By John A. Charles, Jr.
TriMet’s “Road Diet” planned for 82nd Avenue is headed for a final decision on November 7th. While one might believe that “building a better 82nd Avenue” would take cars into account, the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s (PBOT) “vision” for the project does not include moving people in cars more efficiently.
Ever since the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) transferred the Portland section of 82nd Avenue to PBOT three years ago, transit advocates have sought to convert the outer lanes of the former state highway to a 10-mile busway, known as “Business Access and Transit” or BAT lanes. Their goal is to increase bus travel speeds and reliability for TriMet’s 72 bus line, which serves 82nd Avenue. Line 72 is the highest-ridership bus line in TriMet’s fleet.
If implemented, BAT lanes would reduce general purpose travel lanes to one in each direction. Traffic modeling indicates that such a reduced lane capacity would increase peak-hour travel times by 50 percent, leading to a significant diversion of cars to other roads, primarily I-205. For these reasons the BAT lane proposal has not yet become a formal part of the plan to remake 82nd Avenue from a state highway into a local street.
However, decision time is approaching. In a memo shared with members of the project’s Community Advisory Committee (CAC) recently, the staff now recommends BAT lanes in only two sections: between NE Lombard and Tillamook, and between SE Foster and Clatsop. Paring down the proposal recognizes both the congestion impact caused by 10-miles of BAT lanes, and the likely litigation from businesses on 82nd Avenue threatened by lack of automobile access.
TriMet’s staff recommendation will now go to the project’s Policy and Budget Committee meeting on November 7th for a final decision. That meeting will be held at 9:00 a.m. at TriMet’s Public Safety Office on 1020 NE First Avenue.
While transit advocates may think the ridership of the 72 line merits exclusive access to a travel lane, very few places anywhere in the country have justified such busways. The most productive busway in the nation only operates for four hours on weekday mornings.
The NJ Route 495 Exclusive Bus Lane, known as the XBL, is an interstate transportation corridor linking New Jersey and Midtown Manhattan via the Lincoln Tunnel. The 2.5-mile busway is a contraflow lane, using a westbound (New Jersey-bound) lane along NJ Route 495 to carry eastbound buses (New York-bound) to the Lincoln Tunnel between 6:00 and 10:00 a.m.
The XBL serves an average of 650 buses per hour, or one every 7.8 seconds. Passenger throughput averages 70,000 over the four-hour period. As impressive as this is, transit ridership is a peak-hour phenomenon. At most other hours transit use is minimal. For that reason, the XBL lane reverts to general-purpose use for the remaining 20 hours of the day.
The current schedule for TriMet’s 72 line shows peak-hour buses on weekdays run every 10-12 minutes, with less frequency during remaining hours of the day.
If a busway serving 650 buses per hour in the busiest transit market in the nation is only justified for a 4-hour period on weekdays, why do local transit advocates think that running six buses per hour (or less) in a mid-sized city deserves exclusive use of a travel lane 24/7/365?
The 82nd Avenue project is one example of the overarching goals outlined in the Portland 2035 “Transportation System Plan” (TSP) and illustrated in its 2-pager. The TSP strategy pyramid prioritizes walking, bicycling, transit and shared vehicles for 70 percent of Portland. In nearly Orwellian speak, they call it a “strategy for people movement” and illustrate their vision with a succession of photos progressing from 200 people in cars to 200 people on one light rail train.
Progress for PBOT means that bicycles, buses and trains move more efficiently, while gridlocking people in cars through lane reductions, road diets, TOD’s, BAT lanes and other schemes.
Transit planning in Portland has suffered from delusions of grandeur for half a century, resulting in an overbuilt system that is financially unsustainable. When TriMet meets in November, the 82nd Avenue BAT lane should be removed from any further consideration.
John A. Charles, Jr. is the President and CEO of Cascade Policy Institute, Oregon’s free market public policy research organization
