Today was the final day at Railvolution and the my final day in Portland.
There was two workshops today and I attended the one discussing employment centers near TOD and an introduction to complete streets. The first session had some good information from Los Angeles on the concentration of employment on the subway the sea which was followed by a presentation from a Bellevue, Washington planner discussing how that city is planning to develop two station areas beyond the downtown alignment controversy.
The session on complete streets showed what states have passed legislation mandating complete streets (which also points out how little is being done about it). The session also talked about some of the difficulties being experienced getting road engineers on the program because it isn't part of their "little black book".
Finally I went on my final mobile workshop of Railvolution which discussed some successes and difficulties of developing suburban TOD in the Portland area. We had the opportunity to check out several TOD projects and I will be discussing what was talked about on those tours and some of the things that was not talked about.
That finishes up my time at Railvolution and Portland. On Friday I head up to Seattle on Cascade Talgo operated by Amtrak. For anyone who has not had the opportunity to ride the Talgos in service in the northwest I highly recommned it.
Upon arrival in Seattle I had the opportunity to take my first ride on Link light rail but it was only through the downtown tunnel. From there I picked up a rental car since I will be heading to areas with poor transit service during the week and non-existant service on the weekends.
Showing posts with label Railvolution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Railvolution. Show all posts
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Portland Day 5
The day at railvolution started off with the Community Streetcar Coalition meeting. The big news coming out this meeting was that Utah will receive a $26 million tiger II grant for construction of the Sugarhouse Trolley. So not only will we have four TRAX lines and another commuter rail line opening by 2015, we should have our first modern streetcar in the next couple of years.
In addition $200 million in new start money will be freed up with the cancellation of the ARC tunnel project that would link New Jersey and New York. The tunnel has been very controversial with even rail advocates on opposing sides of the issues.
I went to several outstanding sessions including the Impacts of Streetcars on Neighborhoods and Development, Biketopia which had some great information on how biking can effect development, Partnerships and Streetcars plus Blogging for rail.
Finally the head of the American Public Transit Association gave a speech on the status of transit today.
Portland Day 4
Today was the first full day of workshops at Railvolution.
It opened up with a meeting of the National Assoiciation of Public Transit Advocates meeting which seemed to focus on what the Arizona Transit Association is doing with a grand they recieved from APTA.
Next up was the opening Plenary which featured Gordon Price who is a professor at Simon Fraser University in Vancounver, BC on why we need Portland. He did a presentation on what Vancouver has learned from the Portland and what it could do better. Then Congressman Earl Blumenauer who is one of the biggest advocates of livable cities.
On the workshop side I attended the Workforce Housing: The Missing TOD Link, Introduction to Station Area Planning and Livable Communties + Commuter Rail: Can We have both. One of the problems sometimes with these workshops is that you look at the discription in the program and what is being talked about is different than what the program seems to indicate. This happened the last time I was at Railvolution in Miami at the only workshop I could attend after doing my own presentation.
One of the best events of the day was the Networking Event and I attended the one put on by Jarrett Walker who writes the excellent Human Transit Blog. After the session I had a much better idea of where Jarrett is coming from and he has also given me some great ideas for future posts.
Finally there was a filmfest held at the Bagdad Theater in the Hawthorne district of Portland. The Hawthorne district is an ecletic streetcar era shopping district. The theater is an old time theater that is now not only a theater but sports a pub in what was the lobby of the classic theater. Many of the films came from Street Films out of New York which does many excellent presentations.
The first full day of Railvolution was outstanding and I look forward to going to more excellent workshops today.
It opened up with a meeting of the National Assoiciation of Public Transit Advocates meeting which seemed to focus on what the Arizona Transit Association is doing with a grand they recieved from APTA.
Next up was the opening Plenary which featured Gordon Price who is a professor at Simon Fraser University in Vancounver, BC on why we need Portland. He did a presentation on what Vancouver has learned from the Portland and what it could do better. Then Congressman Earl Blumenauer who is one of the biggest advocates of livable cities.
On the workshop side I attended the Workforce Housing: The Missing TOD Link, Introduction to Station Area Planning and Livable Communties + Commuter Rail: Can We have both. One of the problems sometimes with these workshops is that you look at the discription in the program and what is being talked about is different than what the program seems to indicate. This happened the last time I was at Railvolution in Miami at the only workshop I could attend after doing my own presentation.
One of the best events of the day was the Networking Event and I attended the one put on by Jarrett Walker who writes the excellent Human Transit Blog. After the session I had a much better idea of where Jarrett is coming from and he has also given me some great ideas for future posts.
Finally there was a filmfest held at the Bagdad Theater in the Hawthorne district of Portland. The Hawthorne district is an ecletic streetcar era shopping district. The theater is an old time theater that is now not only a theater but sports a pub in what was the lobby of the classic theater. Many of the films came from Street Films out of New York which does many excellent presentations.
The first full day of Railvolution was outstanding and I look forward to going to more excellent workshops today.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Portland Day 3
Day 3 in Portland was a very busy one. I was hoping to attend one of the morning mobile workshops but they where all filled up but as it turned out I would have some personal business to take care of so it all worked out.
I started off by getting up very early and catching the first route 20 bus to the Beaverton Transit Center. My purpose in this early morning jaunt was to ride WES which is Tri-Mets new commuter rail system from Beaverton to Wilsonville which is the first true suburban to suburban commuter rail system (unless you want to count some of the Conneticut DOT shuttles such as Danbury but thier primary purspose is to connect up with the New Haven to New York commuter trains).
I could have caught the first train after my bus arrived but I wanted to get some OJ but despite the early morning time (6:00AM) there was a good crowd getting off the train and a few people getting back on.
I caught the train that left at 6:28AM. There was a fully seated load getting off and a few people getting on. There is only 3 mid route stations but most of the passengers would board at the last two of those stations which suprised me. By the time we arrived in Wilsonville there was a full seated load. The Wilsonville station is kind of isolated but it does have connecting bus service to the state capital of Salem so many may have been state workers.
WES operates with DMU's (Diesel Multiple Unit) cars made by the late Colorado Railcar. These are the only DMU's that meet the current Federal Guidlines to operate on regular rail lines and fortunately despite the demise of Colorado Railcar another company US Railcar is taking over production.
The WES maintenance facility is located next to the Wilsonville station and I could only see one spare DMU car along with two RDC cars which are 50+ year old DMU's that the private railroads used extensively with the decline of passenger rail service in the 50's and 60's.
Leaving Wilsonville for the trip back we had a half a car load seated which comprised mostly of women which is unusual for commuter rail. However, the numbers evened up by the next stop at which time we had standing room only conditions. There was one lady talking loudly to a couple of friends who took up two seats so no one else could sit down next to her and a guy behind me who I saw later at Railvolution who made it clear no one was going to sit next to him. Some people are just down right rude and very inconsiderate.
The train remained SRO until we arrived Beaverton. I will discuss in more detail WES once I am done traveling.
My first Mobile Workship of Railvolution was in the afternoon and was "Portland's Maturing Streetcar Neighborhood's" which discussed how the Pearl District and its surronding neighborhoods came to be and we had question and answer sessions with one of the architects, devolopers and business owners that made the streetcar and the neighborhood successful.
One of the biggest surprises was the developer responsible for making the Pearl District what is is today was actually a suburban developer originally that is now solely focused on urban development.
Once will do several articles in the coming weeks going into more detail of what I learn at Railvolution and how it can apply to other cities across the nation.
I started off by getting up very early and catching the first route 20 bus to the Beaverton Transit Center. My purpose in this early morning jaunt was to ride WES which is Tri-Mets new commuter rail system from Beaverton to Wilsonville which is the first true suburban to suburban commuter rail system (unless you want to count some of the Conneticut DOT shuttles such as Danbury but thier primary purspose is to connect up with the New Haven to New York commuter trains).
I could have caught the first train after my bus arrived but I wanted to get some OJ but despite the early morning time (6:00AM) there was a good crowd getting off the train and a few people getting back on.
I caught the train that left at 6:28AM. There was a fully seated load getting off and a few people getting on. There is only 3 mid route stations but most of the passengers would board at the last two of those stations which suprised me. By the time we arrived in Wilsonville there was a full seated load. The Wilsonville station is kind of isolated but it does have connecting bus service to the state capital of Salem so many may have been state workers.
WES operates with DMU's (Diesel Multiple Unit) cars made by the late Colorado Railcar. These are the only DMU's that meet the current Federal Guidlines to operate on regular rail lines and fortunately despite the demise of Colorado Railcar another company US Railcar is taking over production.
The WES maintenance facility is located next to the Wilsonville station and I could only see one spare DMU car along with two RDC cars which are 50+ year old DMU's that the private railroads used extensively with the decline of passenger rail service in the 50's and 60's.
Leaving Wilsonville for the trip back we had a half a car load seated which comprised mostly of women which is unusual for commuter rail. However, the numbers evened up by the next stop at which time we had standing room only conditions. There was one lady talking loudly to a couple of friends who took up two seats so no one else could sit down next to her and a guy behind me who I saw later at Railvolution who made it clear no one was going to sit next to him. Some people are just down right rude and very inconsiderate.
The train remained SRO until we arrived Beaverton. I will discuss in more detail WES once I am done traveling.
My first Mobile Workship of Railvolution was in the afternoon and was "Portland's Maturing Streetcar Neighborhood's" which discussed how the Pearl District and its surronding neighborhoods came to be and we had question and answer sessions with one of the architects, devolopers and business owners that made the streetcar and the neighborhood successful.
One of the biggest surprises was the developer responsible for making the Pearl District what is is today was actually a suburban developer originally that is now solely focused on urban development.
Once will do several articles in the coming weeks going into more detail of what I learn at Railvolution and how it can apply to other cities across the nation.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Portland Day 2
Today was spent more time on foot than on transit taking time to check out near the downtown area. I had the opportunity to check out south, west and north of downtown including the Pearl District. However, I did make some trips on MAX and bus service.
Yesterday I missed riding the new Siemens S70 cars (or are they S90's?). These are the newest cars in the Tri-Met system and will soon be in service in Utah. However, today I finally was able to ride them not once but twice.
Riding both the older Siemens low floor cars that Tri-Met purchased for the opening of the westside line back in the mid-1990's and these new cars are better than comparable low floor buses and don't seem to suffer from the same downsides as on the bus side except for lower capacity.
One interesting aspect of the Portland cars is that only one side of the car has a operator cab. Since Tri-Met runs nothing but two car trains due to how short their blocks are, it made since to save the money and increase capacity by doing away with the second cab controls.
Tri-Met is able to save money by not requiring all the controls and electronics that are required in a cab and increases capacity in the car. UTA does not have this option since they can run up to 4 cars in rush hour but at other times can run anywhere from one to three cars. It is interesting to ride in an area that would be a operator cab if it was operated by any other light rail system.
Tomorrow I hope to have the opportunity to ride Tri-Mets WES commuter rail line in addition to going to my first Railvolution event which is a mobile workshop on Portland's maturing streetcar neighborhoods. It ought to be very interesting.
Yesterday I missed riding the new Siemens S70 cars (or are they S90's?). These are the newest cars in the Tri-Met system and will soon be in service in Utah. However, today I finally was able to ride them not once but twice.
Riding both the older Siemens low floor cars that Tri-Met purchased for the opening of the westside line back in the mid-1990's and these new cars are better than comparable low floor buses and don't seem to suffer from the same downsides as on the bus side except for lower capacity.
One interesting aspect of the Portland cars is that only one side of the car has a operator cab. Since Tri-Met runs nothing but two car trains due to how short their blocks are, it made since to save the money and increase capacity by doing away with the second cab controls.
Tri-Met is able to save money by not requiring all the controls and electronics that are required in a cab and increases capacity in the car. UTA does not have this option since they can run up to 4 cars in rush hour but at other times can run anywhere from one to three cars. It is interesting to ride in an area that would be a operator cab if it was operated by any other light rail system.
Tomorrow I hope to have the opportunity to ride Tri-Mets WES commuter rail line in addition to going to my first Railvolution event which is a mobile workshop on Portland's maturing streetcar neighborhoods. It ought to be very interesting.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Heading to Railvolution
Image via WikipediaOn Saturday I will be heading up to Portland to attend Railvolution. The entire time I am in Portland I will be using Tri-Met or walking.
I will try to blog on a daily basis on my experiences riding the system, some thoughts on the Portland area and the different sessions I will be attending.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Railvolution in Miami
Image via Wikipedia
For those interested Railvolution will be held October 18th-21st in downtown Portland.
I will be attending the event for the first time since I did a presentation at Railvolution in Miami helping transit agencies understand the needs of small businesses. This time I will not be there to present but attend the conference.
For those interested in Transit Oriented Development and to have an opportunity to see some of the great successes in the Portland area, I recommend you attend the event.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
My Presentation from Railvolution...
My presentation from Railvolution has been posted to the Railvolution Website. I focused on how to bring small businesses into community partnerships plus dealt with issues with why businesses are so concerned of major projects.
Sadly some of the transit people were not really receptive to hearing some of what I had to say but I was trying to give them a small businesses persons perspective and what they should do.
Presentation
I also discussed some of what went wrong during the Main Street TRAX construction and what is happing now with Downtown Rising.
Sadly some of the transit people were not really receptive to hearing some of what I had to say but I was trying to give them a small businesses persons perspective and what they should do.
Presentation
I also discussed some of what went wrong during the Main Street TRAX construction and what is happing now with Downtown Rising.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Miami Day 4...
OK, before I talk about day 4 here is a follow up from day 3. I mentioned the Blue Bird bus wrapped to look like an old streetcar, well here is the picture I took but couldn't find earlier. This is taken from route 282 which is laying over at the Palmetto MetroRail station.
My day started off at the Omni Transit Center. This picture was taken on day 3 since it was still dark when I left at 6:20am the day before the time change. I originally going to take route A which is the most direct route to the part of Miami Beach I was heading for. However, 6:30am came and went with no bus so ended up taking a Route S over to Miami Beach. Now the route actually has a number but they only go by the letter which I am sure can be confusing to some
customers.
I arrived at the Loew's resort where Railvolution was being held at 7:00am and head some breakfast and to get ready for my presentation. After my presentation I went into another session before picking up my box lunch. The final Plenary did not hold much interest so I decided to take a walk and get some pictures of terrific Art Deco architecture that I love and Miami Beach is know for. I must of looked pretty goofy walking around the Miami Beach area in a suit but oh well.
Here is some pictures I took:
Next I started walking north along the main drag. Here is a picture of the main Miami Beach shopping area and its classic business area.
Next I caught another Route S and took it up all the way to NE 195th and over to Adventura Mall. I saw many things to take pictures of along the way so I decided I would return tomorrow. The Route S remained very busy with a full load all the way from Miami Beach to the end of the line at Adventura Mall. The Adventura Mall is a transit center and very busy mall. The first thing I noticed is that while its nice that the mall allows the transit center, they need some work. When several buses were loading and loading plus cars going by created some bad congestion.
Next I caught a route 3 which would take me back to the hotel. I was hoping that I would see a Chinese restaurant on the way that I could come back to for dinner. The 3 bus finally showed up and was standing room only before leaving and stayed that way. I finally saw some Chinese restaurants along the way that I could come back to.
When we got to 125NE the traffic lights were out with no sings and no police directing traffic. We made it pass the intersection when the bus stopped and the driver said we have broken down, everyone off. So here is some of us waiting for the next bus that would come along.
The driver wouldn't say what the problem was but the bus still ran and he got back in with the A/C running. So he made his 50 plus passengers sit in the hot humid sun while he stayed in air conditioned comfort. That should be cause for termination right there. Talk about spitting on your customers.
The bus was supposed to run every 25 to 30 minutes but it was more than 40-minutes before the next bus came and it was even more packed than our bus was. The driver had passengers all the way to the front door and pointed us to the back door. About 5 people got on and that was all that would fit. The driver got angry that people were looking at them through the front door and started screaming he wasn't going to open the door.
Finally the driver of our broken down bus came over talked to the driver through the driver's side window then walked to the back door and saw that there was no room left. That bus took off and our driver once again jumped back into his bus.
After a little while longer a third bus showed up and although it was also packed, there was enough room for the people off our bus. We jammed on and had a pretty unpleasant ride back to my hotel.
While I understand that buses will break down, that is something you can't help. What made me angry was the way the drivers handled it especially our driver who kicked us off the bus and then stayed in his bus with the a/c running.
After getting back to the hotel I watched the Busch series race and Carl Edwards win the championship. After words I decided I didn't want another bus trip so I hopped on MetroMover to find someplace else to eat besides Burger King and Checkers that is across from the hotel.
I knew there was a McDonald's along the MetroMover so after seeing nothing else worth eating I settled for it. After words it was back on MetroMover to the hotel.
My day started off at the Omni Transit Center. This picture was taken on day 3 since it was still dark when I left at 6:20am the day before the time change. I originally going to take route A which is the most direct route to the part of Miami Beach I was heading for. However, 6:30am came and went with no bus so ended up taking a Route S over to Miami Beach. Now the route actually has a number but they only go by the letter which I am sure can be confusing to somecustomers.
I arrived at the Loew's resort where Railvolution was being held at 7:00am and head some breakfast and to get ready for my presentation. After my presentation I went into another session before picking up my box lunch. The final Plenary did not hold much interest so I decided to take a walk and get some pictures of terrific Art Deco architecture that I love and Miami Beach is know for. I must of looked pretty goofy walking around the Miami Beach area in a suit but oh well.Here is some pictures I took:
Next I started walking north along the main drag. Here is a picture of the main Miami Beach shopping area and its classic business area.Next I caught another Route S and took it up all the way to NE 195th and over to Adventura Mall. I saw many things to take pictures of along the way so I decided I would return tomorrow. The Route S remained very busy with a full load all the way from Miami Beach to the end of the line at Adventura Mall. The Adventura Mall is a transit center and very busy mall. The first thing I noticed is that while its nice that the mall allows the transit center, they need some work. When several buses were loading and loading plus cars going by created some bad congestion.
Next I caught a route 3 which would take me back to the hotel. I was hoping that I would see a Chinese restaurant on the way that I could come back to for dinner. The 3 bus finally showed up and was standing room only before leaving and stayed that way. I finally saw some Chinese restaurants along the way that I could come back to.When we got to 125NE the traffic lights were out with no sings and no police directing traffic. We made it pass the intersection when the bus stopped and the driver said we have broken down, everyone off. So here is some of us waiting for the next bus that would come along.
The driver wouldn't say what the problem was but the bus still ran and he got back in with the A/C running. So he made his 50 plus passengers sit in the hot humid sun while he stayed in air conditioned comfort. That should be cause for termination right there. Talk about spitting on your customers.
The bus was supposed to run every 25 to 30 minutes but it was more than 40-minutes before the next bus came and it was even more packed than our bus was. The driver had passengers all the way to the front door and pointed us to the back door. About 5 people got on and that was all that would fit. The driver got angry that people were looking at them through the front door and started screaming he wasn't going to open the door.Finally the driver of our broken down bus came over talked to the driver through the driver's side window then walked to the back door and saw that there was no room left. That bus took off and our driver once again jumped back into his bus.
After a little while longer a third bus showed up and although it was also packed, there was enough room for the people off our bus. We jammed on and had a pretty unpleasant ride back to my hotel.
While I understand that buses will break down, that is something you can't help. What made me angry was the way the drivers handled it especially our driver who kicked us off the bus and then stayed in his bus with the a/c running.
After getting back to the hotel I watched the Busch series race and Carl Edwards win the championship. After words I decided I didn't want another bus trip so I hopped on MetroMover to find someplace else to eat besides Burger King and Checkers that is across from the hotel.
I knew there was a McDonald's along the MetroMover so after seeing nothing else worth eating I settled for it. After words it was back on MetroMover to the hotel.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
UTA people missing in action at Railvolution...
As I said a couple of weeks ago I was very busy over the last week and a half. First I took Amtrak to Reno and attended a conference. Then I flew down to the Miami area to attend Railvolution that was being held in Miami Beach. In fact I was one of the presenters on Saturday.
I have plenty of material from these trips and will go over it over the next few weeks along with other important information but something I have to mention about Saturday.
On Saturday I was kind of curious how many UTA people were going to be in my session but end the end no one from UTA showed up even though there was several there from UTA. I saw the people leaving on the mobile workshops and no UTA people. Look into the other sessions that day and still no UTA people. So where were they? After all, they were attending a conference on taxpayers money so shouldn't they be held accountable for attending every workshop during the 4 days?
Now hopefully I am wrong, that I just missed seeing them, but some people were joking that most of the attendees went to the beach instead of the sessions on Saturday. 700 people were supposed to be attending the conference but I saw few people walking around on Saturday so it makes you wonder.
Now hopefully I am wrong they happened to be hiding somewhere but I do think when they attend a conference on taxpayer money they should be held accountable to attended every session during the conference or have to pay it back.
So what is the answer???
I have plenty of material from these trips and will go over it over the next few weeks along with other important information but something I have to mention about Saturday.
On Saturday I was kind of curious how many UTA people were going to be in my session but end the end no one from UTA showed up even though there was several there from UTA. I saw the people leaving on the mobile workshops and no UTA people. Look into the other sessions that day and still no UTA people. So where were they? After all, they were attending a conference on taxpayers money so shouldn't they be held accountable for attending every workshop during the 4 days?
Now hopefully I am wrong, that I just missed seeing them, but some people were joking that most of the attendees went to the beach instead of the sessions on Saturday. 700 people were supposed to be attending the conference but I saw few people walking around on Saturday so it makes you wonder.
Now hopefully I am wrong they happened to be hiding somewhere but I do think when they attend a conference on taxpayer money they should be held accountable to attended every session during the conference or have to pay it back.
So what is the answer???
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Great Job UTA
Image via WikipediaThe last couple of days I had the opportunity to attend Rail-Volution here in Salt Lake City. Rail-Volution deals with land use and transit systems.Salt Lake is one of the first smaller major cities to hold a Rail-Volution event that started 10 years ago. UTA provided good information to people attending the conference, passes for the length of the conference, and many of its employees attend the conference.
The only downside to the conference was the head of the UTA John Inglish. On Friday morning he did the morning introductions and introduced the other speakers of the morning session. However, when announcing some of the events, he wasn't sure if the Utah State Fair was running. What is wrong with that picture?
Overall I have to give UTA a big thumbs up in its leadership with Rail-Volution.
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