I was able to leave work early yesterday and stop by the second of TriMet's Open Houses for the Transit Mall Revitilization. The open house was held in the board room at the Port of Portland Building next to the Chinese Gardens. Inside the boardroom was about 7-10 displays showing various aspects of the proposed revitilization. There was also a small theater area were a TriMet employee showed the virtual "fly-throughs" of two of the three proposed MAX alignments. In the center of the room was a large table covered with a map showing the entire run of the transit mall along with the proposed MAX stations. Those attending the open house were encouraged to leave there comments on this map, fill out a comment card, or simply talk to one of the many city and TriMet employees circulating throught the area.
I personally talked to a couple of the TriMet/City employees. In the area focusing on the amenities on the Transit Mall (i.e. Trees, benches, shelters, etc.) I expressed my concern about the lack of wind shelters on some of the newer shelters (such as those near PSU). I also mentioned my wish to not replace some of the older larger trees with new smaller trees and also to increase the total number of trees in the south side of the transit mall.
Later near the large map in the center of the room I talked to a city employee about the lack of any mention of bicycle traffic in the plans I had seen. He basically said, that since the Transit Mall did not contain a bike lane they hadn't integrated bikes into their plan. I feel like this is really short sighted since I see a ton of bicyclist use the Transit Mall, and this will be much more dangerous once the MAX is on 5th and 6th. I suggest that they improve the bike lanes on 4th and Broadway and find ways to encourage bicycle traffic on those streets.
I also asked this employee what would happen to the transit mall during construction. He said that while this was still yet to be decided, there were three ideas. The first would have the busses use 4th and Broadway instead of 5th and 6th during construction. The second would make 5th a two way, bus-only street while 6th was under construction and then reverse this while 5th was under construction. Finally, there might be a highbrid of the two ideas.
One of the most interesting parts of the open house was the large showing by members of The Association of Oregon Rail and Transit Advocates (AORTA). There was one gentleman who was passing out a AORTA flier and many members of AORTA milling about the open house. AORTA advocates creating a subway-style underground lightrail line throught downtown portland that would stretch from Lloyd Center to Goose Hollow and include stops at the Rose Quarter, Union Station, Burnside, Pioneer Courthouse, and Portland State. They feel that this would provide long term savings and better service throught downtown. I am happy that the group was a the open house, but I felt that they were a bit to loud and more than a little obnoxious. During the showing of the virtual "flythrough" it was difficult for many members of the audience to hear the TriMet employee over the loud discussion between advocates of the subway.
As I mentioned before there are three different proposals for the alignment of the MAX tracks along the Transit Mall. The first, called the Left Side Stop, whould have the buses on the right side of the rode, the MAX in the center and car traffic on the left except were there was a MAX stop. In these areas the sidewalk would extend out over the left lane and provide an area for the MAX stop. The second, called the Island Stop, whould have the busses on the right side of the rode, the Max in the center and a continous car lane on the left. At MAX stops the bus lane would swerve farther to right leaving an island MAX stop to the right of the MAX track. The final, called the Right Side Stop, would have the buses on the right, the MAXin the center and a continous car lane on the left. At stops the MAX track would swerve into the buslane and the MAX station would be on the right side.
Of these plans I really favor the Left Side Stop for a couple of reasons. First, it keeps the current feel of the Transit Mall. It also happens to be the cheapest option because it doesn't require you to tear up all the curbs. Also, one of the features I like the most about the Transit Mall is that it doesn't have to many cars on it. The other two plans add a continous car lane to the transit mall and increase the likelyhood of a car/bus or car/MAX accident.
I suggest that anyone interested in the future of the transit mall, the future of MAX and the future of downtown Portland comment on the proposals as soon as possible. I heard time and time again from TriMet/City employees at the open house that many aspects of the plan are not yet "set in stone".
For more background on the Portland Mall Revitilization visit TriMet's page about it and read the Portland Communique's excellent story from Tuesday July 8th. I especially recomend watching the virtual "fly-throughs" available in Quicktime format at the TriMet website.
Posted by Noah Brimhall at July 10, 2003 12:35 PM