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.

Just a few photos of my coffee run from today.  I was out of grounds, so off to the streetcar.

Victory, Colombia El Jordan.  Excellent beans!

The streetcar zooms into focus, and yes, it was actually zooming up to the stop relative to its normal speed.

Clarity of the drops on the window with the haze of the world beyond.

Twisting around the corner, the front leads the rear of the streetcar.

Friday the 20th, 2009, at 4:20pm (yes, 4:20) I boarded the Clackamas bound Green Line at Pioneer Square.  I’d knocked out a solid 43+ hour week and stepped out a little early for a ride about.

The LRV set was a Type-4 Style, and arrived with about 15% seated occupancy.  At Pioneer Square that increased to approximately 45% occupancy.  The Type-4 set rolled on and by our departure from Lloyd Center had well over 98% seated occupancy and about 8 people standing.  This would have made 100% seated if those few would have sat down, but alas, people tend to stand often even when seats are available.

At this time of day there is a wide slice of Portland’s population riding the transit.  From the American Indian Mother with her two children, behaving exceptionally well I might add, to the Grandmother with her grand daughter going for a ride about also.  There where other people in this melting pot of a train, all riding cordially and quietly.  The new Type-4 set riding very smooth as expected.  With this many people even the door gaps are dampened.

By 60th there were a few more people on the light rail, and 100% seated occupancy.  The real question is how many will this Green Line Train have once we pass Gateway Transit Center.  Being the Banfield Corridor that the Green shares with the Red and Blue Line is easy to fill up with people, it is interesting how many people continue to ride in these shared Interstate Corridors.

#72, What’s the Word?

This brings up the question, has anyone seen legitimate fluctuations in the #72 Route that could honestly be contributed to the opening of the Green Line?  So far, everything I had seen points to the Green Line being almost entirely new ridership, taking away only a little from the bus routes (maybe 60% or so new riders, that weren’t previously bus riders).  I’d be curious to know if TriMet has any surveys being prepared to determine the makeup of people on the Green Line in this regard, and if they’re doing the same for their most ridden Bus Line the #72.

Jammed @ I-205

When the Green rolled into Gateway Transit Center, we crossed over the parking lot referred to as I-205.  The 3 lanes of Interstate I-205 were jammed pack with cars, moving at maybe 5-15mph.  Well below the peak capacity of parking lot 30mph movement.  The PSU bound Green Line was just departing as we slid into our platform slot at the transit center.  That train was at 95% plus seated capacity with many people standing also.

At this point we departed the transit center with my question answered.  We had 94% seated occupancy with 7 people standing.  Not bad really, being this stands as some pretty serious ridership for the Green Line only portion of the light rail line.

Considering the Green Line is handling this capacity, the I-205 is a parking lot moving under capacity, and the Red Line is handling a respective capacity itself, it appears obvious that as a society we have a long ways to go in cleaning up the transport of people at rush hour.  There really ought to be a better effort to distribute working hours better, the whole 9-5 concept in modern times is very lacking.

The Questions

These observations leave me with a few key questions still about the Green Line and light rail in the Portland area.

1. When will light rail ridership exceed bus ridership for the system?  My guess is it will possibly exceed bus ridership when employment begins to resume higher numbers and will absolutely exceed bus ridership when the Milwaukee MAX opens.
2. How will the anti-light rail argument change as more of the lines surpass 20+ years and prove themselves cheaper over the long term than BRT or bus lines, thus providing more throughput at lower cost than comparative bus operations?  My guess is that the argument will continue unabated, something completely new will alter the argument entirely (like flying cars or something crazy), or the argument will change to be made on a different primary point – ala – a train is stuck on tracks or something.
3. What alterations will take place to the surrounding bus service when the travel patterns are better understood with the addition of the Green Line?  My guess is that some of the lines will be altered ever so slightly to meet with the train better.

TOD Potential

Even though ridership is fairly solid on the Green Line, even surpassing my rather lowball estimates, there are few areas that seem available for real and easily accessible TOD (Transit Oriented Development).  The only areas that seem to have feasible land to build TOD on are the Foster, Flavel, and Clackamas Stops.  The Flavel and Foster stops have two major issues impeding some development, the fact that the Interstate consumes a vast and large parcel of land.  The Clackamas stop simply has the problem of pavement.  The entire stop is surrounded by monstrous paved areas; the Interstate to one side, the mall parking lot on the other, and more of the same nonsense to the south of the stop.  Making the area a massive, almost un-walkable, mediocre area.  Fuller Road seems to have potential, but it also have the pavement problem and has less anchoring it than the Clackamas stop.

I-205 Still Jammed & Arrival Home

After making the full route I stayed aboard as other crowded back onto the train for the downtown trip.  Again, the train filled up, approximately 75% seated capacity with about a half dozen people standing.  It always amazes me that there are always those so hard headed that they’re just going to stand no matter what.  As if standing on transit is some type of novel thing to do.  Either way, whatever the case, the trip back downtown wasn’t nearly as packed as the outbound trip.  Many of the people were teenagers heading downtown to go loiter at Lloyd Center or Pioneer Square Mall.  Matter of fact, as I had assumed months back, much of the Green Line passengers are teenagers, probably more so than any of the other MAX Lines.

The ride went smoothly, except for a few hiccups in the breaking, which made it seem we had hit someone.  Some loud teens got on at Lloyd Center and found the braking hilarious, assuming we’d hit something.  I thought it was funny that they fell into a stupor of stupidity and found entertainment in it.  They ended up getting off a mere 2 stops later to go smoke some pot.  I knew I had picked up some smell of the ganja.

I made it back downtown and walked the last 2 blocks home from the last stop.  A simple ride about, entertaining, enjoyable, and a nice slice of humanity to observe.  It is truly amazing what you can learn from a simple ride around on transit.

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.

This will be the last weekend we use the #9 as our primary transit mode into downtown, because by next weekend we will be downtown.  We’re heading out at the moment to get some lunch at Isabel’s in the Pearl.  This place has superb food, excellent quality, and downright great prices by Pearl standards!

Here’s our trip path at 23 minutes.

By next weekend our trip will be as follows at 15 minutes.

Off to some grub now.  Coming soon will be some of those controversial questions getting thrown around again, so be prepared!

Jo & I met after work about 5:00pm at Floyd’s Coffee in downtown Portland, specifically at 1st & Couch.  Map location included below (thx Google maps).

While sitting there we decided tonight ought to be a good night to go catch the new 2012 movie.  Being that Jo and I, thanks in large part to Portland, have become theater snobs we wanted to go see it at a local theater we could get beer and grub at.  We had checked earlier in the week to see what was playing, and St Johns Theater was going to be opening the movie tonight.  This theater ROCKS!  It serves beer, pizza, and the normal items expected at a movie theater.  The difference is it is local, serves local pizza and beer, and isn’t one of those corporate theaters that is…  I won’t go on about how or why we don’t like those big theaters.

So we did a quick scoping of the bus trip, and realized we where a block away form a single seat bus trip right to the theater!

It was definitely going to be a trip worthy of a movie adventure!  So at 7:09pm we’d board the #44 Bus to St Johns.  That would get us to the theater at 7:44pm, in perfect time to get tickets, get some seats, sip on a few pitchers of beer, and nibble at some pizza.  The movie stands at a whopping 2 hours and 38 minutes, which will put us out the doors, happy with beer & pizza in our bellies at about 10:50pm.  I did a check of what our options were for departure at that time.  The ideal one for Jo and I is another single seat ride from St Johns all the way home.  This trip will be a long 76 minutes on the #4.

For some of those auto bound individuals out there in the world, they may read this and think, “why the hell would anyone want to travel about an hour each way to see a movie?”  First off, many people travel an hour by car to see a movie.  Depending on their own stupidity and the conditions in which they live, it isn’t entirely uncommon.  But in a car that is an hour of time that there are simply two options; talk and carry on or listen to the radio.  At least those are basically the two legal options.  I suppose one person could read, or do something of that sort.  But the even more likely scenario is that people end up in their SOV (single occupancy vehicle) alone, limited to the radio and talking to one self, driving to meet others.

On transit Jo and I get many more options.  We can listen to our headphones, talk to others (there ARE interesting people on transit, which people would realize if they got out of their cars and met their neighbors), I can spec out a Space Marines Army, Jo can knit the gauntlets she is making for Alex, we can talk among ourselves, read a book, watch a movie on the bus (yup, there are these things called iPhone & iPods, that play video! gasp!).  [Image to the right is one set of gauntlets Jo made, if you’re interested just click on the image.  It links to ravelry which you can join for many patterns and such]

All things that are basically illegal or impossible to do in a car.  So really, when it comes down to it, the bus ride is just hanging out, while the car ride is wasted time.  More of one’s life drained away in fed radio media, limited activity, and often spent fuel, more waste, and all those other negatives to boot.

Jo & I don’t have that issue.  Just FYI, we’re free of those limitations.  So maybe the real issue isn’t why we limit or work so hard to use transit, but why do people try so hard and limit themselves to just auto transport?  Really, it boils down to the eye of the beholder.  If we want to even further distance ourselves from the noose of the automobile we can use our bikes, which again, some would be astonished, but they shouldn’t be.

Anyway, a drink awaits me, and some chilling on the bus, and a movie.  Kick ass. :)

Complete Itinerary:

Walk 0.15 mile northwest from 118 NW Couch St to NW Everett & 2nd (Stop ID 1612)
7:09 p.m. Board 44 Mocks Crest to St Johns
7:44 p.m. Get off at N Lombard & Baltimore
Walk southeast to 8704 N Lombard St
Travel time: 41 minutes (including 6 minutes walking)

Movie:  2012   -   2hrs 38 Minutes

Walk northwest from 8704 N Lombard St to N Lombard & Baltimore (Stop ID 8480)
11:07 p.m. Board 4 Division/Fessenden to Gresham TC via Portland city ctr 
which continues as 4 Division to Gresham TC
12:16 a.m. Get off at SE Division & 20th
Walk 0.4 mile south to 3137 SE 21st Ave
Travel time: 83 minutes (including 14 minutes walking)

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.]

I knew there would probably be more, it isn’t like people are actually becoming re-employed.  Most of the people who pay the taxes (i.e. upper incomes) that actually pay the bulk of TriMet’s costs haven’t increased employment in the area either.  So no matter what way one looks at things, more cuts are coming.

So I wasn’t terribly surprised when I saw this list of frequency cuts.  But at the same time I wanted to know when this list came up.  Rightfully they haven’t cut any rush hour services on these routes, but even these off hours seem like they’re really starting to stretch for areas to cuts.  I know also that MAX isn’t in this round of cuts, and rightfully so as it is cheap to operate compared to buses.  Going car-less and moving back downtown is definitely going to help cope with these cuts, as I will barely need transit for anything really, but it is getting kind of awkward.

It seems TriMet needs to get a grip on things and maybe start cutting something besides actual transit service.

$1.8 Billion for ALMOST 10k jobs (re: Oregonian)

That pans out to $180,000 dollars per job – WTF?!  I doubt many of those are economically sustainable, useful, or even needed.  The bailouts are extending our uselessness as a nation and perpetuating our inability to generate actual wealth (i.e. create something vs. just shift money around).  These types of numbers, also not surprising, are still unsettling no matter how prepared I am for them.

As Oregon has blown through $1.8 Billion, and gotten dozens of millions for random work around the transit system, the state can’t seem to manage to get a measly $23-26 million to TriMet to stave off these service reductions.  Yo, politicians WTF are you doing?  You guys break laws and distort all sorts of legal lines to push money into less legitimate things than transit all the time.  Get on the ball and get the buses moving again – at least on the frequent service lines.

Anyway, that’s all I got for today.  Go have fun on Halloween…  because I’m just loitering about and observing the mayhem!  : )

Ticket Taking Process #1

Sunset Limited – Boarding the Sunset Limited in Los Angeles Union Station the car attendants looked at the tickets at the door, but didn’t take them.  One aboard and in our roomettes the attendant then came and took the tickets.  I pulled the receipt part of the ticket since I usually always do so to expedite the archaic ticket taking practice that Amtrak follows still.  The attendant in Los Angeles also assigned the room that was not specified on the ticket.

In Maricopa the attendant that was changing out with the crew came around and took everyone’s tickets, and handed us our receipts.  In both of these situations nobody clipped or otherwise marked the tickets so that they would show as being used.  The time, train, and origination and destination where specific and technically, the ticket is either used or not.  Again, the attendant did not put us in the room that was on the ticket.  This time we did receive a reason why we were being given another roomette instead of the assigned one.

Ticket Taking Process #2

Coast Starlight – Boarding in Portland we enter the First Class Lounge which is basically a waiting room with nicer amenities.  The lounge attendant took our tickets, handing us the receipts.  Again, no other marks or specific directions.  He gave us a room and car assignment in station.  When we boarded, we got another room assignment than the ticket.  This boarding had us go through a total of 2 assignments, before we finally got our actual assignment.  It isn’t really a big deal, it is just ridiculously stupid to need that much busy work for the process.  In reality we shouldn’t even need but ONE room assignment and we don’t need anyone to help us get into or out of the room.

Ticket Taking Process #3

Pacific Surfliner – Boarding in Santa Ana to come north into Los Angeles.  The tickets are unreserved and completely unorganized.  There is no actual seating, you just get on and fumble until you find a seat.  The conductor then comes through the train at some point, takes the tickets (and don’t you dare take the receipts off ahead of time) and clips the tickets and the receipts.  The conductor requested, after I had removed the receipts, that she clip the receipts and that the tickets wouldn’t be valid without the receipts.  It seems beyond stupid to sell unreserved tickets on a train that has reserved seating – at least, that’s what the cars are designed for.  Again, a complete failure for Amtrak to once again be logical.  I do understand that the tickets are not for a particular train, but they are for a particular day, and if I just handed them to her they should NOT BE available to any other customers.  This flow of process is again, stupid.  It doesn’t follow a smooth, coherent, or streamlined process at all.  In many ways, several of the steps are even redundant.

Pacific Surfliner – Boarding again in Santa Ana to come north, a few days before the above mentioned trip.  I removed the receipts from the tickets in front of the conductor.  He clipped the tickets, did NOT ask or take the receipts to clip, and carried on.  Why this is different than the seating before?

The Historical Facts

So really, what is the deal.  This little annoyances don’t really detract from the trip, they just add a bit of confusion to the adventure itself.  For some people, it is reason to be turned away and not try to take the train.  For some people it really ticks them off, since the processes are dissimilar between trains run by the same Government Corporation, Amtrak.  The illogical breaks in the process sow these seeds of frustration and absolutely need fixed.  So Amtrak Execs, get your acts together and get this done.  The disparities are absolutely unnecessary and are wasting Amtrak’s/Taxpayers’ Monies.  One might think these little things don’t add much cost, but they easily add up to thousands upon thousands of dollars of wasted USEFUL employee time.

Amtrak, when it formed, was supposed to fix many of this frustrations, and as is apparent, has barely updated its trains let alone many of its other processes.  I do commend Amtrak on the online ticketing, but still, they have a major labor force that consists of doing unnecessary menial labor and could be utilized doing things that are vastly more important than running what, appears to be, dysfunctional passenger trains.

Overall everyone of our trains was ok, some where great, and some where rather exceptional.  So far, my ratings for the various trains I’ve been on in the last 4 years.  I put an * by the ones that where used recently on the PHX/LAX trip.

Anyone else got any Amtrak stories?  I hate to give em’ gruff all the time, but really, these things should have much smoother and simplified process around them.  The complexities that the archaic ticketing and seating processes currently used are completely, without doubt, unacceptable and should be resolved ASAP.

Sunday Night, Monday, and Tuesday Jo and I spent in downtown Phoenix at the San Carlos.  Meeting other people, seeing the wedding, and eating Brazilian in the burbs was all awesome.  But otherwise, the suburbs sucked in so many ways I would have to start another blog about all the ways that suburbs suck.  Economically, environmentally, efficiency, education, and by about every other measure, suburbs truly bring out the mediocrity in humanity.  But really, I digress, it was awesome meeting everyone in burbia and hope they come visit Portland soon so they can be effectively turned away from the soul sucking entrenchment of the burbs’.

So what happened on day #10 & 11, well Jo and I left the suburbs.  We left for the urban life style of downtown Phoenix.  We got some help from Tony (lightrailblogger) and Nick (raillife) to find the elements that allow one to live  without the ever tightening noose of the auto oriented lifestyle.  Out of all the places we went to, these really stuck out in our minds as places that just kick ass!  :)

Gallo Blanco

Gallo Blanco was amazing.  We actually ended up going back to Gallo Blanco because it rocked so much.  This place is something we honestly did not expect in Phoenix.  Our assumption, especially after all the milling about in the suburbs was suburban food, which rarely breaks from big generic corporate food.  Think Applebee’s, TGI Friday’s, and all that crap.  But this was a slice of sanity, a bit of beauty, taste, elegance, modern, and above all Gallo Blanco was delicious.

The Clarendon Hotel

The Gallo Blanco is located within the Clarendon Hotel.  This hotel has a somewhat grisly history.  A reporter was killed by car bomb by a mafia operative in the parking lot of the building in the 70s.  In one of the hallways they have the descriptive story of what happened.

The Clarendon has a super modern, minimalistic, and artsy.  The hotel was absolutely stunning.  The outer facing of the hotel seems at first glance to be somewhat boring.  With a white and slightly blue striped design the outside is a single face.  Without too many windows facing outwards from the building.  However upon stepping inside the hotel has a liveliness in the central courtyard.  There is a pool with an artsy design to it.  In the center of the L shaped pool there is a multi-colored separation that disconnects the pool ever so slightly from the short part of the L, which is a hot tub of massive size!  The rooms all face from a balcony walkway into this courtyard.

We toured through two of the rooms, the largest and mid-sized room.  The large room had a living room type area with a couch, coffee table, and TV, with the bedroom in the back room.  The windows that faced external to the building and internally toward the pool both had no blinds.  Instead, large pieces of art display over the window on sliders, sort of an industrial design.  These could be pushed aside to view either direction.  The rooms had various amenities one would expect, the difference being they were artfully designed and used modern pieces for the vanity and other parts of the hotel room.  The mid-size room was basically the same styling and amenities, except a bit smaller and under a single space.

Jo and I both decided that upon our next trip, we’d definitely be staying at the Clarendon Hotel on our next trip!

The San Carlos Hotel

We stayed these nights in the San Carlos, which is definitely in the urban core were as The Clarendon is a few stops from the core and a block off from the light rail (which remember, a block in Phoenix is about 4 blocks in Portland).  The San Carlos also has a pool on the roof, which is rad.  Even though it was a nice hotel, one has to be in the mood for a boutique hotel to stay here.  If you are in that mood, I’d definitely suggest it!

Tempe Transit Center & the Bike Cellar

I managed to travel to the Tempe Transit Center twice.  Once myself, and once with Jo and I both gallivanting about.  The first time when I went, I merely took a few photos of various vehicles pulling into and out of the transit center during operations.  Very nice transit center, but this first trip didn’t expose what really makes it unique.

Jo & I went back, on Tuesday, to check out the part that really makes the Tempe Transit Center unique.  The Bike Cellar is located in the transit center building on the ground floor.  The Bike Cellar is this awesome, secure, clean area of the center that is operated for bicyclists to have access to bike parking and showers.  In addition there are lockers, tools, and other services.  In addition the owner even sells bikes if you’re in the market for one.

One of the things I love about the Bike Cellar is that this is a private business run by people that have a real passion for the bicycle lifestyle.  This isn’t some random experiment from some random Government Department.  This I find ideal, real private interest and involvement in connecting and working toward a connected populace that doesn’t involve building massive roads that expand over vast tracts of land.  A beautiful idea!

While speaking to the owners of the Bike Cellar and mentioned that this is something that should absolutely be built in Portland.  After closer thought, there are a few issues to getting something like this built in Portland.  For one, I’m not sure how TriMet would work with a private business trying to provide a service in a transit center.  In downtown, there just isn’t all that much space, making it difficult to build out something like this.

I send all my wishes of success to the Bike Cellar Crew!  I imagine Tempe can really use a service like that, especially in the summer!

Lux Coffee Bar

I have to mention Lux again.  We returned a couple times over the course of our stay.  In addition we even purchased a half pound of beans ground for our French press.  The Stumptown bean supply had run out on our 8th day and the Lux beans provided a great substitute for the remainder of the trip.  In all honesty, Lux produces beans that could compete in Portland – and that is extremely hard to achieve.

Mill Ave & 3rd Street

The Mill Avenue & 3rd Stop of the light rail system exits directly on Mill Avenue.  Mill Avenue is basically a small block, street level commercial business area.  This area is what one desires and expects of a college area.  Lots of awesome niche restaurants, nick nak stores, custom t-shirst, bars, pubs, and more.  I imagine that this area is bumping on Friday and Saturday nights.

Valley Metro Light Rail

Of course, I have to mention the light rail.  This being one of the major things I wanted to see and check out while in town.  I’d been curious that Phoenix, one of the least …  [big list here]  …cities was going to get light rail.  At first I couldn’t help but think, “oh dear, it will for sure be a complete and object failure, the pro-road Republicans Socialists will surely jump all over this when it bombs out”…  but oh was I wrong.  I started studying as they where finishing up the line and saw that it did have some slight potential, it might just succeed.

Well when the light rail opened it exploded into success.  Running every 10 minutes I believe the average per day has been approximately 30,000 trips.  That measures well against our Blue Line, and TriMet’s Blue Line is a little longer even.  Mind you, Phoenix has a lot more potential for ridership growth.  They often run three car LRV trains, the line can handle more trains during the course of a day, and thus a multiplier over what TriMet’s lines run is fairly high.

Overall, the light rail is absolutely well built, which is surprising for a city like Phoenix.  They do have a few distinct advantages such as the high population (4 mil vs. Portland’s barely 2 mil), and the biggest advantage I see is that the line is built on level, flat, easy to build on ground.

Phoenix in Summary

Overall Phoenix has sprawl, the kind that really should be wiped from the face of the earth and replaced with a market based, intelligently built transit system mixed with automobiles that actually compete with each other.  Instead it is a massive Government subsidized sprawl of Interstates and Highways.  The Feds have dumped so much money into Phoenix and Phoenix has suckled upon the teat, feeding upon this cash flow.  However amid this cursed sprawl and disturbingly soulless expanse of ticky tack housing as far as one can see, the urban center of Phoenix exists.  It is beautiful in some regards even, contrary to some commentary.  Here, slowly, a new birth is taking place for Phoenix.  One with culture and humanity, one with life and opportunity, art and design, and heaven forbid, a break of the ticky tack.

Don’t get me wrong, there is still a lot to do before a place like Phoenix can stand upon the grand enclave that Portland exists in, of art, design, life, opportunity, humanity, and culture that only massively larger cities like Chicago, San Francisco, and New York can currently provide.  But Phoenix finally has the infrastructure groundwork laid to become a great city that can harbor and grow a lifestyle that would have these great traits.  I look forward to visiting again, maybe in just a few months, and definitely over the years I’d like to see how the effort is taking root.

But There’s MORE!

That’s right people, Phoenix is not alone in this effort.  The city’s of Tempe and Mesa are also working diligently to gain a foothold in the creative class, the cultured individual, the high earner urbanite.  Tempe has Mill & 3rd, the Tempe Transit Center, and the growing urban core around these two great examples of development.  One of the first expanses, that I’ve heard at least, is that Mesa will finally connect its downtown soon too.  That will be three core urban areas connected by a good effective, highly ridden light rail system.

My best wishes go out to Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa in their efforts to turn their cities into a connected, culturally relevant, livable city within the United States.