(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)
As we reported last month, the next two weeks will be good times to bike or bus all the way to work rather than trying to get a bike on MAX.
That’s because MAX track and pavement repairs on First Avenue downtown that start on Sunday will scramble service on every line in the system, increasing wait times between trains by 25 to 35 percent and cutting system capacity 30 to 50 percent.
In short: good luck finding a free bike hook, or even squeezing your bike on the rush-hour trains at all.
The good news is that after the work wraps up by Saturday, May 21, MAX trains will move faster and First Avenue in Old Town will be far more pleasant to bike across, improving connections to the Steel Bridge and Waterfront Park.
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“This is our oldest section of the MAX,” TriMet spokeswoman Roberta Altstadt said last month. “You reach a time in any light rail system that you need to do this work, and our time is now.”
The Red Line will not serve the west side of the metro area at all; instead, Blue Line trains will run every 10 minutes during rush hour, and every 15 minutes other hours, between downtown Hillsboro and Galleria on the west end of downtown Portland.
Red, Yellow and Orange trains will share the transit mall. The Green Line will run between Rose Quarter and Clackamas Town Center only. A fleet of temporary shuttle-bus lines will serve SW 2nd and 3rd Avenues, getting people closer to the closed MAX stops on 1st. Here’s an animation explaining the various changes:
You can also see a summary of the changes here and learn more about the repair project here.
Biking is always the most reliable and predictable way to get around town, but MAX is usually a close second. For the next two weeks, nothing will compete with the humble bicycle for getting around the city.
— Michael Andersen, (503) 333-7824 – michael@bikeportland.org
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