The mayor
mentioned last Summer that he would consider MLK as the next corridor for Streetcar expansion.
Ridership numbers:
http://www.portlandstreetcar.org/node/28
The streetcar is foremost a development tool. It is fantastic to travel for 10 minutes, torture to travel 30 minutes. When streetcars were first used, compared to the horse and buggy, they were great. I believe, like any new technology, we are learning how and where to use them.
Let's imagine traveling down MLK on the streetcar in order to get to PSU:
The streetcar averages about a stop per 3 blocks on the East side (sometimes a bit longer). Let's bump that up to 4 blocks on a line for MLK. Let's say we're leaving from Skidmore and MLK. At 4 blocks per stop, that puts it at around 15 blocks in 6 minutes. The streetcar takes around 25 minutes from MLK and Broadway to Park and Market (based on the current CL schedule). So leaving from Skidmore and MLK at 8am, you would get to PSU in about 40 minutes (this is a very generous estimation as the distance from Broadway to Skidmore is more than 15 blocks). Current estimation for the number 6 from MLK/Skidmore to PSU: a little more than 20 minutes.
My point in all this is to highlight the uselessness of the streetcar as a commuting tool. Again, I love it for short runs, say PSU to the library. This is why the streetcar down MLK to Killingsworth is such a horrible idea. A streetcar to Skidmore or therabouts, maybe.
Here is a screenshot of a practical streetcar and MAX combination for MLK. This allows for travel times of less than 10 minutes to downtown, but also allows for travel along a dense livable MLK. I hope this dichotomy between streetcar and MAX can become much clearer as we debate how to use these types of transit in the future.
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