Remember back in April when I shared a TriMet survey about transit on 82nd Avenue? The agency has revealed results of that survey, and if you love bus priority lanes, you’re going to want to keep reading…
The specific issue TriMet was curious about had to do with business access to transit — or “BAT” — lanes. TriMet’s survey queried public opinion on three project options: to have some BAT lanes, which would be three miles of transit priority lanes between Clackamas Town Center and NE Killingsworth; more BAT lanes, essentially a continues bus-priority lane the entire seven-mile length of the project; or to widen three intersections to make room for more transit lanes while not reducing lane capacity for car users (LOL).
It’s worth noting that the “some BAT lanes” option would be the cheapest of the three with an estimated price tag of $8.4 million (out of a total project cost estimate of $351 million). Doing BAT lanes the full length of the project would cost twice that amount, and the cost to widen three intersections would be four times that amount.
After tallying 1,414 surveys responses, despite its extra cost, the “more BAT lanes” option came out on top. 70% of respondents said more BAT lanes would be worth it, compared to 58% who said the same of some BAT lanes. On the flip side, only 21% of respondents wanted TriMet to invest in intersection widening. The results were first shared at a meeting of TriMet’s Community Advisory Committee last week.
Looking closer at the results, even survey takers who identified as drivers want more transit-priority lanes. 67% of drivers chose more BAT lanes — and even a majority (54%) of folks who own and/or manage a business on 82nd Avenue said more transit lanes should be the priority. Overall, this was a clear illustration that many Portlanders want better transit, even if it reduces driving capacity, increases traffic diversion onto other streets nearby, and costs more.
Oregon Walks Executive Director and 82nd Avenue Community Advisory Committee member Zachary Lauritzen is a major proponent of building transit lanes the entire length of the project. “If we can put full transit lanes all up and down 82nd Avenue,” he shared as part of his testimony to the Portland City Council Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Monday. “It slows down vehicles. It enhances people on the bus. It makes the pedestrian and cycling experience better. This is a concrete example where you all need to give political cover to our PBOT leadership and say, ‘We’re going to do this because we care about this. We’re prioritizing this.'”
TriMet hasn’t made a decision about the final design and project scope yet. Like many major infrastructure projects, the Trump Administration has cast a cloud of uncertainty by threatening to suspend funds for anything that’s not a freeway megaproject. Of the project’s current $351 million cost, about $200 million is assumed to come from federal sources.
Thanks for reading.
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“this was a clear illustration that many Portlanders want better transit”
It was a clear indication that many survey takers wanted better transit. To what degree they represent “many Portlanders” is anyone’s guess.
Exactly. Surveys are kind of silly in this context. “Better transit” should just be the automatic north star of transportation planners and policymakers.
Thank you, Watts
COTW
No different than an election. Maybe many more Portlanders should have taken the survey.
you think a no stakes survey almost no one knows is out there is equivalent to a highly publicized election where everyone gets their ballot and voter pamphlet delivered to them?
Are bus lanes presidential candidates?
Well, 20% turnout in yesterday’s election, so perhaps…
Sure, it perhaps would have been better for PBOT to commission a polling firm to do a rigorous study, but they didn’t. Survey Monkey is the tool they chose to contribute to the public input process, so this survey is what they’re going to lend weight to as they continue to plan. How much weight they give it is anyone’s guess, but it’s going to be an arrow in the quiver for the urbanist-minded planners and engineers as the process evolves.
Since you’re trying to disprove the statement, please define “many”. I doubt you have a concrete definition that *many* people could agree on.
I’m not trying to disprove anything. I’m not refuting that many Portlanders support transit — everyone knows that. I’m just saying this survey doesn’t tell you much about the many Portlanders, or even the many users of 82nd, who didn’t take it.
And every single one of these surveys gets passed around advocacy groups with a desperate plea for sympathetic people to respond. They’re 100% cooked.
Plus with no accountability mechanisms to prevent duplicate votes, I’m not sure why this is much of a story. “Web poll agrees with biased blogger!” would be a more suitable headline.
adjectiveˈme-nē
more ˈmȯr ; most ˈmōst
Synonyms of many
1
: consisting of or amounting to a large but indefinite number
worked for many years
the many advantages of an education
2
: being one of a large but indefinite number
many a man
many another student
Many Portlanders do want better transit.
I don’t doubt it. “Many Portlanders” want almost anything you can imagine.
Ergo…we should do nothing, in case no one wants anything? Advocating for better survey-taking? Sure. Proposing that we do nothing or next to it until we know what everyone wants to do–assuming that those wants are in any meaningful way compatible and not contradictory?….Okay.
“Ergo…we should do nothing”
That may be your conclusion, but it isn’t mine.
I, for one, will welcome FX service on 82nd. It isn’t perfect, but as someone who has been riding the 2 for years, I am really impressed by the upgrades that came with the FX2 service. Seems like the buses are usually pretty busy so people are using it. I kind of wish they’d just start running bendy buses on 82nd now to relieve some of the congestion on the 72. I do like the transit signal priority and think that should exist pretty much everywhere in town.
One thing in the linked presentation that I thought was really interesting was that the average car trip on 82nd is about a mile and the average transit trip is 3 miles. I think that shows that bus-and-turn lanes are a good idea because it provides safer and more convenient access movements for drivers – who are spending less time on 82nd, on average – while keeping transit riders moving along.
Would bus lanes along the whole corridor mean buses can do their runs quicker, meaning higher frequencies with the same number of drivers? Is there a possibility that the “More BAT Lanes” option could result in higher operational efficiency and savings in the long run?
Watts is annoying but right – the survey only represents the opinions of about 1500 people. I think the takeaway shouldn’t be to dismiss surveys all together, but to take them with a grain of salt. It is a little frustrating to see the amount of hand-wringing, public consultation, and tiptoeing around inconveniencing drivers over what amounts to better buses that won’t run until 2030 at the earliest. There’s places that are building tram/light rail lines at similar price points and much shorter timelines.
It is funny to see commenters taking issue with a survey that supports transit lanes, when the fundamental tenets of their oft-repeated positions are conjecture that is 99% status quo vibes.
It’s pretty funny to see people who like to claim they are data driven act as if this survey means something just because they like the result.
Whomsoever could you be referring to? We may never know.
What we, well maybe just I, is that surveys are biased and based on the questions this one is exceedingly so. So to say this survey represents the views of the majority of Portlanders is just non-sense.