So I see over on the debates at Portland Transport, Chris Smith's Blog on transit stuff, the ongoing complaint among many of the commenter that the transit is all focused on downtown. Irony being I'm over here fussing about downtown north south service that doesn't exist, but I'm not going to harp on that right now, I want to tackle some thoughts on the non-Portland area transit.
There is often complaints that Beaverton, Hillsboro, Forest Grove, Gresham, and other cities in the area aren't served very well. So I decided to start looking at these cities as stand alone, as if they weren't near a big city and see what kind of transit they would have then. Just to clarify, before I start on this, I support more and better service to these outlying cities but am just not sold on them being under-served. By the end of this Internet surfing and the below blog entry, maybe I'll have found data to alter my idea (and humble opinion).
First off let's hit Forest Grove.
Forest Grove
Sources
Facts
- Estimated Population: 22,775
- Nearest Large City: 25 miles away (Portland)
- Total Size: 4.7 Square Miles of which .1 is water. (This number seems incorrect)
Transit
- Frequent Bus Service, Bus No. #57, Every 15 minutes during day. Service until 2:30 am
Let's compare first to Centralia, Washington
Centralia & Chehalis
Sources:
Facts
- Estimated Population: 14,742 w/ Chehalis about 21,799.
- Nearest Large City: Tacoma, WA which is about 80-90 miles away
- Total Size: 7.5 Square Miles
Transit
- Route 12 hourly from about 6"ish" to 7"ish"
- Route 30 hourly from about 6"ish" to 7"ish"
- Route 21 hourly from about 6"ish" to 7"ish"
- Route 22 hourly from about 6"ish" to 7"ish"
So just looking at those two areas, because Forest Grove is vastly smaller than Centralia & Chehalis with supposedly the same people the number of buses in and out of the downtown areas are similar, about 4 buses per hour.
Considering the sprawling nature of Chehalis and Centralia it is amazing they really have any service. It is also amazing they have any service because they really don't get the hand outs that the feds toss out like TriMet and Portland do, and by inheritance Forest Grove. So overall, the service is almost the exact same, except that in Forest Grove there is somewhere to go, Portland.
With this comparison of the smaller cities that this, "TriMet only serves downtown" argument is leveled at I'm going to move on to some of the larger cities. Let's tackle Hillsboro.
Hillsboro
Sources
Facts
- Estimated Population: 88,300
- Nearest Large City: Portland, about 15 miles away.
- Total Size: 23.15 Square Miles
Transit
Bend
Sources
Facts
- Estimated Population:
- Nearest Large City: Portland, a long ways away - I didn't feel like looking this up.
- Total Size: 32.2 Square Miles
Transit - Bend Area Transit - It states only 7 routes, but lists them as 8 on their site.
All together, the situation is fairly similar here. Even though Hillsboro has a slight bit more people, it has a proportionally higher number of buses & light rail coming through downtown. The overall throughput, if including the MAX is multitudes over Bend that is far in excess of the population proportional differences and the size of the area.
In both cases, Portland's satellite cities, at least in these two comparisons have better service, arguably very much better service. The throughput, frequency, quality of bus and reliability is much higher than the other cities. Of course in the defense of Bend and Centralia/Chehalis they don't get the hand outs, have the vast tax base, nor the much higher average income for their citizenry that Portland does. But that is what happens when one compares such things.
Overall I'm not seeing factual evidence of the surrounding areas of Portland being under-served. If anything they receive, as TriMet is known for, much better service than most cities in this country provide.
I will, as I always say, agree that service can be vastly improved over what it is. But that then leads into the political argument of how we can make it better, because in the end, it takes money. Lots of money.
...and please, don't leave a comment with the absurd statement of, "it's all about money". Because ideologically, philosophically, and factually it IS all about money because we don't trade FREAKING SHEEPS AND DONKEYS anymore. So hopefully some of the argument that TriMet, Metro, PDC, and Portland in general don't work to serve the surrounding areas can be put to rest. Fact is, they're served pretty good in relation to any other areas in the country when compared in a mostly apples to apples comparison.