Transit’s Dirty Little Secret?


Portland State University
Center for Transportation Studies
Fall 2007 Transportation Seminar Series

Speaker: Dr. Brian Taylor, Professor of Urban Planning and Director, Institute of Transportation Studies, UCLA
Topic: Transit’s Dirty Little Secret: Analyzing Patterns of Transit Use

When: Friday, November 16, 2007, 12:00-1:30 pm
Where: 204 Urban Center


18 responses to “Transit’s Dirty Little Secret?”

  1. November 13, 2007 11:31 AM
    Psymonetta Says:

    Yeah Jim, maybe you’ll learn something new!
    JK: Hi Cora!
    Yeah, you never know – transit does have a lot of dirty little secrets.
    Like its cost, its crime, its lack of energy savings over cars.

    But is is Sooo politically correct!

    Of course, you know all this from debunkingPortland.com

    BTW, which transit company do you work for?

    Thanks
    JK

  2. Question I submitted but don’t expect to hear addressed:

    If I can commute round-trip in 20 minutes and pay $12 for a day’s parking, or ride the bus and take an hour and a half for a little over $3, this means that for roughly $9 I can purchase an hour and ten minutes of extra time in my day.

    How did the geniuses at Trimet come to decide that an hour and ten minutes of my time is worth a little less than $9? They never answer when I ask them how they decide what a commuter’s time is worth….and of course this hour and a half is an average figure, not one that I can rely on, and the hour and a half spent on Trimet is often unpleasant to boot.

  3. How did the geniuses at Trimet come to decide that an hour and ten minutes of my time is worth a little less than $9? They never answer when I ask them how they decide what a commuter’s time is worth….

    They won’t answer the question because it’s based on a false premise. Tri-Met doesn’t decide what your time is worth. You do.

    For me, thirty minutes of reading time is worth somewhat more to me than twenty five minutes sitting in traffic. That I pay less to sit and read on my way to work than to drive and park is a bonus. Plus, it’s a nice walk to the MAX station, except in really miserable weather.

  4. TriMet also does not control the $12 you pay for parking. The way you’ve posed the question, the answer is that TriMet should levy a $25 daily tax on downtown commuter parking in order to correctly value your time.

    Would you lobby the legislature to give TriMet the authority to levy such a tax?

    Didn’t think so.

  5. djk, you are a fortunate man or woman indeed if your trimet commute amounts to 30 minutes of reading time. Mine has generally been quite unpleasant, trying to keep balance on a swaying bus, breathing the unsavory remains of my neighbors’s breakfasts, trying to avoid getting adorned with their coffee drinks, and of course getting my feet trampled with every lurch. Trimet itself is quite candid about this, if you press it: it doesn’t consider its mission to require it to provide a seat to every commuter; six square inches of lurching floor space, provided as and when the daily happenchance might allow, satisfies trimet management, they go home thinking they’ve done their job well.

    Then of course there’s the sheer capricious unreliability of it all. How many times have I gone to my local bus stop 45 minutes early, thinking I’d get a head start on my work day, and instead wasted my head start either waiting for busses that never came, and/or watching busses blow right by, and arriving at work late for my pains?

    Sorry, I believe in and applaud public transportation, but in the real world, my daily $9 is well spent avoiding these ordeals.

    Oh and Chris Smith—the $12 I pay to park is based on what is arguably a sweetheart deal for the parking-garage operator, in which the operator gets paid $1,000 a year per parking space by local government. Obviously I wouldn’t care to see the price raised by 200%; neither would the downtown merchants, who know full well that their customers are not going to subject themselves to the transit ordeal while packing their purchases home.

    Thanks to both respondents for their on-line civility. I find I have some harsh things to say about trimet, but am dismayed at the personal vilification that is the norm on many blogs.

  6. “Mine has generally been quite unpleasant, trying to keep balance on a swaying bus, breathing the unsavory remains of my neighbors’s breakfasts, trying to avoid getting adorned with their coffee drinks, and of course getting my feet trampled with every lurch.”

    “hen of course there’s the sheer capricious unreliability of it all. How many times have I gone to my local bus stop 45 minutes early, thinking I’d get a head start on my work day, and instead wasted my head start either waiting for busses that never came, and/or watching busses blow right by, and arriving at work late for my pains?

    LOL!!LOL!!

    Sounds like somebody actually rides the bus on a heavy use route!

    I’m posting that to my trimet true tales website!

  7. elee,
    Long live civility! The Interstate Blvd renaming debacle could have used some. But you make a great case for trains over buses, much more comfort, less lurching! Unfortunately, you will still have to contend with breakfast breath, one of the aspects of shared transit.

    I’ve lived through the full bus drives past because it can’t hold anymore syndrome. But just as often the buses are late because of traffic. All those cars on the roads slow things down. Look at Lovejoy in the Pearl at rush hour. Even without the streetcar it is a solid line of cars trying to get somewhere. You get stuck at almost every light, then you get the idiots who roll into and block the intersection causing further problems. It can easily take 10 minutes to go 3 blocks.

    Just curious if all that time idling in traffic jams is factored into those numbers that get tossed around here so often. Its easy to generate statistics based on ideal conditions, but how about factoring in the time spent and gas used while stuck in traffic?

  8. Speaking of the street car, here is an article that appeared in the NW Examiner, no on line version so I had to scan and post into HTML so it comes out sorta weird:

    By Rick Seifert
    I rode the Portland Streetcar today to get to and from :an all-day eye appointment. The trolley ride seemed as interminable as the appointment (six ocular pressure tests spaced 90 minutes apart).
    Trolley operators, unlike exposed TriMet bus drivers, ~ hermetically sealed in their forward cockpits, kind of like terrorist-plagued airplane pilots. A sign near the door (is it locked?) invites you to talk to them, but not while the trolley is moving. What are you supposed to do, knock on the door? Bring a crowbar?
    “Hello? Hell-OOO?”
    ~
    It’s all so uninviting, I’ve never thought to ask a ques-
    tl,9n. But if! had to, I’m told there is a blue button to push o;er by the door to activate an intercom. There’s also a yellow one for terrorist attacks and other emergencies.
    How different the intra-trolley corp.munication is com .pared with TriMet. I’ve listened to TriMet bus drivers conduct entire’ therapy sessions for mildly deranged pas sengers. How they do this and merge with traffic is beyond me.
    So I was surprised today when the trolley driver actually flicked on his intercom switch and spoke to us. The trolley was stuck in. traffic on Lovejoy, arid the driver recom mended getting out and w~ng.
    As Dave Barrywould say, I am not making this up.
    He informed us that earlier in the rush hour he had been stuck in Lovejoy congestion for 15 minutes. He also warned that this would be our last opportunity to leave the stuffy Car while it was in gridlock. About 20 of us got out and walked. It felt good.
    But it wasn’t the traffic or stale air that made me want to get off: It was the syrupy recorded voice telling me that the trolley stops were sponsored by … what? a realtor, a brewery, a condominium, a hospital, the PSU Viking
    football team. ;

  9. Interesting article. Congestion on Lovejoy is one reason the neighborhood there has explored (and endorsed in some contexts) creating a couplet with Lovejoy and Northrup.

    Right now there is only one travel lane in each direction on Lovejoy, with no room for a center turn or passing lane.

    Thus, buses would be just as delayed as streetcars in today’s conditions.

    A couplet will improve traffic flow for motorists and transit users alike.

    – Bob R.

  10. Psymonetta Says: Yeah Jim, maybe you’ll learn something new!
    JK: Cora, I learned several things. Hopefully you also had a chance to learn:

    1. Nothing I heard contradicted what Wenedll Cox, Randell O’Toole and Tom Rubin have been saying.

    2. He did re-enforce what Alan Pisarski said last Oct: Recent immigrants are heavy transit users. Then they start car pooling and after a few years get a car and leave transit. Kinda makes me think that Trimet’s “success” is mostly due to our large, recent influx of immigrants.

    3. He also said that the primary function of transit is serving the poor and that most popular claims for transit are just marketing BS, because serving the poor doesn’t sell.

    You can download a copy of his talk from PSC:
    mediadownloads.pdx.edu:8080/archive04/events/Transportation_111607.wmv
    Or watch it at:
    media.pdx.edu/Transportation/Transportation_111607.asx
    The seminars page is:
    cts.pdx.edu/seminars.htm

    This is a real opportunity for you to learn about transit. You could also benefit from Tom Rubin’s talk posted on PortlandDocs.com. Heck you could even learn from the American Dream TV series on Comcast ch 11 at 10pm on Sunday nights.

    Thanks
    JK

  11. the American Dream TV series on Comcast ch 11 at 10pm on Sunday nights.

    Ironically, this show is produced due to a mandated subsidy from the cable provider and the public. (A policy which I happen to support, but given your abhorrence of government subsidized anything, I’m surprised you utilize such a medium.)

    – Bob R.

  12. Kinda makes me think that Trimet’s “success” is mostly due to our large, recent influx of immigrants.

    The entire country has been a “large, recent influx of immigrants” for most of its history.

    TriMet customer profile survey, May 2005:

    Race/ethnicity

    • Non-minority: 87%
    • Minority: 10%
    • Other/don’t know/refused: 3%
  13. Jim,

    1. I have a feeling that you will find correlations to Cox, O’Toole and Rubin in any presentation. That’s what happens when you go too far down a very narrow reality tunnel.

    2. It only takes a little participant observation to refute the argument that TriMet’s success is due to migratory/Latino immigrant workers (the people who culturally trend toward carpooling then car ownership, because it is a status symbol in their culture.) On both the bus and the Max, the majority of riders at the busiest times of day are Caucasians, and most of them appear to be working or middle class.

    3. In Portland, this is not the case. There are many upwardly mobile and high income earners that use transit daily as a lifestyle choice. We have the luxury of making that choice because the system is convenient and service is frequent. One could draw this conclusion based on the observation of other cities, but in Portland, this is not true. Even so,the cost of providing transit to low income, disabled and elderly populations is FAR less than providing even curb-to-curb service. Even volunteer programs that provide these services have a cost of around $14 for a one way trip, with an average trip distance of 4.5 miles in the city of Portland. Rural service is around $18 a trip with about 7.7 miles per trip. ADA paratransit service is around $26 per trip, not including admin costs. About 10% of the TriMet boarding for the disabled and elderly population has eligibility to use ADA paratransit. The other 90% are using transit. These are people that will NEVER drive. Of the recent payroll tax increase, 40% of the additional revenue went to ADA paratransit. It’s the elephant in the room. If the system is going to become more efficient, the first issue that needs to be addressed is creating enough access to the regular transit system as wel as make it seem friendly enough to relieve the burden of ADA paratransit.

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