Dissent on the Omaha Streetcar

The Myth of the Urban Core

The Greater Omaha Chamber has been pushing an Urban Core Strategic Plan since March of this year (https://www.omahachamber.org/download/51476/) And it echos much of Omaha’s master plan. (https://urbanplanning.cityofomaha.org/omaha-master-plan https://urbanplanning.cityofomaha.org/omaha-master-plan/master-plan-elements) This is where the streetcar idea originated.

Under what is now called Project Beacon, Omaha is going to build a streetcar system. Because no direct property tax increases are involved, many have been silent about the plan. Yet dissent is palatable.

Thomas Rubin, an Omaha resident with experience on streetcar transportation systems has been highly critical of the proposal. The Omaha World-Herald mentioned him and his objections (https://omaha.com/news/local/public-transit-consultant-skeptical-of-omahas-streetcar-project/article_5890cf2a-e102-11ec-b6f0-8f37fd119d1a.html).

However, the paper did not do justice to his concerns. He made a written presentation to the City Council at https://cityclerk.cityofomaha.org/images/agenda/ID_22_06_28/ORD-42990a.pdf

Here is the proposed route.

I have stated Uber and Lyft are changing the way people use transportation. Rubin lends support to this by showing the use of public transportation has gone down.

Also, Omaha prefers to use cars because the commute time is more reasonable compared to other portions of the USA. Omaha is still a 20 minute city.

However, more alarming is the streetcar’s path is largely redundant of ORBT, the existing public transportation. Also, ORBT performs better. The map below shows ORBT in orange and the streetcar path in red and followed by an image of service performance.

However, the purpose of public transportation is to move large numbers of people to prevent congestion of traffic, particularly pedestrian traffic. If there was a proposal to have a streetcar from the Airport, along Abbott Drive and 10th Street up to Pacific Street, there would be at least a tangible argument in moving a mass of people while providing a ride showing off the attributes of the City.  Yet this is not anywhere close to what is being proposed.

Also, as for ORBT (https://www.ometro.com/maps-schedules/map/), it replaced the 1 & 2 bus routes which had numerous stops. With ORBT, some of these stops are over 10 blocks between stops. This has resulted in a drop in ridership from some people. So how frequently would the streetcar stop? Still an unknown. Omaha simply does not have enough population density to support these grand schemes. Preserving the so-called urban core requires lowering property taxes and incentivizing productive activity. A streetcar just does not do that.