THE MODERN RAIL
Kansas City offers glimpse of OKC’s streetcar future
KANSAS CITY, MO. — It’s been used as the set for a music video, hit by a car that ran a red light, and is packed most weekends. A new, modern streetcar system that opened in Kansas City last year has reintroduced rail-based transit to this Midwestern metropolis and has quickly become a central part of the city’s urban landscape.
The 2.2-mile line, which connects the north and south ends of the city’s downtown, offers a glimpse of the excitement and challenges Oklahoma City might expect when its own streetcar line opens at the end of next year.
“We tried to make it as simple and user friendly as possible, and I think that’s led to its success,” said David Johnson, chair of the Kansas City Regional Transit Alliance. “A lot of systems tend to get that wrong or don’t focus on that as much as they should.”
The arrival of a streetcar line is not always an automatic success — see Cincinnati and Atlanta, where ridership has plunged and operations are inconsistent. But some transit advocates see enough similarities between the cities of Oklahoma City and Kansas City to believe the success seen up north is a hint of what’s to come in Oklahoma City.
Kansas City’s streetcar line, which opened last May, has challenged some on-street car parkers who fail to stay within the white stripe that runs parallel to the streetcar’s tracks. It’s a level of parking etiquette that is sure to challenge Oklahoma City drivers who are currently afforded a little grace if their car is sticking out in the street.
But Johnson said the learning curve hasn’t been as steep as you might expect, and Oklahoma City transit officials are already planning an education campaign to get ahead of potential problems.
“Whether it’s parking inside the white lines and not double parking, or holding up traffic, we are looking at ordinances and signage to make sure we can address issues that might arise,” said Michael Scroggins, a spokesman with Embark, Oklahoma City’s transit agency that will manage the future streetcar.
“It’s been 70 years since the streetcar last operated in our community, so we don’t really know how to operate around one of these things. We are adding a brand-new vehicle to our roads and our environment is going to drastically change.”
Parking challenges
One of the goals with a streetcar line is to take some cars off the roads, which seems to be working in Kansas City where standing-room-only rides are becoming the norm and the 6,400 average daily ridership is more than double original projections.
Kansas City also has seen a boost in downtown business, especially in the farmers market where sales are up 20 percent from last year.
Johnson said one of the surprising aspects of Kansas City’s streetcar system has been the growing demand it’s placed on downtown parking.
An audit of parking spaces by Kansas City showed large availability in the River Market area before the streetcar’s arrival, but there has now become a lack of parking options, especially on the weekend. The River Market, which is at the north end of the streetcar line, has become a free parking option for some downtown employees who ride the free streetcar to work. Union Station, which is at the south end of the line, is the most popular boarding spot with riders parking and taking the train into the heart of downtown.
“What we figured out is people are treating it like one big park-and-ride,” Johnson said. “They are parking in a place where they know and using the streetcar to circulate to do more than one thing.”
A similar scenario might make midtown Oklahoma City a destination for car drivers looking for a free on-street parking spot.
“Midtown is already a restaurant destination in downtown Oklahoma City,” said Allison Bailey, an urban retail specialist with Price Edwards who has worked with businesses and managed events in midtown. “When people are pairing activities in downtown with food, I think it will make sense they will want to ride the streetcar through Midtown. That may mean parking in midtown, eating in midtown, and possibly taking a streetcar to a game at the arena.”
While parking demands have increased in Kansas City with the arrival of the streetcar, Johnson said the streetcar has helped shift the conversation away from building more parking capacity, and focusing more on parking management, pricing and other ways to make current parking infrastructure more efficient.
Oklahoma City has seen a push for more parking garages downtown, but transit advocates hope the arrival of the streetcar line will shift the focus away from parking, if even a little bit.
“We may see a little bit of parking stress (in downtown) until we connect the streetcar to another mode of transportation that allows people to get downtown without their car,” Bailey said.
Kansas City’s streetcar system also has become an icon that has made its way into travel guides, T-shirts and promotional videos. A similar trend in Oklahoma City could see the future streetcar, which will be wrapped in purple, green and blue colors, become a common sight during nationally televised Thunder games or in chamber promotional videos, much like the Devon Tower and the Skydance Bridge.
“Those things go into your marketing tool chest,” said Josh Harlow, a senior vice president at Jones PR. “I think it will become cool to ride the streetcar like it’s cool to get your picture at the Skydance bridge. These things become ways to distinguish a city.”
Kansas City’s system has even stared as the setting for a music video when Kemet the Phantom, a local rap artist, used it for the scene of his single “Get Out”:
“Got my bus pass and gonna ride first class on the streetcar downtown where the fine ladies and the peeps are.”
Expansion efforts
Skeptics of the future streetcar system have argued it’s not as efficient as traditional buses, which provide more bang for the buck. They also say its relatively small service area does little to address regional transportation needs.
But Kansas City’s streetcar system already has sparked plans for expansion and Johnson said it has served as the best promoter for more rail-based transit.
“I don’t worry about telling people about what transit other cities have as much because I can just tell people to go downtown and ride it for yourself,” Johnson said. “‘It doesn’t go everywhere I want to go,’ is the biggest complaint I hear. Well, expansion is the only way to change that and the current line helps people envision that.”
The Kansas City streetcar system came off another busy weekend earlier this month when more than 35,000 riders filled the system during the three days of the Big 12 basketball tournament. Oklahoma City’s line also will serve its sports arena, along with the future convention center.
While Oklahoma City’s route is set and rail is already being placed into the street, various details are still being determined, including fare amounts, Sunday service and what priority, if any, the streetcar will have at traffic signals.
Kansas City gave its streetcars some priority at traffic signals, but Johnson said it’s an effort that regularly draws pushback from public work officials.
“There is an inherent bias in public works to accommodate only single occupancy vehicles in their signaling but now you have this vehicle that moves many more people,” Johnson said.
Jeff Bezdek, a member of Oklahoma City’s MAPS 3 streetcar committee, called signal prioritization “essential” and wants to see the city alter its policies to make sure the future streetcar moves as quickly as possible.
“My biggest fear is that we build this $120 million system and it is perceived as a failure because our traffic engineers force the streetcars to stop at random red lights,” Bezdek said. “A streetcar can hold up to 120 people at a time. It should automatically be considered a high occupancy vehicle and given preference by traffic lights. The inconvenience to other forms of traffic would be minimal and cars traveling parallel with the streetcar would have an advantage anyway.”
In less than a year since Kansas City opened its downtown streetcar system it has spurred economic development along the line, pushed forward conversations of expansion and given the city a connection with larger cities that have long had rail-based transit — all things Oklahoma City officials hope to see when its own system comes on line in late 2018.
“It’s been a culture change,” Johnson said about Kansas City. “But that’s what we were looking to do.”