I started a series a long while ago about why Portland rocks so much.  It seems I really didn't need to because there are dozens of other people out there doing it for me.  One of those entities is the New York Times.  The paper has printed, or at least blogged/webified numerous articles about parts of Portland that rock.  One of those was the recent write up with Random Order Coffee House as the picture of the emodiment of Albera Street.  You might ask, "alright, Alberta street may be cool, but what has that got to do with transit?"

Oh yeah, this blog is about transit!  Well that's an easy question!

The #72 is net profitable on operations, which is the line that serves Alberat Street.  It is a vital connector for the area, connecting the street to MLK, and other area east and west.  The reason the #72 route is net profitable is because an insane number of people ride the bus on this route.  In the middle of the slowest hours one is likely to see the buses running every 10-15 minutes with at least 20 people, during peak hours they run every 3 minutes, often stacked up with the maximum number of possible passengers loaded on every single bus.  The #72 also connects to 82nd, which is one of the most active streets in Portland for commerce, especially for the Asian, Latino, and African American Populations and they use the bus service extensively!  It is, by far, a route that TriMet would do well to replicate and extend (i.e. get bigger buses for it).  The route could even tangibly run 24hrs a day without losing its net profitability on operations status.

But back to Alberta Street, and the similarities that are seen on this bus route all the time.  The community is lively, vivacious even, and effervescent in connecting with each other.  A large percentage of the residents live, play, and work in the area and use the transit.  They see and interact with each other every day and the bus is part of that.  This interconnectedness of the neighborhood is what makes Alberte one of the great areas in Portland.  The individualism, the creative work, the vitality of life itself among the people in the area is contagious.  So far this has all been done on a citizen basis, by private endeavor, and hopefully the city won't ever try to interfere with what is a well balanced area.  Alberta needs to Gentrification, or no more, it is set.  It is a beauty unto itself.

In addition to the #72 connecting Alberat east and west the #9, #73, #8 and #6 all connect to Alberta in the core and on the edges of the Alberta area.  These routes provide important connections to downtown Portland and to the immediate north and south points of interest.

One last note, is the #72, because it is a bus (not a streetcar) works very well on such a street because on art walk day it is re-routed.  The route is maintained a block north of Alberta because about 20 blocks of the street becomes pedestrian only and is packed with art walkers.  Because of this flexibility, it makes Alberta one more reason Portland kicks your city's a@#!

…and if you read the NYT article you'll see that Portland snagged two individuals from Seattle, because, Portland kicks that city's a@#! too.  🙂

(Please note, it's in jest, so don't go gettin' yerself all fussy that I'm saying your city isn't as kewl as Portland.  Sides, it probably isn't!)  :p 

Today is the day, the bus mall is opening up!  I've heard so much positive vibe about this I'm honestly somewhat surprised.  Everytime I've gotten on a bus in the last 2-3 weeks I've heard mentions of the bus mall opening.  As the date has gotten closer even more exuberance has bubbled up.

A couple chatted about the time they'd save when they come downtown to shop, since the bus mall is better aligned to all the stores they tend to frequent.  Another couple discussed how nice it will be to eat at sidewalk seating without the buses coming by directly on 3rd & 4th.  Another person was talking about how much further from their work they'd have to get off, but they didn't mind and would be happy to walk the extra block.  They followed up that statement with, "but it'll be nice that the bus will actually get through downtown faster so it'll actually be faster even though I have to walk further".

Also the jaywalkers have been getting ticketed and other "Darwin Effect" prevention officers, as I call them, have been out in force trying to get people to realize and know the bus mall will have traffic en force starting this work week.

Overall the negative vide that everything is going to wreck into everything and pedestrians and cyclists will be crushed by LRVs has died a silent death.  Now that people have seen the LRVs running back and forth for a few weeks now, and they've started seeing buses back on the bus mall, the worries have drastically subsided.  I'm in that camp myself, as there is still vast potential for wrecks and death, it is a lot less than I had imagined.  The final judgement will be when operations start this week and the work week resumes after memorial holiday.

I'm pretty stoked, how about you? 

Ok, so TriMet gets these new buses.  TriMet also gets the WES trains.  During the last 3 months I’ve seen and TriMet has received the following.  They’re shorted train vehicles and the buses are breaking down left and right.  I’ve seen no less than 2 busses on a tractor trailer being hauled off for maintenance.  I’ve also seem no less than 5 of the new buses stopped and being worked on.  I’ve only seen 2 of the old buses broken down lately.  In addition to the busted buses the WES Trains have had weeks of downtime and had to call in bridge buses.  WEEKS!  Not days, but weeks of total downtime so far.

I just wanted to blog this observation real quick and then I’ll be back to something interesting again.  Seriously though, has anyone else noticed this?

The light rail trains, the new ones, do however seem to be holding their own.  I haven’t seen them being towed about yet.  Time will tell, but I sure hope TriMet gets their vehicles fixed up and running well.  At this rate it seems we’ll be out a commuter train and down a few dozen new buses.

Per TriMet "Due to mechanical problems, expect about 15 minute delays for WES service. Some trips are being served by buses."

I was hoping the system well, but it looks like things are still not looking up.  This is, I believe, the 3rd interuption in service, and about the 8th to 10th day of service delays for WES.  At this rate, I'm not sure how the system will be validated to run when the contract for service is up.  TriMet has seriously got to get something figured out to get ridership bumped up AND to get the vehicles running properly.  In addition, they're still short the equipment they need to make the WES as efficient as running buses.

Hmpf.  Still the best ride in town, when you can get a working train.  😦

Mood:  Sad. 

I went to school for civil engineering and economics and now work for the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario in the planning and design department (aka Highway Engineering). My job is a mix of design, management, and public correspondence/communication.

One year. I was previously employed by a design-build foundation company.

I live in Toronto, Ontario – up here in the Great White North, Canada.

How I get to work varies every day and somewhat by season.

 

My spring, summer and fall commutes are mainly done by road bike. On the days it rains I will sometimes drive but I'm fortunate enough to be able to be dropped off at the subway by boyfriend. This commute entails a short subway ride followed by two buses.

 

In the winter I switch between driving and subway/bus. I know terrible that I drive but below will explain why.

If I drive to work it is usually because I have left early in the morning, between 6:45 and 7 and it takes me less than 15mins to get to work. If I drive during rush-hour this time is doubled and instead of taking the highway I take city streets.

 

If I bike it is about a 35minute commute – depending on how tired my legs are. The last stretch is a 2mile/3km uphill!

 

I've also run home from work before. I think it took me about an hour and 5 minutes to run home, and I also think I'll be doing that more this summer.

 

If I take transit, and only if my boyfriend drops me off does it take between 35 and 45 minutes. A 5 min subway ride followed by two buses. Jane Street is what depicts my commute times, sometimes its fast and free flowing and sometimes it's a parking lot. The second bus I take is the Wilson bus and sometimes you can wait 10minutes for it to arrive. It usually travels in packs of 2 or 3 buses instead of being spaced out.

If my boyfriend doesn't drop me off it adds an another 15 minutes to my trip.

When I take transit I almost always read. Sometimes I take a few minutes and catch up on email. I also usually have my ipod on.

my bike – every day all year!

I wish I worked in the downtown core and had the option to take the subway and street car to work more often.

In the winter it would affect the number of days that I drove and I would probably take transit more often. It is far to dangerous to bike in Toronto in the winter!