Just a few photos of my coffee run from today.  I was out of grounds, so off to the streetcar.

Victory, Colombia El Jordan.  Excellent beans!

The streetcar zooms into focus, and yes, it was actually zooming up to the stop relative to its normal speed.

Clarity of the drops on the window with the haze of the world beyond.

Twisting around the corner, the front leads the rear of the streetcar.

Friday the 20th, 2009, at 4:20pm (yes, 4:20) I boarded the Clackamas bound Green Line at Pioneer Square.  I’d knocked out a solid 43+ hour week and stepped out a little early for a ride about.

The LRV set was a Type-4 Style, and arrived with about 15% seated occupancy.  At Pioneer Square that increased to approximately 45% occupancy.  The Type-4 set rolled on and by our departure from Lloyd Center had well over 98% seated occupancy and about 8 people standing.  This would have made 100% seated if those few would have sat down, but alas, people tend to stand often even when seats are available.

At this time of day there is a wide slice of Portland’s population riding the transit.  From the American Indian Mother with her two children, behaving exceptionally well I might add, to the Grandmother with her grand daughter going for a ride about also.  There where other people in this melting pot of a train, all riding cordially and quietly.  The new Type-4 set riding very smooth as expected.  With this many people even the door gaps are dampened.

By 60th there were a few more people on the light rail, and 100% seated occupancy.  The real question is how many will this Green Line Train have once we pass Gateway Transit Center.  Being the Banfield Corridor that the Green shares with the Red and Blue Line is easy to fill up with people, it is interesting how many people continue to ride in these shared Interstate Corridors.

#72, What’s the Word?

This brings up the question, has anyone seen legitimate fluctuations in the #72 Route that could honestly be contributed to the opening of the Green Line?  So far, everything I had seen points to the Green Line being almost entirely new ridership, taking away only a little from the bus routes (maybe 60% or so new riders, that weren’t previously bus riders).  I’d be curious to know if TriMet has any surveys being prepared to determine the makeup of people on the Green Line in this regard, and if they’re doing the same for their most ridden Bus Line the #72.

Jammed @ I-205

When the Green rolled into Gateway Transit Center, we crossed over the parking lot referred to as I-205.  The 3 lanes of Interstate I-205 were jammed pack with cars, moving at maybe 5-15mph.  Well below the peak capacity of parking lot 30mph movement.  The PSU bound Green Line was just departing as we slid into our platform slot at the transit center.  That train was at 95% plus seated capacity with many people standing also.

At this point we departed the transit center with my question answered.  We had 94% seated occupancy with 7 people standing.  Not bad really, being this stands as some pretty serious ridership for the Green Line only portion of the light rail line.

Considering the Green Line is handling this capacity, the I-205 is a parking lot moving under capacity, and the Red Line is handling a respective capacity itself, it appears obvious that as a society we have a long ways to go in cleaning up the transport of people at rush hour.  There really ought to be a better effort to distribute working hours better, the whole 9-5 concept in modern times is very lacking.

The Questions

These observations leave me with a few key questions still about the Green Line and light rail in the Portland area.

1. When will light rail ridership exceed bus ridership for the system?  My guess is it will possibly exceed bus ridership when employment begins to resume higher numbers and will absolutely exceed bus ridership when the Milwaukee MAX opens.
2. How will the anti-light rail argument change as more of the lines surpass 20+ years and prove themselves cheaper over the long term than BRT or bus lines, thus providing more throughput at lower cost than comparative bus operations?  My guess is that the argument will continue unabated, something completely new will alter the argument entirely (like flying cars or something crazy), or the argument will change to be made on a different primary point – ala – a train is stuck on tracks or something.
3. What alterations will take place to the surrounding bus service when the travel patterns are better understood with the addition of the Green Line?  My guess is that some of the lines will be altered ever so slightly to meet with the train better.

TOD Potential

Even though ridership is fairly solid on the Green Line, even surpassing my rather lowball estimates, there are few areas that seem available for real and easily accessible TOD (Transit Oriented Development).  The only areas that seem to have feasible land to build TOD on are the Foster, Flavel, and Clackamas Stops.  The Flavel and Foster stops have two major issues impeding some development, the fact that the Interstate consumes a vast and large parcel of land.  The Clackamas stop simply has the problem of pavement.  The entire stop is surrounded by monstrous paved areas; the Interstate to one side, the mall parking lot on the other, and more of the same nonsense to the south of the stop.  Making the area a massive, almost un-walkable, mediocre area.  Fuller Road seems to have potential, but it also have the pavement problem and has less anchoring it than the Clackamas stop.

I-205 Still Jammed & Arrival Home

After making the full route I stayed aboard as other crowded back onto the train for the downtown trip.  Again, the train filled up, approximately 75% seated capacity with about a half dozen people standing.  It always amazes me that there are always those so hard headed that they’re just going to stand no matter what.  As if standing on transit is some type of novel thing to do.  Either way, whatever the case, the trip back downtown wasn’t nearly as packed as the outbound trip.  Many of the people were teenagers heading downtown to go loiter at Lloyd Center or Pioneer Square Mall.  Matter of fact, as I had assumed months back, much of the Green Line passengers are teenagers, probably more so than any of the other MAX Lines.

The ride went smoothly, except for a few hiccups in the breaking, which made it seem we had hit someone.  Some loud teens got on at Lloyd Center and found the braking hilarious, assuming we’d hit something.  I thought it was funny that they fell into a stupor of stupidity and found entertainment in it.  They ended up getting off a mere 2 stops later to go smoke some pot.  I knew I had picked up some smell of the ganja.

I made it back downtown and walked the last 2 blocks home from the last stop.  A simple ride about, entertaining, enjoyable, and a nice slice of humanity to observe.  It is truly amazing what you can learn from a simple ride around on transit.

This will be the last weekend we use the #9 as our primary transit mode into downtown, because by next weekend we will be downtown.  We’re heading out at the moment to get some lunch at Isabel’s in the Pearl.  This place has superb food, excellent quality, and downright great prices by Pearl standards!

Here’s our trip path at 23 minutes.

By next weekend our trip will be as follows at 15 minutes.

Off to some grub now.  Coming soon will be some of those controversial questions getting thrown around again, so be prepared!

Jo & I met after work about 5:00pm at Floyd’s Coffee in downtown Portland, specifically at 1st & Couch.  Map location included below (thx Google maps).

While sitting there we decided tonight ought to be a good night to go catch the new 2012 movie.  Being that Jo and I, thanks in large part to Portland, have become theater snobs we wanted to go see it at a local theater we could get beer and grub at.  We had checked earlier in the week to see what was playing, and St Johns Theater was going to be opening the movie tonight.  This theater ROCKS!  It serves beer, pizza, and the normal items expected at a movie theater.  The difference is it is local, serves local pizza and beer, and isn’t one of those corporate theaters that is…  I won’t go on about how or why we don’t like those big theaters.

So we did a quick scoping of the bus trip, and realized we where a block away form a single seat bus trip right to the theater!

It was definitely going to be a trip worthy of a movie adventure!  So at 7:09pm we’d board the #44 Bus to St Johns.  That would get us to the theater at 7:44pm, in perfect time to get tickets, get some seats, sip on a few pitchers of beer, and nibble at some pizza.  The movie stands at a whopping 2 hours and 38 minutes, which will put us out the doors, happy with beer & pizza in our bellies at about 10:50pm.  I did a check of what our options were for departure at that time.  The ideal one for Jo and I is another single seat ride from St Johns all the way home.  This trip will be a long 76 minutes on the #4.

For some of those auto bound individuals out there in the world, they may read this and think, “why the hell would anyone want to travel about an hour each way to see a movie?”  First off, many people travel an hour by car to see a movie.  Depending on their own stupidity and the conditions in which they live, it isn’t entirely uncommon.  But in a car that is an hour of time that there are simply two options; talk and carry on or listen to the radio.  At least those are basically the two legal options.  I suppose one person could read, or do something of that sort.  But the even more likely scenario is that people end up in their SOV (single occupancy vehicle) alone, limited to the radio and talking to one self, driving to meet others.

On transit Jo and I get many more options.  We can listen to our headphones, talk to others (there ARE interesting people on transit, which people would realize if they got out of their cars and met their neighbors), I can spec out a Space Marines Army, Jo can knit the gauntlets she is making for Alex, we can talk among ourselves, read a book, watch a movie on the bus (yup, there are these things called iPhone & iPods, that play video! gasp!).  [Image to the right is one set of gauntlets Jo made, if you’re interested just click on the image.  It links to ravelry which you can join for many patterns and such]

All things that are basically illegal or impossible to do in a car.  So really, when it comes down to it, the bus ride is just hanging out, while the car ride is wasted time.  More of one’s life drained away in fed radio media, limited activity, and often spent fuel, more waste, and all those other negatives to boot.

Jo & I don’t have that issue.  Just FYI, we’re free of those limitations.  So maybe the real issue isn’t why we limit or work so hard to use transit, but why do people try so hard and limit themselves to just auto transport?  Really, it boils down to the eye of the beholder.  If we want to even further distance ourselves from the noose of the automobile we can use our bikes, which again, some would be astonished, but they shouldn’t be.

Anyway, a drink awaits me, and some chilling on the bus, and a movie.  Kick ass. :)

Complete Itinerary:

Walk 0.15 mile northwest from 118 NW Couch St to NW Everett & 2nd (Stop ID 1612)
7:09 p.m. Board 44 Mocks Crest to St Johns
7:44 p.m. Get off at N Lombard & Baltimore
Walk southeast to 8704 N Lombard St
Travel time: 41 minutes (including 6 minutes walking)

Movie:  2012   -   2hrs 38 Minutes

Walk northwest from 8704 N Lombard St to N Lombard & Baltimore (Stop ID 8480)
11:07 p.m. Board 4 Division/Fessenden to Gresham TC via Portland city ctr 
which continues as 4 Division to Gresham TC
12:16 a.m. Get off at SE Division & 20th
Walk 0.4 mile south to 3137 SE 21st Ave
Travel time: 83 minutes (including 14 minutes walking)

Sunday Night, Monday, and Tuesday Jo and I spent in downtown Phoenix at the San Carlos.  Meeting other people, seeing the wedding, and eating Brazilian in the burbs was all awesome.  But otherwise, the suburbs sucked in so many ways I would have to start another blog about all the ways that suburbs suck.  Economically, environmentally, efficiency, education, and by about every other measure, suburbs truly bring out the mediocrity in humanity.  But really, I digress, it was awesome meeting everyone in burbia and hope they come visit Portland soon so they can be effectively turned away from the soul sucking entrenchment of the burbs’.

So what happened on day #10 & 11, well Jo and I left the suburbs.  We left for the urban life style of downtown Phoenix.  We got some help from Tony (lightrailblogger) and Nick (raillife) to find the elements that allow one to live  without the ever tightening noose of the auto oriented lifestyle.  Out of all the places we went to, these really stuck out in our minds as places that just kick ass!  :)

Gallo Blanco

Gallo Blanco was amazing.  We actually ended up going back to Gallo Blanco because it rocked so much.  This place is something we honestly did not expect in Phoenix.  Our assumption, especially after all the milling about in the suburbs was suburban food, which rarely breaks from big generic corporate food.  Think Applebee’s, TGI Friday’s, and all that crap.  But this was a slice of sanity, a bit of beauty, taste, elegance, modern, and above all Gallo Blanco was delicious.

The Clarendon Hotel

The Gallo Blanco is located within the Clarendon Hotel.  This hotel has a somewhat grisly history.  A reporter was killed by car bomb by a mafia operative in the parking lot of the building in the 70s.  In one of the hallways they have the descriptive story of what happened.

The Clarendon has a super modern, minimalistic, and artsy.  The hotel was absolutely stunning.  The outer facing of the hotel seems at first glance to be somewhat boring.  With a white and slightly blue striped design the outside is a single face.  Without too many windows facing outwards from the building.  However upon stepping inside the hotel has a liveliness in the central courtyard.  There is a pool with an artsy design to it.  In the center of the L shaped pool there is a multi-colored separation that disconnects the pool ever so slightly from the short part of the L, which is a hot tub of massive size!  The rooms all face from a balcony walkway into this courtyard.

We toured through two of the rooms, the largest and mid-sized room.  The large room had a living room type area with a couch, coffee table, and TV, with the bedroom in the back room.  The windows that faced external to the building and internally toward the pool both had no blinds.  Instead, large pieces of art display over the window on sliders, sort of an industrial design.  These could be pushed aside to view either direction.  The rooms had various amenities one would expect, the difference being they were artfully designed and used modern pieces for the vanity and other parts of the hotel room.  The mid-size room was basically the same styling and amenities, except a bit smaller and under a single space.

Jo and I both decided that upon our next trip, we’d definitely be staying at the Clarendon Hotel on our next trip!

The San Carlos Hotel

We stayed these nights in the San Carlos, which is definitely in the urban core were as The Clarendon is a few stops from the core and a block off from the light rail (which remember, a block in Phoenix is about 4 blocks in Portland).  The San Carlos also has a pool on the roof, which is rad.  Even though it was a nice hotel, one has to be in the mood for a boutique hotel to stay here.  If you are in that mood, I’d definitely suggest it!

Tempe Transit Center & the Bike Cellar

I managed to travel to the Tempe Transit Center twice.  Once myself, and once with Jo and I both gallivanting about.  The first time when I went, I merely took a few photos of various vehicles pulling into and out of the transit center during operations.  Very nice transit center, but this first trip didn’t expose what really makes it unique.

Jo & I went back, on Tuesday, to check out the part that really makes the Tempe Transit Center unique.  The Bike Cellar is located in the transit center building on the ground floor.  The Bike Cellar is this awesome, secure, clean area of the center that is operated for bicyclists to have access to bike parking and showers.  In addition there are lockers, tools, and other services.  In addition the owner even sells bikes if you’re in the market for one.

One of the things I love about the Bike Cellar is that this is a private business run by people that have a real passion for the bicycle lifestyle.  This isn’t some random experiment from some random Government Department.  This I find ideal, real private interest and involvement in connecting and working toward a connected populace that doesn’t involve building massive roads that expand over vast tracts of land.  A beautiful idea!

While speaking to the owners of the Bike Cellar and mentioned that this is something that should absolutely be built in Portland.  After closer thought, there are a few issues to getting something like this built in Portland.  For one, I’m not sure how TriMet would work with a private business trying to provide a service in a transit center.  In downtown, there just isn’t all that much space, making it difficult to build out something like this.

I send all my wishes of success to the Bike Cellar Crew!  I imagine Tempe can really use a service like that, especially in the summer!

Lux Coffee Bar

I have to mention Lux again.  We returned a couple times over the course of our stay.  In addition we even purchased a half pound of beans ground for our French press.  The Stumptown bean supply had run out on our 8th day and the Lux beans provided a great substitute for the remainder of the trip.  In all honesty, Lux produces beans that could compete in Portland – and that is extremely hard to achieve.

Mill Ave & 3rd Street

The Mill Avenue & 3rd Stop of the light rail system exits directly on Mill Avenue.  Mill Avenue is basically a small block, street level commercial business area.  This area is what one desires and expects of a college area.  Lots of awesome niche restaurants, nick nak stores, custom t-shirst, bars, pubs, and more.  I imagine that this area is bumping on Friday and Saturday nights.

Valley Metro Light Rail

Of course, I have to mention the light rail.  This being one of the major things I wanted to see and check out while in town.  I’d been curious that Phoenix, one of the least …  [big list here]  …cities was going to get light rail.  At first I couldn’t help but think, “oh dear, it will for sure be a complete and object failure, the pro-road Republicans Socialists will surely jump all over this when it bombs out”…  but oh was I wrong.  I started studying as they where finishing up the line and saw that it did have some slight potential, it might just succeed.

Well when the light rail opened it exploded into success.  Running every 10 minutes I believe the average per day has been approximately 30,000 trips.  That measures well against our Blue Line, and TriMet’s Blue Line is a little longer even.  Mind you, Phoenix has a lot more potential for ridership growth.  They often run three car LRV trains, the line can handle more trains during the course of a day, and thus a multiplier over what TriMet’s lines run is fairly high.

Overall, the light rail is absolutely well built, which is surprising for a city like Phoenix.  They do have a few distinct advantages such as the high population (4 mil vs. Portland’s barely 2 mil), and the biggest advantage I see is that the line is built on level, flat, easy to build on ground.

Phoenix in Summary

Overall Phoenix has sprawl, the kind that really should be wiped from the face of the earth and replaced with a market based, intelligently built transit system mixed with automobiles that actually compete with each other.  Instead it is a massive Government subsidized sprawl of Interstates and Highways.  The Feds have dumped so much money into Phoenix and Phoenix has suckled upon the teat, feeding upon this cash flow.  However amid this cursed sprawl and disturbingly soulless expanse of ticky tack housing as far as one can see, the urban center of Phoenix exists.  It is beautiful in some regards even, contrary to some commentary.  Here, slowly, a new birth is taking place for Phoenix.  One with culture and humanity, one with life and opportunity, art and design, and heaven forbid, a break of the ticky tack.

Don’t get me wrong, there is still a lot to do before a place like Phoenix can stand upon the grand enclave that Portland exists in, of art, design, life, opportunity, humanity, and culture that only massively larger cities like Chicago, San Francisco, and New York can currently provide.  But Phoenix finally has the infrastructure groundwork laid to become a great city that can harbor and grow a lifestyle that would have these great traits.  I look forward to visiting again, maybe in just a few months, and definitely over the years I’d like to see how the effort is taking root.

But There’s MORE!

That’s right people, Phoenix is not alone in this effort.  The city’s of Tempe and Mesa are also working diligently to gain a foothold in the creative class, the cultured individual, the high earner urbanite.  Tempe has Mill & 3rd, the Tempe Transit Center, and the growing urban core around these two great examples of development.  One of the first expanses, that I’ve heard at least, is that Mesa will finally connect its downtown soon too.  That will be three core urban areas connected by a good effective, highly ridden light rail system.

My best wishes go out to Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa in their efforts to turn their cities into a connected, culturally relevant, livable city within the United States.

Suburban Scenario #1

This is in Wal-Mart.  I admit, I assumed a certain level of zero knowledge about things going on in Phoenix, even though this Wal-Mart is located in Phoenix.  This is how my first suburban scenario went. 

Suburbanite Guy:  [I overhear this guy talking about a bus ride on Valley Metro.]  Yeah, it took … [something, no idea…]  …about an hour to get here.

Transit Sleuth:  You take Metro Buses often?

Suburbanite Guy:  Yeah.  I rode the bus here.

Transit Sleuth:  You can take a bus to Wal-Mart?

Suburbanite Guy:  Yeah, the stop is right out there in front.  It took me forever.

Transit Sleuth:  So let me ask you, what do you think of the overall system here in Phoenix.  What do you think of the buses and new light rail system?

Suburbanite Guy:  The light rail, what’s the light rail?  Is that the train thing that is on the other end of town?

Transit Sleuth:  It goes from Mesa, to Tempe, to downtown Phoenix, so yeah the train thing.

Suburbanite Guy:  It’s stupid, it doesn’t go anywhere.  It’s just some stupid Democrat’s plan to control how we live.  [I kid not, I am NOT making that up, this dude just spit out the most propaganda generated mess ever.]  It cost like 10x as much as anything else.

Transit Sleuth:  What would you say that over a 30 year period the light rail is actually less than equivalent bus service, and that the light rail system already has surpassed the most ridden bus route in Phoenix by almost 2x?

Suburbanite Guy:  I don’t know where you heard that.  Probably some Democrat’s lies.  That light rail is a joke.  Nobody rides it.  I aint never getting on it.

Transit Sleuth:  Well, those things I suggested might happen, are actually facts.  So does that change your mind?

Suburbanite Guy:  I don’t buy it, but if that where the case then I suppose it would be a good thing to add, I just don’t believe it.  How can a train be cheaper than a little dinky bus?

Transit Sleuth:  Well I gotta run, best of luck on catching those buses.

Suburbanite Guy:  Yeah, sure thing.

Suburban Scenario #2

This is a whimsical conversation that consisted of myself and another individual.  I just charged right in while at a grocery store.

Suburby Lady:  This traffic sucks.

Transit Sleuth:  Funny how that works, building bigger roads and suburban development just has more and more traffic.

Suburby Lady:  Yeah, its stupid, I don’t get it.

Transit Sleuth:  Maybe they should stop building according to suburban sprawl zoning standards and these big massive suburban blocks.  Do you think that may help?

Suburby Lady:  That’s nonsense, they just need to get bad drivers off the road and make driving work better.

Transit Sleuth:  What exactly does “make driving work better” mean?

Suburby Lady:  Just so that people don’t do stupid crap like cut people off and things.

Transit Sleuth:  So you don’t think making smaller neighborhoods where one could actually just walk to the store might simplify the whole traffic problem.

Suburby Lady:  How would anyone carry anything home?

Transit Sleuth:  What about maybe building things like Phoenix’s new light rail?

Suburby Lady:  Nobody rides that and it cost too much.  They spent billions on it and most of the trains are empty.

Transit Sleuth:  That isn’t true at all.  The train is actually used for about 30,000 trips per day.

…at that point I mention, “well interesting opinion, I gotta run though”, since I realize that nothing new was going to be added to this conversation than a display of a meager knowledge about how one can get around.  I would like to think that people that live in a city of 4 Million people would have a better idea about things like this, but this conversation was heading downhill faster than I preferred.

That was the only two conversational bits I had while in the suburbs.  Reason being is that Phoenix outside of the cores of Tempe & Phoenix itself, the people tend to be undereducated and uninformed about what is going on in their city, let alone at a Federal or State level.  Transit is often the last thing on a suburbanites mind, as they go thoughtlessly badgering along through traffic, angry, frustrated, and often disenfranchised from life and community itself.  There are exceptions, but they are rare.

Of course I don’t really need to mention it, but I’ll state the obvious reason why it is physically impossible to get in all that many conversations in the burbs’.  There is rarely more than 1-2 people you are passing at a time.  Nobody walks around in the suburbs.  It generally is a faceless hulk of residential and commercial cookie cutter land.  Nobody really talks, unless they know someone specifically.  To someone from out of town, it just seems cold and sullen by comparison to a lively urban landscape.

Anyway, more to come really soon.  For now, off to catch the north bound Coast Starlight!

During the stay in Phoenix I’ve had a chance to converse with probably over a hundred people.  I didn’t write down every single thing everyone said, but here are a few of the notes I’ve made from random conversations with random Phoenix Residents.  This list is only the transit related conversations.  I have another entry in the works for the “suburban suburbanite” conversations, which are a jolting reminder of the lifestyle differences.

Scenario #1:

Riding the light rail from Mesa into town.  A professional lady sat across from me, she was looking out the window so I figured she’d be a candidate for conversation.

Transit Sleuth:  Hey, you ride the light rail much?

Sally:  I’ve ridden over 50 times since it has opened.

Transit Sleuth:  What do you think of it so far?

Sally:  It is great.  Before they built this I just drove everywhere, but now I get to take this a lot since I go downtown and live in Mesa.

Transit Sleuth:  Do you work downtown or something?

Sally:  Yeah, [I didn’t understand this part, a bunch of people were boarding and a loud truck was driving by].  Oh, here’s were I get off.

Transit Sleuth:  [I jump up to get off also, since I was heading downtown] I’m just wandering around downtown today, any food suggestions?

Sally:  Yeah, check out the coney place or the sandwich factory.

Transit Sleuth:  Awesome, what’s your name?

Sally:  Sally.  [Shook hands]  Have a good day.

Transit Sleuth:  You too.

Scenario #2:

Walking around downtown near the sandwich shops just referred by Sally.  I saw someone carrying a pistol on their side.

Transit Sleuth:  Excuse me, I’m kind of a 2nd amendment advocate, and was wondering are you law enforcement?

Gun Toter #1:  Nope, it is legal to carry and I have a CCW.

Transit Sleuth:  That’s awesome.  Phoenix seems to be pretty safe downtown here?  Ever need to unlatch the side arm?

Gun Toter #1:  Fortunately no.  I go through some questionable areas outside of downtown though.  Sometimes at night it gets [racial epithet for Mexicans].  I’d rather be prepared than sorry.  Just a few months ago somebody got shot for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  That aint gonna be me.

Transit Sleuth:  I can understand that.  Do you ever ride any of the transit in town?  I’m putting together information on the light rail and bus system here, and you’d be an interesting candidate to discuss this with.

Gun Toter #1:  I’ve ridden it a couple of times.  I don’t live anywhere near it though so I don’t have any use for it.  The buses are full of [Mexican racial epithet] & [Black person’s racial epithet].

Transit Sleuth:  You ever feel those words a bit prejudice?  Not that I want to talk about that issue?

Gun Toter #1:  If they would stop killing people and each other I wouldn’t feel this way.  You grow up here you might have a different attitude.

Transit Sleuth:  Alright, well, thanks for talking to me.

So after that little conversation I ate lunch, and wasn’t particularly inclined to speak with anyone else.  I didn’t really want to get into another edgy conversation with someone that would spurt out some dumb racial epithet every 10 seconds.  I was looking for cohesive and intelligible conversation on the topics of Phoenix and transit.

Scenario #3:

Leaving the Sandwich Factory, which I might add was awesome, I saw another armed citizen.  This was the 4th or 5th person I saw armed.  Just a side arm, appropriately holstered on their side, nothing crazy like a strapped rocket launcher or anything.  I walked toward the guy and with an inquisitive raised hand asked…

Transit Sleuth:  Quick question for ya.

Gun Toter #2:  Yeah, what can I help ya at?

Transit Sleuth:  I’m a 2nd amendment advocate, just visiting Phoenix and checking out the light rail, and was wondering if you’re a law officer.  I’ve found it intriguing the number of armed citizens downtown today.

Gun Toter #2:  Yeah, I’m bit into that sorta thing.  Why you checking out the light rail though?  What does it have to do with anything?

Transit Sleuth:  Oh, that is completely unrelated to the 2nd amendment for me, just an interest in the history, economics, and function of transit and general passenger transportation.  So what do you think of it?

Gun Toter #2:  I kind of dig it.  I’ve taken it to a few games and stuff.  I don’t ride it everyday though.

Transit Sleuth:  What about carry on the light rail?  Do you know the rules are for it on the light rail?  [Context:  I have zero idea here either, I’m just asking.]

Gun Toter #2:  I didn’t think they can…  the company is a public company, they gotta follow as wrote down in the Constitution and State Law.

Transit Sleuth:  Just my own paranoia about states and transit authorities abrogating Federal Constitutional Rights, I’d check just to make sure.  If they had some dumb rule, would you still use transit?

Gun Toter #2:  If I got a use for it, I’ll use it, I don’t think they gonna mess with the laws.

Transit Sleuth:  That’s good to hear.  You keep riding, I gotta run and catch a light rail train.

Scenario #4:

While riding back toward the Mesa Station on the first day I rode the light rail, I came upon several short conversations.  This first one started when a young lady asked out loud,

Young Lady:  Where am I going?

Transit Sleuth:  Where have you been, maybe I can tell you where you are going.

Young Lady:  I was down there [pointing to the western end of the light rail].

Transit Sleuth:  And you’ve forgotten where you originally got on.

Young Lady:  Like, I got on to go not where I got on.

Transit Sleuth:  [Chuckling out loud, with a big grin on my face.]  Do.  You.  Realize.  What you just said?

Young Lady:  What?  Like, that didn’t make any well, like, sense huh?

Transit Sleuth:  Nope.  None at all, logic is nonexistent in that statement.  [I sat back down to let her figure out where in the universe she was at.]

Young Lady:  Do you know where you are going?

Transit Sleuth:  Yup.

Young Lady:  Well, can I like get off where you get off and call someone to figure out where I am going?

Transit Sleuth:  [Realizing she didn’t think she could use a cell phone on the light rail]  You could call someone right now while we are moving.

Young Lady:  But it’s dangerous to like, use a cell phone, while moving.

Transit Sleuth:  [Realizing this chick was a slight bit dumber than stupid]  Yeah, you’re right, better not use the cell phone while we’re moving.  You might wreck into someone huh.

Young Lady:  Yeah.  So can I get off where you do?

Transit Sleuth:  You can get off anywhere you want to, even where I get off.

Eventually she got off, before I did.  No telling where she ended up.

Scenario #5:

While on the same trip back to Mesa.  An older grungy looking guy approached me.

Grungy Guy:  Hey you!

Transit Sleuth:  [I don’t pay any attention because I don’t always answer to “Hey you!”, maybe “Hey” or Hey you.” but not “Hey You!”  I continue looking out the window on the high floor part of the light rail vehicle observing the area we’re passing through.]

Grungy Guy:  Hey man, do you know where the stadium bar is?  Where people go after the game?

Transit Sleuth:  [Now that he’s fixed his tone I jovially retort to his question.]  That doesn’t narrow it down very much dude, you’re gonna have to try harder.

Grungy Guy:  Oh, the bar near the stadium.  Do you know where it is?

Transit Sleuth:  I know about 10 bars near the stadium and I’ve only been here for about 22 hours.  But I don’t know what you mean by “near the stadium”.  Besides, isn’t there one over by ASU and one downtown?

Grungy Guy:  Yeah, but I want to go to the one on Mill Avenue.

Transit Sleuth:  [Keep in mind, I’ve not been to Mill Avenue at this point, I only know it is near the stadium]  Why don’t you get off on Mill Avenue & 3rd and just walk a few blocks down the street.  The stadium is right close by.  Worse case scenario you have to walk 5-6 blocks around the area to find what you’re looking for.

Grungy Guy:  Dude, that’s a good idea.  It’s probably right by the stadium.

Transit Sleuth:  [If you’ve read scenario #4, this statement might sound familiar, and I wanted answers]  Do people in Phoenix commonly restate the exact fact they’ve just stated, after someone answers them?  You’re the second person that has said something like that to me.

Grungy Guy:  What do ya’ mean?

Transit Sleuth:  Well…   oh you better head out, here’s your stop.  [Saved by the bell.]

Grungy Guy:  Thanks dude!

Scenario #6:

[…and yes, if you read this scenario all the way through, there IS a transit related point.] As I approached the end and pulled into Mesa two college girls and I suspect a frat boy of some sort stood with them by the door waiting to get off.  The train came to a stop and the girls stepped off first.  As the two girls exchanged some conversation, that I couldn’t understand, the guy looked at them and interjected something.  One of the girls looked at him with a sullen face.  The girl not looking at the frat boy all of a sudden dropped all of her books and papers.  The slight wind started to blow them and I immediately grabbed a few and stopped some with my foot.  The frat boy just walked off and I realized that he was just going to leave the young lady in this fix.  Her friend reached down to help and a slight gust of wind blew her papers off, she instinctually reached out to grab the papers.  Well since she was holding the books and reached out by reflex, she then threw her books forward all over the exit ramp of the platform.  I leaned down and started helping them…

Sullen Girl:  Oh thank you thank you thank thank you.

Transit Sleuth:  Yeah, no problem.  I see your comrade took the asshole route and just left you two.

Sullen Girl:  He’s a prick.  We were dating, but like, he sucks, so like, I dumped him.

Other Girly:  He is a prick, but she’s just like, upset, cuz like, it wasn’t…

Transit Sleuth:  Here’s your books.  [Handing the “Other Girly” her books she had dropped.]

Other Girly:  Thank you so much.  [Looked up with a great smile, thus I couldn’t help but smile.]

Sullen Girl:  [Stops gathering her books]  F#$% IT!  [Just sits down, she is apparently very upset, and she starts to tear up while sniffling.]  I don’t want to do this, can you just take my books [speaking “Other Girly”]?

Other Girly:  Well yeah, what are you doing?

Sullen Girl:  I just, I need time to think.  I don’t want to go home.  I can’t think at home, I hate it I want to just get away for, like, some time or something.  Please just take my stuff.

Other Girly:  Ok [She takes the rest of her books and I hand her the papers I retrieved for “Sullen Girl”]

Transit Sleuth:  [Looking somewhat befuddled, because I do NOT deal with emotional situations like this well, even when I have zero investment in the situation]  Are you ok?

Sullen Girl:  I’ll be fine, I just need to think and not be around anyone.

Transit Sleuth:  [Yes, this is what I said next, I am a transit nerd and it is my “2nd Place” where I go to think]  You ought to just get back on the light rail, find yourself a seat, and ride the line.  That’s what I always do when I’m down and out – not that I know ya or anything.

Sullen Girl:  No, no you, that, it’s.  [Tears up a bit]  Thanks, that’s a good idea.  I’m going to… [tears up a bit again]  Yeah, I’m going to do that.  Thank you.  Thanks, I.  I’m such a mess.  Thanks.

Transit Sleuth:  Yeah, hope you feel better.  Just get that seat and get lost in the ride.

At this point she walked off and got back on the train about to depart.  Crying herself into a tizzy.  I almost felt bad, because with how choked up she was, she might get a lot of concern from people on the train.  Well, did what I could.

Scenario #7:

After the wedding Jo and I had moved to the downtown San Carlos Hotel.  The first day I left the hotel to take photos I ran into some kids skateboarding downtown.  They where hitting the Chase Building grounds and hitting the surfaces for grinds and such.  Overall, they where top notch skaters.  I was impressed.

Skater #1:  Wanna take some pictures?

Transit Sleuth:  Sure.  [I wasn’t sure I’d keep em’, but what the heck.  I dig skating big time, and if I caught some good images that would rock.  Usually though, this is Jo’s domain and I usually can’t get good action photos to save my life.]

Skater #2:  I’m going to grind left.  [pointing to his direction.]

Security Guard:  [Guard appears from inside the building.]  You kids can’t do that skating around here.  You’ll need to move on.

Skater #3:  God D@#$!@ uuugggghhh.  [Fussing loudly]

Skater #1:  Let’s go jump on the light rail.

Skater #2, #3 & #4.  Alright, [yeah, etc., etc…]

Transit Sleuth:  I’m gonna walk over with you guys.  Do you take the light rail much?

Skater #1: Yeah, all the time.  Usually a couple of times per day.  It is way easier to go hit spots [places to skate] taking light rail than trying to drive around and worrying about parking and shit.

Skater #2: Even though the skate parks are hard to get to.  But we don’t go to those too much cuz they’re way out.

Transit Sleuth:  So there aren’t any skate parks near the light rail?

Skater #2:  Naw, not really.  They’re all out where it is nearly impossible to get without a car.  It’s usually cooler to go hunt down good skate spots than driving all the way out to the parks though.

Skater #1:  Yeah.

Transit Sleuth:  So you guys don’t take the buses out there or anything?  Don’t they go out there?

Skater #1:  Yeah, they…

Skater #2:  No they don’t.

Skater #1:  Yeah they do, it just takes forever.

Skater #2:  Bullshit.

Skater #3:  Yeah they do, but they do take like a billion hours.  It’s way too much trouble to take the buses.

Skater #1:  The drivers usually look at you funny after you been skating hard too when you’re all sweaty.  Even if the bus is empty they didn’t let me on once.

Skater #2:  Yeah, the drivers are kind of weird.

Skater #3:  True.

Skater #1:  The trains are wicked though.  You can just camp out and people don’t freak on us, there is no driver staring at us, and we can just chill after we go riding.  [Yeah, he said riding, instead of skating – often means the same thing]

Transit Sleuth:  That’s cool.  At least you guys have this option now.

Skater #4:  Yeah, it’s sweet.

Skater #1, #2 & #3:  [Various sentiments thrown about in regards to the light rail being awesome]

Transit Sleuth:  Well, I’m going to head out, you guys keep shredding, and watch out for the troublemakers and cops.

Scenario #8:

I decided to take a trip to Mill Avenue.  The light rail bridge & is near the railroad bridge, and two nice road bridges that I wanted to photograph.  While en route to this I came upon another interesting chat about skateboarding.  It appears, that the light rail is a boon to kids heading out to go skate boarding or in general, to the parks and other features available in the city for recreation.  This group of people consisted of two guys and a gal, who I’ll call skater kid, the skater boyfriend and the skater girlfriend – being that the boyfriend and girlfriend were girl & boy-friend of each other.

Transit Sleuth:  Do ya’ll mind if I take a picture of your boards?

Skater Kid:  Yes [Meaning in reality, no, no problem at all.]

Skater Boyfriend:  Sure.

Skater Girlfriend:  Cool.  [With a smile]

Transit Sleuth:  Thanks [Click]  Where are ya’ll headed to skate.

Skater Boyfriend:  Not sure what the name is, but I know what the stop looks like.

Transit Sleuth:  That’s cool.  [A couple minutes go by without me talking with them, as we’re all just looking out the windows seeing where exactly where we’re traveling.]  So what do ya’ll think of the light rail?

Skater Boyfriend:  It’s really cool & easy to ride.

Skater Kid:  We can get to places that used to take hours to get to now, it’s really sweet.

Skater Boyfriend:  Yeah, we never got to go where we’re heading today unless we got someone with a car to drive us over here.

Skater Girlfriend:  I like it.  I like to be able to easily go places with other people when there are more than would fit in a car.  We go hang out after school which would usually take two or three people driving, but we usually couldn’t find that many drivers so we would end up stuck somewhere that was boring.

Transit Sleuth:  That’s interesting.  Good to know ya’ll like it.  I’m heading over to ASU to take pictures right now.

Skater Boyfriend:  Oh yeah, ASU has good games too, I went to one of those.

Skater Girlfriend:  That was fun.

Skater Kid:  Yeah, we didn’t get to go before, because we usually couldn’t get anyone together that could take us, but with the light rail its super easy.

For now, that’s it.  I might put together another entry with some more of the entries because this is truly just the tip of the iceberg.  I do want to make a point to get the suburban chats that I had because it really shows some of the contrasts.  Until then though, this is it for today.

I wanted to take the #136 north on Gilbert, transfer to the #40, and then transfer to the light rail.  I studied the schedule for the #136 and could not determine when it would arrive near where I was staying.  I would have been happy to just go and wait for it if the bus arrival times where every 15 minutes, but the frequency was 30 minutes.  Strangely I almost went to wait for 30 minutes considering the temperature at 10:30am was an awesome 72 or so degrees.  That temperature however wouldn’t last long, and since I’m rather sun intolerant, I decided a car was unfortunately in order.

I got a ride from Jo’s soon to be married friend Cubers (pronounced “CUBE-ERZ”) to Enterprise Rent-a-Car and picked up a POS automobile.  I then drove directly to the nearest light rail transit park & ride and ditched the POS Chevrolet Cobalt.  That was the end of that turmoil, I could now focus on life, people, architecture, and my surroundings instead of driving.  With the car ditched I walked myself through the expanse of parking spots, filled with automobiles.  Through the parked buses, one a BRT oriented ride, one a normal hybrid bus, and then onto the platform where an LRV set awaited my embarking.

The Phoenix Bus System Fails but the Light Rail Rules

I’m going to clause this next section with my assumptions, thoughts, and ideas about Phoenix.  I figured it was a right leaning, socialistically auto transport oriented catastrophe of pavement ala Los Angeles.  I assumed that there would be no real density, and the downtown would be a corpse with partially sullen people.  I thought the light rail would be at 20-30% occupancy even though I had read the ridership statistics.  I thought all these things, how could this famously inefficient city harbor an intelligent process of zoning and growth.  How could mile long blocks, as inhumane as that is, allow for dense development, beautiful architecture, and above all – intelligently operated and built transit?

Please excuse my excursion in vulgarity, but holy shit did I just get sideswiped into a new consciousness.  Thank you Phoenix.

Mesa, Gilbert, and Bulldozing

I boarded in Mesa.  In my previously stated stereotype of Phoenix.  Mesa, is simply …  well, most of it should just be bulldozed.  Same with Gilbert.  Probably a lot of the outlying suburbs.  These areas are expanses of non-communication, human un-involvement, a faceless expanse of human development without any humans.  Sure, there were plenty of people around, but they were hiding in their cars, in their homes, and away from any actual community.  The sprawl was beyond destructive to the surroundings, but to any human being with a soul that desired community, life, culture, ideas, thoughts, or other elements it was not the place to be.  I’m sure there are some in the burbs’ that would argue this, but sit me down with them and they’d walk away either realizing this and a high likelihood of planning to move inwards toward the city.  Simply put, the surrounding suburbs are a dirge.  Pure death of the soul, no authenticity, no art, no originality.  The suburbs here are the archetype of American mindlessness, allowing corporatism to feed us the majority of our thought, the grand slice of our ideas, from our religion to our diets.

But this ended within just a few stops on the light rail system.  By the third stop the train was full of human beings.  Smiling, some talking to each other, checking their phones for the latest text or E-mail.  The train was primarily college students, young and beautiful.  There were a few people heading to work or other errands, but mostly college students at this time.

By the fifth and sixth stops the train was even more packed.  Even once we reached ASU and unloaded a ton of people, a ton more got on.  We kept rolling at a good speed down the center street alignment.  In about 10 minutes we where downtown, rolling through the streets with cars and people everywhere.  Strangely though, and this is where my idea of Phoenix rapidly started to change.  I thought to myself, wow, “this is enlightening”.

There were people wandering around outside heading for lunch, EVERYWHERE.  This of course is just one test of a city, a good lunch crowd.  I also realized that citizens, regular ordinary citizens, were walking around with their second amendment rights squarely planted in armaments upon holsters on their hips.  Unfortunately for the staunchly anti-gun blue crowd nobody was gunning down each other – hmmm, the twisted irony of that.  On the note of the staunchly anti-transit red crowd, which I thought polluted Phoenix too, the transit was indeed full of riders and even the bus stops garnered decent numbers of people waiting for a ride.  I was, being the Libertarian middle of the road advocate that I am, euphoric to see high transit ridership and armed, proud, happy citizens all over the place.

American Citizens in Phoenix

Speaking of Phoenix citizens, I honestly thought there would be much more grumbling and aggression.  In the suburbs it seemed that this might just be the case.  I saw 3 arguments taking place, heard about a botched robbery and the robber being shot, and other various forms of aggressive crimes.  But here I was downtown being greeted by complete strangers as I walked the sidewalks.  At first I figured it was the camera, so to see I took it off and stowed it in the backpack – but it ALL continued.  People, in full honesty, were greeting me with hellos.  Of course not every single person, but a solid 2 dozen people greeted me with hellos and smiles.  I was, shall I say shocked.  I had not seen this in any city except Portland.  But really, most American cities do seem to be picking up this spirit of camaraderie among each other.  I have to admit, that it has improved even more amid Obama being elected.  His victory truly has made an impact in city life, just by the air of change.  Regardless of what is functionally occurring with the administration, his presence versus Bushy Boys presence has changed the attitudes of millions of Americans.  Phoenix seems to be no exception, except that it has bucked my idea by exponential degrees.

Sandwich Factory

I jumped into the sandwich factory and got an excellent New Yorker Sandwich.  The shop had a great attitude (and armed employees also), and just gave me even more of an exuberant boost.  I gave Tony (of Lightrailblogger Fame) a call, got popped into voice mail.  I then tried to give my coworker from a job in another land, Aendenne a call, but my phone ceased to cooperate for a moment.  After about 15 minutes though Tony txted me back and we had a short txting exchange, which ended with me asking where a good wifi establishment, preferably with coffee, would be.  He pointed me to Lux.

Lux – Community – Coffee - Art

I mapped Lux on my iPhone and found it without much effort.  I fortunately knew where the light rail went, because I looked at the map and hit the “transit button” which failed to work.  I checked and came to the unfortunate conclusion that Valley Metro has not provided their transit information to Google.  I had a message for Valley Metro, GET YOUR INFORMATION TO GOOGLE!  Even without the transit directions I knew where it was, walked over to the light rail and checked the station stops.  A few stops north would land me almost at the front door of Lux.  An LRV arrived and off I went for a coffee surge and some electricity for my montage of devices.

I arrived, and was puzzled at first where Lux was, but then in short order with a tip from Tony, realized the located and stepped inside.  At first, walking into Lux was disorienting because of the darker lighting compared to the excessive sun outside.  My eyes adjusted and I moved forward in better clarity.  Stepping up to the bar I realized there was a roasting machine in the back.  Absolutely a good sign for coffee of credibility.  I got a smile on my face while I set my pack down beside the bar.  I ordered an ice mocha, figuring it would be a good default to jump into after the heat.

The girl at the counter asked, “want whip cream” to which I replied, “no thanks.”  She then got a sad puppy look like I’d hurt her feeling, which she then told me kindly, “we make the whip cream home made…”, to which I quickly changed my tune.  I received my mocha and must say, very tasty whip cream.  The mocha was good too, with a solid rich chocolate flavor and a slight bit of espresso bite.  I’d suggest one.

Lux was pretty packed when I got there, with only 3 seats empty in the whole place.  I was able to snag one after inquiring with one of the beautiful people seated aside me, “may I snag this seat?” to which I received a reply of “oh no, please do” from the young lady seated there.  I took my pack and set it aside, pulled forth my camera, laptop, iPhone, and all requisite cords to plug em’ all up and get juiced back to full batteries.  The pretty gal aside me plugged in my gadgetry for me, since I was across from the plug.  With the zappy electric flow going I commenced upon completion of this blog entry.

Needless to say, if you haven’t been to Lux and live in Phoenix, you should probably go.  You might kick yourself for not having been, especially if you actually like coffee of the higher quality (i.e. Not Starbucks burnt roasts & sugar induced comas).

The Ride to Lux, Light Rail Style

As I stood upon the LRV rolling north out of the heart of downtown Phoenix, I marveled at a number of things.  One of those things was the smoothness of the ride.  Because of the straightness of the alignment, the LRV could really scoot and still sustain a smooth ride unlike some of the twisting, turning, and raised embankments the LRVs in Portland and Seattle ride along.  I’ve come to find that the best riding light rail is planted firmly in cement along straight corridors.  The ride was absolutely chill, I dug it.

The second thing that outright shocked me was the level of development along the light rail.  Of course some was pre-existing and some is new.  But much of the pre-existing has now become transit oriented development (TOD), and garnered options to the lifestyle that being TOD provides.  There where shops, businesses, and massive apartment, condo, and other living complexes along this northern branch.  Every inch of what I had seen so far along the light rail line was in good maintenance, and the entire line tended to run through areas where the buildings where beautiful.  At least in the facade of beauty that many buildings exist hidden inside of.  This level of development continued extensively with only a couple blocks along that line being undeveloped or under-developed.

The other notable thing I noticed, was the continuation of people riding on the light rail.  Not just old, or poor, but everybody.  There was an older guy in a suit, a 30ish old suited man, some young kids in the tweens, some young ladies carrying on about some cute guy toward the middle of the car, probably in their early twenties, and a few single people interspersed in age range, lifestyles.  Also stood gazing into the distance a skate boarder, pondering what no one really knows, or possibly nothing at all.  One thing in common among all of us, was that everyone on the train was relaxed, chilled out, unlike the drivers I had seen earlier in the day in Mesa & Gilbert.

Packed to Crush Capacity

My last comment in this entry, is that while I sat in the wonderful air conditioned space of Lux.  I sat there watching each light rail vehicle make its way by.  When I got off and entered Lux around 1:30pm the trains going by were at about 95% seated occupancy.  By 2:15pm the trains coming by had 100% seated occupancy and had 10-20% standing occupancy.  By 3:15pm the trains coming by had reached 90% of crush capacity.  Each LRV set was going by with approximately 190-200 people each.

I’ll have a lot more to say regarding Phoenix, the architecture, design, zoning, layout of the city, and much more.  But for now, I bid the intertubez farewell for a bit and am off to wander the line a bit more.  This last photo I depart with is a shot of the city from the Lux Light Rail Station.

After work, just for kicks, I decided to check out how that Green Line Ridership was for the 6:18pm Departure from PSU.  I headed out of office a few minutes before I took up a stand at the north bound Pioneer Square Stop.  There was a Wackenhut Transit Security staffer standing on the platform, who walked by me and directed a guy to stop sitting on the MAX stop curb.  The individual was sitting there, not bothering a soul, with his legs in the street.  I could understand the reasoning, but, the way the security guy said it, “There’s plenty of courthouse you don’t need to sit there” made him out as rather crass.  No smoothness about that action.

A few moments later a beautiful young lady was asking some of the street kids where Satyricon is, which surprisingly none of them knew.  So I asked her as she walked her model self my direction, "did they tell you where it is?" to which she replied, "naw, they didn't know".  I smiled and gave a quick direction of, “either jump on the MAX coming and get off the third stop from here, or just keep walking”.  She replied with a smile, “oh cool, thanks, but I think I’ll walk I need to walk”.  When she walked away toward Satyricon I was fine with that.  She was, after all, one of those painstakingly beautiful young ladies.

After she waltzed off I boarded the Green Line at 6:20pm.  In short order we began rolling and came to the next stop.  There she boarded and spotted me.  I told her, “you sure didn’t make it very far” with some jest.  She pulled the cranked ear phones thrashing metal from the speaker buds and said, “I know, but do you see what I’m wearing”.  She pulled up her high heeled boots she was wearing and displayed them to me as she walked over.  She sat down and we chatted about the bands that where playing.  Crew (?spelling) and two others.  Local bands, and jeez it made me feel geezerly not knowing what the heck was up with the younger scene.  It seems if it isn’t one of the big metal acts out of Europe I tend not to have a clue as to what a band is.

We rolled on, I pointed out Satyricon to the young lady to which she bounced off, euphoric as to achieving her destination.  Again, we rolled on from there, to the next stop, on through the turn at Union Station and across the cross over and stopped at the light.  There we stopped and waited a moment for the signal to turn.  The Steele Bridge held steady to our left as a Union Pacific freight inched across the bridge.  Her horns starting to blare, causing some of the nearby runners to pay a little more attention.

We pulled up onto the bridge without delay as the signal switched and made it across and into the Rose Quarter.  This was definitely smoother than opening day.  At this point the train started to gain a number of passengers, but barely any where heading to Clackamas.  Most were conversing and I was able to ascertain that about 5-6 people on the car I was on were heading to Clackamas, or along that line.  Everyone else aboard, which numbered about 40 people, were headed somewhere within the Banfield Corridor between Lloyd Center out to Gateway Transit Center.

Clearing the Lloyd Center stop we cruised out at top speed toward 42nd Avenue.  Without a blink we pulled in and gained a half dozen riders and shed about the same.  The time read 6:42pm as we made our way, passing or passing traffic on I-84.  At this time of day, and with the sour job market a factor, there was little traffic along I-84.  The interesting bit is, if one were to do the math, with our three lines carrying passengers, the MAX with its one track was matching the number of people in that 3 lanes of Interstate Traffic.  When in full use, the 3 lanes absolutely carries more than the single lane of light rail traffic, but right the fact was there wasn’t that many people traveling along the corridor.

We pulled into Gateway and there were several officers, passengers, and others loitering about waiting for buses, light rail, or to depart across the way toward the shopping areas.  We got rid of a few passengers but gained an easy 20 at this stop.  That put us up to an easy 55-60 people.

The traffic on I-205 was a slightly different story than the I-84 traffic.  It wasn’t much different, but it was a little lighter along this corridor.  Considering the traffic, general activity, and almost chaos of just 1-2 years ago this lower traffic demand is surreal.

The Green Line LRV Set made it about 1000ft from Gateway and stopped.  It appeared that a fare inspector detrained or maybe he was already there?  I’m not sure, but it was somewhat strange that he was standing there between the LRV Set as we rolled away after stopping.

At the next stop the friendly Mexican Family detrained.  They were smiling and talking in their native language, which always puts my mono-lingual mind at a disadvantage.  I did however pick up a few of the kind words and chit chat they were having among themselves.  It is refreshing to hear conversation like this, calm, caring, among a family.  The one factual bit I had picked up, was that they were headed to Target.

We pulled into the Division Station in a few seconds and on into the Powell Station.  I was going to detrain at the Powell Station, but I decided to head on down and detrain at the Foster Station and jump on a #14, which I would then take and switch to Powell and get a #9 at that point.  Being I have seen the Powell Street Stop before, and its rather long transfer path, I figured it was time to check out the Foster Stop and see how that stop area was shaping up.

I took a walk down to the Lents/Foster stop area, and began my wait for the #14 west bound.  I walked along Foster instead of immediately boarding the waiting #14.  I must admit, this is a super easy and comfortable transfer point with the #14, and #10 if it is there, sit waiting to depart.  Often one can board the bus there and wait inside the bus.  This will be a bonus for people transferring here when it gets cold.

The area has a somewhat small town center feel to it, not sure if it is considered a town center, but sure seems that it is.  There are several shops and such, a bakery around the corner, and a cafe just a block or so down the street from the stop.

The #14 came along in no less than a minute or so of my reaching the first bus stop I came to.  I stepped aboard with one other waiting passenger.  She was a strangely frumpy thing, but smiled with the warmth of a friendly stranger.  By approximately 60th we had about 11 people aboard.  As we pulled into the newly growing and lively 60th street area we gained a few more.

This area, has really surprised me over the last 2 years.  2 Years ago there was barely 1-2 store fronts out of 20+ that had operative businesses.  Now, in the depth of this new depression, this street had maybe 2-3 empty store fronts out of the 20+ that are along this street.  In addition, along the edges of the area, around 63rd running east and 58th running west, store fronts have been rebuilt.  These places now host operating businesses.  Overall it makes for a truly growing and lively area.  Food choices from Vietnamese Bakery to Hawaiian Barbecue.

We rolled by the famous Devil’s Point and onto the transfer point at Powell for the #9.  I strolled off of the bus and over to the 52nd & Powell stop for my transfer point wait time.  I checked via transit tracker to see what the ETA was, which shot me back a 6 minute estimate.  I decided that was fine to just wait, if it had been 10 or more minutes, I’d have pulled the laptop out and continued typing at this very entry.

The homeward bound #9 arrived with one of the regular drivers.  He nodded as I boarded with my pass, and I walked around the guy continuing to count change for his fare.  I took a seat and whipped the laptop out for this last segment of my trip.

After barely a paragraph or two I found myself in another conversation with a few of the riders.  The topic was of a general nature about what was along this route.  I gladly provided some tidbits about what they where looking for.

Wanderlust quenched I arrived home, and that was my commute home, around about east side Portland.

The first thing I saw the morning of Saturday, while waiting for the #9 to arrive was one of the builders of America.  With over 150 years of building America under its belt, one more train rolled by with a double stack cargo container consist.  Union Pacific, silently and ghost like serves the nation without many even knowing they exist.  I couldn't help but wonder, where are the parades and celebrations for these trains? But I do digress, on to the Green Line!

Kicking Off the Green Line

As planned the Green Line kicked off operations yesterday.  I must say it was a bit smoother than the Yellow Line switch over, I'm guessing they've ironed out a bit more of the signals that were operating oddly 2 weeks ago.  So today, Sunday, is now full operations day #1, and tomorrow will be the first day of operations under regular commuter capacity loads.  Yesterday however was probably at the expected 25,000 or so trips taken on the line.

Train #1 – The Politicos Arrive

Our leadership at the FTA, local and otherwise arrived after their Clackamas Town Center kick off earlier.  I guess it was sometime around 10am-ish.  The drum core was playing and the college cheer leading squad was down to cheer as the politicians arrived and proceeded to the speaking platform.

To the left I saw Jason McHuff filming some video of the drum core just before the politicians’ arrival, to the right Jo and Don surveyed the growing crowd.  I stood afar before diving into the Seattle’s Best for a morning coffee.  Sure, it was almost 11am, but I had not had much of the day to wake up yet.

The politicians arrived and started to do their speaking, which led my father, mother, Don, Jo, John, and I to head off for a bit to do something interesting. John ran into one of the "recall Sam Adams" people, and after a minute of hearing the lady’s spiel I butt in to lay down my 2 cents.  We both concurred that the recall effort was mostly grasping at straws, even if successful, vain at best.  In general, if you do or do not support Sam, the effort is a waste of time.  In addition, there is a simple fact to remember, even when they do not intend to, politicians lie.

Back on the events of the day, we continued our trek via streetcar to the Farmer's Market.  There Jo & Don picked up some kicking Pine State Biscuits.  Pops, mother, John, and I wandered around checking out various market items.  We caught a raggy time band jamming away upon our approach to the market.

After about 30 minutes we headed back to see about catching a Green Line Train to Clackamas.

We walked up just as the first politician’s train was departing.  It left at 11:24am instead of the advertised 11:30am.  I stated simply, “I guess we won’t be catching that ride.”  We waited, a Type-4 Yellow Line LRV set arrived and departed.  The next set arrived was a Type-3 & Type-1.  Some of the crew was bummed that we wouldn’t be able to ride one of the new trains.  I figured we’d be able to jump aboard a Type-4 set at some point so it didn’t bother me too much.

We made decent time heading out of town, with no delays initially.  At each stop as we passed through, people were enjoying the various booths, tents, events, and such.  Overall the mood was ecstatic.  John, who is from the DC area, enjoyed the ride out, as did all our other crew.

Don, who is a navy man who lives in the Philippines also enjoyed the trip.  He’s in town waiting on his ship to depart, and Friday night Jo and I had met him at Clackamas Town Center (the Mall).  He had arrived there by travelling from Swan Island on the #72 the length of the entire route.  He was more than chill with riding the bus, having been all over the world, one usually doesn’t have any issue getting around.  He did quip, “it’s nicer riding the train the distance than the bus”.

After a wander about the mall, a small snippet of eats, we all headed back downtown and off to various directions.  Jo & Don headed to Target off of the I-205 Mall Stop, I headed back downtown, John & Father headed up to the airport by riding the #72 and transferring to the Red Line.

Streetcar Press – It’s all about the information.

While on way out to Clackamas TC I just happened to meet Justin H. Wright, Publisher at Streetcar Press.  We had a nice long conversation while en route to Clackamas Town Center.  Check out some of the materials published over at the Streetcar Press Website.  I’ll definitely have to meet up and discuss some other possible materials that I could contribute to in the future.

Max, Jason.  We Three Transit Amigos

On the way back the Green, Yellow, Blue, and Red had all started to clump a bit in the Banfield Corridor.  This caused a 10 minute delay in arrival back downtown.  Thus I arrived 10 minutes late to meet up with Max Campos and Jason McHuff.

We all boarded up on a Green Line departure for Clackamas TC after a tour through the Pioneer Square exhibits.  Pioneer Square was a great show, with all sorts of booths and even a bus on display in the square.  We eventually made it all the way to Clackamas Town Center, wandered around the booths and such for a few minutes, and then headed back north.

We discussed dozens of different topics including why we were into transit in general.  Max also pointed out many of the different points of data acquisition and other things available via TriMet.  Great trip, great conversation, will absolutely have to have a get together again in the future.  Yes, I will get on that immediately.  Still trying to find the time to setup a meet.

While out at Clackamas Town Center stop I grabbed a few shots of the line waiting to board the MAX heading back downtown.

The lines and crowds were impressive.  I have little doubt TriMet met expectations of 25,000 plus trips made on opening day.  I just wonder now if they’ll be able to blow past my estimates made in my ridership estimates entry.

I do suspect that the mall will provide a great anchor for the MAX Green Line, I also have my doubts about it providing a significant rider count.  It is possible though, as this mall is the first real suburban mall connected via MAX besides Pioneer Place Mall.  This mall will really provide evidence that light rail can attract young riders that are the standard suburban mall bunnies (or whatever you would call them).  If the line garners a high rider count of young people to and from the mall it could provide catalyst for even further expansion of light rail to these types of end points.

Along the ride a few shots of the green line trains.  The Type-4 LRV set display the Green Line with the little green light, dots, or whatever you would call that green square.  The traditional Typee 1-3s all show the Green Line with a standard green banner display across the front and sides of the LRVs.

The following shots of the MAX show a Type-4 headed to City Center, a Type-3 (or 2?) heading to Clackamas Town Center, and a Type-4 headed to PSU.

I did notice that when the LRVs get to Clackamas TC the icon on the Type 4’s goes hot pink and then shows PSU as the next destination.  Some of the arrivals however showed City Center as the destination instead of PSU.  I suspect that may have something to do with the particular train going in or out of service.  If so, that really throws a curve ball in for planning a trip, hope that doesn’t mess up riders.

Another great thing at the Clackamas TC is the storm swales.  These provide a beautiful addition to the stop but also a very functional cleansing of the waste water that runs off of the station.  Something that is desperately needed in and around more parking lots.  The amount of poisonous waste that runs off of parking lots is mind boggling and a simple swale does a great job cleaning up most of it.

After riding the Green Light the exitement of a successful line made me eally hope that TriMet sees much higher ridership numbers than my previous write up suggests.  I just can’t logically expect more until the economy really starts to turn around (or heaven forbid the Government actually fixes some real issues:  i.e. Federal Reserve, Monetary System, Market Policies, etc).

The last shot of the trip I’ll leave readers with is a shot of the storm swale that is at Clackamas TC.  With the drain easily visible under the rocks, one can see how the water will flow into and through the most greenery in the landscape.  Those weeds, as they may appear, serve as the workers of the cleansing process.  What little waste actually leaves the transit aspect (LRVs, rail bed, etc) station will flow into here.  The real work of this storm swale will be to clean up the bus and auto waste product.

Commute?

I’m tempted over the next few weeks to catch a few trips out on my old trusty #9 Bus and catch the Green Line into town.  I would of course do my regular transit sleuthing activity of checking out the ridership stats, and doing some general observations on the efficiency, usefulness, or as I always look forward to, my personal productivity while on the route.

Sunday, A Little Bit More

Jason, Max, and I all discussed a lot about transit tracker and the general state of web services offered by TriMet.  These services enable all sorts of devices and applications.  These apps are awesome.  They are all extremely useful for trip planning, I think all of them are open source, and they didn’t cost the taxpayers a direct penny!  With TriMet offering this data I couldn’t help but wonder when the Green Line would show up as an active transit tracker route.  Well this Sunday it showed up, but also the Mall MAX showed up!  I was stunned, as I didn’t realize it would actually be referred to as an individual route, but it does make logical sense that it would.  To the right I have a shot of the MAX Green Line and Mall Shuttle showing up via the PDX Bus iPhone Application.