An occasional update on items from the Transit City.
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WHO TAKES TRANSIT – AND WHY
From the Sightline Institute:
Portland has a national reputation as a transit powerhouse—but when it comes to commuting, how does it really stack up?
In the first of two posts on transit use, Clark Williams-Derry reveals that workers in Seattle are far more likely to take transit. But it’s actually not a story about better transit; it’s really about land use.
In the second post, Clark breaks down Census data to reveal that in both cities women, people of color, the young, renters, and low-income earners are more likely to ride transit. Check out the data.
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A TRANSIT MOMENT
Waiting in line for the 9 bus today on Broadway was a guy in a wheelchair. Bus pulls up, the ramp comes down. Wheelchair guy with a big grin says, “Isn’t that fine? It opens up the whole city to me.”
– Dianna Waggoner
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THE FAST LANE AT BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ
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TRANSIT RIOTS IN BOGOTA
Earlier this month, protests over service on Bogota’s bus-rapid transit system, the TransMilenio, quickly escalated into riots in Colombia’s capital city. … The protests reportedly began as demonstrations against the TransMilenio’s crowded buses and high fares, and the city’s general lack of public transportation options.
The immediate response to the news was surprise that one of the world’s most celebrated transit systems could spark such widespread anger. …. The TransMilenio system is so universally praised by city and transit planners that it’s hard to know where to begin describing its achievements.
The fact is, despite this successful record, social dissatisfaction with TransMilenio is nothing new. Public approval of the system began to drop in 2004, with people complaining about crowding and fares.
The complaints hold real validity, according to a comprehensive review of the TransMilenio system published by Alex Hutchinson at The City Fix last summer. At rush hour, stations are so packed that people can’t get off the bus, let alone on it. The crowding encourages some travelers to return to their cars, which only increases congestion in the city. Meanwhile the fare, at $1, is considered high for a city whose low-income users earn daily salaries only three times that, on average.
The problem is a complicated one, writes Hutchinson, but it boils down to several core sources. The first is the city’s decades-long, unrequited obsession with building a metro system that would cost much more than bus-rapid transit and cover far less of the city. Another is a lack of government subsidies that hampers the system’s ability to expand and address its problems. Last, but certainly not least, the expansions that are being made by the system aren’t being made quickly enough …
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CLIPPING FILE
Lots of interviews this week, collected by SFU Public Affairs:
- Gordon Price, director of SFU’s The City Program, spoke with The Globe and Mail about the dilemma TransLink faces when it comes to funding. Faced with few options, the transit organization often has no choice but to turn to property taxes as a revenue source. “This has been the pattern,” Price said. “The province says yes, you can have the ability to propose a funding mechanism. Then every time they go to the province to get authorization, almost within hours, the province says no.”
- Price also commented in a 24 Hours story about fines issued by TransLink and its inability to enforce fare-evasion tickets. He questioned why it’s taken the province so long to give TransLink or ICBC the ability to collect on outstanding fines. “It really is the province that dropped the ball,” Price said in the newspaper.
- In another story about TransLink, Price told News1130 that Montreal, Brisbane and New York City are just a few of the other cities that are studying the transit organization because of its jurisdiction over both transit and roads. “Most places have it all cut up, a variety of bus services or one agency is responsible for roads. We have one agency that is responsible for most modes of transportation,” says Price.
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It’s a good thing that they’re doing some more digging into Portland’s policies. Having followed some of the Portland transit blogs there has been some severe dissatisfaction with the direction the area has been taking. There’s a growing segment of Portland that feels bus service has suffered substantially in favour of light rail development.
The real lesson from Portland, in my opinion, is that light rail plus good intentions don’t actually add up to real transit improvements. Too many people around Metro Vancouver seem to forget that it takes an entire array of policy prescriptions to arrive at good urbanism, and frankly a lot of it’s boring, dry as toast stuff that isn’t nearly as sexy or exciting as say, running a streetcar from Granville Island to downtown.