SW Corridor - What now?

18-month Plan extension: 

More questions than answers at Monday's meeting. 

The SW Corridor Steering Committee changed direction on Monday and out the whole project on a slower schedule in order to give it a more "local" focus.  Since both Tigard and Tualatin voters now require a public vote in order to spend money on a High Capacity Transit (HCT) system in their cities, the Plan has come to a screeching halt while Metro can figure out how to "sell" it to the locals. (Read about the meeting in the December 9, 2014 Portland Tribune.)

The main questions to be answered now are the same as they were before Metro started this process years ago:

• Where will it go?
• How will the project be funded?
• Will it be a light rail (LRT) or Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system?

Now they have added:
What do local citizens want?  

This should have been determined first; The public should not have had to launch initiative campaigns in order to have a say in the future of their towns.  That right should have been in their cities' charters from the beginning. Ours too.

Many people testified Monday that a HCT system would alleviate congestion problems on Hwy. 99W while many others felt that whatever congestion relief there would be would be offset by more congestion.  For every pro there was a con.  Is this project really the best way to move people around?  I'm still holding out for more bus routes and more frequent service, express busses at peak travel times, and synchronized signaling.  There are some pretty neat busses out there!

Interestingly, for all the babble of how great public transit is, USC could not find one person who used it to get to the meeting.  It would have only taken me 52 minutes to get to the meeting on a bus.  Are they all too busy to take a chunk of time out of their day to make that kind of commitment?  Mass transit is for the masses, not for the elite.

The SW Corridor Plan isn't just a HCT system.  In the next 18-months, Metro planners will finalize their current list of accompanying bike and pred projects that are the second part of the HCT package.    Bet you didn't know about that.  I didn't.

Shared Investment Strategy:

Lake Oswego pulled out of the SW Corridor Steering Committee and the functions of the group last year because the transit system did not cross over to this side of I-5.  Formerly the city had committed to several projects.  What will Lake Oswego do with these ideas?  Were these projects ones the city had planned for without the SW Corridor Plan in place?  I look at the park project and wonder if the city was or is planning on turning Waluga Park into a more regionally-focused park with new development nearby - maybe dense development along Kruse Way?.  Just a thought.

• Improvements for healthy waterways
• New nature park - approx. 30 acres
• New children's play area
• Ped and bike paths and trails

I hope to bring you an updated map of the Bundle of Plan Projects soon.

The important thing to remember about any HCT and trail/pedestrian/bike path project is that they are for development purposes rather than efficient transportation.  If there the transit portion won't produce the positive ridership and lowered congestion Metro claims, it was never the plan in the first place.  Transit has always been about what encouraging developers to build in defined transit-oriented developments.  HCT is a powerful selling tool and one lending institutions like to see. In essence, we are paying for a developer's profit to build where Metro wants us to live.  

USC NOTE:  I like to provide links to publications or websites referenced in the blog posts, but the link function is not working.  Information here is from Metro website and meeting handouts, and the Portland Tribune.