“Cinculators” is a proposal for a high frequency transit network serving the Downtown and Uptown cores of Cincinnati. It is made up of four bus lines that connect to the Cincinnati Streetcar line at a transit center Uptown.

Please follow this link for the full explanation of this concept.

The Cinculators would connect neighborhoods home to 89,654 people (~30% of city total) and 113,520 jobs (~52% of city total.)

The Cinculators would be defined by the following characteristics (Adapted from the stated brand characteristics of the DC Circulator in Washington, DC):

– High‐frequency service (all day, 10‐minute headways).

– Long Span Service (long per-day operating hours.)

– Connections to key activity centers and transit modes.

– Simple, affordable fare structure.

       • Same fare structure as Cincinnati Streetcar ($1 per two hours usage, with free transfer between lines)

– Easy to understand routes.

An intriguing possibility is that a test program for Cinculator uptown bus lines could be established even before the streetcar track is extended up the hill on Vine Street. Under this scenario the bus lines could come down the hill to a connection point at the Race Street Findlay Market streetcar stop.

This is a diagram of a possible configuration for the Uptown Transit Center:

What would the Cinculator bus lines serve?

• The Cinculator bus lines serve Cincinnati State, the University of Cincinnati, and Xavier University
• The Cinculator bus lines serve seven hospitals Uptown
  • Good Samaritan
  • Deaconess
  • VA
  • University
  • Children’s
  • Shriners
  • Christ
• The Cinculator bus lines serve the Cincinnati Zoo
• The Cinculator bus lines serve ten neighborhoods:
  • Northside
  • Clifton
  • Clifton Heights
  • Corryville
  • Mt. Auburn
  • Avondale
  • North Avondale
  • Walnut Hills
  • East Walnut Hills
  • Evanston

Cinculator Goals

• Provide people access to jobs
  • Get people working without high entry cost of vehicle ownership
  • “Eds and Meds” facilities along the Cinculator lines will be the growth engines of our economy for years to come
• Promote the repopulation of the city
  • High frequency neighborhood circulators will be an amenity that attracts people of all backgrounds and income levels
  • More taxpayers equals better services for everyone
• Boost neighborhoods
  • City neighborhoods and first ring suburbs face challenges nationwide while urban cores and exurbs thrive
  • Need a gamechanger to hold and grow property values
  • Need to make restoration of abandoned historic buildings an attractive option before these buildings decay past the point of no return
• Give the option for a car-lite or car-free lifestyle
  • Enable everyday non-commute trips via transit
  • Provides Cincinnati an economic advantage- not many competitor cities for hundreds of miles can offer this.
  • Good for the environment
  • A city built for people and not cars is physically more attractive
• Promote Density
  • Density means less infrastructure maintenance costs spread out over more people.
  • We often say that Cincinnati is a city of 300k people built for 500k people (our historic peak.) But it wasn’t built to accommodate suburban-style parking requirements and traffic from 500k completely auto dependent people.
• Would be a logical place for Senior Housing
  • Senior population is growing rapidly as Baby Boomers age
  • Seniors are outliving their ability to drive
  • Vibrant city neighborhoods can help seniors stay connected
  • Cincinnati’s largest hospitals and countless medical facilities are along the Cinculator transit network.
  • Provides access to grocery stores and Findlay Market