First Impressions Part II

Image via WikipediaIn my last entry, I arrived at Central Station after my first ride on a Front Runner revenue service train. After helping one gentleman find his way to Gateway, I hopped aboard a Sandy train deciding it was time to eat (now 2:00pm).

After looking at the schedules I realized I could take TRAX down to Millcreek Station and then catch a 35M to 4800 South to eat at the Chinese Gourment restaurant and get in the MAX line. This would still allow me to get back to Salt Lake in plenty of time for a meeting at 6:00pm.

The train down to Millcreek was crowed but not overly crowed and before long I got off and headed to the MAX station. The relief driver was there along with a lady from UTA administration that I recognized and a guy going to get rider counts.

Finally the bus arrived and we loaded up. There was two wheelchairs to get on which took forever. Apparently the drivers are still getting used to these Van Hool buses as the both the original driver and the new driver had a hard time figuring out how to work the wheelchair ramp. Then the new driver could not figure out how to get the bus to release the brakes, but after another UTA official showed her, we were off right behind a regular 35.

We had to leave a 3rd wheelchair bound person at Redwood Road due to lack of capacity and then they had all kinds of trouble getting the ramp down to let one of the wheelchairs off at Valley Fair Mall. We finally arrived at 4800 West about 10 to 15 minutes late having been passed by the regular 35 at Valley Fair Mall.

After eating the first bus to arrive was a regular 35 with an Orion V so I hopped that to Valley Fair Mall. Interesting is that there was more people on the regular 35 than on the 35M I took westbound. At Valley Fair Mall I noticed that a 35M was behind us so I jumped off the 35 and took the 35M. The bus had a much smaller load than the 35 and it ended up being the same driver I had the other direction.

We ended up behind the regular 35 all the way to 900 West. At that point the regular 35 made its jog over to UTA headquarters while we continued on our way. Just as we got off the bus the northbound TRAX train that is supposed to come 10 minutes after MAX arrives pulled into the station I head back to downtown changing over to the University train for my final destination at the library.

After my meeting I caught TRAX over to the Stadium TRAX station to catch the 220 back to Holladay.

Front Runner was everything that I expected it to be since I had ridden the same equipment in other cities. On the other hand MAX is still a work in progress. It would not be fair for me to evaluate the performance of the 35M yet until the road work on 35 South is done. Also the problems the drivers had will be fixed with familiarity with the odd ball equipment and brings up the final comments and that is on the Van Hool buses.

I have mentioned before about the problems with these buses and it was actually worse than expected.

-First of all, there is less padding on the seats than on a regular UTA bus or TRAX train. While they are padded better than the ex-VTA UTDC light rail cars that UTA bought or say a transit bus in Los Angeles, it is not saying much. I much rather ride in a regular UTA bus than one of these new Van Hool's.

-Second, because of the design of the bus and the third door seating capacity is lower. We already loose seats with low floor buses and these have even fewer seats. While the concept of MAX is that passengers will get to their destinations faster, the fact is that people may still be in the seats or standing for extended periods which makes the design inferior to other buses.

-Third, wheelchairs are more difficult to stow on these buses. Unlike all other UTA buses where the driver can easily secure the wheelchair through attached hooks, on the Van Hool buses the driver has to take the time to take them out of a locked bin, then attach them to the floor board of the bus. This bus is supposed to be faster but the design makes them slower.

-Finally, the engine is closer to the front of the bus than in a standard transit bus so engine noise is more pronounced throughout the bus.

All these combine to make the Van Hools a poor choice in a transit bus and it is no wonder why passengers fought hard in Oakland to get the order for more canceled. Hopefully UTA will look at these issues before buying more of these buses.

Once MAX is fully operational I will take another look at the operation and see how it was doing.

First Impressions...

Yesterday I had my first opportunity to ride both MAX and Front Runner (besides opening day).

Having rode the Front Runner cars in Los Angeles and Miami, I had a pretty good idea of how nice the Bombardier cars will ride and I was not disappointed. The cars are very smooth and benefit by the fact that the tracks are exclusive to Front Runner so heavy freight trains will not cause the trains to ride rough (except for the expansion north of Ogden).

My original plan was to ride the 45 to TRAX and then catch the 35M. However, I walked over to 1300 East and decided to walk over to Van Winkle instead of walking north to Murray-Holladay road because I did not feel like walking that far (totally ignoring the 213 which was closer but of no use). At this point I decided I would not ride the 35M at all and ride Front Runner up to Ogden and do photography all day.

I caught the 307 at about 6:30am and took it to State and 200 South. The bus was one of the new 2007 Gillig Advantage BRT buses but the good news it had no wrapped (in fact I only rode one bus with a wrap yesterday!!). Most new low floor buses and especially most of the newest buses UTA has bought lately seem to rattle really bad but this one was so bad. The biggest rattle came from the farebox.

Next I took the 500 over to the Central Station to catch Front Runner. I had 4 minutes from the time the 500 arrived to my train was scheduled to depart and I had to buy a ticket. I walked over to the ticket machine closet to the bus area and it was dead. So then I rapidly walked over to the far side of the platform and bought my ticket and jumped on the train.

The train left right on time at 7:25am. Being a reverse commute train, there was not a lot of passengers on board but the southbound trains looked packed. I was able to snag one of the sets of seats with a table so I sat up and did some writing as I enjoyed my ride. We stayed on time for most of the trip except when we had to meet a southbound train at the passing siding around Centerville. Despite leaving Farmington about 5 minutes late we still pulled into Ogden on time.

I then walked over to Union Station and did some photography and then walked to Washington and 25th and caught a 612 up to the Ogden Sign by the Ogden River on Washington Blvd. I then walked back to 25th and Washington taking pictures along the way before catching a 603 out to the McKay Hospital.

It was about 11:00AM at this point and I was hoping to find someplace to eat but nothing was standing out to me. The only thing within walking distance was Taco Bell but I stopped drinking soda seven weeks ago and that is all they offer for drinks so that was no go. I decided to catch the 625 which took me over to the Ogden Regional Medical Center. I walked down took some pictures of the toll booth then walked back and took the 612 back to Washington and 25th. I did see a couple of Chinese places that look good along the way but by the time I noticed them were already were passed them and I didn't feel like walking at that point.

From 25th and Washington I walked back to Union Station, took some more pictures, purchased a water from a machine at the transit station and caught the 1:08pm train back to Central Station. This train was packed and we did have a UTA Police Officer check for tickets on this trip. We arrived on time back into Salt Lake and that ended part I of my day.

I will continue this story next time...

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VICTORY against the NIMBY's!!

Image via WikipediaI was preparing to do another Perils for Pedestrians video when I received a Google alert that the State Supreme Court ruled against the NIMBY group in Draper.

Utah Supreme Court rules for TRAX in Draper rail-siting dispute

This is great news for everyone but the NIMBY minority, and now we can have an effective TRAX line through the Draper area.
Next here is another Perils for Pedestrian Video's.

The one thing that caught my attention in this video was making a Dairy Queen in Nebraska more pedestrian friendly. As anyone who tried to get to a fast food restaurant anywhere in the country will now that they are designed for people to arriving and depart by automobile. In most cases the pedestrian be damned. Even in areas that are supposed to be pedestrian friendly fast food places are not very pedestrian friendly.

Of course it is not just fast food places. One of the most pedestrian unfriendly businesses is the post office. Until recently the post office did not have to obey local zoning ordinances so they built their buildings any way they wanted to and they were built supporting the automobile but not pedestrians. When I lived in Sandy I would always used the Midvale Post Office because it was just a couple of doors down from the TRAX station were I would catch my bus after riding TRAX from Historic Sandy. This Post Office has no pedestrian access at all, I had to use part of the main driveway to access the building and almost got hit a couple of times.

The video also has interesting information about what is happening in the Washington DC area and Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Central Station

Image via WikipediaImagine getting of a train whether it be Front Runner or the California Zephyr (or any other long distance train that should service Salt Lake City), and arriving at a beautiful station mixing classic architecture with state of the art facilities. You have shopping, hotels, motels, and entertainment just a few steps away. Well, that dream died many years ago when Boyer was allowed to develop the Gateway center and those non-essential trains were moved several blocks away were no one will notice them.

Today we do have a nice intermodal depot but at the present time it is a shadow of what it could have been and can be in the future. The danger of the present station is that it will become a place that people get off Front Runner as quickly as possible, run over to TRAX and avoid the neighborhood completely. Instead to become a true Central Station, the station needs to be not only a station but a destination.

I posted a video back in December about the Berlin Hauptbahnhof station. Take a look at their website and see what is provided. Now they have substantially more trains than Salt Lake probably will ever have, but it gives you a good idea about the range of facilities to be found in great stations.

While there is at least one hotel planned across the street from Central Station, more needs to be done to truly make it a world class station. Here are some suggestions to take it to the next level:
-Make 100 South and 600 West a predestrian and transit corridor from the Gateway area to Central Station. While there is currently one building under redevelopment in the corridor, the rest of the area is pretty vacant and could easily be redeveloped. Then UTA can route a majority of the buses via 300 West/100 South/600 West to access the station. There is already a plan to turn 300 South into a pedestrian corridor but this will only link the station to the back side of the former Rio Grande Station and do little to connect the station with the main downtown core. A side benefit of creating this corridor along 100 South is that it is farther away from the homeless shelter that leaves a stigma (right or wrong) on 200 South at 400 West.

-Finish the second phase of Central Station that includes the parking garage along 200 South, and the building extending toward the current Amshack at the south end of the property.

-Insure that a lower priced motel is located near the station, possibly near the proposed higher end hotel to ensure that all travelers have a choice of accommodations.

-UTA should develop plans to either move their central garage or possible place it underground with development such as offices and restaurants above it. As developments moves toward the station, the present location of the garage will become a hindrance.

-Since there is little chance of attracting major retailers to the area with both the City Creek Center and Gateway trying to attract them, there is a great opportunity to build a center dedicated to locally owned stores and restaurants. There was talk of turning the old warehouse into a farmers market. This is an excellent idea to focus on the local culture. The Central Station could become Salt Lake version of the Pike Street Market giving new opportunities to locally owned retailers that get shut out by other places either by tax incentives, subsidies to big box retailers, and the false stigma of locally owned retailers.

We do have an opportunity to create a grand Central Station, but it will take a lot of effort, some create thinking, and a group of planners and city councilman that don't give into to special interest.

Schedule Changes on Sunday

Image via WikipediaThe UTA will be changing schedules this Sunday which is not the normal time they would do it but is being done right now for the introduction of MAX service along 3500 South.

For people that ride buses from the Central Station there is going to be some changes for you as several routes will no longer service the station such as the 200 and 205 while others will start serving the station.

As noted before, the 35 will continue to operate, however it will only run every hour while the new 35M will run every 15 minutes. Riders will benefit in a small way with the new service since the last bus will leave the Millcreek TRAX station at 1:28AM instead of 11:28PM. It will be interesting to see if these later buses last beyond a year since no other service is running at that point.

Now that the UTA has purchased them, I hope that the new Van Hool buses perform better than they have in Oakland and other cities. There has been a large number of complaints about them causing A/C Transit to cancel their most recent purchase.

I also still believe we would be much further ahead by upgrading existing bus service instead of wasting the money on MAX. Follow the Portland system of speeding up bus service with special curbs to give direct access to the low floor buses, getting rid of bus stops that are way too close together (although local stops are needed, you don't want them too close together), and then add the light preference system to the buses. This would do more for the bus system making it more efficient and less costly at a lower cost than MAX.

We shall see...

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Tolls and Taxes

Image via WikipediaOnce again we have the west side cities trying to stop an attempt to toll the Mountain View Corridor.

West-side cities re-emphasizing opposition to toll for new road

However, the question needs to be asked, if the road is not tolled, how will the state pay for it? This brings up another problem that will start facing highway funding and that is decreases in gas tax revenue. However, if people switch to more economical cars and start taking transit more, then gas tax revenues will go down further straining the revenue.

Since the gas tax is assessed by the gallon and not by a percentage of sale like a regular sales tax, revenue goes down if drivers don't drive as much or get more efficient vehicles.

In fact highways actually face the same problem as transit. In Utah much like the rest of the country, transit systems are dependent on sales tax revenue which of course goes down during back economic times. Like the gas tax, it is an unstable form of taxation because you cannot depend on the revenues remaining constant.

Of course tolling is not a 100% solution to the gas tax since it is also dependent on people driving but if someone buys a more efficient vehicle, but drives the same amount on the toll road you do not loose that revenue.

In the long run a more stable form of taxation is going to be needed. Plus, new developments are going to have to a bigger portion of their true cost.

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Salt Lake City to Park City...

Image via WikipediaIn the past I talked about the need to link Park City and Salt Lake City by transit. According to today's Deseret News, there is a study currently being undertaking to decide how this service should be operated.

One option would be to contract this service out to a company such as Lewis Brothers or Le Bus to operate. While I would not have a problem with that per say, connections and fares would need to be seemless between UTA service and the new Park City bus. The ideal solution would be to have timed transfers from the Park City bus to and from Front Runner north and south at the Central Station allowing travel across the Wasatch Front until connections are justified from the Provo and Ogden areas to Park City.

Groups to study Salt Lake-Park City bus route

Articles of Note...

Image via WikipediaOne problem that many small businesses face is government regulations that are skewed against them and to big businesses and the automobile. One of these is parking regulations that keep small businesses from doing business and also are a deterrent to creating pedestrian friendly areas.

The Salt Lake City Council is now looking toward lower the standards that businesses have to meet when it comes to parking. However, there is homeowners who don't want people parking in front of their homes so they are opposed to the new regulations. While I can understand the people who have had moron's block their driveways, this is a policing issue and should be taken care that way.

Proposed parking revisions a hot topic

Next is a proposal in Sandy to eliminate high restrictions in order to allow a new development north of the South Towne Mall. This new development includes the Broadway Theater that the city leaders think will make them even more special.

What is laughable about the whole thing is that Sandy is calling the area around their city hall "downtown". Clearly the folks running Sandy are having delusions of Grandeur as that area is in not shape or form a downtown.

Maybe they think that calling it downtown will magically create an atmosphere? Clearly it is not a downtown area, but a suburban sprawl autocentric commercial office and retail area, nothing more.

Sandy Council delays height-limit vote

Finally we have an article about UTA buying used coaches from New Jersey Transit to add additional capacity for Front Runner.

While the cars are not ideal, they will provide needed capacity to the commuter rail system. It will cost substantially less to remodel these cars as apposed to buying new ones although they do not seat as many passengers compared to the cars from Bombardier.

The only downside is, they are not stainless steel cars that can last upwards of 50+ years, but if UTA can get 5 or even 10 years worth of use out of them they will pay for themselves and hopefully can get more Bombardier cars at that time.

Perils for Pedestrian Video...

Here is another video from the series Perils for Pedestrians.

This video focuses on what is happening in Seattle. While Seattle is known for some of its nice walkable neighborhoods, there is other parts of Seattle that are not very pedestrian friendly and there is discussion on how to change that.

There is some good information on how things developed and what we can do to change them. Once again we are at a disadvantage along the Wasatch Front when you have to deal with so many different planning organizations to get anything done.

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More on the Cottonwood Mall Area Development...

Image via WikipediaWhen the announcement came that the Cottonwood Mall would be torn down and replaced by a new development, I was skeptical of how the development would be developed. It look as though General Growth properties basically let the mall die so they could turn around and redevelop and get tax dollars for the development (along with the tax savings they get by building a new development over a remodel).

Well I have kept an open mind that they would do something different, to set it apart from Gateway and blend the development into the rest of the community. We have seen way too many developments like Gateway that are designed to keep people within the complex and do not blend into the rest of the neighborhoods.

Today, I was asked to fill out a survey about what features I would look for if I were to purchase a home in the complex. First of all, in this age of high priced gas, there was no question in the survey about how important transit connections were so I included comments about that in the survey.

While it is too early to see how the development will blend into the community, it looks as though it will be another Gateway were it is easy to move around the development but you will be discouraged from leaving the area. The creek looks like it is designed to be a barrier to people heading to Highland drive. The sidewalks to cross the the creek are very narrow as to discourage people to walk across them.

While General Growth also said that it would like to invite locally owned stores to locate in the center, they made it clear that it would have to be an additional location for a successful high end location.

I do not expect the city of Holladay to do much to insure that the complex is blended into the community since they have show little in the way of good planning sense so far. Clearly this complex is designed for the Lexus and Mercedes crowd and not the UTA riding crowd even if those riders have given up their Lexus to take the bus.

New developments such as the one at the Cottonwood Mall need to be encouraged to blend better into the neighborhood, encourage transit access, and also consider some affordable units to give a better mix of housing options. While some developers see making the complex blend into the community as a bad thing because that encourages people to leave and go to other neighborhood stores, in the long run it will bring more people to the area because it will actually encourage more shoppers to the area because there is a wider range of shopping options.

Some Articles to take note of...

Image via WikipediaThere has been a few articles the past couple of days I want to briefly mention today. First is this article coming out of Oakland:

AC Transit does 180 on buses

AC Transit is canceling its latest order for Van Hool transit buses after rider complaints about safety and other issues. These are the same type of buses that UTA has ordered for the MAX service along 3500 South.

The problem with having a separate fleet of buses is that you have to have a special parts inventory especially for non-standardized buses like the Van Hool's. Plus they have been a maintenance nightmare for other transit systems. UTA would have been farther ahead to order more Gillig's despite their issues and just paint them a special color and order the wider back doors.

Next is the announcement about the master plan for downtown transportation:

Master plan awaits green light

Most of the plan looks pretty good. I do question allowing bicycles back on the sidewalks except for a limited distance simple because it will endanger pedestrians and we need to make Salt Lake more pedestrian friendly besides more bicycle friendly.

Also if they are going to do the circular buses incorporate the 500 Capital as part of the system and then eliminate the fare free zone. Let the buses (and eventually streetcars) handle the short distance riders freeing TRAX for the longer distance rides.

Next there is some minor articles such as UTA appointing a new board of trustees, a plan to mitigate wetlands damage during TRAX construction, and the story of two sisters protesting gas prices.

UTA votes to appoint Ellertson president of board of trustees

TRAX entities to fix wetlands damage

Sisters protest high gas prices

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Long Distance Travel

Image via WikipediaFor the second time in less than 7 years we are caught with our pants down. First it was September 11th when our airline system came to a halt and now with high fuel prices hurting the airline industry and driving. Today we have little alternative to those two modes since our rail passenger system is a joke.

You would have thought we might have learned something after Sept. 11th but it looks like we have not. Just like then our rail passenger system is a joke. It is made worse by many issues within our national rail passenger carrier Amtrak.

While rail passenger service will never replace automobile travel or airlines, what is important is to have an effective rail passenger service as an alternative to the two. I am not talking high speed trains here as they are impractical but an effective network of long distance and short distance trains that would allow more convenient travel across the country.

In the past year I have ridden several passengers trains run by Amtrak including the California Zephyr from Salt Lake City to both Reno and Denver, the Coast Starlight from Los Angeles to Portland, the Cascades Talgo service from Portland to Seattle and finally the Empire Builder from Seattle to Spokane.

While the crews have been hit and miss, overall the experience has been wonderful. While on the train I can do some computer, enjoy the scenery since I am not driving, and relax in a way I cannot do any other time.

The biggest blockade to better rail passenger service sadly seems to be Amtrak itself. The only real progress in rail service has been in such states as California and Washington not because of
Amtrak but in spite of it in most cases. Amtrak on the other hand seems to only care about taking money from the states. Despite record ridership Amtrak is not pursing expanding routes or buying much need new equipment except in the northeast corridor.

Utah's only work on rail passenger service has been a proposed high speed train from Logan down to Cedar City which seems like a wasted effort at the present time. It would seem that a better strategy would be to work on rail passenger projects with neighboring states that will improve both rail and freight passenger service.

Here are more sources of information about our rail passenger service:

United Rail Passenger Alliance
Intermountain Rail
RailPAC
National Association of Railroad Passengers
Amtrak

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More Urban Development...

Image via WikipediaThere is a posting in the Overhead Wire, another transit related blog talking about urban housing:

Employment, Residential Booming Near Transit

It features an article out of the Tribune:

Gas prices, economic worries spur growth in urban residential permits

We are slowly seeing the development happen that has accompanied many light rail lines including such cities as Los Angeles and Portland. We are also seeing new Transit Oriented Developments being built in Sandy and Murray with more to come.

Clearly we cannot sustain the auto centric developments of the last 70 years. We need to focus more on making our cities more livable. It is clear from the success of Daybreak that people will go to neighborhoods that are pedestrian and bicycle friendly and although it only has limited transit service now, will have TRAX service very shortly along with community shuttles.

There will be even more opportunities for sustainable development once our new TRAX and Front Runner stations come online. I have already pointed out other opportunities to design new developments that is affordable to the lower end of the economic scale. .

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BRT Scheme in Provo/Orem moves forward...

Image via WikipediaHere is the latest article on the BRT project in Orem/Provo area.

Parkway may get rapid bus line

According to the article the current 830 line attracts 3000 riders per day but the BRT is supposed to carry 13,000 to 15,000 riders. I just don't see that happening.

Anyone who rides the 830 route will know that most of the riders are heading to local stops along the way especially 700 East and 1230 North, and 550 West. There is also a large amount of travel from BYU to the Mt. Timp Transit Center.

Unfortunately current policy at the Federal Transit Administration supports high ridership numbers for BRT and low ridership numbers for light rail which always makes BRT look better.

My worry is that the BRT will not meet ridership potential and that will give cause for all the anti-transit types in the Orem/Provo are to say "see, you got BRT and it failed so you don't need no light rail". If you look at the Busways in Los Angeles and Pittsburgh you will find that they are carrying below to substantially below what they were projected. The Harbor Freeway Bus way in Los Angeles is lucky to get 5,000 riders while a few miles away sits the Blue Line that carries 78,000 passengers per day.

Another problem I see with the proposal is the idea of running buses every 5 minutes. Once you get buses running that frequently you start getting problems with buses bunching together and schedule problems.

Further you have long term capacity restrictions with BRT. The much touted Orange Line in Los Angeles has hit capacity at 20,000. Metro cannot add more buses and unlike rail you cannot simply add another car to the consist.

What will help this line is Front Runner South allowing people to transfer to and from Front Runner to head for such destinations as UVSU and BYU.

Of course little progress can be expected out of the Utah Valley area so long as their planning is through MAG which is a rural based organization. The needs of Utah County are very different from the needs of the rest of the MAG area but so long as those rural interest have the say, good planning will be stymied.

West Valley TRAX Ground Breaking

TRAX train in Murray at the IHC Hospital
Originally uploaded by jmdspk

Ceremony launches construction of West Valley TRAX line

Well, I missed another ground breaking ceremony. First I missed the ground breaking ceremony for the West Jordan TRAX line because of my anniversary trip which was much more important, then yesterday I missed the ground breaking ceremony because I had business obligations. Oh well I made the important Front Runner Grand Opening and there is still 3 more ground breaking's to go including the Airport line, the Draper line and Front Runner to Utah County.

It will be interesting to see what develops at the 2100 South, 1300 South, 900 South, and 500 South stations over the next few years. When all the TRAX lines are up in running those stations are going to have extensive service. While Envision Utah showed some grand plans for the 2100 South area a few years ago little has happened toward that direction except for the mixed used development at 2100 South and Main.

With all the new auto centric developments to the west of TRAX, the best hope for good pedestrian friendly development is the east side. With the addition of the Sugarhouse Trolley you could have a nice pedestrian friendly neighborhood that could connect the TRAX line with Sugarhoure. In fact TRAX could become a border from a nice pedestrian friendly area to the east and a sea of concrete to the west.

Making Salt Lake Bicycle Friendly

Image via WikipediaHow are we going to make our area more bicycle friendly?

The City of Salt Lake is turning 200 South into a more bicycle friendly street but what else is being done to encourage the use of bicycles? After all, much of the valley is pretty flat which makes it perfect bicycling territory, but we still have few facilities for bicycles.

I have to admit I have not rode a bicycle since I was in Jr. High School because it just became to dangerous to ride. I was living in Southern California at the time and there was no bike lanes so the bicycle ended up being parked.

Recently I did purchase a new bike for recreational riding along the Jordan River Trail. There is few bicycle lanes or other facilities near me so my riding will be limited to the trails.

So what are the answers?

In some European cities bicycles have their own separate area. You will have car lanes to one side, then dedicated bicycle lanes and finally the actual sidewalks. This gives bicycles their own right of way so they are not interfering with automobiles or pedestrians and their right of way is not invaded.

The city of Portland is making bike lanes much more noticeable by painting them and then also have large areas at intersections for bicycles to wait.

Another area where Salt Lake City could catch up is Bicycle shares. While I was on vacation back in May there was an article about this in one of the local papers. We need to adapt a system such cites of Paris have with bike sharing. There you put in a credit card deposit and then you can rent a bike relatively cheaply for a certain amount of time. There is talk of putting such a facility in at the Central Station but there will need to be more facilities to make the project workable.

The wonderful blog Transit Miami often has several previous entries about trying to make their area more bicycle friendly and yesterday had a link to the city of Cambridge that is one of the most bicycle friendly cities in the country.

Bicyclist can also help the cause by not doing things like running red lights that only hurt the cause of making the area more bicycle friendly.

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Articles...

Image via WikipediaHere is a article from yesterday's Deseret News covering what has been talked about since Front Runner opened and then an article from today's Salt Lake Tribune about art along the TRAX tracks.

It looks like everyone in planning Front Runner underestimated how popular the Layton Station could be. Truth be told, the way the Federal Transit Administration's policies work rail ridership always is understated while ridership on BRT lines usually gets overstated showing their prefeence for the latter.

Once again part of the problem can be laid directly to the sprawl style development that has taken place in the Layton area. It is very difficult to service the area with conventional bus routes. Eventually the area should be served by the same Call A Ride type vans that we have discussed for areas around the TRAX lines.

Of course the short term solution is to build addition parking but land will have to bought to serve that purpose.

Eventually the Layton Station would be another excellent location for a transit oriented development. Not only does it have Front Runner, it is served by the 470 and as I stated should eventually be served by Call A Ride vans. Integrate the old train station so the restaurant located there can be the focal point of the development plus additional parking. People would then have the choice to live near the station, or commute to the station plus have a host of entertainment options. It is located right next to the historic Main Street area that could be a great drawing card for the area.

The second article which is in today's tribune talks about a grant for artwork along the TRAX lines especially the north-south line. About the only negative of the line is all the graffiti that is along the corridor so replacing it with artwork would be a major improvement. However, the article says that the landowners agree to maintain it for five years so that needs to be enforced because some of the older murals are getting tagged frequently.

UTA going to smart cards

Front Runner Inaugural Train at Farmington
Originally uploaded by jmdspk

Article from today's Tribune about UTA going to smart cards.

Need a ride? Show some plastic

It will be interesting to see how these will play out. The benefit is that they can keep track better of passenger boardings.

Bill Tibbets and his gang of yellow shirts, or are they orange? are pushing for the UTA to lower fares in the city. Of course they don't look at the other side of the coin to see if this will produce enough revenue to pay for itself but that is another story.

Of course if UTA does lower fares just in the city of Salt Lake, shouldn't the city be the one to pay for it?

That also brings to question the whole proposal by the yellow shirts. Lets say UTA actually did lower fares just in the city of Salt Lake. Why should someone traveling the same distance pay more because they live in Murray?

Of course the people who make these proposals never look beyond the basics to look at the other side of the coin or the unintended consequences of what they propose.

Airport Line coming...

Image via WikipediaWell, we knew it was only a formality, but the city of Salt Lake City and UTA have signed the agreement to allow construction of the Airport TRAX line. The line will operate from downtown via North Temple to the airport. Sadly the westside's inferiority complex was allowed to make a transportation decision so the line will use 400 West instead of making a direct connection to the Intermodal Hub via 600 West.

This line will provide a critical link that will allow people to access the airport easier especially with the connection to Front Runner plus make it easier for airport employees to leave their cars at home.

Saldy, in this time of high gas prices and problems in the airline industry I cannot say that having a connection to intercity rail passenger service was important since it Amtrak service in Salt Lake is a joke.

Salt Lake City will join Portland, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington DC (BWI and National), Atlanta, Burbank and St. Louis as having rail connections with the airport. LAX in Los Angeles, Miami International and Fort Lauderdale have short shuttle rides to rail transit service. In addition Seattle will be joining the list late next year.

Personally I have flown into/out of Burbank, Portland, Miami, and Fort Lauderdale using transit connections and for the most part they have worked well. For example a couple of years ago my wife and I flew into Portland, picked up our luggage walked right to the MAX light rail train, got off at our stop and walked to our motel.

Another benefit of using transit from the airports is that you do not have to drive in a strange city.

Salt Lake City mayor, UTA ink deal to extend TRAX to airport

Becker, UTA sign agreement for airport TRAX line

Yesterday...

Yesterday, I had a meeting to attend to in Downtown so I thought it would be a good time to go get some pictures at the Intermodal Hub, Central Station.

I started off on the 213 getting one of the 2006 Opus buses which is the perfect bus to be assigned to this route. I then took TRAX to the Intermodal Hub.

On my way back I took TRAX to the Stadium Station and onto the 220. I cannot wait until they build something at the Stadium TRAX station. I just hope it has something like a convenience store because yesterday I was getting pretty thirsty waiting for the 220 but of course I would have missed the bus if I had to walk over to stores on 1300 East and 200 South.

But then came the 220 with bus 9214 assigned. One of the last of the Orion V buses still on the road for UTA. The bus itself is better than any of the low floor buses built today, but what was really irritating was the wrap. Now anyone who has read my blog for any length of time knows how much I despise wraps but this one was even worse than most. As you can see from the picture you cannot see a thing out the window. This is why I hate wraps so much.

Easy Access.....

Image via WikipediaI miss the apartment I was living a few years ago. From my apartment I could walk to a local grocery store, a pizza parlor, Circle K, a hardware store, dry cleaners, postal service annex and a newstand that had a couple of really cute girls employed. I could also catch the bus from in front of the complex to the main downtown area which in this town was called "uptown" to give it a little better name. This complex was not designed as a transit oriented development but it worked much the same way. Everything was designed to be in walking distance including transit service.

I am not talking about Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; or San Francisco, California; New York City; or any of those northeastern towns. The city I was living in at the time was Charlotte, North Carolina.

While I could not use the bus service for regular transportation since it most of the routes radiated out of uptown area and provided generally poor service (you couldn't even blame light rail for this one since Charlotte just opened their first light rail line early this year). In addition I was working for Oldsmobile in the racing arena at the time and transit just didn't fit the needs although I would have used it if it worked.

What did work was my wonderful apartment. The convenience of not having to get in the car to go to the grocery store or run everyday errands. That is the essential elements of Transit Oriented Development.

Today in many cities around the nation you can live near a light rail or bus station, have all your services convenient to you, and not only be able to run your errands without using the automobile but also have the luxury of hopping transit to work, dinner, a movie, or a many other activities.

They exist in Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, San Jose, Denver, and of course the older transit cities such as Chicago, New York, Boston and Toronto.

Monday's development conference hopefully will spawn some developments here in Salt Lake City. I have already talked about some actions that can be taken along the major bus routes that will help out with not only providing affordable housing but increase bus ridership by making bus service more convenient.

We have already seen a new vision come out of the University of Utah and hopefully we will see many more in the next couple of years. We need housing and services to become more convenient to each other were walking and transit become easy options, not something that is an afterthought.

Imagine the possibilities...

UTA Shares Future Development Plans

Developers focus on mass transit

UTA hosts mass-transit conference

University of Utah embraces TOD

Image via WikipediaArticle in the Trib today about plans of the University of Utah to turn itself into a more pedestrian friendly campus. Plans include replacing much of the surface parking with parking garages and concentrating development along the TRAX lines.

The University should be applauded for its efforts over the years to encourage its students to take TRAX and the bus. While Universities much like airports gain revenue from parking which many times will cloud their judgment when it comes to promoting transit service, it is clear that the U of U has seen that transit plays an important role in moving its students.

The boldest part of the plan is to replace the parking lot between the Stadium TRAX station and the Stadium itself with a huge mixed used complex that will include residential, office, retail, restaurants and entertainment. Not only will this benefit students at the U, it will also help those of use who transfer from TRAX to buses at that location. I often transfer from TRAX to the 213 or 220 and it will be nice to be able to do something while waiting for the bus or TRAX. You add the streetcar from my earlier proposal and you have a major entertainment destination. I hope that the University will encourage locally owned businesses to be a major part of this complex and doesn't give into chain phobia.

Another outstanding part of the plan is to replace temporary buildings near the Fort Douglas TRAX stop and replace them with new housing. This will put students directly on the TRAX line and allow them easy access to downtown shopping and entertainment and further reduce the need for the automobile.

By the way lets put some basic economics here. These developments will encourage transit use, not only TRAX but also the bus. It will encourage more people to ride them thus creating more revenue, revenue that then could be used to improve the bus system. As I have stated, the present problem is not the management at UTA, it is the fact that it is hard to take the bus in the Salt Lake Valley and once again not because of the route structure but because our streets, sidewalks and developments do not encourage transit use. Heck, as I have stated a million times, here we are in the 21st Century and when it is dark you need a flash light to flag down a bus do to the lack of streetlights. We have problems in Salt Lake, but the problems isn't were some misguided people think they are.

Developers getting to many breaks?

Image via WikipediaSugar House developer gets a break

Craig Mecham's development in Sugarhouse was controversial to start out with. Taking an area with unique character and bull dozing it to build another gentrified development of chain stores and no character. Now instead of have a unique blend of eclectic shops, we have a big hole in the ground and very little progress being made.

As I have pointed out on several occasions, the Salt Lake City Council and planners seem to give into whatever the developers or big chain stores want no matter the determent to the community. So now we have what was a pedestrian friendly, home to locally owned stores neighborhood that has been torn up and once something actually gets built with be auto centric and not have the feeling the neighborhood once did.

The city council and the planning commission should be working toward building more pedestrian, transit friendly areas. They talk good about them but when all is said and done the city of Salt Lake gets a big F when it comes to acting.

Its time to stop giving too many breaks to developers.

The BUS Riders Union shows its true colors

Apparently the bus riders union is getting desperate. Having lost its bid to stop the fuel tax surcharge, now it is attacking light rail head on posting an article by Randal O'Toole describing how Light Rail is a failure.

I have spent the last few hours deciding if I should even bother with this, but considering the bus riders union is trying to pass off this misinformation campaign I decided I should go over the facts.

O' Toole has long been a apposed to transit, especially rail transit and uses the fact that he is a foamer to qualify himself as an expert. For those who don't know the term foamer it is used to describe rabid railfans, the types you see carrying the scanners and in general wearing shirts and hats from current or dead railroads.

So lets go over what O' Toole claims and go over some facts.

1. His first point is that Light Rail Cost tax dollars to build.

Well yes, it does cost money to build but so does any infrastructure project. How many billions will go to the new Mountainview Corridor highway? However, clearly the taxpayers of the counties affected have seen the benefits of the projects and support them.

2. Light Rail does not get people out of cars.

Just look at the numbers created by TRAX. TRAX is now carrying 33% of all transit riders in the 6 counties that UTA serves. That's right folks, even though the bus network covers six counties an hundreds of miles, our 24 mile light rail system is carrying 33% of the entire transit load. Also, consider that TRAX by 2000 was carrying the same number of passengers as every major bus route including routes such as Redwood, 900 East and Highland that did not directly compete with TRAX. Also, since ridership did not dip that much on these routes it is clear that TRAX was carrying

Here is another illustration using Los Angeles, the Blue Line between Los Angeles and Long Beach is now carrying upwards of 80,000 people per day (while a nearby busway carries 5,000). If you were to replace that line with buses you would have to run articulated buses with crush loads every 60 to 120 seconds to carry the numbers that the Blue Line is carrying. The Blue line replaced an express bus (that originally replaced the red car interurbans), that ran every 20 to 30 minutes and only carried a few thousand passengers a day plus a local route that carried even less.

Light rail does attract those out of cars.

3. Light Rail can inconvenience riders.

O' Toole tries to claim that transit systems that put in light rail lines loose overall ridership. Clearly this is not true as ridership on UTA has gone up substantially. Even a better indicator is that revenue has gone up consistently since TRAX has gone into service. Yes some people have to transfer who didn't previously, but overall service is improved. Also, the problem with buses being cut isn't the cost of light rail since it cost less per passenger than buses, its that there is not enough people riding the current bus system with shows other issues besides the light rail.

4. Light Rail increases congestion.

Apparently because lights are timed for light rail trains it increases congestion. However, if you were running BRT, then you would have buses holding signals so wouldn't that increase congestion also? Also the lack of light rail would put more buses in the downtown region so that would also create more congestion. In other words we are grasping at straws here.

5. Light Rail benefits Downtown Property Owners at the expense of others elsewhere.

O' Toole uses one study to say that money is repositioned to downtown thanks to Light Rail. Could it be that people are more likely to come to downtown when they don't have to deal with traffic and parking issues. Personally, I only went downtown once or twice in the two years before TRAX started but after it started running I would go downtown much more frequently because the parking and traffic hassles were history.

6. Light Rail Does not stimulate local economic development.

More nonsense from O'Toole here. He claims that the only economic development is created by taxpayer subsidies to developers. Of course you will never here O' Toole mention the subsidies that go to big box retailers and other developments that are not transit related since they are apparently OK.

7. Light Rail Increases Energy Consumption And Greenhouse gases.

Here he attacks the TRAX directly saying because of TRAX buses are running empty causing energy consumption to go up. Then he says that bus ridership in Salt Lake went down 50% when TRAX started although the truth is bus ridership has remained relatively flat for 15 years. Of course there was areas that were loosing riders namely the Ogden area and Provo/Orem but the last time I checked TRAX did not go into those areas.

8. Light Rail diverts tax dollars that could go to more worthy transportation projects.

Here is were O'Toole and the BUS riders union shows its true colors. He states that money should be going to highways that buses could use and not rail transit. Apparently he believes the voters of Utah and other areas are stupid because they support transit. We already know that the BUS riders union will seek the support of those who want to steel the TRAX funds to support highways and this is even more proof.

I would urge everyone to go comment on the Bus Riders Union blog entry and tell them how you feel.

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Another Perils for Pedestrians

Here is another episode of Perils for Pedestrians. This one talks about what is happening in Washington DC including the on again off again Purple Light Rail Line.

There is also a discussion with a representative from a county planning organization that covers the county that includes Charleston, South Carolina. One of the problems we face here in Salt Lake City is the lack of a metropolitan planning organization that provides more cohesive planning than the wide range of city planning agencies we currently have. While we do have the Wasatch Front Regional Council, it is not a primary planning organization for the area.

Finally there is an interview with a traffic engineer that gives some explanation on how pedestrian signals are timed and some of the terms used.

Salt Lake City Anti-Small Business?

Image via WikipediaA recent comment about the pedicabs got those wheels turning again. The question is, despite the existing of a couple of organizations to promote local business including Vest Pocket and Buy Local First Utah, is Salt Lake City anti-small business?

Lets take a look at the Smith's at 900 East and 2100 South in Sugarhouse. As regular readers of this blog know, I often hold this as example of giving into the blackmail of a big business and not sticking to plans and the neighborhood. The question is, if that had been a small grocery store would have Salt Lake City given in or would they have stood their ground? If they would have stood their ground that means that they would have discriminated against the smaller business.

We also have the example of Wal-Mart at 300 West and 1300 South which in is a community with a high percentage of non-car owners. The store is designed for people to drive in and out of and pedestrians (especially those coming from TRAX) have to risk their lives to reach the store as the driveways are high speed routes for drivers and pedestrians have to use them to reach the store.

Another example of this is the food carts that have populated the downtown area. It seems like some bigger businesses (for example the Taco Time at 8th south and State) don't like the competition from the smaller carts and have been pushing for regulations against them including ones that have recently passed.

Some even try to demonize they carts by giving names link with food created diseases. I find this kind of ironic considering I have never had a problem eating food from one of the these carts but have gotten sick after eating from major restaurant chains.

Now instead of trying to regulate these carts out of business, how about supporting the small entrepreneurs and encourage them so long as they pass health regulations? I noticed in Denver the food carts were nicely integrated into the 16th Street Transit Mall.

If anything Salt Lake City should be promoting small business more. It is ironic that cities such as Salt Lake, Sandy and others work so hard to attract big box retailers and other chain stores when it reality they end up cost more than they bring in. According to studies done the cost of police, fire and other city services cost more than what sales tax dollars come in. That doesn't even take into consideration all the hidden cost of big box retailers such as infrastructure cost such as the 80 million that now has to be spent in Springville since people don't notice those kind of things.

The ultimate irony is the fact that small business contribute more to the local economy, actually pay higher wages on average, create more sales tax dollars per square foot of space, do not increase cost of city services, are generally safer, and fit better into the fabric of the community.

Salt Lake City should working harder to help small businesses and build a comprehensive plan that includes transportation, planning and the promotion of small business.