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| Where I was yesterday. |
As a transit rider in Portland, I'm just as mobile as any person with a car.
MAX light rail goes to lots of important destinations, as does the grid system of frequent service buses. Trimet is comfortable, convenient, and frequent - plus light rail is free when you're in Downtown PDX. Trains operate late into the night, the stations are clean and well lit and are accessible to the pedestrian. Real time information displays with modern shelters and comfortable seating are on every block, the buses clearly tell you which stop is next, trip planning with stop-by-stop navigation is available at the click of one button (with an Android smartphone) and there are all-day passes available there every day, not just on weekends. You feel like a first class citizen when you're riding transit there.
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| Where we are today. |
- Denial: "This can't be right. There has to be another bus home after 10pm. We used to have buses that ran until 1am! I've got a copy of The Bus Stops Here that says so."
- Anger: "Hourly headways???!?!? Ending at 7pm?!?!?! #$%*"
- Bargaining: "I'll pay a $5 fare for late night service!"
- Depression: "Why has Pierce County not passed a single transit measure since 2003?!"
- Existential crisis: "Am I a transit rider if I call a friend for a ride or take a taxi?"
- Acceptance: "Fine, I'll phone a friend, or catch a cab. I should also bring my bike just in case something goes wrong."
The most effective cure for this trauma: More service hours.
Before we can get more service hours though, Pierce Transit still needs more chemotherapy. The October 2nd service change was a good first start, that brought costs down and shielded the majority of ridership. But fundamentally, it comes down the fact that the Pierce Transit service boundary encompasses so many unservable, anti-tax, anti-transit gated rural and unincorporated subdivisions that a minimum of 100 precincts would need to be pruned off the periphery to have a fighting chance at passing a ballot measure.
Until the Pierce Transit Board OR the County Council OR two municipalities OR 10% of registered voters wake up and call for a Public Transit Benefit Conference, more of us are going to be stranded and suffering from Transit Trauma.
If you're experiencing Transit Trauma, please report it to the Pierce Transit Board of Commissioners.
Special thanks to Cody Bakken and Julian Garst for their help with this post.
Posts
So I'm conflicted about this whole thing. I totally get that rural Pierce County basically kills any chance of getting PT the funding that it needs. But I also feel like if we trim too much of the county away, PT ceases to be a county-wide transit authority. At that point, should we really still call it Pierce Transit when most of its routes begin and end within Tacoma city limits?
ReplyDeleteTo me, PT should be just that: a RTA that interconnects the county. A limited number of routes that connect significant parts of the county to each other. That being the case, a part of me thinks that what we really need is a *municipal* transit authority. That, or Pierce Transit needs to create transit districts that operate on he same principle as Sound Transit's sub-area equity.
Creating a muni transit agency could mean a lot of things: an operator for a city-wide streetcar network, a more targeted method for funding transit where it is needed most, and it would naturally allocate votes from the most transit-friendly portion of our county.
I liked today's post alot. I've been at your steps 1-4 many a times. Unfortanately, with hour headways and my route ending at 7, I've resigned myself to use my car more than I want to.
ReplyDeleteWhen I send an email to the board, should send it everyone or just the ones in my voting district?
I wish this blog had a physical manifestation that one could hit people over the head with.
ReplyDeleteNick, I hear you, but a full on municipal transit system would be difficult to pull off without more authority from the State to raise operating funds. Right now, all we pretty much have to do that is a small amount of sales tax authority and some vehicle license fees.
ReplyDeleteWhat I think the City should do, and it can do, is to raise some funds for blocks of trips that would run within the City proper only. Route 1 running only within the City (or to Parkland) would take significantly less time, which means you get more frequency per service hour. We could fund a few late night trips to make sure that people don't get stranded when they get off the 594.
Tacoma should lead the way on this, though. Our people are willing to pay for more service. We can serve as a collaborative example for the rest of the county.