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After many years of stumbling, America finally seems to be dedicated to the goal of getting transit right. The Environmental Defense Fund has just issued a report highlighting 11 of the most forward-looking and successful local programs across the country. They are:
Streetcars in Portland, Oregon: This system saves 70 million miles of car travel a year, sparked a local streetcar building industry, created billions of dollars worth of vital downtown development and is super, super sharp-looking.
The Orange bus line in Los Angeles: Dedicated bus lanes built over an old rail right of way create a service that’s “like a train on rubber tires.” With 22,000 riders, it’s getting three times as much traffic as was projected. A nice stations, bike facilities, low fares, and service every six minutes are among the features that make it a hit with commuters.
Van Pool in Kings County, CA: In the rural San Joaquin valley this very successful ride sharing program is used extensively by agricultural workers. In 2007, it was responsible for eliminating nearly 400,000 vehicle trips.
“Flex route” buses in Price William County, VA: The sprawling exurbs of this county are well served by this system that allows the buses to deviate from a fixed route in order to pick up and drop off riders.
Highway shoulders as dedicated bus lanes in the Twin Cities: This program is a lot cheaper than building a new lane, and creates advertises itself as the buses zoom past frustrated drivers stuck in congested highway traffic.
Bus rapid transit in Eugene, Oregon: When the city rolled out its BRT program, bus ridership doubled. The service has exclusive right of way over most of its route network and fancy hybrid eco-buses that make everyone on board feel like a rock star.
Bus shuttles for train stations in New Jersey: The shuttles pick up commuters and bring them to the nearest train station, reducing car dependence and the need for station parking.
“The Rapid” in Grand Rapids, Michigan: An example of a well-planned, well run transit program for a small city. Its flexible, innovative and has created strong economic benefits.
Free, high-quality downtown bus service in Orlando: The LYMMO bus is free, runs on a dedicated lane, and is paid for with a tax on parking garage fees.
“Bikestation” bicycle transit hubs: Now installed in 9 cities, including Chicago, these can include 24 hour bike parking, locker rooms with showers, and repair shops.
Select Bus Service in NYC: Features designated lanes, off-board fare collection, priority at traffic lights (i.e. they turn green for the bus), and entrance through any door.
As Transportation for America notes, the chair of the House transportation committee, Jim Oberstar, was supposed to be in attendance when the report was presented yesterday. He couldn’t make it though because he was stuck in traffic. Ah, irony.
Image: Flickr – Canuck1
UPDATE: When first posted this we missed one… it’s 11, not 10.
Tags: SICK TRANSIT
I would yank LA’s Orange Line from the list and replace it with that same agency’s “MetroRapid” service.
I rode the Orange Line this month and was underwhelmed. First, it was crowded, which isn’t an irreparable issue but it is much less comfortable to stand on a bus than on a train. The bus is narrower and less smooth. Second, you have to cross a wide, busy street to transfer from the Red Line. Third, it still stops at traffic lights. Finally, at “high” speeds (it doesn’t actually go that fast) bumps on the road make the vehicle do that bouncy thing that articulated buses are wont to do, which is unpleasant for everyone on board. Forget reading if you have the slightest issue with motion sickness.
From what I saw, I couldn’t help but wonder if whatever costs they saved by building a busway were worth the major inferiority to rail in terms of service and comfort.
MetroRapid, on the other hand, is a very creative upgrade on standard, local bus service. Buses only stop at major intersections and can communicate with traffic signals to receive priority. This results in MUCH faster bus service that can actually rival the travel time of private cars. All this without the right of way and capital requirements of true BRT. True, it isn’t real rapid transit, but it is a creative way to inexpensively make local bus service faster and more appealing.
While the Portland Streetcar is a good system, it is way over hyped.
The statement “This system saves 70 million miles of car travel a year..” is quite simply very hard to believe.
From:
http://www.portlandstreetcar.org/pdf/annual_ridership_graph.pdf
The ridership per year is only 3.7 million trips. There is no way that it is replacing car trips that are almost 20 miles long. If the trip distance is like other streetcar systems, the average trip distance is closer to 2km (1.2 miles). If anything, it is replacing more walking and cycling trips than automobile. Given its low ridership, only 11,000 per day and likely low trip distance, many metro systems likely perform better from a passenger miles per capital dollar and much better at replacing motor vehicle miles travelled.
Some subway systems get much more ridership in a day than the Portland Streetcar gets in a whole year:
http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch6en/conc6en/subwayridership.html
Regarding the development around the streetcar, while it would have a impact, much can be probably more correctly be attributed to rezoning policy than the streetcar.
Yes, in that context 70 million miles does seem a tad high.
I’ve heard the argument that the $3 billion in streetcar-related downtown development figure is overblown. And, clearly, to some extent it is. But I think there’s little argument that Portland has gotten a lot more economic value out of that streetcar system than it cost to build.
-Jebediah
Just a quick word here from one of the authors.
James, thanks for the thoughts about MetroRapid — maybe we’ll have to feature it in a future post on EDF’s brand new Reinventing Transit blog.
From my perspective, crowded is a good thing because that means more people are riding, which means less pollution from cars. If we have clear federal priorities that support the experimentation and innovation needed to encourage new riders and bring transit to scale we could make a real dent in reducing greenhouse gases from transportation.
Also, as we said in the report, none of these solutions may be the “perfect answer” but the point is to show the wide variety of new ideas already happening around the country, in all different types of communities.
[...] The 11 Most innovative transit programs in the US (no Pittsburgh content) INFRASTRUCTURIST [...]
(That fourth one should be Prince William County, Virginia.)
remember the portland streetcar is only a couple miles long, so it works out to about 5000 riders/mile which is pretty damn good.
there has been a tremendous amount of development along the streetcar route, how much of that is due to the streetcar is questionable. i do agree the streetcar gets very hyped up. but the streetcar is a critical component that contributes greatly to creating a strong vibrant urban atmosphere and if you look on a map at where the new developments in central portland have been built the vast majority are within a few blocks of the streetcar line.
i think the westside MAX line in Washington County, OR should be added to this list. it was very innovative for land use around light rail. the westside line was built through a lot of undeveloped land suburban/rural which has since been extensively developed into apartments around the stations. there are a few big projects that got a lot of attention (like Orenco Station) but also there are numerous smaller apartment projects that have popped up with little publicity and by now most of the land along the tracks and stations are quite developed and ridership on the line is very high.
[...] The answers in this scenario would have to be rapid. No 30-year development plans. Instead: find cheap and efficient ways of getting lots of people around, and find them pronto. As a start, that would mean making it much easier for people to ride bikes, take trains, and form van pools. [...]
How can this list not have at the very top, Morgantown West Virginia’s Personal Rapid Transit system? It is the only system that’s innovative. All those listed here are mere replicas of existing systems. Are we so fearful of real innovation that we are now calling a subway that’s new, clean and in an earthquake zone . . . innovate?
I think yes! The shameful fact is that the PRT is totally unique, doesn’t rely on any of the bus/train/subway/highway/same old things that have passed for innovation for the painfully long period since the PRT opened . . . 1967!
Yes, in 1967 the most innovative system in American was designed. And there’s not been anything to top it yet. Shame, shame, shame.
Ray Birght,
Lexicon Media