The Register-Guard
Posted on 07/28/2002 2:30:58 PM PDT by Clinging Bitterly
July 28, 2002
Rapid transit plan on fast track
By RANDI BJORNSTAD
The Register-Guard
Two years from now, riders should be able to whisk between LTD's downtown Eugene terminal and a new bus station on South A Street, just east of the Pioneer Parkway couplet in downtown Springfield. And they'll do it aboard sleek European-style coaches that look more like train cars than buses.
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 An artist's illustration generated by computer shows a Bus Rapid Transit coach at a BRT station adjacent to the University of Oregon campus. The system should be finished in about two years. Photos: Lane Transit District |
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"Eventually, we believe the trip on Bus Rapid Transit will be faster than driving it in an automobile," said Dan Tutt of LTD's development services department. "The more the buses can be protected from other traffic, the better the time will be and the more people will want to use it."
Leading the way
When LTD began planning its BRT system in earnest about 1995, "we were just about the only people around working on this idea," Tutt said. Since then, more cities across the country have begun working on similar systems, "but ours is probably the closest to being in use," he said, "and it's also probably the most complete system out there."
Honolulu has a system of express buses, and Pittsburgh has built some separated busways along abandoned railroad corridors. And Los Angeles has experimented with giving buses priority at signals, said Stefano Viggiano, LTD planning and development manager.
"But we decided to create a whole new image of rapid transit," Viggiano said. "Our board said they wanted a complete system - special stations, separated vehicle guideways, bus-only lanes, curb-level entry, prepaid fares - that would have an image similar to rail but with even greater flexibility."
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 An illustration shows what the rapid transit bus lanes will look like in downtown Springfield when the project is completed. |
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Reflecting its leadership among that group, LTD may soon receive a demonstration grant that would help pay for six state-of-the-art buses for the first phase of the BRT system.
The FTA grant would include a "Buy America" waiver to allow LTD to buy the buses - which cost $1 million per bus - from The Netherlands if no domestic companies can provide vehicles with the same specifications at the same cost.
Why bus rapid transit?
LTD officials began talking nearly a decade ago about the need for some sort of public transit system to move people about more rapidly and provide a realistic alternative to the automobile.
In some large cities, the nearest being Portland, population growth and traffic congestion have led to construction of efficient but expensive rail systems, which can take the form of subways, elevated trains or street-level light-rail lines.
"We decided to pursue what we called 'bus rapid transit' instead," Viggiano said. "It has many of the same features as a rail solution, but it can be much more flexible and it's far less expensive."
A rail system requires right of way acquisition along the entire train route and construction of a complete rail line, complicated by the need to coexist with other transportation routes and existing businesses, Viggiano said.
"In contrast, BRT allows you to use a range of solutions, from letting buses go first at signals to bus-only lanes on streets to separated 'guideways.' In phase one of our system, we're using all those methods," he said.
Because of those differences, a bus rapid transit system can be built for as little as 10 percent of the cost of a light-rail system and provide much the same level of service, LTD officials have indicated.
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 Map: STEPHANIE BARROW / The Register-Guard |
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Through Glenwood and across the Willamette River into Springfield, the buses will share Franklin Boulevard with other vehicles, although the goal for the future is to provide greater separation from auto traffic as the area is redeveloped.
So far, LTD has funding in place to pay only for planning and construction of the $13.8 million downtown-to-downtown phase of the system. The federal government will pay about 80 percent of the cost, with the rest coming from local matching funds.
Viggiano said LTD chose the Eugene-to-Springfield corridor for its first BRT route because it carries more riders now than any other part of the existing bus system.
The second phase will connect downtown Springfield with the Gateway area via Pioneer Parkway, and the third phase route will run from downtown Eugene across the Ferry Street bridge and north on Coburg Road to Crescent Avenue. Plans also include possible links between those two routes, along Crescent and Harlow Road, creating loops to serve fast-growing areas.
"We hope to get the next two phases funded when the (federal) transportation bill comes up again for reauthorization in 2003," Viggiano said. "With the first phase under way, and because we're already designated as one of 10 bus rapid transit demonstration projects in the nation, we're optimistic that the federal government will continue to fund the project."
LTD's long-term dream for the BRT system includes a network of rapid transit routes serving additional major transportation corridors throughout the metropolitan area, with feeder service provided in adjacent neighborhoods using small connector buses.
"Often, communities look for transit solutions only when their problems have become very severe," Viggiano said. "But it becomes so difficult and expensive to solve those problems if you wait too long.
"We're convinced that what we're planning will be a situation the community can actually grow around - by putting it in place now, it will be easier to do and also can help the community grow more sensibly."
Robert Zako, a local computer programming consultant and longtime watchdog over land-use and growth issues in the Eugene-Springfield area, hopes that will be true but has some reservations about how the transit system will mesh with other planning decisions in the metropolitan area.
"I strongly support (mass) transit, and I hope BRT will be very successful," Zako said. "I'm concerned, though, that there could be a disconnect between LTD's efforts to provide an overall system and future land-use decisions that will be made by individual governments in their own best interests.
"In order for this to work," he cautioned, "we will need a strong commitment to making decisions that benefit the entire region."
Enter the Phileas
The LTD board recently selected the Wildish Co. to manage construction of the first phase of the BRT project. Groundbreaking will take place as soon as negotiations with the firm and the final engineering work can be completed.
The board also has chosen a design - called "masted sails" - for the BRT stations that will be built along all routes in the system. The stations will feature poles that resemble masts, with sail-like roof panels suspended from them.
Every station will have the same look so people can immediately identify it as part of the BRT system, architect Harriet Cherry of WBGS Architecture & Planning told the transit board.
"We also wanted it to be as light and airy and inviting as possible," Cherry said. "We've designed the station with all the drainage and electrical (components) in the columns, so we don't have a need for any additional structure."
The station design has come in well below the amount budgeted for it in the first phase of the project, Cherry said. The budget allowed $500,000 for the eight stops between the two downtowns, and the masted-sail design will pencil out to $343,000.
It's not just the bus stops that will have a distinctive, futuristic look, Tutt said, the buses will, too.
The bus LTD hopes to use for its BRT system was designed by the Advanced Public Transport System, a consortium of companies in the Netherlands. Whimsically named the Phileas - for the character Phileas Fogg in the movie "Around the World in 80 Days," who was renowned for his punctuality - it has just gone into production.
The first city to use the buses will be the Dutch city of Eindhoven, which has planned a bus rapid transit system similar to LTD's.
"Eindhoven will have its first buses early in 2003, and we could be next" if everything comes together as planned, Tutt said. "These buses seem to be perfectly suited for us. We originally were considering a bus made in France - there's nothing on the market in this country that meets the same specifications - but in the meantime this one has come along, and for us it's much better."
The Phileas has a hybrid electric power system that will help reduce pollution and make the buses more efficient, Tutt said. It also features curb-level floors, modular construction so doors can be installed on one or both sides, and passenger compartments that can be rearranged to accommodate wheelchairs, seats and bicycles in different patterns.
The length of the buses can vary from 55 feet to 65 feet, compared with the 40-foot length of conventional buses. With the increased length, the Phileas buses will be articulated, meaning they have a "joint" in the middle so they can bend around corners.
"We wanted to find a vehicle that looks different from a conventional bus so people will view it as something special," Tutt said. "But this one also has so much versatility, we can (configure) it to suit our needs exactly."
The Phileas uses an automated magnetic guidance system that does away with the need to build curbs to create a mechanical guideway. Magnetic plugs set into the roadway react with those in the wheel systems of the bus, guiding the vehicle while it's in the travel lane and providing quick and precise docking when it arrives at a station.
Delay not always bad
For LTD Board member Dave Kleger, seeing the BRT system so close to fruition seems almost too good to be true.
"I've been on the LTD board for 8 1/2 years and this has been a primary goal of the board for all that time," Kleger said. "It's taken a lot of work - and agreement by the cities of Eugene and Springfield, Lane County, the state of Oregon, the federal government and LTD - to make it happen."
Although it seemed frustrating at times, the fact that the project took so long to get to the construction stage has turned out to be a good thing in more ways than one, he said.
"It took us a long time to reach consensus on this project - that's something that's really valued by this community - but I think we really gained something by doing it the way we did, by offering people the opportunity to comment at every step of the way," he said.
Not only that, "technology has advanced so rapidly in the past few years, if we'd been able to get the system done sooner, we'd have missed out on what's available to us now," he said.
Kleger, who navigates in a wheelchair because of a disability, said he has a personal reason for wanting to see the entire BRT system in place, even though he knows it will take many more years to accomplish.
"My goal is for people who need to or want to, to be able to use LTD as their sole form of transportation - as I pretty much do now," he said.
To do that, he acknowledged, BRT will have to master the biggest challenge every public transit system faces: Getting people where they want to go nearly as quickly and comfortably as they could do it in their own cars.
Lane Transit District
LTD gets a chunk of the payroll of every employer in the district, including self employed individuals such as family farmers who happen to be within the geogaphic boundaries of the district, which encompasses most of Lane County including it's rural areas.
LTD has too much influence in the area's planning and development process, the board loves high density urban development and hates privately owned automobiles.
LTD and Portland's TRI-MET persuaded Oregon's RINO legislature to pass a law requiring parallel traffic to yield to buses merging into traffic from stops, at great inconvenience to me and the other owners of the road.
The huge smoke belching buses don't really have a lot of ridership - a typical passenger load is six to ten riders at a time, yet somehow they can justify this system that takes right of way from the owners of the roadway for these private lanes and "guideways", then make their special transit mode seem faster than car travel by shortening the green light time in the parallel traffic lanes.
Fact is, the initial route discussed in the article takes 10-15 minutes by car right now, and the obvoius aim of LTD is to make it take longer, because they hate private automobiles and their owners.
In recent years, Portland's TRI-MET has built light rail lines at such cost that it was pointed out by critics that the price of construction and operation would easily have paid for a new car every five years plus operating costs for every rider on the system, because they also hate private automobiles and their owners.
I wish those people that want to live like they do in Paris or Amsterdam would just go to Paris or Amsterdam.
Dave in Eugene
In order to justify their salaries and existence, these SOB's are creating havoc and wasting billions of dollars all over the nation.
The only way to put a stake through their goddamned hearts is to vote GOP and vote often.
Mass transit does not work in large spread out areas.
They either have absolutely no common sense or they are deliberately perpetrating a scam in order to save their jobs.
Thats the goddammned problem in a nutshell.
In Dade thank God there are no local matching funds which is why the rat mayor has been trying to get a one cent sales tax increase so they can start receiving Federal dollars.
The tax was voted down 2 years ago as a "Tax or Tolls" proposition, the tax would either be approved by the voters or the tolls on the local roads would be raised fron 25 to 75cents.
The tax increase was voted down, the Tolls were raised and sure enough here comes the same Democrat SOB again looking to get his penny.
His excuse this time is that "We need to get those Federal dollars"
The idiot is being termed limited out thank God, and he will be the last rat Mayor of Dade, of that I am sure.
Voting GOP is not enough. RINOs are a problem.
Voting is not enough, either. Contribute money to a campaign. Contribute time to a campaign: put up yard signs, work (and chat) at envelope-stuffing parties, walk your precinct delivering flyers, put in a couple hours at a phone bank.
If all you do is vote, all you can do is cast one vote for your principles. If you get involved, you will indirectly (and legally) cast many votes.
I bet we could by them all cars, build more roadwidth, and still have 1/2 or more of what leepbrown's toy train will cost.
Dave in Eugene
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