I guess the streetcar's honeymoon is officially over.
On New Year's Eve, while thousands and thousands and thousands of people congregated in downtown Oklahoma City to eat, drink and Thunder in the new year, town curmudgeon Steve Lackmeyer decided to give the new Oklahoma City streetcar a #BigLeagueCity try and use it to maneuver around the cold and crowded streets of downtown.
Sounds like a great idea, huh?
Well, not according to this tweet:
I guess Steve was mad because the arrival times listed on the signs at the Streetcar platform stops were off by thirty minutes or more. Like an impatient dad barking at a hostess at Chili's for a long wait time, Steve complained to the manager:
That sucks. I lose my shit when DoorDash says my order will arrive in five minutes, and then changes to a 10 minute estimation three minutes later, so I can see why Steve was mad. If the arrival times for the streetcar are not providing reliable information, they should either be turned off or provide additional guidance like "Who the Fuck Knows When It's Coming" or "You're Better Off Walking."
That being said, Steve should take some personal responsibility and admit that depending on a brand-new, glitchy streetcar that's only been in operation a few weeks to maneuver you around the cold streets of Oklahoma City on the busiest night of the year isn't the best idea. That's as smart as a college kid getting into the newspaper business! If you're freezing your ass off for 30 minutes waiting for a crowded train to take you three blocks down the street, that's on you.
Instead of complaining about the operations, Steve just needs to be honest with himself and see the streetcar for what it is and will probably always be – a $120-million mass transit novelty that's more of a fancy civic toy than a practical way to move large crowds of people around downtown in an efficient manner. The streetcar has to share the roads with cars and pedestrians, and can be halted to a stop by one idiot parking slightly over a white line. The ruling class wanted a streetcar because it will look good in the next Chamber video or national magazine article about MAPS, not to move people from Bricktown to Midtown on New Year's Eve. That's what cars are for.
