Where are the adults??

Southwest Corridor Plan 




Monday, April 20 Meeting Update
In every family, classroom, youth group and playing field, there are adults around to tell the kids, "That's not reasonable.  It might be a fun idea, but we can't afford it, and it would be too complicated to do it for the benefit we would get, so it won't be considered.  We need to find a better idea."

Where were the adults last night at a meeting for the Southwest Corridor Plan?  Where have they been from the inception of this plan?  Tualatin and Tigard have voted not to spend money on high capacity transit, but even their wishes don't count.  Metro is acting like the big bully in the playground, but it is the pseudo-adult too!  Elected officials from the affected communities, with one exception, Lake Oswego Mayor, Kent Studebaker, have fallen into line with Metro planners on the Southwest Corridor Plan.

The Plan has become ridiculous.  Nothing seems to be out of the realm of possibility.  I can imagine planners sitting around a big table brainstorming, with the public invited to tell them their "wants", and coming up with a plan that looks bad, even on paper.  It's as if someone said, "I think this is a good idea," so it went into the plan.  There are no filters on these guys.

The LRT plan to tunnel under the West Hills to get from the  end of downtown Portland to Hillsdale.  The OHSU station would be 200 feet underground and construction would take out the dental school and a parking garage. (Not kidding - it was on the slide.) The Hillsdale station would be 150 feet deep.  A cut-and-cover tunnel might then be built through a grade school playing field to get to Bertha Blvd.  Another tunnel is an option for PCC.

The BRT could also use the tunnel, so switching to that mode would not automatically reduce costs.  Only surface infrastructure would be cheaper (not cheap), but the "shared investment strategy" would leave participating cities' and state residents on the hook for much of the cost. (Thank you Kent and Lake Oswego City Council!). The BRT would take up 2 lanes of auto traffic for their own, dedicated roadways for about 70-80% of the route, so auto congestion would be worse!  Note:  To get Federal "New Start" grant money, BRT systems must have dedicated lanes for 50% of their route.  The fix is in from the top down.

There is no consideration of road improvements, even though travel time differences won't be that different:  LRT and BRT times from PSU to Tualatin are 31 -34 minutes.  How long does it take you to drive there?  There are better ways to handle the numbers of travelers on the roadways.  Lots and lots of regular buses; BRTs that operate in regular traffic and have preferred signalization, intersection improvements and turn-outs. And while they are at it, try outsourcing Trimet personnel for huge savings - as soon as it can be done (when the whole system goes broke?).

The very rough costs are below.  The numbers are in 2014 dollars and do not account for cost overruns and bad estimating which typically jacks the price up 150% to 200%.

LRT with Tunnel:  $2.1 to $3.2 Billion 

LRT surface route:  $1.8 to $2.0 Billion

Roadway improvements, intersection and signal changes: Not listed, not discussed, nowhere to be found.