The Problem with Skybridges...

Streets of Reno #6
Originally uploaded by ellen.w

It seems that the sky bridge has become a contentious issue about the City Creek project. Many people seemed to think the sky bridge is wonderful just because Rocky is against it.

I could care less if Rocky loves the thing or hates, I personally think the sky bridge is a very bad idea.

Downtown Reno is the perfect example of what a sky bridge can do. The three main casinos in the are the Circus Circus, Silver Legacy and the El Dorado. All three of the hotels under common ownership are connected to each other via sky walks which you can see to the left of the photo.

The sky bridges are designed for one thing: to keep people in the casinos. On the street level you see a few people but for the most part the pedestrian action is non-existent. In the picture you are looking north toward the Circus Circus. Along the Silver Legacy there is a facade of old looking buildings that are all fake. There is not actually entrances or anything. Even during the day there is very little pedestrian action on the streets.

You can't blame the casinos for wanting to keep all the business to themselves but their actions have largely killed the the rest of the downtown area.

The City Creek sky bridge is also designed to keep people in the development which will choke off pedestrian traffic along Main Street and the surrounding areas.

Another example of what sky bridges do is Downtown Spokane. Spokane built an extensive network of sky bridges during and after Expo 74. What essentially happened was the people moved up. They stopped walking around along the surface streets and only shopped from the sky walks. The street level died as a result and you started getting the impression that Downtown Spokane was dead.

Eventually many of the stores started to close and be turned into offices and the downtown area became a 9 to 5 area. While not all of downtown's problems could be blamed on the sky walks, it was clear that they were a contributing factor to the decline of the area.

It has taken more than a decade for things to start changing in Spokane. There was other issues like a big mall issue but bring back the street life over the last few years has help the downtown area.

While there has been claims that the sky walk at City Creek will have access to the street level, the sky bridge is designed to keep people in the City Creek complex.

People need to not let emotion rule the decision over the sky bridge. Instead let good urban planning that is designed to enhance the entire downtown area, not two single blocks make the decision.

Reno Comparison...

Now the answer to the question you have been waiting for: How does Reno Ride compare to UTA?

What does Reno do Better?

1. Timed Transfers-Many systems do timed transfers better than UTA. The buses have time transfers at all the 3 transit centers which makes getting across the system easy. When UTA butchered the cross town routes such as 4500 South/4700 South and 3900 South/4100 South, Redwood, and State they made some long waits for transfers. Transit mentality says that the buses run every 15-minutes so that is ok, customer focus mentality says poor service.

2. Fare Boxes-Reno uses a more advance fare box than UTA. Something I have not seen before is that the fare box will issue transfers and day passes which makes a lot of sense. Plus the fare box will validate transfers and day passes to insure they are current. As a side note to this, the system is not set in stone as the driver can over ride in order to take care of the customer in special circumstances.

3. Actually calling their day pass is wrong as it's actually a 24 hour pass. When it is validated by the fare box, you can use it for the next 24 hours. This is a much more customer oriented model than a standard day pass. For example I arrived in Reno at noon and started riding at 1:00pm. I could have ridden the buses the next day until 1:00pm if my schedule allowed.

4. You can purchase a 24-hour pass on the buses. Drivers (or actually the fare box) will issue a 24-hour pass so you don't have to order them special, you don't have to worry about stocking up, in other words a customer can pick up a 24-hour pass and start using it.

5. The fare box validates the pass not the driver. I have had drivers in both Denver and Salt Lake validate day passes with the wrong dates. Then what do you do? After all the driver has no day passes so your SOL.

What does UTA do better?

1. Reno has those cheap anti-vandalism plastic seats with the cushion insets that are not comfortable especially compared to UTA's more comfortable padded seats.

Ties?

Reno and UTA seem to be equal on quality of drivers which is overall good.

Looks like Reno wins. Of course Reno is a smaller system so they do have advantages over UTA, but there is still things that UTA could take from the Reno system to make the Utah system better.



Next up Miami...

Here is Reno...

Well as many of you probably read, my travels last week took me to Reno and Miami. Here I will go over my experiences with both cities and their transit systems and how they compare to the UTA.

The first bus I took in Reno was route 9 which had a 40-foot TMC RTS bus number 472. The RTS is one of the best buses you can ride, far superior to the low floor buses that we are now subjected to (I don't have a problem with low floor buses themselves, it's just that every model I have ridden is a rattle piece of junk).

Route 9 travels from Downtown to the Meadowood Mall. The bus mainly travels through older neighborhoods many of them looking run down. In fact, in my travels through Reno there was only two types of neighborhoods in Reno: Old run down and suburban sprawl.

The bus remained fairly full all the way to the mall. In fact I was originally going to ride route 6 but that bus was standing room only with a 30-foot bus.


Once at Meadowood Mall I transferred to Route 56, with RTS number 471. In fact this was the same 30-foot bus that I passed up in Downtown on the 6 line.

The 56 mainly travels through new office parks, a new "premium" factory outlet center, small industrial and finally new apartment complexes. I then got off the 56 at South Meadows and Double R to catch the 57. I walked around the area taking some pictures and then caught the 57 which turned out to be the same bus as the 56. Apparently on Saturdays the bus runs route 6, route 56, route 57 and then return on route 6 to Downtown.

Once again the 57 went through mainly new office parks and new suburban sprawl housing. Once it becomes the 6 route you encounter mainly older homes all but about 2 blocks looks run down.
Here is the back of bus 471 after it dropped me off in Downtown Reno. Once here the bus switches from Route 6 to Route 19.
Reno has also purchased the Gillig Advantage BRT buses. What is a BRT Bus? Well in other words they are the Gillig Advantages like UTA purchased in 1999 and 2001 but with new nose and tail caps, seamless window sills, and supposedly more passenger friendly. UTA bought the same buses for Ogden this year and they are basically just like the older Advantages: rattletraps and junk since three 0f them I rode in Ogden had mechanical problems including a one with brake issues (a brand new bus with brake problems?)


This is Reno's downtown transit center. Look at this, that's right, timed transfers!!! Sadly Reno has fallen into the same anti-passenger wrap trap.
Another feature run by Reno is a free shuttle called the Sierra Spirit that runs from the downtown area to University of Nevada. The buses run every 10-minutes from 7:00am to 9:00pm seven days a week. They also feature free Wi-Fi service that sadly the main hotels do not offer.

This gives you a preview of the Reno system and in my next entry I will go over what Reno does better than UTA and is there anything that UTA does better? Stay tuned to find out...

Gone Again...

Yeah, I know I just got back on Sunday from a trip but I am leaving again but this time will have more transit riding in it.

I will leaving today for Reno then will head for Miami on Tuesday night.

Will get a chance to ride Reno's transit system tomorrow and Sunday, plus several days riding Miami-Dade County transit in Miami. Will be back on Monday the 5th and give you some ideas on my experiences.