Why is mass transit in the USA so hard? (TriMet is a joke)
15:54, 12 February 2010
.. Posted in Personal.. Link
I want mass transit and my bicycle to be my primary means of transportation on a day-to-day basis, the way they were in Germany. But cities across the USA make that impossible, including in supposedly alternative-transportation-friendly (NOT!) Portland, Oregon. For mass transit to work, it has to be as easy as jumping in a car and driving somewhere. It has to allow for spontaneity and changes in plans. It can't require hours of planning and preparation. The USA is so very, very far from that reality -- a reality that Europe and other countries realized long ago.
The quality of mass transit and bicycle transportation in the greater Portland, Oregon metropolitan area has been a huge disappointment. The breathless reviews of TriMet were one of the reasons we moved here in August of 2009. I've realized none of the writers were people who actually use TriMet. It's fascinating to hear Portlanders brag about it, but start to stutter when I ask, "Do you yourself take it every day, or even every week?" I single Portland out because of how often their non-car infrastructure is lauded here and there, and because I currently live here, but the reality is that, compared to other countries, the state of mass transit and bike travel anywhere in the USA is shameful. Portland's trains and buses are reasonably priced, yes, and they are clean and very comfortable. But after six months of experiencing it, I've found TriMet to be largely over-rated.
What would make the alternatives-to-cars infrastructure better in Portland -- or anywhere else in the USA? What would make this scheme actually work, here in Portland or elsewhere?
- GIVE CHANGE ON BUSES. Any bus in Europe gives change. Don't tell me it can't be done, that it's too expensive, that it will take too much time. It works in countries all over the world. The only reason it isn't happening here is because those behind mass transit in the USA are lazy.
- Have ticket machines on trains. No one should have to miss a train because they are standing at a machine on the platform.
- Ticket machines should always have multiple ways to pay: by credit card, by ATM, by bills and by coins. I lost my credit card and ATM card, and had to get them replaced. That meant for 7 - 10 days I couldn't use the WES train, because the machines don't take coins or bills. Ridiculous!
- Post transit maps inside trains. Portland Max light rail trains rarely have a map of the line anywhere inside the train (in fact, I've seen it only once in the six months I've been taking Max). Forget jumping on the train and figuring out the rest of your trip -- as you can in any other developed country in the world (as well as in transitional countries in Eastern Europe). If you don't have a map yourself, you will have no clue where you are going, what lines you can transfer to at each stop. etc.
- Post transit maps at most bus stops. You can find maps in the heart of downtown Portland, but only for the heart of downtown Portland. Outside of that area, there are no maps. So, once again, if you don't have a map yourself, you will have no way to figure out your trip from a bus stop, meaning you have to map out your trip from home before you walk out the door.
- Transit centers should have boards in ONE location listing all of the buses and trains that stop there and their schedules. That allows me to make choices at a transit center that best fit the moment - what is going to get me to my destination the quickest depends on the day and time of when I "land" at that station.
- Easy access for bikes on trains. Easy access means I don't have to be an extreme sports competitor with the top-of-the-line commuter/mountain/sport bike in order to take my bike on a train. In Portland, if you want to take your bike on a Max train, the bike must meet very narrow requirements (it can't be just any bike -- only very particular kinds of bikes) and you better have terrific upper body strength, because you have to hang your bike inside the train, something I know I couldn't do with my traditional utility/roadster bicycle. In other words, Max trains are NOT accessible for all types of cyclists -- just an elite group.
- Ample bicycle parking at transit centers. In Europe, a train station will have places for a hundred -- even hundreds -- of bikes. In the Portland area, there are between five and 15 massive storage lockers, one for one bike, that must be reserved in advance, Yes, that's right -- only 5 - 15 bicyclists can park their bikes at a Max station at a time.
- Allow people to take their uncrated, well-behaved dogs on buses and trains. Limit animal access to outside of rush hour -- that's fine. I took my dogs on the buses and trains in Germany, no problem. They had to have a ticket, ofcourse. But dogs were never a bother in Europe on buses. People, on the other hand, could often be a huge bother. The bus from Canby to Oregon City stops just five blocks from my vet. But I may not use the bus for my dog in the USA. I'll muzzle her, I'll pay to put her through an evaluation/certification process, I'll buy her her own ticket, I'll do whatever -- and other dog owners would as well. It works in other countries -- it can work here!
- Make bike commuting accessible for all types of cyclists. Did I mention that I'm not an extreme sports competitor, and that I don't have a top-of-the-line racing/mountain/sport bike? That means biking in and around Portland is far out of my reach. In Germany, I took my traditional, trusty utility/roadster bicycle all over the greater Bonn area. I rode at my own pace. I road tiny distances and great distances. But in Portland, you cannot just jump on whatever bike you have and head to your destination; you have to be on a racing bike, and move at a racer's pace.
- Undertake massive, ongoing education program regarding the rights of bicyclists. There should be billboards outside of Portland (Canby would be a great place to start), as well as TV and radio public service announcements reminding drivers that bikes have the same rights to the road as car drivers. These efforts need to be in English and Spanish.
It takes a tremendous amount of planning in order to ride Portland mass transit -- unlike just jumping in your car and heading off to where you want to go. Outside of rush hours, mass transit in Portland cannot be relied upon, because of the infrequent service and wait times for transfers. And outside of rush hours in Portland, your fellow riders won't be people who are trying to be green; they will be people who have had their driver's license suspended, or have never had such a license, because of various medical conditions, and they will be far more disruptive during your ride than my dog would be. And that speaks volumes about the true attitude of most Portlanders to mass transit.
None of the aforementioned suggestions above is impossible; they are being done in other countries, and have been done for many years. It's not happening in the USA only because of lack of will. In Germany, I considered myself a mass transit/bike commuting convert. I gushed about the freedom using mass transit and bike commuting gave me in Europe. But in the USA, I'm being driven back into a car.
