CINCINNATI — Cincinnati Metro is holding a public meeting Wednesday night to discuss its new, innovative transit option, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).

The Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA) is "reinventing metro" by bringing BRT to Cincinnati. The enhanced transit option "will bring faster-than-ever service and significantly reduced travel times to the corridors it travels along," SORTA said.

Per SORTA, BRT uses limited stops, frequent service, smart traffic signals, dedicated buses lanes when possible and streamlined boarding and exiting to achieve reduced travel times and provide those traveling with reliable service. The service is also "universally accessible" as it has same-level entry between platforms and buses to accommodate for all.

The transit option is under a nine-month study that ends in spring 2023 to figure out the best locations to launch BRT in. So far, four corridors have been identified and two will be selected for initial service. The chosen corridors represent Metro's most popular transit routes, and each carries more than 1 million riders per year.

Once those two corridors are chosen, SORTA goal is to launch BRT in 2027.

Wednesday night's open house meeting with Cincinnati Metro is being held at the Evanston Recreation Center, located at 3204 Woodburn Ave., from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The meeting will focus on the possible Montgomery corridor. The Montgomery corridor would serve multiple areas, stretching from downtown to Kenwood.

Other proposed corridors include Glenway Avenue, Hamilton Avenue and Reading Road.

Other than the increased benefits in traveling, SORTA said BRT is sustainable and an economic driver.

"As demonstrated in other cities with BRT systems, BRT corridors attract revitalization, new development, new jobs, retail and affordable housing," SORTA said.

There are currently more than 30 BRT systems in the U.S., including ones in Cleveland, Columbus and Indianapolis.

The initiative to introduce BRT to the Greater Cincinnati area came after Hamilton County voters approved Issue 7 in May 2020. The approval provided additional funding for improved and expanded transit service and transit-related infrastructure within the county.

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HAMILTON COUNTY, Ohio — For Cincinnati Metro bus riders who recently saw the bench at their bus stop disappear, this week brought some good news.

The transit agency announced this week it will partner with advertising firm Adsposure to finance the installation and maintenance of 400 new bus stop benches and more than 200 new bus stop shelters across Hamilton County over the next 10 years. The agreement includes the firm investing $3 million to purchase and install the new benches and an additional $5 million to maintain them over the course of the contract.

For Better Bus Coalition President and daily Metro rider Cam Hardy, it was an announcement he's been waiting years to hear.

"It was one of our very first projects," Hardy told WCPO Tuesday via a Zoom video call. "(It was) something that we identified that would be a very easy sell and would appeal to people who might not ride the bus every day."

In July 2018, the grassroots transit advocacy group began constructing small wooden benches to place at bus stops where riders had expressed an urgent need for one. An I-Team investigation later that year showed that only a nominal percentage of Metro bus stops provided a place for riders to sit and wait for their bus. The shortage of seating and shelter at its more than 5,000 bus stops across the county has escalated since the city of Cincinnati began removing existing but under-funded and deteriorating benches in 2013.

"I ride the bus with a lot of elders, a lot of mothers, people who are commuting to grocery stores, things like that," Hardy said. "It's like one day (the benches) were there; the next day people were starting to see them removed... So we decided to create our own."

Last summer, the City Planning Commission approved a new all-metal bench design -- in contrast to the wood-and-concrete benches that were installed previously -- along with new guidelines for where on city sidewalks they could sit. Soon after, Metro installed an initial round of 50 benches.

The hope then was that advertising revenue could pay for those initial 50 as well as more benches down the road. Monday's announcement suggests that hope could become a reality.

"We, for years, have heard from our customers that they want a safe and convenient place to wait for their bus," said Metro spokeswoman Brandy Jones.

Jones said Metro expects to see the new benches and shelters popping up around the county by this fall.

CINCINNATI — Two days into the new school year, Cincinnati Public Schools and Cincinnati Metro are planning adjustments to a contentious change in the district's transportation plan.

CPS Board of Education member Mike Moroski said the first day gave glimpses into the parts of the plan that worked well and those that need tweaking.

"There were some pretty, I think, traumatic experiences for some families," he said. "I think there were some great experiences for some families."

For the last few weeks of summer, the school district and the transit authority had gone back and forth on what sort of bus service high school students could expect this fall. Previously, Metro provided specific routes with more direct access to the district's high school buildings for students to ride. A bus driver shortage exacerbated by the pandemic, though, caused Metro to have to cancel those routes.

Elementary school students in the district are transported by yellow buses.

The announcement triggered backlash from parents and the teachers union, and school and transit officials scrambled last week to put together a compromise plan that included adding back some routes, extra stops, and utilizing adult staff to help coordinate and chaperone students at key bus stops and locations.

"It could have been better; it wasn't totally catastrophic," Moroski said, applauding Metro bus drivers for their help in helping manage the changes.

"I had a lot of stories from out there in the field of Metro bus operators making it work for our kids, so I'm very grateful for that," he said.

Metro is owned and operated by the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority. Vice president for external affairs Brandy Jones said they anticipated some areas where adjustments would be necessary.

"Certainly there may be some hiccups on the way that we need to adjust, and I ask for parents' patience as we work through those things to make them better for the student families," she told WCPO. She said Metro only heard of a few minor issues on Wednesday, when classes resumed, and that Metro will continue to deploy staff at key stops to continue facilitating the transition.

Among the adjustments CPS will make immediately include training more district staff as crossing guards, asking the city for assistance in traffic control around school campuses before and after classes, and asking Metro to add new routes near Western Hills University High School and Walnut Hills High School.

Upcoming changes in the way Cincinnati Metro charges bus fare will mean some riders will have to pay more while others will pay less.

Starting April 4, the transit agency will implement a plan officials say will simplify how Metro collects fares.

Under the current fare structure, Metro buses operate in six zones, with varying ticket prices based on which zone riders are traveling to or from. If a rider catches their Metro within Cincinnati city limits, the fare is $1.75; throughout the rest of the county, the cost is $2.65. Outside Hamilton County, the prices vary further.

The new system will eliminate zones altogether and instead operate with three basic fare amounts no matter where a rider catches the bus:

• Local routes in Hamilton County: $2
• Express routes in Hamilton County: $2.65
• Express routes in Butler, Clermont and Warren counties: $3.75 (Metro does not operate any non-express routes in these counties.)

The change means city bus riders will pay 25 cents more per ride under the new fare structure than they do now, and riders throughout the rest of the county will pay 65 cents less.

The change in fares is part of the transit agency's larger Reinventing Metro plan, which also includes route and schedule expansions, among other improvements to bus service throughout the county. In April of last year, county voters narrowly approved an 0.8% sales tax increase to generate more local funding for Cincinnati Metro bus service and road and bridge improvements along its routes.

The Reinventing Metro plan also introduces the following new fare options:

• $4.00 Hamilton County local service day pass (replacing the former Zone 1 day pass, priced at $4.50)
• $5.30 Hamilton County Express day pass
• $7.50 Suburban County Express day pass
• $10 5-ride Hamilton County local service ticket
• $2.00 half-fare day pass for eligible riders, including Fare Deal and Access riders, University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati State Community and Technical College students, UC staff, and children riders between 35 and 45 inches tall

Editor’s note: With our coronavirus coverage, our goal is not to alarm you but to equip you with the information you need. We will try to keep things in context and focus on helping you make decisions. See a list of resources and frequently asked questions here.

Facing looming revenue shortages for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic throughout the Tri-State, local transit agencies will receive emergency aid from the stimulus bill passed by Congress last week.

The Federal Transit Administration Friday unveiled $25 billion in stimulus dollars for public transportation systems across the U.S. as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, a bill designed to keep the country's economy afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The FTA allocated $45.4 million to southwest Ohio's four public transit systems -- Cincinnati Metro, the Butler County Regional Transit Authority, the Clermont Transit Connection and the Cincinnati streetcar. The FTA granted $11.6 million to TANK, Northern Kentucky's only public transportation system.

READ MORE: How is Tri-State transit responding to COVID-19 pandemic?

Suballocation of the $45.4 million to the four southwest Ohio systems is determined by local processes, the FTA indicated in the materials released Friday. Those are based on population served and the level of service provided by each transit system. Based on these criteria, Metro stands to collect the vast majority of that aid.

Both Metro and TANK recently announced reductions in service and other measures they would take in response to the coronavirus. Neither bus system is collecting fares, and both are requiring passengers board through the rear door in order to reduce contact between riders and operators. As fewer and fewer daily riders were commuting to work, bus ridership plummeted, and both systems scaled back routes to weekend service levels.

Mayor John Cranley and Health Director Melba Moore this week ordered the Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar closed to passenger service. The city administration is in the process of determining what level of streetcar staffing and operations to maintain during the shutdown.

More information on how the stimulus funds could help transit agencies resume closer-to-normal service levels was not immediately available.