The first part of the plan was to ditch the old bus system that was cheap, flexible, convenient and well-used to very expensive, fixed light rail. Light rail cannot go where people live - people must move to where light rail is. Because rail systems are fixed (i.e.: inflexible), developers are more encouraged to build mixed-use developments which are more risky than building housing or commercial separately. Combine the two - fixed rail and development - and you have a TOD - transit oriented development.
The next step was (and is) eliminating efficient auto traffic by eliminating half of the lanes of traffic on state highways that run through Portland. This is to encourage people to ride bikes or use transit, even though the new bus system has ravaged bus transit as a real choice for most people.
And fail to expand capacity on freeways and other highly used roadways. Anything to cause, not ease, traffic congestion.
Now Metro (and its jurisdictional "partners" aka cities) are looking at beefing up the bus system. Have they realized their mistakes and want to correct years of wrong-doing? Of course not. All of the above have set the stage for BRT - bus rapid transit. The advantage of BRT to Central Planners is the removal of more lanes of traffic and incentivize more development in areas farther away from light rail. New neighborhoods for mixed use development to screw up. The loss of more neighborhood charm and livability. Oh yeah - most all of the newcomers to the developments will have cars.
The final bus system type hasn't been officially decided yet, or should I say announced. BRT is just an educated guess, but what are the odds that The Central Planners have started to consider how real people live? And what are the odds that they will persist in their social engineering until... don't kid yourself - there is no end to the tinkering Planners will do in their quest for Utopia.
The article below is from 2010. It is not only relevant today - it shows where a lot of the congestion comes from - Planners from Metro, TriMet, Portland, and area cities - and why. The changes started decades ago, but this is a good 7-year look-back.
For the record, I like BRT in place of light rail, and a grid bus system to go with it -
just like the original streetcar system - expanded to connect the suburbs.
The Oregonian, May 2010, by Dave Lister, Guest Columnist
A transit system designed for the few
A s the city of Portland embarks on its quest to add bioswales and more bicycle infrastructure to its streets and boulevards, traffic congestion is bound to increase and automobile commuters will be encouraged to use mass transit. The problem is, TriMet's spoke-wheel system, intended to move people from the suburbs to jobs downtown, simply doesn't work for most people.
A case in point is that of Gay Stryker. Styker commutes from her home in Southwest Portland to her pet and pet supplies store, Creature Comforts, which she has operated in Oak Grove since 1984.
"I called the Portland Bureau of Transportation shortly after they changed the traffic pattern and reduced the lanes on Tacoma Street," Stryker told me, "and asked them why they had decided to slow the traffic and create congestion. They told me that they hadn't created congestion, they'd 'calmed' the traffic and 'extended' the commute. They also suggested that if I didn't like the new commute, I should consider riding the bus."
Approaching the issue with an open mind, Stryker decided to consider her transit options. She discovered that, after walking to the stop nearest to her home, she would have to ride one bus into downtown, transfer to another to get across the river, transfer once again to a southbound bus and end up at a transit station a couple of blocks from her business.
Because of the hours she keeps the commute home would include waiting alone downtown at 11:15 at night to make a transfer and then be left with a lengthy walk home. Having once experienced a nighttime MAX ride from the airport to downtown to catch a bus home, she didn't relish the prospect of being on the mall alone after dark.
"There I was, a woman alone with a bag of pineapples fresh from Hawaii," Stryker recounted, "when a man boarded smoking a marijuana cigarette and started passing it around with his buddies. I was terrified."
A long-time native like myself, Stryker remembers the old Rose City Transit, which operated on a grid system. "It was easy to get around on the bus back then," she said. "Why do we have a spoke system when the majority of people no longer work or shop downtown? The bottom line was that my half-hour round-trip daily would become more than five hours. I decided to keep driving my car despite the 'traffic calming.' Clearly they do not consider my time to have value."
Rather than making the system more flexible by adding additional busses and bus routes, TriMet's infatuation with light rail is ensuring that it becomes less flexible. And its only attempt to consider a commute pattern other than to downtown, the westside commuter rail, has proven to be a phenomenal financial disaster. Nevertheless, the planners love rail. They view it as a development tool, where businesses will be born and thrive.
Business owner Gay Stryker doesn't see it that way.
"If providing more transit to this area is such an issue out here, they should simply increase the bus service," she said. "But I'm afraid their answer for more transit in Milwaukie will be light rail down McLoughlin and that will destroy all the businesses on either side. People simply do not shop where the MAX is because it is too hard to get in and out of the stores."
With the exception of strip bars, porn shops and adult arcades, Stryker doesn't see anything thriving by virtue of light rail.
"If they put light rail down McLoughlin, the community can kiss itself goodbye."
Dave Lister is a small-business owner who served on Portland's Small Business Advisory Council.
Dave Lister is a small-business owner who served on Portland's Small Business Advisory Council.
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