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| More bus connections service the Parkrose/Sumner Transit Center. The Transit Center was enhanced with attractive lighting and bus shelters when it re-opened in Sept. 2001. |
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As for the Red Line, it is doing better than expected. According to TriMet’s Mary Fetsch, it is up to 2800 weekday trips, well above the 2300 projected for this time, “despite less air travel, the recession, and no development yet at CascadeStation.”
“The train has been a big hit at the airport,” Johnson says. “It’s very popular with both passengers and employees.”
The good...
As a part of the MAX Red Line phenomenon, use of the Parkrose/Sumner Transit Center has increased from 15 percent of its capacity to 85 percent, according to Fetsch. Parkrose Neighborhood Association president Ron Nelson says that at times it is 100 percent, with every space occupied. Some think the main users are airport workers.
Some neighbors feared that as the center filled, riders would park all day, or longer, in front of nearby homes. However, Nelson reports, “There’s no negativity that I can see. The people who were most concerned have expressed no negativity to me.” Due to community concerns, TriMet paid for traffic calming speed bumps on some nearby streets, and these have produced “no complaints,” Nelson says. “A woman who was very much against them now wants them on her street - but it’s too late now.”
In general, community leaders give the new service high marks. “I think MAX is fabulous, I do,” Parkrose Business Association (PBA) president Nancy Murphy says.
“I don’t use it, but I get good reports,” says Bob Brown, PBA transportation committee chair and Sandy Blvd business owner.
Fred Sanchez of the Gateway Area Business Association says he can’t speak for his membership but says, “I’ve used the system myself, and the train to the airport is the greatest thing since sliced bread.”
The reaction to Bus Line 12 is a little more mixed, although still fairly positive. Murphy says, “I am glad there’s a bus because it allows people to visit the business district who wouldn’t otherwise, but I am concerned that it may have contributed to traffic congestion during rush hours.”
“There’s not a ton of buses on Sandy, but it seems to be working well,” Brown says. He agrees that because there is only one lane westbound between 112th and 121st avenues there’s an “occasional bottleneck.”
Parkrose Hardware’s Brian Ableidinger, one of the strongest early critics of the Line 12 extension, says its ridership has exceeded both his own and TriMet’s expectations for ridership (Fetsch confirms this), and that he doesn’t think it has contributed to the congestion problem. He does confirm that the problem exists. During rush hour, from his store at 10625 N.E. Sandy Blvd., “It takes 15 minutes to get to the freeway, (I-205) when it normally takes about three.” This Ableidinger attributes primarily to a bottleneck at the freeway entrance. (see below.)
...and the bad
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| Before Airport MAX, the Parkrose Park & Ride lot was rarely used. Now it’s nearly full on weekdays. |
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Fetsch notes that since the changes bus ridership in Mid-county east of I-205, has increased 28 percent on weekdays, 57 percent on Saturdays and 49 percent on Sundays.
Carol Williams, Parkrose Heights NeighborhoodAssociation chair doesn’t see it that way. She helped lobby for retaining Line 23. “At least they didn’t pull it entirely, but if ridership doesn’t increase we could still lose it,” she says. This would mean bus riders would have to take long walks on “streets that have no sidewalks, and are dangerous after dark. I understand TriMet’s issue, which is cost, but with all the money they handle, and all the things they sponsor, it’s hard for us to buy it.”
East Portland Neighborhood Office director Richard Bixby comments, “Transit service is pretty good from Gateway to downtown, but within the neighborhood it’s pathetic.”
Even harsher is Russell Neighborhood Association’s Bonny McKnight, a persistent TriMet critic. “They’re an agency that operates as a bus company, and doesn’t take ownership of the whole issue,” she says. Gateway’s biggest problem is traffic congestion, she says. The city is geared to making new development in the area more transit-oriented, “but until we get excellent transit, people won’t have a choice.” TriMet’s transit planning values cost-effectiveness and efficiency over service, she says, and that is “a dumb, backward, money-making way to go. They should provide the same baseline level of services everywhere. Of course they can’t now because they’re locked into some big, expensive, inflexible options.”
McKnight quickly adds that MAX “is a wonderful system generally, and will probably do okay.” However, she says, “Without feeder service it’s not solving the problems of the neighborhoods. These are long-term investments, and they shouldn’t just be geared to today’s interests.”
TriMet planner Ken Zatarain says the agency acknowledges Williams’ issues, and for that reason is committed to maintaining Line 23, which he says, now offers more frequent service than it did a year ago. As for the Gateway Transit Center, he says that avoiding it allowed TriMet to offer more frequent service for the same price.
Many in Gateway, and certainly those involved with Opportunity Gateway, would agree traffic in the area leaves much to be desired. Traffic improvements were a high priority in the urban renewal plan; however, given the urban renewal district’s present state there is little money available now to carry out the improvements. Fortunately, more help is on the way on other fronts.
Transportation improvements to come
The Portland Office of Transportation’s East End Columbia Connector is an attempt to deal with one aspect of the current knot at the confluence of I-205 with Northeast Sandy and Columbia Boulevards and Killingsworth Street. After several months of study, the Portland Department of Transportation has settled on a plan for connecting roads that would intersect with Killingsworth Street at 87th Avenue for eastbound traffic, and 89th Avenue for westbound vehicles. Hopefully, by moving the intersections away from I-205, this will alleviate the massive traffic backups felt in the heart of Parkrose. City of Portland Planner Rob Bernard hopes to begin construction by 2006. For more information call 503-823-7071.
On a much smaller scale, the North Parkrose Target Area program is pursuing a Safe to School project, identifying safe walking routes for children to take to Prescott Elementary School, and making improvements where necessary. These include creating more and better sidewalks near the school. The project will get a boost from events at National Walk to School Day, Wednesday, October 2. Unfortunately more information was not available at press time, but those interested should call 503-256-2339, ext. 14.
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