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Imagine it or not we are actually lower than one month away from the debut of TriMet’s long-awaited new “Frequent Categorical” (FX) bus service alongside Southeast Division Avenue. TriMet says the brand new $175 million line — which they promise will go from downtown Portland to Gresham 20% quicker than in the present day — is about to open September 18th.
Whereas it’s not fairly the Bus Fast Transit (BRT) system we hoped for, it’ll nonetheless be a lot quicker and cooler than TriMet’s different traces. The brand new service guarantees 12 minute headways all day lengthy, all-door boarding, sign precedence and bits of bus-only lanes. Along with quicker journeys, TriMet will unveil a brand new sort of bus. The articulated (aka flexible) “FX” buses are 20 toes longer than a normal TriMet bus and might match 60% extra folks.
It’s all very thrilling and we’ll have rather more to report within the days and weeks forward. We’ve already shared a number of tales on how the bikeway interacts with the brand new bus station platforms. We’ve additionally achieved a little bit of exploring and have heard a great deal of tales about how the brand new bike lanes and different infrastructure adjustments on Division put in in tandem with the bus service are working (or not). We’ll get to these in a separate submit.
For now, I wish to share the way you’ll carry bikes on board.
There will probably be no extra lifting your bike and placing it on the entrance racks with the FX. Taking a motorbike on-board will really feel extra like taking MAX gentle rail since you’ll board from the rear and roll your bike onto the bus. As you possibly can see within the graphics from a useful TriMet video I simply found yesterday, every bus could have two bike racks.
From the video, it appears to be like such as you’ll simply roll your entrance wheel into the rack and that’s it. There’s a small designated bike house the place you possibly can stand together with your bike. You possibly can faucet your fare at a reader close to the bike racks. However if you wish to pay money or want something from the bus operator, you’ll want to depart your bike and stroll as much as the entrance.
That is the half that considerations me. Bike theft from buses and MAX vehicles has all the time been an issue. I don’t suppose many of us will really feel secure leaving their bike unattended for too lengthy. Particularly in a rack that appears like somebody can simply pull on the handlebars and stroll away together with your bike out the rear doorways.
If the bike rack is full, you’ll want to attend for the subsequent bus. Happily there are 12-minute headways on the FX line. That’s not almost nearly as good as we’d get with a real BRT system (2-5 minutes), however it’s fairly quick relatively-speaking.
I’m wanting to see how the brand new racks work in actual life. And it simply so occurs I’ll be using the brand new line this coming Monday as a part of a TriMet media preview occasion. You probably have particular questions or points you’d like me to deal with whereas I’m on the market, please let me know and I’ll make a remark to study extra about it on Monday.
For now, get a primary primer from the useful TriMet video beneath:
Contact Jonathan at @jonathan_maus on Twitter, by way of e mail at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or cellphone/textual content at 503-706-8804. Additionally, in the event you learn and recognize this website, please grow to be a supporter.
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