2009: The Bus Mall Of The Future
Posted by: kmikeym | From: January 15, 2007
Man, that new MAX car looks like it comes from the future! By now you have probably encountered or heard about the changes to the bus mall as the two year construction begins. As you would probably imagine, I'm excited about this!
My first PFA was about TriMet and their future plans. That was over a year ago and the 2009 date seemed so far away. Here we are today and they are starting the construction! And it's a lot more than just adding a MAX to the street, the improvements include "refurbished streets and sidewalks, new transit shelters, better lighting and eye-catching public art."
Much like the streetcar helped the Pearl blossom the new MAX line, AKA The Green Line, will spur development downtown along what is now a pretty dingy couple of streets. The new shelters will have an open design and glass roofs and all the MAX stops will have TriMet Ticket machines.
This will give us a total of four MAX lines, with the existing yellow line and the new green line following the streets of the bus mall and the red and blue lines remaining on the existing MAX tracks downtown. When including the streetcar in the mix you get what I like the call the "Ugly H" of downtown rails. (see this map)
The project is scheduled to be completed in September, 2009, along with the completed "commuter rail" project which take the Green Line out to the Gateway Transit Center on NE 99th and then run south along I-205 (see this map).
At first I was going to say, "Oh come on! That's true love!" but then I remembered the last people I saw making out on the MAX, and it was gross. Ah well... At least now there will be more MAX's so a less likely chance of seeing them. :)
Posted by: Mikey at January 16, 2007 9:52 AM
Those interested should check out the free seminar on Feb 16 at PSU: http://www.cts.pdx.edu/seminars.htm
Posted by: drew at January 30, 2007 11:24 AM
Great link Drew, thanks! Have you ever been to any of these?
Posted by: Mikey at January 30, 2007 12:18 PM
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So crazy how two years seems like a long time, but when it's finished we'll be like "Wow, that was fast!"
Now if only they could keep gross people from making out on the Max.
Posted by: dalas v at January 15, 2007 9:56 PM