Interview Themes: We Have the Bus

Throughout our first round of interviews we discovered that regardless of the community we were in, many of the same concerns arose, in this set of posts we aim to shed light on the perceptions of the streetcar initiative in Cincinnati.

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Why Not Just Use the Bus?

Of all of the points that the naysayers bring up, the bus issue is the most contentious. Not only is it a valid issue, but it’s been addressed many times, from multiple angles. The information is there; however, the problem is that the information lives in areas of low accessibility.

Everyone agreed that the Metro system that we currently have in place is severely broken. Bus routing, time tables, and general experience are a nightmare. The issue that was most often brought up was reallocating funds to revitalizing the bus system instead of building a new streetcar. People are afraid that with the advent of a streetcar, funding will be displaced from our ailing system to our newer one – this is simply not true. Yet again, there is an opportunity to shed light on the budgetary plans and issues around our public transit system. People are beginning to believe that we have to have either one or the other; that a streetcar and a bus line cannot co-exist.

Overall, we’ve had a great experience of getting hands-on with our fellow Cincinnatians and hearing from their mouth about the Streetcar Initiative. It’s helped us reorient our efforts and focus in on strategic areas for change.