[Grovenet] The city will be planning for the futureof ourtransportation system

Tue Dec 19 23:05:32 PST 2006

The bus may be as efficient as Max, but it wouldn't be faster. The train has
the advantage of not being tied to highways with their delays caused by cars
and other traffic. Anyone who rides MAX into and out of Portland knows that,
as the train whizzes by all those cars creeping along the highway on the
west slope.

The very simple reality is that as long as development is forced into
concentrated areas, either a central metro area like downtown Portland or a
strip such as we have from Portland to Forest Grove, trains are faster and
more efficient than wheeled vehicles. Busses are cheap enough to provide
coverage to much of the area around the train tracks, but they, like the
trains, must make many stops to provide convenient access to the
destinations of many different riders so they are never fast.  

The fastest transportation overall is still the personal wheeled vehicle,
which is why people still spend huge amounts of money driving personal cars
and will continue to do so. That's why small cars are coming back into
vogue, too, as people start to realize the cost of driving a dinosaur
monster. But even that isn't an answer. It simply means that we're following
the major cities everywhere in which a person can expect to commute at an
average speed of 10 mph, if they are lucky. 

For all the rhetoric, all the plans, all the technological solutions, we
still can't commute faster than about 10 mph in most places. This area is
one of the very lucky ones where many, perhaps still most, commuters can
double or triple that speed, but only for now. One thing the cities
everywhere have proven is that it is simply not possible to build highways
fast enough to avoid the slowdown. Indeed, in every place where a
highly-aggressive highway plan has been tried, the reality is that for every
additional car a new highway can handle, more than 1.5 cars try to use that
highway within a year or so. That is, more highways and wider highways means
slower traffic. 

Some countries have handled the problem by legislation, but I doubt if
Americans will allow that. In Holland, for example, where you can live is
dictated by where you work. You have to have state permission to establish
your residence, and one of the tough rules for where you can rent an
apartment or buy a home is that you can't live too far from your work. 

Holland isn't alone. That reduced the commute traffic issues but it hasn't
cured them. 

For those who aren't interested in driving a personal car at 10 or 20 mph to
and from work every day, this area still offers the best solution I've seen
yet that is available to the most people among all the places I've visited
or worked. All one needs to is to find a place to live along the MAX line,
then find a job along the MAX line. 

For those with the incomes to handle it, they find living quarters right
near their jobs. That's  what's caused lofts and downtown apartments to be
so popular, but that convenience is pricy. Most people don't command the
incomes to support the costs of nice homes or apartments near their jobs.
So, like the bottom-tiered city and industrial workers everywhere for the
past hundred years, they live where they can afford to live and somehow find
their ways to their jobs. 

Most of those people don't like to think of themselves as "bottom-tier"
workers because, after all, they may have advanced degrees, be engineers,
technicians, teachers and professionals in many different fields. But that
doesn't alter the fact that they are still slaves to the commute, spending
an inordinate amount of their lives and money just getting to and from a
job. 

Until we address that basic issue of how to make it affordable and desirable
to live near our jobs, the commute problem will continue.

I've supported a MAX extension to Forest Grove for the past decade not
because it's *the* answer, but because it's the best answer we have today.

Ron D'Eau Claire 

-----Original Message-----
From: grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com [mailto:grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com] On
Behalf Of Steven
Sent: Tuesday, December 19, 2006 9:55 PM
To: Forest Grove local interests list
Subject: Re: [Grovenet] The city will be planning for the futureof
ourtransportation system

What makes you think the Max would be faster? wouldn't it be more 
efficient to run a small bus directly from FG to the hillsboro airport? 
I'm sure there are more than just one person that wants to go from FG to 
that area.

Allen Warren wrote:
> I work in Hillsboro and, earlier this year, started riding my bicycle
> the 20 miles roundtrip, even after the terribly unfortunate accident 
> on Highway 47 that took the lives of 2 local cycling enthusiasts.  My 
> cycling commute effort lasted all of a month, ending after another 
> cycling enthusiast, a co-worker who had been commuting 45 miles 
> roundtrip almost daily for numerous years, was struck and killed in 
> Beaverton riding home one evening.
>
> I then decided to pursue a safer means of commute that would continue
> to get one more single car driver, me, from consuming gasoline and 
> doing my part to spit out pollutants single-handedly: I rode the bus 
> to/from the MAX line.  I would take the bus to the Hatfield Center 
> (end of the MAX line) and then ride MAX to the Fairgrounds exit.  The 
> MAX portion of my route took all of maybe 7-10 minutes.  The bus 
> portion of my route took a minimum of 30 minutes and 90% of the time 
> it was 45 minutes.  It all depended upon how many stops the bus 
> actually had to make between Forest Grove and the MAX station.  This 
> made my one-way commute using public transit ~45 minutes to an hour.
>
> Light rail out to FG?  Being selfish, yes, I'm all for it.
>
> allen
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jill Smith"
> jillsmith at news.oregonian.com
> To: <grovenet at rdrop.com>
> Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2006 2:53 PM
> Subject: Re: [Grovenet] The city will be planning for the futureof 
> ourtransportation system
>
>
>  
>>    
>>>>> David Morelli <jo.david at verizon.net> 12/10/06 10:50 PM >>>
>>>>>           
>> On Dec 10, 2006, at 10:33 PM, Adam Hampton wrote:
>>
>>    
>>> David,
>>>             Just curious, what are your thoughts about light rail??
>>>
>>>     Adam Hampton
>>>       
>> I have generated a variety of possible routes to carry light rail 
>> between the existing Hillsboro line and several potential terminal 
>> locations within the city.  Depending upon the initial assumptions I 
>> find one or two alignments  are more reasonable routes.
>>
>> Should Forest Grove be connected with Hillsboro by light rail?
>>
>> Rubber tired transit way systems are less expensive to build and more
>>
>> flexible to operate than light rail.
>>
>> It is unlikely that it would ever pay for itself.
>>
>> It would certainly be more convenient for Forest Grove residents 
>> going to the East, and it might increase the traffic visiting Forest 
>> Grove.  If we had a major tourist attraction that regularly generated
>>
>> heavy traffic from the East it might reduce traffic on TV Highway. 
>> Some people would ride light rail even though they would not ride 
>> busses.  Forest Grove is a logical "end of the line".  The absence of
>>
>> light rail in Forest Grove was one consideration when Pacific 
>> University moved some of their programs to Hillsboro.
>>
>> In the event of a prolonged, serious petroleum crisis light rail 
>> would be impacted less than the alternatives.
>>
>> As in any situation with a limited budget, money spent in one 
>> program, reduces money available for other programs.
>>
>> Should Forest Grove be connected with Hillsboro by light rail?
>>
>> David
>> _______________________________________________
>> GroveNet mailing list
>> GroveNet at rdrop.com http://www.rdrop.com/mailman/listinfo/grovenet
>> _______________________________________________
>> GroveNet mailing list
>> GroveNet at rdrop.com
>> http://www.rdrop.com/mailman/listinfo/grovenet
>>
>>     
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> GroveNet mailing list
> GroveNet at rdrop.com http://www.rdrop.com/mailman/listinfo/grovenet
>
>   

_______________________________________________
GroveNet mailing list
GroveNet at rdrop.com http://www.rdrop.com/mailman/listinfo/grovenet