattle (one could also debate that the weather there gets a bum rap)....

All of that being said, when we were on the SLUS in August we thought it was pretty great...  but we were suprised that hardly anyone else was on it at around 5pm to 6pm on a workday (we took it both ways after shopping downtown).  And the 3 or 4 local folks that were on there, kept asking us about it because they had never been on it before (and I guess I sounded like I knew what I was talking about, since I had been following it from the planning stages).

My wife and I were schocked when we were ride sharing with a Queen Anne local from the airport, as she was saying how everyone thinks their mass transit is horrible...  all we could reply with is that she had obviously never been to Jax.

My belief is that the difference between Jax and Seattle is that Seattle has recently embraced the mass transit idea wholeheartedly...  and as bad as the locals there think it is, it is actually pretty decent (of course no comparision to say, NYC, London, or Paris...  but way better than San Francisco in my opinion)...  keep in mind they have the Sounder to Tacoma, the awesome Ferry services, the Monorail, SLUS, and the new LINK system going in the tunnel and farther...  they are trying to make the best of what they have and JAx seems to be sitting on the sidelines, it would nice for our city to finally dive in...

Incidentally, there might be something else to the perception of Seattle's mass transit on a national level... the actual appearance...  look how much cooler the SLUS looks than our monorail...  you can't even compare our monorail to theirs (the Seattle Monorail is an ALWEG that looks like the Disneyland Monorail aka 60s style futuristic... way cooler than ours).  In my eyes...  the seattle transit options look cooler, so people (including myself) will/do think they are cooler...  especially non-locals.

[Ocklawaha]

You'd think that the city of Seattle would've rethought using the word "SLUT" for short; Then again, it IS the city that lost the Sonics, and Boeing; Geniuses. "Slut"__That's pretty funny

THey did, but too late... the damage is already done and the name looks like it's here to stay. It was changed to South Lake Union Streetcar, so the locals just swap the streetcar for the word trolley (either could be correct - although techies will note this isn't really a Trolley operation due to "pantograph" power collection - Trolleys use a small power wheel that rolls along the contact wire at the end of a long spring loaded pole, for example Seattles heavy bus routes are diven by true trolleys). The tee shirts are still on sale and it seems everyone now loves the SLUT. It started as an ANTI thing, now it is becoming a loving word.

What do y'all think of the cool NEXT BUS tracking system?

OCKLAWAHA

[winthropf]

I like the Next Bus system, seems like it would be pretty handy if coupled with an iPhone or a smart phone.

I agree, I like the SLUT name better...  but I was just being official. 

[9a is my backyard]

What do y'all think of the cool NEXT BUS tracking system?

I think it's a great way to attract those who aren't already riding the bus but would consider it.  I imagine it's particularly attractive to businesspeople.