It appears that the push for light rail continues throughout many communities.  Even in LA were the Metro was sued in order to increase bus service, is now stuck with trying to move to light rail after laying down BRT in various places.  When capacity is needed, going to BRT is not a smart move.  The Orange Line being a prime example, as a line that prevents ridership because it is at capacity, and was theoretically built because of the lawsuit.  (Wad, maybe you can add some specifics to that for me)  But anyway, look like South LA is bound for the flanged wheel.

But Detroit, is a completely different situation.  They actually have $125 Million in private money that has been put up for their $430 million dollar line.  Currently they’re working on a Federal Match.

Sweetness.  I was hoping this would happen one century, and it is finally in the works according to WSDOT.

That is all I have for the moment, check out their blog entry for more info.

Well, finally we are moved from SE 21st & Powell on the east side of the river to the south west side of the river, immediately downtown.  Just slightly east of the PSU campus, right back where Jo & I originally moved to when we left the wretched city of Jacksonville.

We now have access to almost every line TriMet operates.  In addition we’re smack right in the center of everything so we actually have decreased our need of transport and increased our access to transport.  Kind of like a win, win, and WIN.  We’re both stoked on many levels, the only thing that may bother us is the blatant obliviousness of college students wondering aimlessly about in disregard for daily life at PSU – but that’s also one of the MOST entertaining parts of the entire area!  : )

All in all, it has been an INSANELY busy last few weeks, or wait…  forget that…  last few MONTHS!

With that said the transit meetup is coming up on the 5th, so anyone reading this make sure to navigate to the blog entry and comment on where we should meet at.

Jo and I, while checking out the new apartment in downtown on Sunday, decided to swing by Powell’s to find some books.  We arrived with no fuss via the streetcar and went about our business.  As we walked through though I noticed a table where TriMet was taking a survey of drivers, riders, or whoever.  I decided I was a perfect candidate to take the survey so went back after walking by to put in my two cents.

First off, I have to complain.  Whoever setup the survey setup a broken survey, but I get the gist of what TriMet was trying to get to.  The key points were as follows:

1. What type of stop do people prefer.
2. What type of vehicle/mode do people prefer.
3. What is the wait time people allow before driving.
4. What type of seating to people prefer.
5. What type of security do people prefer.
6. Walking vs wait time.
7. How important is vehicle/mode cleanliness.
8. How important is driver friendliness.
9. What of the above is more important to you.

I might have forgot one or two.  Here’s my take on how and what I prefer.

1. I don’t care about the stop, and personally am bothered by the wasteful amounts of money TriMet spends on some of the stops.  Especially for the streetcar.  There are lots of streetcar systems, some with better frequency and ridership, that basically have no real curb or stop of any sort.  The extra time it takes for these fancy stops in mixed traffic modes is just annoying.  Forget it, non-functional.  Give me a marker and a schedule and I’m a happy rider (maybe a shelter in places where the traffic may splash waiting riders, etc)

2. This is easy.  In order based on Portland’s available modes:  Light Rail (Type 2 & 3, Type 4, and Type 1), streetcar (2nd gen, 1st gen), and bus (high floor bus, others…)

3. As long as I have transit tracker, I’ll schedule around the bus.  Without transit tracker the bus better have a 10 minutes or less frequency, otherwise I won’t use transit.  The simple rule I go by, is I’m not standing at a stop for an extended amount of time if at all possible.

4. I’d prefer plush, but I really don’t care.  The seating TriMet has is just fine.

5. Security is not TriMet’s responsibility.  Saying it is, the fact that TriMet is somehow forced to be responsible, is a direct violation of logic.  It is stupid to have TriMet setup this way, the plain fact is society allowed police departments to be setup for the purpose of personal security.  It is THEIR JOB to enforce security within society.  The police, not TriMet.

On another point that I have contention with.  Anyone that relies on others for their personal security endangers themselves and those around them.  Always, ALWAYS be prepared to flee, defend, or otherwise take charge of your personal security.  If you expect others to do this for you, you might as well give up.

6. I’ll walk up to 10 minutes if it is an infrequent trip, and up to 8 minutes for a daily commute.  For multiple trips during the day I won’t walk more than 2-6 minutes to a stop.  Once at a stop I prefer not to wait more than 5-6 minutes at most.  This is of course resolved by simply timing my walk & wait times with Transit Tracker.

7. Cleanliness only gets to be important to me when things are really dirty.  If a mode is dirty, I will turn around and call a taxi if it is too bad.  Otherwise newspapers, mud on the floor, water, etc is not a big deal.  Human or animal feces, other rancid items, or overpowering stenches will have me in a taxi without a second thought.

8. I get along with the fact that many drivers are not much more than blank faces and spent as human beings.  But I commend and LOVE when a bus drivers enjoys, loves, and thrives as a driver.  I like it when I hear a driver make announcements and chats with riders.  Al M, Dan Christensen, streetcar driver Fred, and others come to mind.  These drivers are GREAT!  This is VERY important to me.  It is (and Al may hate this statement) to me the last semblance transit has to the private existence it started as in this country.  The streetcar operator stories, the human elements, these are the things that draw transit into the very human existence that it is.  Put simply, this is the one thing that buses have over light rail and the “modern streetcar” of Portland.  The human-less, face-less experience on light rail and streetcar is frustrating.  Here Portland is building a human city versus a car city and we have these faceless transit modes.  But I will choose the financially reasonable option that provides more for society than the human face of the bus, only because the community is still involved in the ride, but I’d rather have both features.

9. The most important aspect of transit to me is complex.  It however boils down to something that isn’t the actual transit itself.  Instead it is the lifestyle that it allows.  The car-free, worry free, relaxed lifestyle and relaxing trip enabled by transit service.  The ability to get home and not be strung out or mentally warped and skewed from commuting via the automobile.  The zoning changes and more compact and connected communities that transit also enables (more so than automobile based zoning).  So overall, it is the lifestyle, not particularly the transit.  But one really doesn’t go without the other.

So what are your priorities?  What are the most important things for you in the transit service you use (or don’t use)?

[11/14/09 – Correction:  I stated “and personally am bothered by the wasteful amounts of money TriMet spends on some of the stops.”, which is a faulty statement.  TriMet does not and did not fund any of the stops for the streetcar, the City of Portland, or more specifically the non-profit subsidized Portland Streetcar spent the money on those stops.  I still am bothered by their spending taxpayer money (and lots of it) on stops that are ridiculously overbuilt.]

Google & Valley Metro

While rambling through yesterday’s blog entry I wrote about a desire to be able to click transit and see how to get somewhere in Phoenix.  The lack of this feature to the city’s transit system was part of the underlying cause that led me to rent a car (at $60 wasteful dollars per day) just to get anywhere in town.  30 Minute frequencies on a bus aren’t so bad when you have an idea of where the bus actually is, without a mechanism to track, or plot logistically the bus is almost entirely useless except for the most desperate of users.  Well, to my surprise, there are talks between Valley Metro & Google as I discovered.  I just have one last comment on that, “HURRY UP VALLEY METRO!”  It is services feeds, this isn’t a hard process, I could integrate and make the service feeds needed for Google available in under a month – ALONE, pending I had access to Valley Metro’s Servers.  So hire some software developers, I can provide references for a couple in the area that are awesome, and GET IT DONE!  :)  K, Thx.

Density & City Facts, Portland, LA, and Phoenix

I was curious about densities, size, sprawl, and other tidbits between the three main cities of the trip I’m currently on.  We started in Portland, so I’m including it in the stats, and then headed down to LA and then Phoenix.  Here’s how each ranks.

Phoenix is a lot larger than the last time I checked.  But this is the beginning of my analysis of densities and such between the cities.  Los Angeles has really kicked off further interest to understand that city.  Simply, I knew the reputation LA has wasn’t accurate, but how did the city get to be known as a sprawling catastrophe of a city?  Was it because of movies like “Escape from Los Angeles”?  I am still not sure, but am going to start digging up more information.

That’s it for now.  More analysis of Phoenix to come later.

I am truly impressed by the Phoenix Community’s ongoing support of the light rail system.  Phoenix almost, maybe it does, outdo Portland in support of light rail these days.  Either way, it seems oddly amazing that a city known as a blight* upon America, is working so hard and diligently to become an impressive and modern city.  All of the below sites can be found by a simple search on Google of Phoenix Rail Life.

Here's a look at some of the Phoenix Community’s efforts:

• Light Rail Blogger: I'll admit it, Tony’s site is one of my favorite.  He has a real human element about his entire blog and life going car-less in a city not so well known for car-less survivability.
• Downtown Phoenix Journal:  This is a new blog read to me.  But obviously is connected to efforts for successful light rail and urban lifestyles.  Enabling people to really step up in life.  It is an impressive site – I dig it.
• Rail Life:  This is one of the first sites I saw pop up related to Phoenix Light Rail.  As per the topic of this blog entry, Rail Life’s Blog has an entry on activities in Phoenix.  This is a common thing to see on this and the other blogs.
• Light Rail Hot Spots:  This is just a one off page, but still it is a site of interest.

This is something that I think Portland should really endeavor to improve, and which I would be more than happy to kick off.  Is there anyone else out there who could kick in some assistance?  Hit me up at adron [@] adronbhall [dot] com.

* I didn’t come up with that adjective, a local Portland resident tossed me the word blight when I asked for a description of Phoenix, Arizona while riding about on our newly opened Green Line.

The downtown Portland transit mall is sort of like BRT.  It has dedicated right of way solely for use by the buses and light rail.  Outside of the transit mall we have several other places leading into town where the buses break off from traffic and are in bus only lanes.  These lanes work exceptionally well in most places.

Powell Street – Powell Street leading to the Powell and Milwaukee, and from Powell and Milwaukee to about 800ft. before the Ross Island Bridge both have areas of bus only right of way.  The lanes are however not separated by any physical device, and often there are wandering cars or trucks that roll into the lane causing delays and such.

Hawthorne/Madison – Leading up to the Hawthorne Bridge there is a lane for almost the length of Madison that has a bus only lane for certain hours of the day.  I believe it ends at 9:00am, but it also works very effectively against congestion.

I ponder where else there might be places for BRT style break outs like this.  Are there any other routes in the area that could directly benefit from dedicated lanes, or possibly even separated dedicated BRT style right of ways?

While heading home tonight on the #9 at the end of fare-less square a, gasp, fare inspector boarded and checked everyone's fare.  Of course, as expected everyone on the bus had valid fare.  I think 95% of fare evasion occurs on the MAX, since it is inherently more vulnerable.  The inspector was one of the newer guys for sure, I haven’t seen him before and I think at some point I’ve met every fare inspector on the system that has been working more than 3-4 years.

The fare inspector popping on and off the bus was cool, but what got me writing this entry is pondering what the return on investment is for one form of transport over another.  The obvious answer is simply, it depends.  Measuring transport based solely on one measurement, such as per rider, per mile, per gallon, or otherwise doesn’t really tell one anything about returns.  A person, a town or city, or society gets when people travel by one mode or don’t travel by a particular mode varies depending on too many factors that I won’t even begin to list them.

For instance, New York gains billions by slight changes in subway efficiency or a couple lines being shut down for a few days.  Meanwhile, Portland loses service during the winter for days on end, and it doesn’t cause a blip on anyone’s radar outside of Portland.

Another thought, what happens if a couple major Interstates shutdown.  Let’s say the I-405 shuts down in LA.  The city becomes crippled beyond operation, at least, that segment of LA, which is by far a vast segment of LA.  If one Interstate shuts down like that in New York, barely a word would be mentioned outside the city.  But if part of the subway system is shut down, it would make world news.  Why?  Because in LA the Interstates are the primary mode of transport, in New York the transit is how one gets in and out of that city.

In both cities, one mode over another would obviously add or subtract differing positives and negatives.  If New York had an Interstate cut into its heart, it would probably lose more money than it could ever gain from Interstate access.  But add a Subway, and local values skyrocket and billions are netted just from the ridership.  Do the same in LA and nobody notices.  Just ask an average American about the subways in LA, they probably won’t even know they have one.

Either which way, it makes one ponder what are the best avenues of investment for the Portland area.  Overall I see TriMet & Metro making some good steps in the right direction, but there are some that do concern me.

So I get the photo of the week from Sound Transit and read the RSS feeds.  I must commend Sound Transit on their efforts to really get information out there, it seems, they surpass TriMet in this endeavor.  I also can’t help but feel it is the low key nature of Portland that TriMet gets this from, but should step out and take the lead on these efforts.  As I mentioned previously, it would be awesome if TriMet tried to actively coordinate high ridership needs against opportunities such as shows, sports events, etc.  I suppose they do it some, but I barely see any of it via their website.  This should really change.

However, check out some of these bits from Sound Transit.

Here’s a shot of a Sounder Train arriving.  Just think of all those auto f-tards that say nobody rides the train.  Seriously, you auto nuts, look at that image and say that again?  700 people where on that train!  That’s efficient movement of people.  Each passenger consumed the equivalent  of a Prius stuffed with 4 people – but oh wait, they had the use of space, someone else drove em’, and…  oh hell, the train just kicks driving's tail.  All of these people can consume alcohol and not have a care in the world, they won't get arrest for DUI after the game!

Anyway, enough of my ranting on the stupidity of driving and the awesomeness of taking the train, it is however kind of a no brainer in this situation.

In other Sound Transit news, there will be some rocking, head banging trains heading to Tacoma Dome for the AC/DC show coming up.  Of course, this is a no brainer too, because how is somebody going to go to an AC/DC show and not drink?  That’s insane, so jump on the train, have a case o’ beer, and take the train home.  That is THE life of luxury right there.

The last tidbit of Sound Transit news is about their light rail.  It hasn’t hit the ridership level of our Blue Line here in PDX, but it has already surpassed the Yellow Line or Red Line respectively.  At over 12k per day already, and on some days well surpassing that.  This is all without the line not even being 100% done.  The airport extension still has to open later this year, which will easily bump it up another 500-1500 per day.  I do think that Sound Transit will hit their ridership expectations of 29k by middle of 2010 as they’ve suggested.  Which will still have them just shy of our Blue Line, however by the middle of 2011 I’m pretty sure they’ll surpass Blue Line Ridership and start needing those 3 car LRV Trains.  Good thing they’ve planned for that, we’re stuck with 2 car trains in PDX unless we blow billions upgrading the entire system.  I believe, even though I need to check, that Sound Transit has blown past their bus route ridership leaders with the start of the Link Light Rail.

…and my last tidbit of info, or rant more like it is simply a message to Sound Transit, “Fix the damn ticketing on the LINK!!!!”   It is annoying as hell.  Even the local media has picked this up!  I know, I know, it isn’t THAT complicated, but the problem is that it is complicated for any new rider.  Sound Transit & TriMet both have this issue of confusing ticketing.  I’m still one for the “buy a ticket for each ride” because it just can’t get screwed up.

In addition to all this, Seattle is much more of a 24hr city, and in turn, runs their light rail and buses many more hours than PDX (which really isn’t smart form a $$ perspective for TriMet, so I can’t blame em’).

So that is some tidbits that I’ve picked up recently, and I just love that Sound Transit plays with the community this way.  I long for TriMet to reach out a little bit more in this regard.

Soon to come I hope to get the website write up done and published – I’ve got a number of sites to review still.  So stay tuned and keep enjoying the ole’ Transit Sleuth’s work.  :)

http://trimet.org/news/farelesschange.htm

TriMet has officially nipped all fareless square buses in the bud.  Start January of 2010 there is no more fareless square as we know it.  Only rail (which I’d rather it have gone paid only also) will be fareless.  I suspect this will generate a few extra million per year (contrary to the absurd claims it would only recoup about 900k) and will also prove that the riders of fareless square aren’t what some have said they are.

I for one, say good riddance, maybe those downtown can pick up taking transit without as much fear of the transients, bums, and ghetto kiddies wondering aimlessly around harassing riders.

…well, maybe.  But either way, good riddance.