How would Omaha benefit from more public transportation?

[LetsBeReal22]

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And the big one
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For street car and TOD, just look at KC. Lots of gentrification and much more density.

[Busguy2010]

I'm torn. I know ever since I was a kid I wanted a streetcar, light rail, and commuter rail, more density etc. But now I'm really concerned about the cost of living going up, and like was said above, gentrification would definitely occurr with the addition of those modes of transportation. And there are both good and bad aspects to that happening. More often nowadays I am against gentrification and better public transportation would contribute to that. So, why I'm torn on it.

And on the subject of just buses, and more specifically buses that connect east and west Omaha, I see limited benefit from that thought, though I do believe in time we will finally have more bus routes out there. I just question if they will have a tangible affect toward achieving the connectivity some people crave. I doubt people out there would use them if they were there and I bet a limited number of unskilled laborers from east Omaha would travel that far for that kind of job.

There was a route in the works that was supposed to go from North Omaha TC to 168th and Maple for the specific reason of Job Access Reverse Commute (JARC), but ive heard nothing about it for several years now, so I'm guessing it fell through.

[ita]

I'm torn. I know ever since I was a kid I wanted a streetcar, light rail, and commuter rail, more density etc. But now I'm really concerned about the cost of living going up, and like was said above, gentrification would definitely occurr with the addition of those modes of transportation. And there are both good and bad aspects to that happening. More often nowadays I am against gentrification and better public transportation would contribute to that. So, why I'm torn on it.

And on the subject of just buses, and more specifically buses that connect east and west Omaha, I see limited benefit from that thought, though I do believe in time we will finally have more bus routes out there. I just question if they will have a tangible affect toward achieving the connectivity some people crave. I doubt people out there would use them if they were there and I bet a limited number of unskilled laborers from east Omaha would travel that far for that kind of job.

There was a route in the works that was supposed to go from North Omaha TC to 168th and Maple for the specific reason of Job Access Reverse Commute (JARC), but ive heard nothing about it for several years now, so I'm guessing it fell through.

I don't really think better bus service leads to gentrification as much as fix route, rail projects like a streetcar or light rail, but that's just my opinion. Urban Omaha only stands to benefit from better bus service. Each of these modes though have their place and Omaha refuses to make itself conducive to any, except maybe a streetcar that connects parts of urban Omaha. At this point, I think the streetcar serves the public transit need second, and a tool and incentive for development in the urban core first.

Altogether, the City is largely abandoning any hope for any thing but car centric development in suburban/exurban Omaha, aside from choice developments a la Heartwood Preserve or Avenue One that claim development built around walkability.

So, limited public transit in the form of bus park and rides are what make sense for suburban Omaha. The other thing might be worth it for West/suburban Omaha is to concentrate any bus service to West Omaha to those job centers that might pull from people living in central or eastern Omaha (I would like to see the flow of traffic to show if it is worth it).

Additional investment to the bus system should be focused on areas of town where buses can succeed. A whole bunch of new routes may not be necessary, but rather shorter headways/more frequent service to popular routes or routes with greater potential to support buses.

[Busguy2010]

No, bus service doesnt have the same effect as rail transit, I didn't say I thought it did. I agree with everything above. Really only urban Omaha would benefit from better bus service. TBH, before the pandemic hit, we had the best bus system we had ever had since at least the 80's, and then ever since 2020, the routes and schedules had been reduced to lower than 2019 levels with the exception of ORBT. We're still in better shape than in the 2000's, but not as good as 2019. And I think it will take several years just to make it back to 2019 service levels, let alone any additional services coming out.

[Dundeemaha]

As central Omaha gets more dense with infill and higher zoned housing, if some of those people take transit it benefits all road users by reducing the # of vehicles on the road lowering congestion for all.