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City of Cincinati | 11 TRANSITIONAL TRIUMPHS Cincinnati is also making improvements to its infrastructure in transportation and fleet operation, which again, will yield to less re- liance on fossil fuels. Falkin says by 2025, the city “will be done with gas and diesel.” Over the last two years, the city fleet has re- duced its gas consumption by more than 12 percent, which he calls progress toward that goal. The city is now utilizing more electric and hybrid-electric vehicles, but plans to ac- quire more fueled by cleaner, compressed- natural-gas and will soon begin developing CNG fueling stations. Other initiatives involve mass trans- portation. Although the city maintains a public bus system known as Metro, one initiative will lead to the establishing of a downtown modern street car system, simi- lar to that which sparked redevelopment in Portland. The street cars will connect with downtown neighborhoods and will run on overhead electric power lines. The idea is to decrease downtown traffic congestion while increasing public ridership. Increased ridership is also at play in the developing of a new bus rapid transit line that will begin this summer. To explain Cincinnati’s approach, Falkin offers a little insight into cultural aspects of transit. “If you look at people who ride the bus and those who ride a train, you’ll notice they are not the same. Many people who ride the bus are transit dependent.They have no other