The same week that calls for better, faster, more frequent bus service made the front page of the Willamette Week, TriMet says they plan to make a major announcement about their Division Transit Project.
The $175 million project aims to create higher quality bus service between downtown Portland and Gresham along Division Street. Instead of a dedicated lane for bus users (which TriMet says isn’t possible because there are too many car users and, “Reducing lanes on Division for a dedicated bus lane would very likely result in traffic diversion to other streets and significant delay”) TriMet will hope to reduce travel times by up to 20 percent with longer (articulated) buses, multiple door boarding, signal priority, new station designs, and a host of infrastructure updates. To decrease wait times, buses will run every 12 minutes during peak hours.
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TriMet’s project will coordinate with a City of Portland project that will bring further changes including: protected bike lanes, protected intersections, better lighting, new traffic signals, and safer crossings.
Half of the funding for the project — about $87 million — comes from a Federal Transit Administration grant that was awarded in April 2019.
TriMet is hosting an event for local media on Thursday (1/23) that will include “an exciting announcement” from the FTA. Once the project breaks ground, the new service is expected to be ready by 2022.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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