Streetcar

[OKCbyTRANSFER]

It's also usually sponsored in December to provide free rides, at least on the weekends. Haven't heard anything about this year yet.

[jedicurt]

someone told me that if you park in the convention center parking garage, your parking ticket works as a street car ticket for the day.... can someone confirm this?

[fortpatches]

someone told me that if you park in the convention center parking garage, your parking ticket works as a street car ticket for the day.... can someone confirm this?

OKC Streetcar (embarkok.com)

Simply, park in one of our garages and your parking receipt is your ticket for two to ride the streetcar for FREE all day!
Did you know that EMBARK has four public garages along the loop that are open 24/7. And now, when you park in one of our garages your parking receipt is your ticket to ride the streetcar for FREE all day! Each parking receipt is valid for two people to ride for FREE for 24 hours from the time of parking.

The Garages are:

* The Arts Garage
* The Sheridan Walker Garage
* The Century Center Garage
* The Convention Center Garage

[BoulderSooner]

someone told me that if you park in the convention center parking garage, your parking ticket works as a street car ticket for the day.... can someone confirm this?

correct ... and IIRC it is this way for all CITY owned garages

[LocoAko]

It's also usually sponsored in December to provide free rides, at least on the weekends. Haven't heard anything about this year yet.

I forget where I saw it it, but it is again free on weekends through Christmas.

It is still often empty when I see it go by, but on occasion it'll go by and be quite full with people. Always a nice surprise.

[OKCbyTRANSFER]

I forget where I saw it it, but it is again free on weekends through Christmas.

It is still often empty when I see it go by, but on occasion it'll go by and be quite full with people. Always a nice surprise.

Thanks, Downtown in December has it on their page:
https://downtownindecember.com/streetcar/

[HOT ROD]

a glass half full view could be that the streetcar is currently meeting demand. We have how many trains, 6? So if some are full and others/most are not, then we're meeting demand.

as downtown continues to grow in both population and venues, and people get more used to taking transit while downtown and certainly once the RTA implements commuter rail/bus, We'll start to see more respectable numbers.

One improvement I've noticed is the cars skip stops if there's no request or waiting passengers.

[AnguisHerba]

Streetcar and the NW RAPID bus will be free throughout December. With the cold weather, it's a great way to try out these transit options.

[kukblue1]

So are there numbers out there. How did say October compare to October last year without the convention center open?

[kukblue1]

Also just got tickets to the Thunder game Saturday. I usally park on the street since it's free after 6 when I got to games. This game is 4 pm and I 'll probably go somewhere to eat ahead of time and watch the end of the Mich/OSU football game. Any places that I could park for free and take the streetcar in. Maybe somewhere in Midtown or automobile alley?

[Jersey Boss]

Also just got tickets to the Thunder game Saturday. I usally park on the street since it's free after 6 when I got to games. This game is 4 pm and I 'll probably go somewhere to eat ahead of time and watch the end of the Mich/OSU football game. Any places that I could park for free and take the streetcar in. Maybe somewhere in Midtown or automobile alley?

Isn't street parking free on weekends?

[fortpatches]

Isn't street parking free on weekends?

Yup, from www.embarkok.com:
The meters are currently in effect and enforced from 8 am - 6 pm, Monday through Friday with the exception of some holidays.

[kukblue1]

Oh Thanks everyone I though Saturday was still a day I had to pay.

[AnguisHerba]

Yup, from www.embarkok.com:
The meters are currently in effect and enforced from 8 am - 6 pm, Monday through Friday with the exception of some holidays.

And your mileage my vary, but I don't think the meter maids work after 4:30/5:00, anyway.

[kukblue1]

And your mileage my vary, but I don't think the meter maids work after 4:30/5:00, anyway.

I get to Thunder games about 5:30 and I'll sometimes sit in my car until about 5:45 just to make sure and I have never seen a meter maid. It wasn't that case when I moved here in 2012 and went to a few games. One guy I talked to said he got a ticket at 5:59. Around 2014 2015 I saw one walking around about 5:45 writing tickets. However since than never seen one. I remember when you had to put a sticker on your windshield. As I would walk to games or to bricktown to eat before the games and I would look too see who had stickers. I would say probably 40 to 50 percent of the cars around the park never had stickers. If I go to eat before the game and try to find a spot to park around 5 pm I always have a hard time. I always think to myself how many of these people have really paid. With the newer system you think it would be easier for them just to drive down the street and check license plates to see if it's in the system

[Zuplar]

Road the streetcar for the very first time this weekend, here was my experience.

I was staying at the Omni this weekend, very nice. 17th floor facing South, great view of the park and South OKC. Also as a train enthusiast plenty of train action all day and night.

I believe weekends are free right now, and then December is free a lot, but we parked in the convention garage since we were staying in the Omni and had that ticket as which counted as a 24-hour pass for 2.

We got on at the Scissortail stop, we had pulled up the real time map and wait for it to get to the Paycom stop on Reno before we left the lobby of the Omni, pretty good timing as it was cold this weekend.

At the stop there was an older couple who was completely new to the streetcar. Having done some research I helped her decide to just get on the streetcar after since it was just doing the Bricktown loop. she didn't want to ride it for 45 minutes or so to do the whole downtown loop. Also of note the naming seems to be confusing for people. This lady kept telling me well I want to stay downtown, I could tell in her mind downtown and Bricktown are the same thing.

After getting on we sat down in the middle. Not sure if this was a mistake as it seems this is where the homeless congregate, we were almost immediately asked for money which was very off-putting to me. I hate the thought that a tourist is having that experience in my city.

From the scissortail stop the streetcar operator basically blew by every stop till we got to the transit center, only stopping because it was requested. From there we again zoomed past all stops except one that was close to the light, and I think that's the only reason we sat there for any length of time.

Next someone requested a stop for the second one in automobile alley, simply called automobile alley. It seemed like this was the first stop there were people both getting on and getting off.

Next we zoomed past the next couple of stops but stopped without a request at the Dewey Ave stop, this is the one in my mind that's SSM. At this stop there were a bunch of people got on and we also did a streetcar operator change here. This took every bit of 8 minutes of waiting.

The next couple of stops seemed the most like what I'm used to when I've traveled to a major city, several people got on and off and the next 2 stops Midtown and 10th street respectively.

There was a solo lady that then also got on a law school and immediately off at the memorial. i'm going to go out on a limb based on the speakerphone conversation she was having and say she only road it because it was cold cause that's what she was telling the other person on the line. but i could see had the weather been warmer people getting off at the memorial.

from there we zoomed past all the stops till we got to that first Bricktown/Amtrak stop, various people got on and off at 3 of 5 Bricktown stops (the 2 on Sheridan and 2 on Reno probably could be combined)

we then zoomed past the one at the arena and we requested to get off where we got on at the scissortail, although there were people getting on and off there as well

So from my experience on a cold and drizzly Saturday it seems as though people are really trying to move between Brickown, the Park/Paycom/Omni, Automobile Alley, and then Midtown/SSM area. It seems like most other stops besides the Library (which no one got off of but is unique) and the Memorial are the best stops. The rest kind of seems like unnecessary fluff.

This makes a lot of sense to me after riding it as these are 3-4 different areas are separated from themselves, but yet too close to drive many times.

Last thing I'll say here is other than riding it for something to do, we tried numerous times to take it to go out to eat, and every single time it was easier to walk. Here is my example for what we tried to do for brunch. We wanted to try Tellers. According to google maps it was an 11 minute walk straight down Robinson. If we wanted to take the streetcar it was a 2 minute walk to the Scissortail stop. Then a 5 minute ride to the library stop. Then a 4 minute walk from the Library to Tellers, for a grand total of also 11 minutes. Now that's only if the streetcar is waiting on me, which it isn't. I'd at least factor 5 minutes. Since no matter what we'd have to walk in the cold drizzle, there is zero change I'm relying on the streetcar.

So in my mind the only way I'm using it is if I'm on one side of the system and want to get to the other. Bricktown to Auto Alley? Sure. But trying to go anywhere in between I don't find helpful.

With that in mind I'm not looking to dump on the streetcar. Honestly I rode it because we wanted something to do and a different way to view the city and I do like rail. But it's hard for me not see what all the detractors have said all along. I can promise you that the streetcar is useful to people out there right now that don't use it and won't give it a fair shot, but I'm not sure how you educate them. Maybe if they did a campaign focus on those 3-4 areas I mentioned and how it could be better used between those instead of a once stop shop for all your travel needs. I see myself only ever using the Bricktown loop in the future. Typically when we go to Auto Alley we are already in that area parked, so not sure it would net me much unless I was needing to get to Bricktown.

[Urbanized]

^^^^^^^
I've been saying this for a while, but in my opinion the "fix" - although "fine tuning" might be a more apt description - is to add a TINY bit of new track in two areas, both on Robinson:

1. One block of track between 11th and 10th, creating a natural cutoff point to skip the bulk of the downtown loop
   and
2. One block (well, really two because it is a superbock) between Sheridan and Reno

By doing this you've created three complete, self-contained loops:

1. A Bricktown/Arena/CC/Scissortail loop
2. Midtown/Automobile Alley circulator
3. North-south loop that largely runs on Broadway and Robinson, from Omni/CC/Scissortail north to Automobile Alley/Midtown

By doing this you could then set up one or two pieces of equipment to run each loop, and then if you so choose you could also set up a one or two to run the entire loop. I think you would see immediate uptick in ridership if folks knew they could make it to and from each zone quickly, and if they needed to transfer to one of the other loops they would be guaranteed to see a train more reliably.

Here's a crude graphic of what I'm suggesting, with proposed new track in red:

[LakeEffect]

^^^^^^^
i've been saying this for a while, but in my opinion the "fix" - although "fine tuning" might be a more apt description - is to add a tiny bit of new track in two areas, both on robinson:

1. one block of track between 11th and 10th, creating a natural cutoff point to skip the bulk of the downtown loop
   and
2. one block (well, really two because it is a superbock) between sheridan and reno

by doing this you've created three complete, self-contained loops:

1. a bricktown/arena/cc/scissortail loop
2. midtown circulator
3. north-south loop that largely runs on broadway and robinson, from omni/cc/scissortail north to automobile alley/midtown

by doing this you could then set up one or two pieces of equipment to run each loop, and then if you so choose you could also set up a one or two to run the entire loop. I think you would see immediate uptick in ridership if folks knew they could make it to and from each zone quickly, and if they needed to transfer to one of the other loops they would be guaranteed to see a train more reliably.

Here's a crude graphic of what i'm suggesting, with proposed new track in red:

yassss

[Zuplar]

^^^^^^^
I've been saying this for a while, but in my opinion the "fix" - although "fine tuning" might be a more apt description - is to add a TINY bit of new track in two areas, both on Robinson:

1. One block of track between 11th and 10th, creating a natural cutoff point to skip the bulk of the downtown loop
   and
2. One block (well, really two because it is a superbock) between Sheridan and Reno

By doing this you've created three complete, self-contained loops:

1. A Bricktown/Arena/CC/Scissortail loop
2. Midtown circulator
3. North-south loop that largely runs on Broadway and Robinson, from Omni/CC/Scissortail north to Automobile Alley/Midtown

By doing this you could then set up one or two pieces of equipment to run each loop, and then if you so choose you could also set up a one or two to run the entire loop. I think you would see immediate uptick in ridership if folks knew they could make it to and from each zone quickly, and if they needed to transfer to one of the other loops they would be guaranteed to see a train more reliably.

Here's a crude graphic of what I'm suggesting, with proposed new track in red:

I hadn’t thought about it like that, but I think you are absolutely on to something. It sounds like the zones/regions is real, and others have got to be looking at it similar. I think you’re right if people knew about these “express loop” they’d get used a lot more like I imagine the Bricktown loop does.

I sure hope someone that has say sees your map cause after riding it this weekend I think it just needs tweaking like you said. It could be better.

[BoulderSooner]

^^^^^^^
I've been saying this for a while, but in my opinion the "fix" - although "fine tuning" might be a more apt description - is to add a TINY bit of new track in two areas, both on Robinson:

1. One block of track between 11th and 10th, creating a natural cutoff point to skip the bulk of the downtown loop
   and
2. One block (well, really two because it is a superbock) between Sheridan and Reno

By doing this you've created three complete, self-contained loops:

1. A Bricktown/Arena/CC/Scissortail loop
2. Midtown circulator
3. North-south loop that largely runs on Broadway and Robinson, from Omni/CC/Scissortail north to Automobile Alley/Midtown

By doing this you could then set up one or two pieces of equipment to run each loop, and then if you so choose you could also set up a one or two to run the entire loop. I think you would see immediate uptick in ridership if folks knew they could make it to and from each zone quickly, and if they needed to transfer to one of the other loops they would be guaranteed to see a train more reliably.

Here's a crude graphic of what I'm suggesting, with proposed new track in red:

also making it Free .. fully paid for by sponsors (even though embark won't allow this)

[Mississippi Blues]

With the way streetcars and interurbans existed in central Oklahoma during the first half of the 20th century, the districts in inner Oklahoma City are set up ideally for a fleshed out streetcar system favoring circulators with longer lines connecting the districts.

Ironically, the blueprints for having an ideal network were drawn out before statehood and the remnants of it are still obvious today with how the oldest parts of the city are laid out. The hard part is just getting everyone else to buy into it.

[Zuplar]

also making it Free .. fully paid for by sponsors (even though embark won't allow this)

Totally agree. I've talked with many people since I've rode and their most common comment was they'd like to try it when it's free because they don't know what to expect. I've told them all that lucky enough, now is the perfect time since they are going fare free for most of December.

[HOT ROD]

^^^^^^^
I've been saying this for a while, but in my opinion the "fix" - although "fine tuning" might be a more apt description - is to add a TINY bit of new track in two areas, both on Robinson:

1. One block of track between 11th and 10th, creating a natural cutoff point to skip the bulk of the downtown loop
   and
2. One block (well, really two because it is a superbock) between Sheridan and Reno

By doing this you've created three complete, self-contained loops:

1. A Bricktown/Arena/CC/Scissortail loop
2. Midtown/Automobile Alley circulator
3. North-south loop that largely runs on Broadway and Robinson, from Omni/CC/Scissortail north to Automobile Alley/Midtown

By doing this you could then set up one or two pieces of equipment to run each loop, and then if you so choose you could also set up a one or two to run the entire loop. I think you would see immediate uptick in ridership if folks knew they could make it to and from each zone quickly, and if they needed to transfer to one of the other loops they would be guaranteed to see a train more reliably.

Here's a crude graphic of what I'm suggesting, with proposed new track in red:

until we fix the system with dual track spines on Sheridan and Robinson/Broadway, this is a wonderful fix. Care to share it with the RTA and the city transportation office? I'm not sure it would even cost much to add the track (and given the money the fairgrounds got, there should be leftover money from MAPS III or IV to cover it).

[Rover]

^^^^^^^
I've been saying this for a while, but in my opinion the "fix" - although "fine tuning" might be a more apt description - is to add a TINY bit of new track in two areas, both on Robinson:

1. One block of track between 11th and 10th, creating a natural cutoff point to skip the bulk of the downtown loop
   and
2. One block (well, really two because it is a superbock) between Sheridan and Reno

By doing this you've created three complete, self-contained loops:

1. A Bricktown/Arena/CC/Scissortail loop
2. Midtown/Automobile Alley circulator
3. North-south loop that largely runs on Broadway and Robinson, from Omni/CC/Scissortail north to Automobile Alley/Midtown

By doing this you could then set up one or two pieces of equipment to run each loop, and then if you so choose you could also set up a one or two to run the entire loop. I think you would see immediate uptick in ridership if folks knew they could make it to and from each zone quickly, and if they needed to transfer to one of the other loops they would be guaranteed to see a train more reliably.

Here's a crude graphic of what I'm suggesting, with proposed new track in red:

Well done.

[Urbanized]

Thanks…just realizing that in that post I mentioned “skip the bulk of the downtown loop” when what I really meant was “skip the MIDTOWN loop.” I mean, in many ways it’s the same thing, but I wanted to clarify. I’ll post something soon that illustrates each loop individually, but my point is that I think for (relatively) little additional expense (relative to the original project cost) the City could tweak what we already have and make it far more intuitive and functional.

Also, to be clear I *have* shared this idea with some folks who have influence, and it has been received well when I’ve done so. At the end of the day it would still cost a lot of money (I’m guessing $5M-$10M) and there’s no immediately obvious source of funding, so for the time being it’s just an idea.

That said, if the arena proposition passes it COULD be the perfect time to take on a fine-tuning like this in conjunction with whatever happens to that stretch between Sheridan and Robinson.

For the record I’m a streetcar annual pass holder, one who lives downtown and works downtown. I’ve given lots of thought to this for the past five years, often while on the street car itself. I do believe it would be a game-changer that could lead to more daily riders right away.