Portland Transit | TriMet/Mass Transit News

[RED_PDXer]

I take transit just about every day into and out of downtown. I also bike (summers) and drive (on rare occasion). In my experience, transit is far safer than riding a bike or driving. It's also cheaper and more pleasant than driving in traffic and paying for parking. I've driven to work less than five times in the last 10 years and I felt like an idiot for choosing to sit in traffic when I could be reading or getting work done while sitting on a train. I'll take the bus or MAX any day over sitting in traffic and dealing with morons talking on their phones, applying make-up, eating, etc - people who can't seem to focus on driving safely.

There will never be enough road space to accommodate everyone moving around in their own metal and glass boxes, nor would I want to live in a city where streets are dominated by multiple lanes of speeding vehicles rather than pedestrians and bicyclists. As this place grows, we need to ensure buses and MAX get out of traffic in their own dedicated lanes. A bus can hold about 50 people and takes less than room on the roadway than two cars, which generally hold about 1 person each.

[cityscapes]

Originally Posted by 65MAX

???

Who said there were no violent crimes in Oregon?

Certainly not me, but I may be the one who makes a comment about reading comprehension and proper syntax if these non sequitur replies keep happening.

[maccoinnich]

Draft Vision for North/Central Service Enhancement Plan

[maccoinnich]

People keep talking about a regional transportation ballot measure for 2018



As Oregon legislators start talking about the statewide transportation bill many hope to pass in 2017 (look for some reporting on that soon), others are starting to think locally, too.

We’ve heard from various sources recently that some people in the Portland area are looking toward November 2018 as the right moment for a region-wide bond measure for transportation. The idea is to create a burst of new money for public transit, roadways, biking and walking.

How much of each, you ask? Those negotiations would probably get underway over the next year.

...continues at BikePortland.

[dubu]

there needs to be more bike paths, like along the river on the west side and along i5.

that would cut down on road work, because people are riding electric bikes instead of driving

[maccoinnich]

I assume this was written last year, and they mean this year?

Willamette Shore Trolley could resume trips to Portland next year



Residents and train enthusiasts celebrated the return of the Willamette Shore Trolley three years ago, when Lake Oswego acquired a new pair of vintage trolley cars from TriMet. Service had been suspended since 2010, after the city's two original trolleys broke down.

But one of the new trolleys is still being refurbished, and while the other has been operating since 2013, it's only been traveling as far as Powers Marine Park before heading back to Lake Oswego. Neither trolley has ever traveled all the way to the line's north end at the Bancroft Street station.

Now, that's about to change.

If all goes according to plan, trolley operator David Harold says, one trolley — and maybe both — could be making the run to Portland's South Waterfront by Memorial Day, in time for the summer operating season.

"We've been down quite a while," Harold says, "so we're really excited about getting back to (the full) run."

...continues at the Portland Tribune.

[PacificNW]

Interesting read:


http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/18/tech...les/index.html

[geohiker]

Originally Posted by PacificNW

Interesting read:


http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/18/tech...les/index.html

I hope Lyft is actually able to get a redesign of the current street to go through. If there are a few examples that show decreased congestion, it should trigger a snowball effect for a large scale transition across America.

[eric cantona]

another approach:

https://www.citylab.com/transportati...center/540183/

This article digs into how parking affects congestion:

A new report from TransitCenter lends some statistics to show just how big that impact really is: Commuter benefits programs (also known as tax subsidies) for drivers—or rather, parkers—cost the U.S. $7.3 billion each year, add about 820,000 commuters to the road, and result in an extra 4.6 billion miles driven annually.

[hat]

Cities were rated by the University of Minnesota based on 30 minute accessibility to employment. Portland rated 11th behind Seattle, San Jose and Denver. Denver?! Here's the link to the maps for each city. You can see the stations on the Blue/Green/Red line and compare to the bus lines 4 and 9 for example. A MAX line down Powell would perhaps bump Portland up to 8 or 9. I'm unsure how the SW MAX will change this data.

[hat]

Article at transitcenter gives results of research on displacement and its correlates with transit ridership declines.

[2oh1]

I wonder if they factored in price increases into ridership declines.

Remember when an annual pass for the streetcar was $99? It wasn't that long ago. Today, it's $440. I used to ride the streetcar all the time. Now, I rarely bother.

[Derek]

An annual pass for the streetcar is $440??!!

[2oh1]

Originally Posted by Derek

An annual pass for the streetcar is $440??!!

Streetcar-Only: Annual Pass
$440

[Derek]

Yikes...

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by 2oh1

Streetcar-Only: Annual Pass
$440

For that price, they need to really expand the light rail to be a valid form of transportation throughout the inner city neighborhoods. If someone is going to pay that much for the streetcar, might as well pay for the whole trimet pass and get to ride anything.

[eric cantona]

Originally Posted by urbanlife

For that price, they need to really expand the light rail to be a valid form of transportation throughout the inner city neighborhoods. If someone is going to pay that much for the streetcar, might as well pay for the whole trimet pass and get to ride anything.

if you live and work on a streetcar line (say, live in NW and work downtown) that's a relative bargain compared to TriMet, no? It's -$37/mo, or -$2/day for a 20 business day month.

certainly not for everyone, but not outrageous either.

[2oh1]

Originally Posted by eric cantona

if you live and work on a streetcar line (say, live in NW and work downtown) that's a relative bargain compared to TriMet, no? It's -$37/mo, or -$2/day for a 20 business day month.

certainly not for everyone, but not outrageous either.

Actually, it's up to $40 now... but I didn't realize a Trimet one month pass was all the way up to $100.

My point is that if ridership is down, they really should address whether or not they're pricing riders off of mass transit.

[RED_PDXer]

Originally Posted by hat

Cities were rated by the University of Minnesota based on 30 minute accessibility to employment. Portland rated 11th behind Seattle, San Jose and Denver. Denver?! Here's the link to the maps for each city. You can see the stations on the Blue/Green/Red line and compare to the bus lines 4 and 9 for example. A MAX line down Powell would perhaps bump Portland up to 8 or 9. I'm unsure how the SW MAX will change this data.

FYI - Denver has a pretty serious transit system. Voters approved a huge system expansion years ago and although they suffered from the recession, they've gone after public private partnerships to fund a couple recent lines. Their light rail has way fewer stations per mile and much faster too..

[Encolpius]

I have the impression that when middle-class Portlanders (i.e. the people whose opinions are considered relevant by policymakers) think about improving the transit system, they ONLY think about expanding the light rail and streetcar network, never about adding more bus routes or buses. Why is this?

It seems that despite all the new development (hence potential ridership) along transit corridors in downtown, NW, Mississippi/Williams/Interstate, Alberta, inner Eastside, Montavilla, Gateway, &c., bus service hasn't improved one iota, and has only gotten more expensive, since a decade ago when I last lived in Portland. That's my experience when I return to visit. Buses are just as infrequent, transfers just as unreliable. It inevitably takes twice as long to get anywhere on the bus as it would with a car or bicycle.

I've got nothing against trains, but buses are the backbone of any public transit system and this is especially true in a low-density city like Portland. Buses and trains complement each other, but without reliable bus service, almost nobody will consider selling their car or foregoing their parking pass to buy a season ticket for transit. Improving the scope and ridership of the bus network should be done first, but it seems like it's not even an afterthought. It almost seems like deliberate blindness not to realize this.