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Monday, September 14, 2009

Transportation Meet the Green Line Dance Crew & Light Rail's Arch Nemesis.

Posted by Sarah Mirk on Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 2:34 PM

Okay, so some of you were obviously not sufficiently impressed with the debut of the new MAX Green Line that will ferry you from downtown to Clackamas Town Center in 45 minutes. Some of you were not wowed by July's Green Line confetti cannon and scoffed at last Friday night's Green Line-themed martinis.

Some of you said things like, "Greeat, pat yourselves on your back and eat your Foie Gras while the rest of us stand waiting for a packed bus for 30 minutes." And, "Making your customers suffer because they made a huge, impossibly stupid, bet on fuel prices and toasting to it on the day the cuts kicked in pretty much sums up everything you need to know about their management's attitude."

Some of you obviously lack SPIRIT and as we all learned in high school pep rallies SPIRIT is crucial to being a successful COMMUNITY MEMBER. For those of you who will be receiving an F in SPIRIT, I recommend this re-educational video of the Green Line dance crew spliced with TriMet-lovin' bigwig speeches, all of which took place at the celebratory Green Line kickoff last Saturday (where you would have been eating Green Line CUPCAKES if you had SPIRIT! Even Jasun Wurster has more SPIRIT than you!).

After the dancers wrapped up and all the cupcakes were eaten on Saturday, I took my first real ride on the Green Line with the MAX's arch nemesis: president of "free-market environmentalist" think tank the Cascade Policy Institute, John Charles. This self-proclaimed train lover and MAX commuter has testified before the state senate against increasing TriMet's funding and penned editorials against the new MAX line. He, too, was unimpressed with the city's recent Green Line love fest. As we passed the green balloons hung in Pioneer Square and shared the train platform with an large-mustached man brimming with excitement about riding to Clackamas for free, Charles brought up some of the points you spiritless commenters have raised.

"It's the same as all the other light rail lines. It creeps through downtown at an exceedingly slow five miles per hour. There's a bunch of tourists on it. All it has done is replace very inexpensive bus service with very expensive rail service," said Charles, who harshly criticizes TriMet for cutting bus lines while funding big rail projects. Bringing up the cuts to free bus service downtown, Charles added, "It is completely predictable that bus riders got the short end of the stick. TriMet discriminates against bus riders to give the kid glove treatment for rail ridership."

There will be more on BUS-ting the Green Line party with Charles in this week's print edition. In the meantime, discuss.

 

Comments (12) RSS

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1
Not to mention the obvious sprawl facilitation.

However, in twenty to forty years, I think we'll be glad the infrastructure exists for all of these lines.

Btw, as if anyone gave a shit, I retract my trolling comment in all caps from the last Green Line opening post. I thought the first commenter was referring to foie gras as a tired "clueless liberal" trope - upon closer reading of the post, I was also surprised to learn there was actually foie gras served at a train opening.
Posted by Commenty Colin on September 14, 2009 at 3:23 PM · Report
2
This John Charles is the same guy who recently proposed (in live Metro testimony) turning the rail right-of-way between Lake Oswego and Johns Landing into a reversible one-lane toll freeway (an express lane for the rich paralleling Hwy 43) rather than using it to build a proposed streetcar line.

The problem with that proposal is that it was A) not environmentally sound (the guy claims to be an environmentalist, according to your article), B) not "free market" and C) not legal. He's supposed to be representing a "think tank" but was apparently unaware that the route reverts to private property if it is not used as a rail line.
Posted by Bob R. on September 14, 2009 at 3:29 PM · Report
3
I love MAX. I hate the new cars, whose seats are completely uncomfortable with negligible legroom (designed by airlines maybe?). and don't have anywhere near enough handholds for standers.
Posted by The One True b!X on September 14, 2009 at 3:37 PM · Report
4
b!X -

I see what you're saying about handholds, but are you sure about legroom? In my 4 rides (so far), I've found there to be greater legroom than in the Type II/III trains, by at least a couple of inches. I was seated in the end sections of the cars.

Off-topic -- I was doing a video shoot this afternoon at Crush, which isn't far from your place. I should've dropped you a line.
Posted by Bob R. on September 14, 2009 at 3:40 PM · Report
5
I like the new cars. I have no use for Clackamas, or really anything south of the Sellwood bridge until San Francisco. I am a little distressed those folks will have easier access to our fair city.

I rode out on Sunday, then skipped the crowd and rode the efficient and cost-conscious bus back to town.

One more comment: a lot of money went into the route + the cars, through downtown and the extension south to Clackamas. A percentage or so of art should be attached to this project. Real art, please, not crap maintained with a pressure washer. I didn't see any. Sure, there are some designy people-barriers and signifiers, but no art.

If RACC chimes in and says, oh yes there is art and here's a brochure and public process to prove it, laugh loud. And then be sad sad sad.
Posted by J_Renaud on September 14, 2009 at 4:05 PM · Report
6
I like light rail as much as the next guy, but if buses costing millions less were retrofitted like San Fransisco's electrical buses, wouldn't this be a great compromise? This gives space to other forms of transportation when needed, while lowering transportation infrastructure costs...
Posted by NIG GER on September 14, 2009 at 4:20 PM · Report
7
The "Electric Bus vs Train" argument is valid, but from a simple engineering perspective, I feel like dedicated rail lines are always going to be more efficient (metal on metal vs rubber on pavement).

Plus it's nice to have the flexibility of untethered buses. You can move routes around without having to worry too much about preexisting infrastructure.
Posted by atomic on September 14, 2009 at 4:56 PM · Report
8
But there's always going to be lines that are so often utilized and where there can't be any light rail (such as on SE Powell where its owned by the state) that having electric busses like San Francisco's MUNI would work great. Routes like bus line 9 where it cuts through downtown and goes way out to SE would be great, reduce emissions, and probably cut costs. Not to mention it's way faster and easier to implement.

That said, I'm happy about the Green Line and the new Transit Mall, because I live right by PSU and can now walk just a couple blocks to take the MAX anywhere in town.
Posted by el cubano on September 14, 2009 at 5:14 PM · Report
9
There's also the question of usage. Transit shouldn't just serve the people who currently want to use it; it should make more people want to use it. And it's seen time and time again that a lot of people will happily take a train who would never take a bus. The yellow line has far higher ridership than the bus service it replaced. Quite why so many people refuse to take buses is a mystery to me, but it can't be ignored...
Posted by Stu on September 14, 2009 at 5:53 PM · Report
10
"The yellow line has far higher ridership than the bus service it replaced. Quite why so many people refuse to take buses is a mystery to me, but it can't be ignored..."

Do you have evidence of this? I'm genuinely curious. From what I've read the yellow line has not been as successful as they hoped.
Posted by NIG GER on September 15, 2009 at 9:02 AM · Report
11
Trimet's own website says, rather vaguely, "Yellow Line ridership has exceeded ridership on the former bus line serving Interstate Avenue" (http://trimet.org/about/history/yellowline…).

There's also a link on there to some really interesting statistics about general ridership. For example, in 2008, the three current Max lines carried over a third of all Trimet's ridership, despite representing only 11% of vehicle hours. And 45% of passenger miles, with only 13% of vehicle miles. Buses recover 26.6% of their operating costs, but rail recovers 51.8% of its costs.

Yes, the construction costs are high; but once it's built, there's no question Max outperforms buses on every measure.
Posted by Stu on September 15, 2009 at 9:31 AM · Report
12
Oregon pays federal taxes at a one-to-one ratio. So these nebulous "federal funds" are actually monies coming directly from Oregon -- the state is footing the entire bill for this boondoggle.

Half a billion dollars for nine miles of track? At $50 million a mile, this thing should have gold rails. Instead, it's 19th century technology that does nothing to reduce congestion, will be rampant with crime and scumbags, can't be expanded or the route modified, moves about 1% of the commuting public and is built at the expense of freeway expansion that could actually save gas, time and money.

Great idea, light rail.
Posted by Chrismcm on September 15, 2009 at 11:47 PM · Report

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