Portland Transit Mall Construction

[Dougall5505]

the first piece of art was temporarily removed from the mall http://portlandmall.org/news/sculpturemove.htm

[65MAX]

I can still see her breasts. I'm glad they didn't cover her up completely... that would be wrong

[Dougall5505]

jeez i didn't even notice that...

[westsider]

In my opinion this whole transit mall update is a huge barrel of pork. The mall MAX is going to be a glorified bus to nowere, you can already jump on almost any bus on the mall and travel the whole lengh of it. There is absoluty no way to justify the massive cost of this project. We don't need any more surface light rail downtown cloging up traffic, especially when it will just be torn up in 20-30 years to bury it. I actually like the appearence of the current mall, its the garbage and bums that make it grimey. This is the kind of wasteful spending that would never happen if the voters had a say in it.

[pdxman]

Originally Posted by westsider

In my opinion this whole transit mall update is a huge barrel of pork. The mall MAX is going to be a glorified bus to nowere, you can already jump on almost any bus on the mall and travel the whole lengh of it. There is absoluty no way to justify the massive cost of this project. We don't need any more surface light rail downtown cloging up traffic, especially when it will just be torn up in 20-30 years to bury it. I actually like the appearence of the current mall, its the garbage and bums that make it grimey. This is the kind of wasteful spending that would never happen if the voters had a say in it.

I definitely agree...tho you know that trimet wasn't going to turn down funding. That said, I would have rather seen this money go to our outdated bus system to improve service and buy new buses, maybe even BRT. I was just on a bus tonight and holy crap, i've never been on a colder, more damp bus before. Improving the bus "sector" of trimet should definitely be number one on the to-do list. I'm not against max, i just think if you're going to do any more max downtown, do it right.

[westsider]

Exactly. I wonder if trimet could have used the funding for a small spruceing up of the mall and used the rest on improvements to the current system. Or maybe even saved it to bury MAX later on.

[Dougall5505]

http://portlandmall.org/construction/index.htm#other
new construction update

[pdxman]

wow wow wow the more i am downtown on the bus mall the more i am convinced that the new transit mall design is a going to be a monumental mistake. They either need to get rid of the light rail or the car lane because there is no way its going to work. Its already a mess during rush hour with all the buses--can you imagine light rail weaving through all that??? I know its been said before but i really believe its gonna be a mess once its done. I think what will happen is that frequent accidents will occur between MAX and the buses forcing trimet to shut the car lane, thus pissing off the business community. I hate to be negative but trimet needs to fix it or stop it

[PacificNW]

I tend to agree but I want to ask: Are there any transit design experts on this forum who are contributing to this discussion or are we all observers? Has anyone discussed their feelings/ideas with Trimet? Any response?

[pdxman]

I haven't, though maybe i should. I just don't think what i say would matter to them--i think i'd get a response like "we understand your concerns, but we feel that any problems that could arise have been thought out and alleviated." They sure make it look peachy in the video simulation but i don't know...i guess they know something we dont

[PacificNW]

Tks, pdxman....

[mcbaby]

i think someone mentioned in an earlier thread regarding the car lane that it wouldn't stretch the entire length of the mall but just be drop off lanes every 4 blocks. correct me if i'm wrong.

[Dougall5505]

you're wrong

[Dougall5505]

these are from a while ago i just forgot to post them. still kinda cool
take a good luck because this is the last time you will ever see a graffiti-less bus shelter

[MarkDaMan]

I gotta wonder...What was the guy staring at Dougall thinking when this dude starting snaping pictures of him lowering a stop onto the sidewalk?

[MarkDaMan]

Come Sunday, the bus stops here
Bus changes - TriMet's two-year transit mall stop swap starts this weekend. Riders, check your schedules
Thursday, January 11, 2007
JAMES MAYER
The Oregonian

While most of Portland sleeps, a No. 33 (McLoughlin) bus will pull in at Southwest Fourth Avenue and Salmon Street at 5:15 a.m. Sunday, launching a traffic shift that will transform how downtown Portland works for the next two years.

If the relocation of buses off the transit mall is news to anyone, it's not for lack of trying.

TriMet has spent $70,000 to alert bus riders, businesses and the rest of the city about the changes. The agency has distributed information on buses, at shelters, in a special newspaper advertising section, at news conferences -- it has even given away refrigerator magnets featuring the project's Web site, www.portlandmall.org.

But there's bound to be confusion, if not outright chaos, when the buses finally move from Fifth and Sixth avenues to make way for light-rail construction. Most routes will be relocated to Third and Fourth avenues. A few westside routes will move to Southwest Jefferson and Columbia streets. And the No. 14 (Hawthorne) bus will move to Southwest Second Avenue.

TriMet is taking advantage of the calendar to ease the change. Sunday is the system's slowest day of the week, and Monday is the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Buses will run on a holiday schedule Monday when ridership is expected to be about 75 percent of a normal weekday. That gives TriMet two days to practice before handling a full-blown commute Tuesday.

To help navigate all this, we offer some answers to common questions:

Why are they doing this?

The buses are being relocated so light-rail tracks can be installed on Fifth and Sixth avenues from Union Station to Portland State University. The $557 million project will also give the mall a face-lift and expand MAX to Clackamas Town Center along Interstate 205.

But why are they really doing this?

Downtown retailers have long sought to bring cars back and to spruce up the deteriorating, uninviting transit mall. Combining these business community wishes with light-rail expansion produced a politically viable project.

How long will it take?

Buses are expected to return to the mall in spring 2009, and the new MAX green line is scheduled to open in September 2009.

How can I find out where my bus stop will be?

The TriMet Web site, www.trimet.org, has new schedules for all bus lines, including the new downtown stops. Riders can also use Trip Planner by entering a date on or after Jan. 14. Information is also available by telephone, 503-238-RIDE.

What happens on the mall during construction?

All businesses and sidewalks will remain open. The project will be built in three- to four-block segments at three locations on the mall, each taking about eight weeks. The rest of the mall will be open to traffic and parking.

Will parking be removed on Third and Fourth?

Yes, some parking has been removed to make space available for bus stops. But officials say adding 200 parking spaces on the mall will compensate for lost spaces.

Will the downtown changes affect the rest of the schedules?

Yes. Every route that goes through downtown will see minor schedule changes to allow for longer travel times through downtown.

How much longer?

TriMet says tests showed the changes will add no more than a minute or two to most schedules. Although traffic will slow the buses, other factors will speed up travel times. Buses making the loop from the east side will travel a shorter distance, and buses will stop every third or fourth block instead of every other block as they do now.

Is it really that simple?

No. Tri-Met worries about unpredictability. Traffic flow on the bus mall is highly predictable, but mingling buses with general vehicle traffic on Third and Fourth introduces the potential for accidents, stalls and other traffic jam headaches that can play havoc with the schedules.

What about Southwest Naito Parkway?

This major north-south street will reopen by this weekend. Traffic models show that the traffic moving back to Naito will eventually equal the bus traffic added to Third and Fourth.

What about C-Tran?

The C-Tran buses will also relocate to Third and Fourth avenues. Visit www.c-tran.com for more information. TriMet says C-Tran will not move back to the mall when it reopens.

Are there bus routes that don't change?

Yes, crosstown routes such as the No. 72 (Killingsworth/82nd Ave.) that don't go downtown will remain the same. There will also be no changes to buses such as the No. 15 (Belmont) that cross the mall but don't travel on it.

James Mayer: 503-294-4109; jimmayer@news.oregonian.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/orego...580.xml&coll=7

[Dougall5505]

Buses, riders shift smoothly with new routes downtown
Two-year project - TriMet guides people on the old mall and by new stops after early glitches

Monday, January 15, 2007
JAMES MAYER
As the No. 12-Barbur bus approached the city's core Sunday morning, the driver announced, "Downtown routes change to Fourth Avenue" in the same routine way he had called out all the other stops.

None of the two dozen or so passengers, dressed warmly against the sub-freezing temperatures outside, seemed at all startled. Not one looked up from his newspaper with that suddenly lost look.

"That's the way we wanted it," said Mary Fetsch, TriMet spokeswoman.
Buses came off the transit mall early Sunday to make way for a two-year project that will extend light rail on the mall from Union Station to Portland State University. Most bus routes moved to Third and Fourth avenues. A few moved to Jefferson and Columbia streets. And a scattering of other changes happened, too.

TriMet field supervisors patrolled the old mall and the new stops to help folks, but they found few problems.

"No one is confused," Fetsch said. "Everyone is at the right place."

But change can be disorienting, even if you know what to expect.

Debbie Smith got off the No. 12 at Main Street, and she seemed a bit confused at first.

Smith needed to transfer to the No. 14-Hawthorne bus to get to her bartending job at the Jolly Roger Restaurant. After a second or two of thought, she remembered: Hawthorne is the oddball route that stops on Southwest Second Avenue.

Looking at the route map attached to the bus stop, Smith said she thought TriMet made the whole thing more complicated than it needs to be.
"Why didn't they just say it begins Sunday, and the stops are all at the same cross streets, just moved two blocks closer to the river?"

It's not quite that simple.

Not all the buses moved to Third and Fourth, and the buses now stop every three or four blocks, not every other block as they generally did on the mall.

The first day seemed to get off to a mostly smooth start, Fetsch said.

But she cited a couple of early glitches. The left turn signal from West Burnside Street to Southwest Third Avenue wasn't working for the first couple of buses that came though; the city quickly fixed it.

And two bus route numbers, the 8 and the 68, were left off new bus stop signs on Broadway. Workers wrote in the numbers.

On Fifth and Sixth avenues, the construction equipment sat idle for the weekend. The familiar functional brown bus shelters had that abandoned look, waiting to be torn down. The information screens were dark. Big yellow signs reading "BUS STOP CLOSED" were taped to the glass.

But with the departure of the buses, crews removed the "bus only" paint from the pavement, and cars came back to blocks of Fifth and Sixth where they had been banned.

TriMet deliberately chose this day for the launch, with light Sunday traffic downtown and the lowest passenger loads of the week. Today, buses will be running a limited schedule due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

The first full test will come Tuesday, when the regular 60,000 riders board the buses for the morning commute.

TriMet will track buses this week to gauge the success of its new routes, Fetsch said. Though she doesn't anticipate any changes, she said "tweaks" may be made in the frequency of arrivals or timing of traffic signals to keep traffic and riders moving.

"What we're going to watch, especially this next week, is the rush hour," Fetsch said.

Mike Rogoway of The Oregonian staff contributed to this report. James Mayer: 503-294-4109; jimmayer@news.oregonian.com

[tworivers]

Does anyone know whether or not the old fire station near the west end of the Steel is being demo'd to make room for the rail connection between the bridge and the transit mall? First I heard 'yes', then it was a rumored 'no'. I hope it stays.

[Urbanpdx]

Who is "they"?

[NJD]

In the historic and parkland part of Metro's environmental impact statement there is a detailed overlay and description on how the rails will weave around the old firehouse and the historic signal tower just SE of Union Station, thus preserving both historic structures.