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| - Let's consider all the cool things that RTA brings to the table:
1. Rail service from the airport to downtown. This is really awesome that not all that many cities can lay claim to. Now, some of the scenery on that ride isn't so nice, but who cares? This is a huge plus for the city.
2. Free trolleys that take you everywhere downtown. This is great for everyone, from residents, to visitors, people who work downtown- just hop on a trolley! It makes downtown much more connected and easy to navigate.
3. Taking the rapid is quick and enjoyable. I get on the Courtland stop on Shaker and exactly 27 minutes later, I am always going up the escalator at Tower City. You can get downtown in under a half hour, not worry about traffic, weather, or parking. Sounds good to me! The trains are honestly pretty nice compared to other cities' trains.
4. Trains are virtually always on time! No, they don't come every 2 minutes like in bigger cities, but if you know the schedule, you can plan your day by it.
Now for some complaints.
1. Ticket machines. They are the most counter-intuitive machines I've ever used. If you are on the red line, the default ticket it sets you up to buy is a senior/disabled discount ticket. You have to move the cursor over (which is confusing to figure out how to do) just to get a non disabled ticket. Those red line machines also only let you buy single rides or all day passes. Want to use the red line and then transfer to green or blue? You have to buy the all day pass if you walk up the the red line station without an RTA pass already. That's $5 to get to your destination. I think they should allow rapid transit rides to transfer on single ride tickets, even if the transfer time is reduced to, say, 10 minutes.
2. Nobody pays to ride the rapid. Ever. Red line? Free. Health line? Free. I can't tell you how many fare skippers I see. There is no fare enforcement outside of the occasional random check by transit cops. I've seen this happen exactly once. During this one instance though, they took about 10 people off the health line and I could actually sit down. That's 10 people on one bus, once. So that's $22.50 that people were about to get away with. If the RTA could actually enforce fare payments, they would make so much more money, and could probably provide better service. But they do nothing. Not even at the heavily used stations, where they keep telling everyone to go. Ohio City, University Circle, E. 120, for example. Nobody from RTA is ever at the stations. This not only makes some people feel unsafe, but also lets anyone who wants to just skip paying. There aren't even turn styles that would at least make someone have to jump to steal a ride.
3. I've noticed very little standard behavior by the drivers. They don't always change the destination sign, they don't always use the automated stop announcements, sometimes they don't stop at all stations, sometimes they do. It's pretty much anything goes. I guess this is fine for people that ride everyday and know exactly what's going on, but good luck trying to get any new riders with this strategy. For example, I was waiting at the Courtland stop going downtown. The train comes up. What the destination say? Van Aken. This is just driver laziness. Now I know that couldn't be, but if I were someone who doesn't ride that often, I'd be confused. Sometimes, the destination reads multiple locations. If I were from out of town visiting, or new to the area, I would not feel comfortable with the RTA. Leaving tower city, the drivers never announce what trains are what. You wait until the train leaves and then they tell you. Yes, you could go around and look at the other side destination sign (which may or may not be accurate), or ask the driver yourself, but the bottom line is you shouldn't have to! There should be an announcement at the station saying what train is approaching. The technology is there! Or if you really don't want to enter the 21st century, at least have the driver announce it him or herself.
4. Some of the stations are just shady and nasty. Again, I don't know how RTA thinks they are getting new riders like this. I wouldn't blame people for not wanting to get on the rapid at W. 65 for example. If I didn't know better and it was my first time there, I'd feel like I was probably going to die. That being said, some stations are actually quite nice. Shaker Square, E. 55, W. 117, Tower City, Ohio City and the plans for the Little Italy and University Circle stations look solid. But some others are just downright dingy. Would it really cost that much money to just, say, pick up trash? If you guys asked for volunteers, I would probably even do it myself.
Overall though, one of the biggest problems with the RTA is that it is completely underused by Clevelanders. To a point, I understand this because of the complaints I list above. But at the same time, I think that Clevelanders are missing out. It won't let me write anymore, so there ya have it!
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