Charlotte's Light Rail: Lynx Blue Line

[Guest]

1 minute ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

My impression of riding it. Charlotte looks very, very gritty. I’m not hating it though. South Blvd just looks like typical South Blvd or Independence. The extension looks like a gritty city until it gets into UC 

Yea. I'm a little concerned about this. Opening a new rail line, with no UDO in place. This is going to be the wild wild west for development. 

[videtur quam contuor]

I have ridden passenger trains to Florida, New Orleans and New York and Washington, also Indianapolis to Chicago and one constant was that the rail view was the ass end of every place. Occasional surprises such as circus trapeze practice in backwoods Florida but more likely loading docks, sawmills, assorted debris, abandoned every-any/thing. Yes, this is light rail, but the corridor...

[dubone]

 

10 minutes ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

My impression of riding it. Charlotte looks very, very gritty. I’m not hating it though. South Blvd just looks like typical South Blvd or Independence. The extension looks like a gritty city until it gets into UC 

That is how the south line looked when it opened.    And yet you can already see so much happening on the construction front that is already in process.  And we got to geek out with everyone around us about all the projects and plans that we all were pointing out.   North Tryon is very much like what South Blvd was then.  McCrory called South Blvd  a corridor of trash or something like that.  

 

It was exciting to be there with the mayor as the ribbon was cut, and exciting to ride it up and back in no time. 

 

[kermit]

^ "Corridor of Crap" Pat McCrory circa 2006

Honestly I thought the extension looked better than I expected it to. Lots of redevelopment is visible between 9th and Sugar Creek -- I thought it looked great for what it is, an industrial corridor alongside a working rail yard. The ugliest thing I saw in this stretch was the backside of Yards at Noda, heinous. The mural on the Crescent parking deck looked very good (that parking deck would have been gawdawful without it). As dubone said above, this stretch looked better to me than the South corridor did in 2007.

The N Tryon stretch was also a surprise, this is what I thought would look the worst, but from the angle of the train I could certainly see potential for change and much less blight than I had anticipated. The more active portion from the Waffle House towards campus looked healthier than I expected (although the plasma joint in the former gym is pretty bad). Much to my surprise, I see more redevelopment potential for N Tryon than I see for lower South blvd.

My biggest surprise was how fantastic campus looks from the rail, its the new side of campus, all brick construction and a  surprising amount of density -- UNCC looks really substantial from this angle.

 

Edited March 16, 2018 by kermit

[15895]

1 hour ago, dubone said:

 

That is how the south line looked when it opened.    And yet you can already see so much happening on the construction front that is already in process.  And we got to geek out with everyone around us about all the projects and plans that we all were pointing out.   North Tryon is very much like what South Blvd was then.  McCrory called South Blvd  a corridor of trash or something like that.  

 

It was exciting to be there with the mayor as the ribbon was cut, and exciting to ride it up and back in no time. 

 

True. But the extension feels more “established” or entrenched as a community. Not a hollowed out area. There’s actual houses and neighborhoods you pass through, etc. I don’t know that I would really want it to change. Or that it would be fair for it to change. NoDa and University have plenty of potential for development. It would be a shame for these communities to get too gentrified IMO. 

 

also, UNCC is so much better connected to light rail. It’s nice to chill at the student Union and not think you’re far away or wanting to leave because the drive sucks. I don’t know why for me it’s a big difference driving somewhere and feeling like I’m far away and just want to be back to my area vs. feeling like. I live in Ballantyne so UNCC just felt so isolated. I’m 5 minutes from the 485 station. 

 

Edit: on my way back. It’s obvious what the most popular station for UNCC students will be... 36th street. That’s all I hear from students.

Edited March 16, 2018 by AirNostrumMAD

[deleted]

47 minutes ago, tarhoosier said:

I have ridden passenger trains to Florida, New Orleans and New York and Washington, also Indianapolis to Chicago and one constant was that the rail view was the ass end of every place. Occasional surprises such as circus trapeze practice in backwoods Florida but more likely loading docks, sawmills, assorted debris, abandoned every-any/thing. Yes, this is light rail, but the corridor...

Same in San Diego for much of the first couple of segments.

[nakers2]

3 hours ago, nmundo said:

UNCC switched to ID cards with NFC last year and you can tell wether it's a new one or not just by looking at it. What I've been hearing is that inspectors will start carrying validators at some point in the future to make sure the cards are actually valid (I'm sure this is super important with faculty since they don't all automatically have passes.)  The system seems to already be in place since cards have to be tapped on the fare box to get into a bus. We'll see how long it takes them to get the whole system is up and running. 

 

I wonder if they'll have a different punishment for people using invalid IDs as that probably falls under fraud along with fare evasion.

 The reason I mentioned it was because I got a new card just before graduation last year, they forced me to get it, I wasn’t even going to get one.  I should try to hop on a bus one time and see if it works,  i’m not advocating fare jumping  but it would be interesting to see how complicated the system is, if it can pick up that kind of information.

Probably wouldn’t be a widespread issue if one a few alumni catch on, but as the train (hopefully) becomes more and more popular among students, and those students graduate, they may discover they can still use the passes and as a result CATS loses revenue.

A simple fix assuming them keeping my card active is intentional (for printing, access to library, alumni facilities, etc) would be to print a new design each year, could be as simple as a new animal or shape in the corner, or the year of graduation itself, and this would mark each “class” for fare inspections. For example, only rabbit, bear, dog, and cat are valid, turtle was the graduating class last year so any “5th year seniors” would need a new pass. Otherwise they’re marked as graduated. 

[Hunted]

5 minutes ago, nakers2 said:

 or the year of graduation itself, and this would mark each “class” for fare inspections. 

A large percentage of freshman drop out of every college. This would result in dropouts being able to ride for free for years, potentially. I think only active/currently enrolled students should get any privileges. We have more sophisticated technology than that that wouldn't be any more time consuming. Let's use it.

[nakers2]

8 minutes ago, Hunted said:

A large percentage of freshman drop out of every college. This would result in dropouts being able to ride for free for years, potentially. I think only active/currently enrolled students should get any privileges. We have more sophisticated technology than that that wouldn't be any more time consuming. Let's use it.

 I agree with this, as tempting as it is to take advantage of the lax measures CATS is using now,  I understand that if you have more people than just myself discovering this fatal flaw, we could have potentially thousands of fare  jumpers in the University area.  

I agree about the active and enrolled students, though I would argue that maybe for a year afterwards alumni can still take advantage, because this is when a lot of students might have job interviews and stuff uptown. 

 I would argue though that because my pass is still active, the University more or less considers me an active student, which could be dangerous, if I had lived in a dorm my last year, it’s possible I might still be able to get in there.  I haven’t tried to get into my old lab yet, I’m curious if it would still work, but I know for a fact I can get into the library after hours, and I can use to make prints and stuff (with sufficient funds)  and I can still log into the university computer system. 

[Third Strike]

2 hours ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

My impression of riding it. Charlotte looks very, very gritty. I’m not hating it though. South Blvd just looks like typical South Blvd or Independence. The extension looks like a gritty city until it gets into UC 

Something needs to be done with the old Northpark Mall next to the Old Concord Station. It looks really terrible... 

[Hunted]

30 minutes ago, nakers2 said:

I agree about the active and enrolled students, though I would argue that maybe for a year afterwards alumni can still take advantage, because this is when a lot of students might have job interviews and stuff uptown. 

Solid idea. Sounds like it would mostly benefit society.

[tozmervo]

The gross Charlotte gritiness is referring to the backside of Levine's parking deck, right?

[nakers2]

35 minutes ago, Hunted said:

Solid idea. Sounds like it would mostly benefit society.

 I would say so, I guess I would say in a way I feel kind of guilty being a transit nerd because if I do have to pay, unless I plan on drinking, or I need to go up town during the workday, I’ll probably still drive. But I did notice today a large number of out of town fans (I assume that because they were coming from the hotels) riding the train to the games, which makes me feel pretty good about the ridership come Monday with the commuter crowd. Any world class city has a mix of commuters, and if I had to pay uptown parking rates, or deal with rush hour traffic I wouldn’t think twice about parking and riding. 

[nmundo]

The ID cards stop letting you into the dorms the second you stop living there. They take a while to revoke access to labs and other buildings though, I was able to get into Woodward and the library for quite a bit after I stoped being a student. Cats has already said that they plan to have fare inspector carry around validators to tap the cards on to may sure they’re valid. They already (according to CATS, I haven’t tested it out myself) have this working on the buses so I don’t see it being to far off. Physically changing the cards is pointless if they have a centralized database to validate the cards against.


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[kermit]

Transit Maps did a critique today (the bottom image is their quick redesign): http://transitmap.net/post/171948513310/lynx-blue-line-strip-redesign

Quote

In short, this is not a good map, especially when you consider its placement above the doors of the train. The labelling is absolutely tiny, and the station names are at a neck-cracking 80 degree angle from the horizontal. The icons and numbers for connecting bus services under each station are absolutely minuscule: there’s absolutely no way possible anyone’s going to be able to read them from three or four feet away on a moving train. The bus icons are also overly detailed – zooming right in on the artwork JPG allowed me to see that they have bicycles mounted on front racks as part of their design!

 

Edited March 17, 2018 by kermit

[Desert Power]

7 hours ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

Edit: on my way back. It’s obvious what the most popular station for UNCC students will be... 36th street. That’s all I hear from students.

Yeah.  Have never seen NoDa as packed as it is tonight.

[KJHburg]

5 hours ago, Third Strike said:

Something needs to be done with the old Northpark Mall next to the Old Concord Station. It looks really terrible... 

Give it time and I will be it will be redeveloped. a large single owner property close to the Old Concord station.  By the way I  used to shop there at the Richway Gold Circle Target store that was there. 

[southslider]

12 hours ago, Third Strike said:

Something needs to be done with the old Northpark Mall next to the Old Concord Station. It looks really terrible... 

Planned County Health service center 

[Miesian Corners]

10 hours ago, kermit said:

Transit Maps did a critique today (the bottom image is their quick redesign): http://transitmap.net/post/171948513310/lynx-blue-line-strip-redesign

 

The train I rode didn’t even have a map. 

[Cadi40]

This is really going to help areas Like NoDa really get that extra boost and transform into a South End type density area. I would agree that the corridor does look rather appalling  at the moment, But give it time. It will transform into Apartments, Retail and a resturant all along the line in roughly 5-10 years.

[UPNoDa]

When did we move from "Uptown" Charlotte to "Downtown" Charlotte as indicated on the LYNX map?

What happened to Center City?      https://www.charlottecentercity.org

[kermit]

14 minutes ago, UPNoDa said:

When did we move from "Uptown" Charlotte to "Downtown" Charlotte as indicated on the LYNX map?

What happened to Center City?      https://www.charlottecentercity.org

The bottom map was just a quick redesign done by a transit map critic who is not local. It was not an 'official' map.

[CLT704]

48 minutes ago, UPNoDa said:

When did we move from "Uptown" Charlotte to "Downtown" Charlotte as indicated on the LYNX map?

What happened to Center City?      https://www.charlottecentercity.org

They changed it: 

[tozmervo]

I like the idea of including neighborhood names as a much more  intuitive way to know where you're going. Lord knows "Greenwich Village" would help visitors (well, me) more than "Christopher Street"

[js4life]

14 hours ago, Desert Power said:

Yeah.  Have never seen NoDa as packed as it is tonight.

NoDa is basically UNCC  Franklin st.