There are lots, dozens of volunteers who are willing to answer questions about where the tram goes or even how to get somewhere, Even the drivers would answer. The more obvious one that I never got an answer to was why not put the destination on the sign right above where the trams stop and then most wouldn't even have to ask a volunteer.
As for signage, it doesn't even have to be complicated. Just signs at the Hangar Cafe and Tower (especially there) turnaround boarding lines saying Northbound and Southbound would be a big improvement.
Randy, thanks for the work.
To the rest of the troupe, while at Oshkosh, you are among a half million of your best friends. Ask anyone for guidance, and odds are you will get the help you need. You might even have an interesting chat with an interesting person!
Randy, thanks for volunteering and providing a service that I used on quite a few occasions. I used almost the entire rainbow of tram routes. It was nice to be able to board a tram to the bus station after lugging 18lbs of camera gear and 10lbs of cold / frozen drinking water around the grounds for close to 10 hours per day.
A suggestion for tram stop signs (I believe a sign stating northbound or southbound may not be useful because a lot of visitors, particularly those from out of town, don't know the direction of north) is to copy some subway signs that I've seen around the world. Just indicate which stops are downstream of the current location; words or pictures would OK.
...and I agree with your suggestion for tram stop signs to be located on both sides of a road. It confused the hell out of this lil' Aussie.
See you next year when I'll definitely wait for a tram with you aboard.
I got to meet the infamous ChicagoRandy this year!
I did have an uncomfortable tram experience this year - not on Randy's tram. I didn't complain because (1) I didn't get a name and (2) I wasn't going to make a big deal out of it. Now that I've thought about it and read this thread, I'm putting it out there. I'm pretty thick-skinned and politically inappropriate most of the time but this even made me squirm. I rode a tram where the "announcer" never shut-up. He made several homophobic, semi racist comments and would follow them up with "Hey, I'm a veteran and risked my life to be able to say what I think. And I'm a volunteer - what are they going to do, fire me?" He was so obnoxious my friends and I jumped off at the next stop and waited for the next tram. I'm not bitching about the trams or the other 99.9% of the volunteers, just curious if anyone else had this experience and how they responded.
For AirVenture my guidepost has always been if I wouldn't say it from a pulpit in a church, I won't say it on a tram.
"Don't believe everything you see or read on the internet" - Abraham Lincoln
Randy,
I have been on your tram. You must have a very "interesting" church!
Didn't ride the tram except on Thursday -- didn't have time to wait, so I got a lot of exercise. I did not see anything unprofessional from the tram guides and operators...just one or two of the riders. In any group, there is always one...
One problem with the trams is there is really no way to get a change or improvement during the week. The people at the top that make the decisions are sure not riding the tram, they have their close end parking spaces. An example it our parking area is about halfway to the museum, its right next to the cemetery that borders the road next to N 40 parking. So I have to use it at least twice a day, driving in in the morning and out the evening. Then we walk a ways over through the entrance gate, and there is a car path right there inside the back fence. It would be easy for the tram to stop and pick up as they did last year. But not this year, the tram driver goes right by and further south past the pavilion for homebuilders, even if there is a group waiting to board. In the week I only once saw any homebuilders go there, but it is heavily used by warbird and other eaa segments. Its not a big deal, but it adds about 1/4 mile walk each time for no reason. So that's twice a day for a week or an extra 7 miles to have to walk for no reason. And the busiest day, Sat, we waited while 7 trams came through full with no one getting off, no seat available. I have a old knee injury from ski racing and the extra walking is a nuisance.
The 'official' three tram stops at that back end behind Homebuilts are across from the North 40 Red One Market, the Homebuilt pylon by their showers and lastly at the Vendor's Parking lot - Uber/Lyft stop -Nature Center pylon.
I can't answer why the pylon is not by that entrance gate rather than the HB showers? I did often stop the tram at that gate to let folks board, but technically that is a violation of tram operating guidelines. This was just the 3rd? year we even ran the Red route back there in no-man's land - lol. You'll recall we used to always just loop around at the North 40 gate and come back to Warbirds and the forums. In truth this year, at least on my tram runs, we rarely picked up more than a handful of folks total for those three stops on the West end, so I don't know if it's worth all the time it takes for the very few riders it carries. But hey, I'm just the guy who gets dragged wherever that John Deere up front takes me - lol
Last edited by CHICAGORANDY; 08-03-2019 at 10:04 AM.
"Don't believe everything you see or read on the internet" - Abraham Lincoln
Randy, "the few riders it carries"? Did they make weed legal out there? Or you breathing too many diesel fumes. The red tram serves 3 big parking areas. And I am not talking about over by the red market on the south side of n 40, I am talking bout south of there on the south side of the cemetery., and due west of "Fighter town and most homebulid parking, Has nothing to do with the showeres over in N 40.
Doesn't require any new or longer route, just to stop for people on the path the trams are already driving.
Last edited by Bill Greenwood; 08-03-2019 at 10:38 AM.
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