Cleveland RTA best transit system in North America. Uh . . . yeah.

[HughBeaumont]

Cleveland RTA best transit system in North America.

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/119122843862110.xml&coll=2

Cleveland RTA is the best large transit system in North America, according to the American Public Transportation Association.

The group's president plans to announce the award in Cleveland today.

Members of the Washington, D.C.-based association based their decision on data from 2004 to 2006, including everything from ridership increases to safety statistics, customer satisfaction and financial management.

"It's really great to see the strides that have been made," transportation association President William Millar said. Millar, who grew up in Euclid, has kept track of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority over the years.

(snip)
__________

There must be a lotta lotta lotta drugs going around in that selection committee, because Cleveland's RTA is a restaurant-quality piece of shit.

How do you award "The Best" to a train system that only drops you off in one place downtown (unlike DC's Metro or Chicago's, which stops at more than several)? That's nice if you work at Chase or even Key Tower or the BP building. Anything after that, you're going to be mudding and slushing to your job, scarce as they are in Cleveland. The (c)Rapid isn't exactly far reaching either. Most Western suburbanites still have to drive 15-25 minutes to the nearest train stop and the train system primarily benefits East siders in the North. You live in the Southern parts of C-County . .. pffft.

The stations themselves (at least on the West Side) aren't safe or monitored and have experienced a rash of smash-n-grabs (one of which I was a victim of in 2005) and assaults.

The other stop near downtown (E 34th) really has nothing near it within walking distance. You still have to hoof it for 2-5 miles to find any life, because good luck finding a bus to take you there.

Let's not mention their busses that mysteriously vanish when it rains or snows, or when it's late at night and you're walking through darkness desperately searching for a bus that never arrives on an unsafe and dead street dotted with aggressive panhandlers, drunks and crackheads.

[InkAddict]

1. Must be just another case of God moving in mysterious ways. n/t

[Deep13]

2. Um, is this the RTA I stopped using...

...because it was easier to drive from the next town and pay to park than to drive to the train station for a half-hour ride to some place not anywhere near my office?

Edit: Opps, it's "town" not "down."

[HughBeaumont]

3. The same.

Small wonder why parking lots and garages are among Cleveland's most abundant businesses: because the RTA (Refuse to Transport your Ass) is so inefficient that the alternative of driving is better. And like the Browns, all the money thrown at it in the world isn't going to improve it.

[asthmaticeog]

4. WHAT?

HUH?

WHA?

HOW?

BUH?

DUH?

EH?

REALLY?

NO, REALLY?

What the fucking fuck?

To whom did Frank Jackson give many, many, many blowjobs for this entirely impossible honor?

[HughBeaumont]

7. Search me.

Maybe the committee based their findings on only positive rider comments and didn't bother to take a ride themselves.

Oh, and those damned trolleys ARE effective . . . if they show up; which conveniently, never seems to be during incliment weather. When it's sunny, you'll see two of them every 7 minutes.

Then there's the Red Line. Can someone tell me why, during rush hour, it's necessary to have 3 1/4-filled trains going TO the Airport for every one train that has the rider capacity pushed beyond Tokyo subway standards going into downtown??

[KamaAina]

5. The Curse of APTA

TheBus on O'ahu has won this prestigious* award not once but twice, in 1994 and 2000. While I'm hanging around my bus stop in the morning, waiting up to 20 minutes for a bus that isn't already jampacked like a human sardine can, I wonder, "How did that happen? Did all the systems on the mainland go out of business or something?" :eyes:

My condolences, Clevelanders.

[TZ]

6. that's weird

I spent a lot of time in Cleveland as a child (near the Euclid area btw), visiting relatives and I rode the RTA several times. It was okay to get around some of the Burbs but yeah, it never seemed terribly impressive to me.
FYI when I was a child I would ask my mom if we were going to take the "rabbit" transit...:rofl: