The city is sponsoring a new bus route that will take visitors to 3 of Tulsa's museums. Philbrook, Tulsa Historical Society, and Gilcrease.
There will also be a stop at the Boston Avenue Church where people can park and go to the museums. Which got me thinking... wouldn't it be nice to create a downtown tour or a downtown church tour along with the "second saturdays", this way you could promote both types of things at the same time and get some nice synergies from that. Most of those churches are not open at the same time on "non sunday" hours and it would be nice to have a day when you could go in them and see them, plus have dedicated volunteers at a few listed times to take people around downtown, the volunteer could have access codes to say the Philtower lobby and other buildings so that they could get the tour group inside those buildings.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/entertainment/article.aspx?articleID=070309_1_A7_hThem74573&breadcrumb=arts
(http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/8011/img0100efwebmw2.jpg)Holy Family Cathedral,downtown Tulsa.
I read about this new bus route, and I predict like most all specialized routes in the past, it will be a big flop.
As a former daily bus rider for 15 years, when I used to work downtown, I think Tulsa's bus system needs MAJOR changes. The current "hub and spoke" type system for Tulsa's bus routes should be abolished. Busses should run on the grid pattern of major Tulsa streets: Pine, Admiral, 11th, 21st, Peoria, Lewis, Harvard, Yale, etc. Busses should run every 15 minutes max, seven days a week. This would minimize waits and transfers, and get the average citizen where he wants to go the fastest. The current "gerrymandering" type routes have always been, and will always be failures.
The average citizen does not ride the bus to visit a museum. They ride the bus to go to work, the doctor, the grocery store, the necessities of life. Our bus routes should be configured with this in mind, and an arterial street bus system should be implemented to better serve the population that needs public transportation for daily life. This "museum" route is a waste of taxpayer money and will be gone in 6 months (or less.)
Whatever happened to those rubber wheeled trolley routes that were supposed to happen?
Tulsa Transit Trolley Project
February 23, 2006
Tulsa Transit invites the local news media to a briefing about the Tulsa Trolley project on Friday, February 24, 2006 at 10:30 a.m. at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 100 E. 2nd Street, in the Tulsa South Ballroom, lower level.
In 1906 the Tulsa Street Railway Company and the Oklahoma Union Traction Company began operating a trolley service serving downtown Tulsa. By 1935, Tulsa had three trolley lines serving the north, downtown and midtown Tulsa areas. Now, nearly 100 years later, Tulsa Transit would like to implement its own variation of Tulsa's historic trolley service.
Tulsa Transit is working to develop a special trolley route serving downtown Tulsa, 18th & Boston, Cherry Street, Utica Square and Brookside, Monday through Saturday. "We would like to connect these popular destinations using an old-fashioned trolley, providing Tulsa residents and visitors a unique transportation experience," said Tulsa Transit General Manager Bill Cartwright.
The trolley service would provide downtown workers an easy way to get to lunch in one of the many restaurants along the route. It would provide hotel guests an opportunity to get around for shopping, dining or to enjoy Tulsa's night clubs or theater shows. The service would also provide a much-needed connection between the downtown hotels and the convention center for convention visitors. And when Tulsa's new arena opens, good transportation downtown will be a key element in its success.
"Not only are these high-density areas, but there is very limited parking along most of the proposed route, which increases the need and would encourage usage of this service," said Cartwright.
Rubber-tire trolley services have proven successful in many communities across the country, including in Lafayette, Indiana where they report 35 passengers per hour on their trolley service and credit it with providing an economic impact of $3.7 million annually. In Tampa, Florida, the trolley service provided 400,000 passenger trips in its first year. In Miami, Florida and Monterey, California, trolley ridership exceeded expectations by over 50%.
At the briefing, Tulsa Transit will have a modern rubber-tire Trolley on display for viewing in front of the Crowne Plaza. These vehicles recreate the look and feel of an old-time trolley car, both inside and out.
Tulsa Transit is seeking support from the business community to implement the Tulsa Trolley. Cartwright said it will require a public-private partnership to get this service rolling. "Tulsa Transit has over $1.2 million in capital funding to purchase 4 trolleys for the service, but not the operating costs to get them moving," he said.
Business leaders who are able to help fund the service will see benefits in addition to increased foot-traffic at their locations. Tulsa Transit is considering a variety of ways to help promote sponsors of the service including placing logos on the Trolley vehicles, sponsorship identification inside the vehicles, in media advertising, in the brochures, pocket schedules, and more.
Please join us as we introduce you to a new, exciting and creative transportation alternative for Tulsa.
quote:
Originally posted by Steve
I read about this new bus route, and I predict like most all specialized routes in the past, it will be a big flop.
As a former daily bus rider for 15 years, when I used to work downtown, I think Tulsa's bus system needs MAJOR changes. The current "hub and spoke" type system for Tulsa's bus routes should be abolished. Busses should run on the grid pattern of major Tulsa streets: Pine, Admiral, 11th, 21st, Peoria, Lewis, Harvard, Yale, etc. Busses should run every 15 minutes max, seven days a week. This would minimize waits and transfers, and get the average citizen where he wants to go the fastest. The current "gerrymandering" type routes have always been, and will always be failures.
The average citizen does not ride the bus to visit a museum. They ride the bus to go to work, the doctor, the grocery store, the necessities of life. Our bus routes should be configured with this in mind, and an arterial street bus system should be implemented to better serve the population that needs public transportation for daily life. This "museum" route is a waste of taxpayer money and will be gone in 6 months (or less.)
I hear what you are saying about the normal bus routes and the average citizen thing. But I don't think this is necessarily to be considered anything like that. This should be more of an entertainment, fun thing for the non average user and visitors. At least thats how it should be promoted, doing so certainly won't harm the average user who happens to be on the route and would get other people used to using public transportation. And yes it would have been nicer if this was done with the Trolleys instead. Actually this is how the trolley idea should have been initially set out. Not every day amoung popular destination areas, but, at first, just one saturday a month, then perhaps every saturday. I could have told you there wasnt going to be enough interest for an every day service like that.
Try to start out promoting one day like this Second Saturday thing and get people interested and familiar with that, then grow it from there. Have other events like a farmers market coordinated on that day on the route, the downtown tour thing, art gallery showings, sidewalk sales etc. etc. Make it something fun with lots of different things to do and really promote it. Make "Second Saturdays" a real event everyone knows about and talks about. Other cities do things like that,one city has a First Friday thing thats incredibly successful. We either do it halfway (just the museums and using the bus) or completely bass ackwards (every day using the trolleys). Is it reeeeeeally so hard for Tulsa to figure out how to make this work? lol
Whatever. This is just another hairbrain idea from another committee that can't see the forest through the trees.
We need density, critical mass, yada yada yada, blah, blah, blah. Only that will make mass transit truly viable.
This cute idea will not last long. I can not imagine the average or non-average bear taking their car to Boston Av. to hop a bus to a museum not far from the original parking area. And then running through the museum on a schedule in hopes of not missing the connection to the next mus.
quote:
Originally posted by TheArtist
quote:
Originally posted by Steve
I read about this new bus route, and I predict like most all specialized routes in the past, it will be a big flop.
As a former daily bus rider for 15 years, when I used to work downtown, I think Tulsa's bus system needs MAJOR changes. The current "hub and spoke" type system for Tulsa's bus routes should be abolished. Busses should run on the grid pattern of major Tulsa streets: Pine, Admiral, 11th, 21st, Peoria, Lewis, Harvard, Yale, etc. Busses should run every 15 minutes max, seven days a week. This would minimize waits and transfers, and get the average citizen where he wants to go the fastest. The current "gerrymandering" type routes have always been, and will always be failures.
The average citizen does not ride the bus to visit a museum. They ride the bus to go to work, the doctor, the grocery store, the necessities of life. Our bus routes should be configured with this in mind, and an arterial street bus system should be implemented to better serve the population that needs public transportation for daily life. This "museum" route is a waste of taxpayer money and will be gone in 6 months (or less.)
I hear what you are saying about the normal bus routes and the average citizen thing. But I don't think this is necessarily to be considered anything like that. This should be more of an entertainment, fun thing for the non average user and visitors. At least thats how it should be promoted, doing so certainly won't harm the average user who happens to be on the route and would get other people used to using public transportation.
Sorry, I did not mean to imply that this new museum route or your ideas are without merit. I just think that Tulsa's current bus system is woefully inadequate and I can't believe MTTA spends time and money on frills such as this new museum route when the basics should be tended to first. Add busses/more frequent runs, improve routes to minimize waits and transfers, extend daily operating hours and add Sunday service. These are things that people who depend on MTTA can appreciate and really use, and I think they would go far to increase ridership. Give us the best basic system possible, then consider the frills as funding allows.
I think it would be cool if they allowed musicians to apply to perform in the buses along this route.
Trolleys prepare to shuffl e Tulsa restaurant crawlers
CORY YOUNG / Tulsa World
Caz's Chowhouse is one of several restaurants participating in the Restaurant and Pub Crawl Thursday.
By SARA PLUMMER World Staff Writer
3/14/2007
The Restaurant and Pub Crawl, formally the CherryBrook Restaurant and Pub Crawl, is expanding to the Brady District in its third year
Caz's Chowhouse, 18 E. Brady St., and Caz's Pub, 21 E. Brady St., have been added to the lineup.
"It started out being a Brookside and Cherry Street event, but there are so many neat areas," said Pat Kroblin, the event's organizer.
The Restaurant and Pub Crawl is Thursday. Tickets can be purchased at any of the participating businesses. People can park at the venues, and trolleys will be running throughout the evening to take patrons to the nine establishments.
At each location, ticket holders will be given a food sample, a drink or an activity, Kroblin said. Some offerings include tortilla soup at Full Moon Café, bread pudding at Caz's Chowhouse and pool time at Sharky's.
More than 200 people attended last year's crawl, Kroblin said, and she is hoping for the same this year.
"Events like this get people to try things they haven't before and say, 'I never knew this was here,'" she said.
Jeff Castleberry, owner of Caz's Chowhouse and Caz's Pub, said that is what he wants to happen.
"We want to help people enjoy their evening and experience something they haven't before," he said. "We want them to come back and see us."
Castleberry
said this isn't the first time his businesses have participated in a pub and restaurant crawl.
"It's a whole lot of fun. They get on the trolley and enjoy some venues they never have before," he said.
He doesn't mind the company.
"I love the fact that we are joining together with Brookside and Cherry Street," Castleberry said.
The crawl is good for patrons and businesses.
"Anything that allows new people to experience our business is beneficial," Castleberry said.
Kroblin said she tries to attract different venues every year and return to some customer favorites, such as Full Moon Café, Sharky's and Jazmoz Bourbon Street Café.
"We did try to get new places, offer something a little new or different," she said.
She hopes the crawl continues to do well.
"Slowly and surely, I'd like to expand it, keep the event fresh," she said.