Missed Opportunities on RTA's Healthline
November 11, 2008
Streetsblog is hyping Steven Litt's piece in the Plain Dealer as a mark of success for Bus Rapid Transit. Having spent years watching Cleveland's transit project come to life, just as long thinking about the impact the RTA Healthline will have on the city, and having heard the initial reactions to the Healthline, I have a few thoughts of my own to add.
Photo via The Plain Dealer
The RTA Healthline is undoubtedly an improvement over the overcrowded and chronically unreliable #6 bus that used to provide service up and down Euclid Avenue. The corridor project is also a major improvement over the pothole infested and crumbling street that connects Downtown to University Circle. Additionally, the bike lanes down Euclid Avenue are a major step forward for bicycle commuting in Cleveland. With frequent and 24/7 service, the Healthline makes moving between Public Square, Cleveland State University, the Cleveland Clinic and University Circle simple and convenient.
At a$400 $200 million price tag, some have criticized the project for being overly expensive and a waste of taxpayer money. Some have blamed the project for cuts elsewhere in Cleveland's RTA system. Much of the confusion comes from a misunderstanding of who financed the project, with most of the funding coming from the state of Ohio and the Federal Transit Administration. Even so, $200 million is peanuts compared to other transit projects around the world. Outside Washington DC, the city of Alexandria, Virginia wants to build 2 new MetroRail stations on an existing heavy rail line, but at $100 million a piece, the cost would come out to nearly the entire cost of the Euclid Corridor project.
The biggest disappointment of the RTA Healthline is the missed opportunities. The alignment of the BRT system serves its purpose between Downtown and University Circle, but does little good in East Cleveland.
Map via Metro Jacksonville
Few Clevelanders would deny that East Cleveland is the most rundown, politically corrupt, and unsalvagable parts of the area. East Cleveland is one of the most crime-ridden, poverty-stricken, and underdeveloped cities in Cuyahoga County. Even though the Healthline provides numerous opportunities for development along Euclid Avenue, it is hard to imagine a private developer wanting to develop any part of East Cleveland into walkable, upscale neighborhoods. Few hospital workers or university employees who could afford luxury condos along the Healthline would ever choose to live in East Cleveland in its current state.
Additionally, East Cleveland is already served by RTA's heavy rail (Red Line). As the map above shows, the Red Line runs parallel to Euclid Avenue between East 120th Street and Doan Avenue, which also serves as the terminus of the Healthline. If private developers were interested in engaging in transit-oriented development in East Cleveland, the two existing Red Line stations would have been appropriate places to begin. Given the heavy transit presence in East Cleveland, an outsider might come to think of it as a popular or up-and-coming neighborhood; little could be further from the truth.
There are a number of east-side neighborhoods that would have been well served by the BRT project and would have been ripe for transit-oriented development. A intelligently-aligned transit line could have provided additional access to neighborhoods in Cleveland Heights and University Heights; areas like Little Italy, Coventry Road, Severance Town Center, and possibly even Cedar Center and John Carroll University. There are plenty of parts of Cleveland Heights and University Heights that are undergoing slow urban decay, but would be excellent locations for new urban development. These are neighborhoods where students, hospital workers, univesity employees, and downtown office workers are already living; developing their neighborhoods would make them more desirable to those currently residing in car-oriented exurbs.
While some will debate the benefits of BRT vs. light rail vs. heavy rail, the real question to be asked when it comes to transit development is whether the project serves neighborhoods that are desirable and developable, and then actually following through on the development. One of the reasons RTA's Red Line is mostly useless to those in Cleveland is because it was built, in order to cut costs, along an existing freight rail right-of-way; but the real damage was done when most of the stations were underdeveloped or left undeveloped completely. Over the decades, neighborhoods along the Red Line slipped into decay until development no longer made any sense.
Ultimately, the RTA Healthline should be praised for what it accomplishes, but Clevelanders are justified in being disappointed by what it doesn't. Cities considering BRT should use Cleveland's system as a model, but should recognize that the Healthline is nothing close to the greatness that it could be, and such is truly a shame.
Photo via The Plain DealerThe RTA Healthline is undoubtedly an improvement over the overcrowded and chronically unreliable #6 bus that used to provide service up and down Euclid Avenue. The corridor project is also a major improvement over the pothole infested and crumbling street that connects Downtown to University Circle. Additionally, the bike lanes down Euclid Avenue are a major step forward for bicycle commuting in Cleveland. With frequent and 24/7 service, the Healthline makes moving between Public Square, Cleveland State University, the Cleveland Clinic and University Circle simple and convenient.
At a
The biggest disappointment of the RTA Healthline is the missed opportunities. The alignment of the BRT system serves its purpose between Downtown and University Circle, but does little good in East Cleveland.
Map via Metro JacksonvilleFew Clevelanders would deny that East Cleveland is the most rundown, politically corrupt, and unsalvagable parts of the area. East Cleveland is one of the most crime-ridden, poverty-stricken, and underdeveloped cities in Cuyahoga County. Even though the Healthline provides numerous opportunities for development along Euclid Avenue, it is hard to imagine a private developer wanting to develop any part of East Cleveland into walkable, upscale neighborhoods. Few hospital workers or university employees who could afford luxury condos along the Healthline would ever choose to live in East Cleveland in its current state.
Additionally, East Cleveland is already served by RTA's heavy rail (Red Line). As the map above shows, the Red Line runs parallel to Euclid Avenue between East 120th Street and Doan Avenue, which also serves as the terminus of the Healthline. If private developers were interested in engaging in transit-oriented development in East Cleveland, the two existing Red Line stations would have been appropriate places to begin. Given the heavy transit presence in East Cleveland, an outsider might come to think of it as a popular or up-and-coming neighborhood; little could be further from the truth.
There are a number of east-side neighborhoods that would have been well served by the BRT project and would have been ripe for transit-oriented development. A intelligently-aligned transit line could have provided additional access to neighborhoods in Cleveland Heights and University Heights; areas like Little Italy, Coventry Road, Severance Town Center, and possibly even Cedar Center and John Carroll University. There are plenty of parts of Cleveland Heights and University Heights that are undergoing slow urban decay, but would be excellent locations for new urban development. These are neighborhoods where students, hospital workers, univesity employees, and downtown office workers are already living; developing their neighborhoods would make them more desirable to those currently residing in car-oriented exurbs.
While some will debate the benefits of BRT vs. light rail vs. heavy rail, the real question to be asked when it comes to transit development is whether the project serves neighborhoods that are desirable and developable, and then actually following through on the development. One of the reasons RTA's Red Line is mostly useless to those in Cleveland is because it was built, in order to cut costs, along an existing freight rail right-of-way; but the real damage was done when most of the stations were underdeveloped or left undeveloped completely. Over the decades, neighborhoods along the Red Line slipped into decay until development no longer made any sense.
Ultimately, the RTA Healthline should be praised for what it accomplishes, but Clevelanders are justified in being disappointed by what it doesn't. Cities considering BRT should use Cleveland's system as a model, but should recognize that the Healthline is nothing close to the greatness that it could be, and such is truly a shame.
It has been brought to my attention that the official cost of the project, as reported by the media, is $200 million, not $400 million as I originally noted. If anyone has more detailed information about the final cost of the project, please let me know!
RTA actually does have a transit-oriented development plan in place (well, sort of - I suspect it's more like wishful thinking at this point) for the E.120 station, which would better serve University Circle, Little Italy, and Coventry.
Personally, I think E.120 is sort of the unsung hero of the Red Line. It's a lot closer to much of University Circle than the UC station, the Food Co-op is right there, Mi Pueblo, the Euclid Tavern, Little Italy.... Its main, and glaring, disadvantage is of course the egregious lack of security.
Also, though I do agree with you about the pitiful lack of TOD around some of the Red Line stations (E.34 springs readily to mind), it's too darn crowded to be written off as mostly useless. Particularly since (on the west side at least) it's used as a downtown connection for a number of buses.
Christine, thanks for your insights. The new "Little Italy" station (or whatever the official name will be) certainly has potential to be one of the first Red Line stations truly designed for transit-oriented development. The key, as I believe I noted, is that once the station gets built, someone needs to actually follow-through on the development. Also, I'm curious how the new station will provide any service to Coventry (other than through an additional bus transfer)?
Although you are correct that the current East 120th station is closer to a lot of north-side UC attractions, the location is just too far off beaten path, in what I would consider a bit of an "urban wasteland" and it doesn't surprise me that it is the least used station in the system (at least it was when RTA wanted to close it down years ago).
As for the official "University Circle" station - I agree, it does an inadequate job of actually serving UC. The station would have been much more useful had it been located one block to the east, where the Rapid tracks travel beneath the Adelbert Rd. bridge. This would provide much easier access to most of the southern part of the CWRU campus and University Hospitals. Of course, one of the major problems is that moving the station to Adelbert Rd. would create a huge gap between the new station and the bus hub on Cedar Rd.
For the most part, I would say that the west-side Red Line stations probably provide slightly more value to residents that the east side stations do; nevertheless, as you note, mostly because they are connections to bus lines; and as I will add, are accompanied by large parking lots. TOD needs to ensure that dense populations are living within walking-distance of the stations. The reality is that the usefulness of transit breaks down when multiple transfers are involved or you have to drive to get to a station. At that point, you might as well drive all the way to your destination.
The current E. 120th station is a joke as far as public transportation goes. It is in a really ugly stretch of road and I know many students at Case that got off the train for the first time there and wondered whether they made the right choice of schools. Moving the station to Little Italy is a GREAT!!! move. Little Italy has a large student population that would be more inclined to use a new station and it will be closer to Murray Hill housing as well. It should provide a much much nicer first impression of the University Circle area to visitors arriving for the first time. I can not wait until it is built. Also, does anyone know what the timeline is for that project and if it still going on as planned with all of the economy going to hell stuff.