Tag / bus

by Adron

Calling Transit & Bike Portlanders

Hello all, I’m putting together a project that will kick off a set of blog entries across various Portlander’s (or anybody’s blogs for that matter) blogs. I’d like to do the following:

#1
Setup a transit ride on any of the lines that points out some of the best new amenities in the city’s system.

#2
Setup a bike ride on any major route that shows great street improvements, bicycle safety changes or features, and other characteristics.

Combine the results of either of the above into a set of blog entries from each person’s perspective of the trip.

So who is in?

by Adron

The Green Line Gets Car Free

Recently I was hanging out downtown and heard an interesting story over beer. It happens to be that the Green Line has achieved, for some, the ultimate. There are people living in Clackamas that have gone car free by choice! Truly amazing, America is slowly evolving past addiction. It is slow going, but it is starting to grow. Watching this ground swell of change is amazing.

To note, this could have happened with the bus lines, but it was however much less likely. Light rail enables and encourages people to drop their cars and focus on livability in ways that buses cannot and will never achieve. Buses are important, but they are not agents of change.

by Adron

Measuring Things…

Portland

Seattle

Other interesting facts are the distance people travelled (shorter is generally better for a more sustainable environment and activities), the energy consumed or expended per passenger, etc. Some of these are hard to find, some are a little easier. King County and TriMet do a decent job providing this data, mostly. TriMet has a vastly easier website to find data on vs. King County’s, which seems to have been forced to use the “how not to build a website book”. I’m sure some bureaucrat had some say in the misguided approach, but the data is there, ya just gotta dig for it.  🙂

by Adron

Nothing Like Sexy Women on Classic Transit

A blog I read regularly, Transit Zac, just posted a great blog entry of antique transit that’s set for disposal that become the scene of a great photo shoot. I’ve seen a few other shoots over the years, as the old vehicles are great for that playful and coy look of a tom boy. So give Zac’s post a read, and be sure to check out the other shots on Bess’s Blog too as I’m sure you will.

Zee Bus

Zee Bus

Happy riding.

by Adron

SR-520 in 6 Months

So what I want to know is…

  • Will SR-520 see a traffic reduction over the 6 month phase in/test period of tolling?
  • Will SR-520 Become easier to traverse?
  • Will the tolling actually cover the percentage of the bridge fix/addition that is being done?

I’m hoping to see a reduction in traffic, know that drivers are paying a greater percentage of their cost on society (at an actual user basis instead out of the notorious general budget funds). Anyone else got an opinion on this?

My other hope is that the traffic reduction provides the possibility of actually getting across via a more dedicated and dependable time frame on the bus. Seriously, Seattle could just build a bridge dedicated to buses and it would carry an insane number of people and would only need 2 lanes.