Omaha Forums

ILexpat wrote:I believe the chinese have solved the problem. Omaha should just get one of these!




http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/27/world ... .html?_r=0

Turns out this ill conceived bus was just a scam to embezzle investment money.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/04/worl ... dling.html

Are those two bicycles riding themselves? What a time to be alive!

"China’s crazy car-straddling elevated bus is just a giant scam, police say. After first trial, the bus has collected dust. Beijing police have arrested 30 people." https://arstechnica.com/cars/2017/07/ch ... -bus-scam/

The BRT line got a brand name. "ORBT" Omaha Rapid Bus Transit.

Interesting ad [youtube][/youtube]

I like the look and design.

It makes me think of the Baltimore Orioles.

This is actually quite impressive, given only about 5 years ago, the company was called MAT and still carried the stigma along with it. They are really doing a great job there.

Please don’t give this the nickname of “Orbit” the CLink was bad enough. Christ never mind it’s slready in that video.

MTO wrote:Please don’t give this the nickname of “Orbit” the CLink was bad enough. Christ never mind it’s slready in that video.

I mean, what else? I'll admit I raised my eyebrow at first, but I think it'll be fine. It's on par with all the typical transit related acronyms out there and I think slightly better in the way that you can pronounce it as a real word.

Couldn't we be more creative like Seattle who named their system the South Lake Union Transit.

Metro Omaha Rapid Transit

I might as well say the obvious here. Who is the dufus that decided the buses would need to be so big! Why not start with little baby buses first and then move to bigger buses if you need them ........which you never will! Thanks Mayor Stothert for lying to the taxpayers about repealing the restaurant tax so the city would have money for craptastic projects like this.

P.S- Anybody ever hear of Orbit Gum. The TV already has lots of Orbit Gum commercials and now you are going to have Orbt bus commercials? I'm not real smart like those city officials but it sure seems to me like you got some name recognition over lap there.

Orbit Gum bus commercial-

Awesome! I'm really looking forward to the upgraded line when it opens up. And I like how Metro is really going all-out on the marketing.

I'm not even a little mad at how much this project costs. It's like 1/50th the cost of what a new light rail line would have been, while still offering most of the same benefits.

GrandpaaSmucker wrote:I might as well say the obvious here. Who is the dufus that decided the buses would need to be so big! Why not start with little baby buses first and then move to bigger buses if you need them ........which you never will! Thanks Mayor Stothert for lying to the taxpayers about repealing the restaurant tax so the city would have money for craptastic projects like this.

Metro is a political subdivision of the State of Nebraska with their own totally separate operating budget and funding stream apart from the City budget -- money spent on buses couldn't be spent instead on fixing roads (or giving a tax cut), for example. They're different entities. The mayor and City Hall were involved from a planning standpoint since Metro and ORBT use the city's streets to operate, but in terms of funding? Not really. According to the FAQ on their website, nearly half of the funding for the ORBT project ($15m) came from a U.S. Department of Transportation grant, and the rest came from private grants and reallocation of other federal funds already available to Metro.

This is a very cool project and I'm excited to see it become a reality. Believe it or not the bus system in Omaha moves a |expletive| ton of people -- 3.8 million trips in 2016, which rivals Eppley Airfield -- and this should help move even more.

This is great. It needs to get published with a concrete plan to go further west to Elkhorn (variables to consider, standards for the variables, dates to decide, fall back positions and so on.) A bunch of people would use this if there where linking small shuttles that would connect at specific locations. If I had to walk three or four blocks to get to or from a local bus stop to do my shopping and errands, and during the work week connect to the shuttle that would take me within a couple of blocks of work, I would sure consider it. This could be the spine for such a system.

I would love if this went further west. A stop a 168th/ Village Pointe would be great because me and friends love going downtown, we just hate the drive, paying for parking and all the gas.

bigredmed1 wrote:A bunch of people would use this if there where linking small shuttles that would connect at specific locations.

If there was a shuttle to Old Mill, I probably would. Maybe not everyday, but I would certainly use it. It would be nice focusing on the scenery going to/from work instead of watching the road.

[youtube][/youtube]

Love it

TitosBuritoBarn wrote:It makes me think of the Baltimore Orioles.

Perfect! I'm in!