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Thread: RED Tram route opinions?

  1. #11
    DaleB's Avatar
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    I didn't care where it went, or in which direction, or anything else... just that it stopped by the HB pavilion. I walk most everywhere when I'm there, but once in a while I'm just too beat and it was nice to not have to make that last trudge of the day through the grass.
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  2. #12
    steve's Avatar
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    Why wasn't the gate 34 stop (Nature Center / SOS bros / Bus Park) in use the first 4 days of the show?

  3. #13

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    While we all followed the same basic protocol, on some level each tram is not unlike a ship or I guess an airplane for that matter - the conductor is the pilot/captain and they control the experience. "Technically" for all color routes we were told to only stop at designated and marked with signage numbered shuttle stops. It makes perfect sense or you'd have to be stopping every 50 feet along a route to accommodate individual passengers. On the new for this year Red experiment that meant only stopping at Shuttle Stop 13.

    I suspect many of us conductors when running the Red route used that more as a 'guide' rather than a hard-fast rule and added stops as we deemed valuable, especially along the almost deserted back road at the West end of Homebuilt camping.

  4. #14
    FlyingRon's Avatar
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    The biggest complaint I have with the trams has still not been addressed. They went with the completely pointless idea of numbering the tram stops (who cares). The transportation system is still largely cryptic. The maps are useless; the signage is non-existant.

    You need to put a sign up at the stop (especially the junction points like the Hangar Cafe and at the Tower) that says something like "Board Here for: Theatre in the Woods, Vintage, Ultralights, Seaplanes." that would get rid of 90% of the confusion and the questions to the tram volunteers.

    The traffic cop at the Hangar Cafe junction was nice but ditch the #*@@$ whistle. It's obnoxious.


    The other problem is the non-tram shuttles were just a complete screw-up. Nobody could figure out what or when or where they were. Complaints of people waiting for an HOUR with no shuttle trying to head north from Hangar Cafe.

    I had a woman (and her three young daughters) come in and ask where the shuttle to the RED lot was. There is no indication of a RED LOT on any of the maps nor an indication of where these lot shuttles picked up. At least she knew it was off Ripple Road somewhere according to her iPhone. Since we'd closed down operations after the end of the night airshow, I gave her a ride to her car myself.


    This definitely needs work.

  5. #15

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    Don't know when that happened Ron, but the Yellow (Hangar Café to Tower) and Blue (Hanger Café to Ultralights) trams were taken out of service during the Blue Angels airshows due to crowd safety concerns. One of my faves was a visitor desperately seeking transportation info to " get to my car which was parked by a camping area near a fence" and that is ALL the info they could provide. They may well STILL be wandering the grounds today - LOL

    IMHO NOBODY reads signs - I was at the Tower several times when someone looking at the sign, asked where the Red Tram was going. I agree that a clear description at each shuttle stop for both directions would help. I don't know who at EAA is the Signage God or Goddess but if I find out I'll definitely send them the request. I conduct, so a boat-load of those pedestrian questions came to me ALL DAY LONG, EVERY DAY, FOR NINE DAYS.

    It IS unfortunate and beyond my comprehension that they seem to make the final map decisions and THEN change the shuttle routes after it's too late to change the maps.

  6. #16
    FlyingRon's Avatar
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    This was NOT during the airshow. It was between the Saturday (daytime) airshow and the start of the night airshow.

    I am quite familiar with moving the vehicles back to the perimeter road during the relocated crowd iine. Too bad it wasn't rigidly enforced across he board.

    I'm sorry, but there is ZERO useful information on the tram signs other than the sponsor. It's impossible to tell either from the signage, or from the printed maps, or from the complete disaster of an Airventure App WHERE the trams go and when they can be expected to operate.

    You tell me wHERE THE #*($& a#*@(w The RED LOT is or how the to get there on the EAA transportation system.



    I only know because the woman who was abondoned by the EAA with here three young children ant 10:30 at night at the conclusion of the night airshow Saturday happened to have the "find my car" app recently installed on her phone, and I was willing to ILLEGALLY DRIVE a golf cart around greater Nekimi looking for it.

    Don't take it as a slam against the good tram volunteers, but the entire transportation system has been consistently moving backwards for the past four years.

  7. #17

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    Hey Ron.... I FOUND the Red lot.....sort of.... it's mentioned in an EAA update.

    https://www.eaa.org/en/airventure/ea...tendance-grows


    "The number of people who drove to AirVenture was so large Friday, EAA added a new parking lot dubbed the Pink Lot. And, preparing for even larger Saturday crowds had crews getting a second new lot ready named the Red Lot.
    “The number of cars Friday was well above anything in recent memory,” said Brian Wierzbinski, EAA executive vice president and CFO. “We filled all the traditional lots, prepared the Pink Lot, and then put 800 cars in there.” The Pink Lot is adjacent to the Brown Lot, located across from the EAA Aviation Museum on Poberezny Road.
    Brian said they created the Red Lot “on the chance that we’ll need it.” He was monitoring traffic around noon on Saturday and said he’d know in the next few hours whether they would also have to open that lot. "

    So the pretty darned good reason it was not on any maps and no one knew about it? It didn't exist until mid-afternoon on Saturday the 29th. Doesn't help that one lost soul but I feel better now anyway.
    Last edited by CHICAGORANDY; 08-02-2017 at 07:00 AM.

  8. #18

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    My only complaints from the Trams were the Blue route that goes out through Vintage and Ultralights. The wait was 15 minutes or more and the drivers always seemed to be bunched up. I think they could do a better job of keeping them selves spaced apart so the wait isn't so long.

  9. #19
    FlyingRon's Avatar
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    This demonstrates how pitiful the Airventure App is. In addition to being a major regression in features from previous years (Never could figure out how to find a schedule), they should make it dynamic in light of things like this. They could also put out the daily airshow schedule.

  10. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by FlyingRon View Post
    ...they should make it dynamic in light of things like this. They could also put out the daily airshow schedule.
    Given the WIFI quality, I'm fearful of what a dynamic app would do to my phone's battery life.

    Still downloading.....

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