Trimess

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Go get a job in Milwaukie loser!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Since the beginning of the year, WES has averaged about 7200 boarding rides per week - so that's about 1440 rides per day (7200 divided by 5), which is around 720 people if they're taking it round trip. I'm surprised with numbers that low they're comfortable doing *anything* to reduce people's access to WES, even if that bus only brought 20 riders to WES every day.

Anonymous said...

How are the connections between the 43 and WES? Are they good enough that they're better than walking?

They could send the 62 (or 76/78) through there, but that would increase travel time for those that don't want to go through there.

Erik H. said...

The 43 stops right at Hall & Cascade, which is as close as one can possibly get to the WES station without driving into the WES parking lot.

The problem is the outbound 43 stop. It's located right smack in the middle of the ODOT maintenance yard driveway. The 76/78 buses got a brand new stop about 150 feet away, but that didn't give the 43 bus enough room to safely make a lane change to turn left onto Nimbus, so it kept its old stop forcing would-be riders to defend themselves against rouge ODOT dump trucks.

There's enough of a business district that one would think TriMet could create a shuttle route that also serves the Washington Square Transit Center and the Progress Park & Ride (used by the 92X) as well as WES, and serve it with a much smaller vehicle (heck, even the old Cedar Mill Shuttle vans).

Anonymous said...

I was thinking more about time. I'd be would be worried first about how long I have to wait than the quality of the stop.

And wouldn't a whole new shuttle route would be more expensive than just extending a route that already goes near there? I don't think the cost of the driver would be different.

Erik H. said...

I think there are ways that TriMet could implement shuttle routes that would be cost-effective.

There's just three problems:

1. TriMet lacks the creativity to try anything new involving buses.

2. TriMet would need a concession from the unions and the TriMet-ATU relationship is basically non-existent thanks to TriMet's attitude.

3. TriMet would need smaller, fuel-efficient buses (think a Freightliner Sprinter in transit configuration) that in some cases wouldn't even need a CDL to operate. Some of the smaller Aerotechs also do not require a CDL (the ones TriMet uses for LIFT service do because they have more than 15 seats.)

J said...

Yes, it's better than walking, especially from the southern end of Nimbus near Scholls Ferry. The 43 was timed with the WES so that there was maybe a 5-7 minute wait for the train after getting the bus. Rarely was the 43 late enough to miss WES.