Three votes made at Wednesday’s TriMet Board of Directors meeting should have a significant impact on how easy it is for Portlanders to get around the region in coming years.
Here’s a breakdown on the decisions and how they could influence Portland’s transit future:
Budget approval
The board unanimously adopted TriMet’s 2019-2020 annual budget, which totals $1.5 billion. The new budget will fund the expansion of several bus lines, an overall 2 percent increase in bus service, improvements to MAX trains and rail tracks, and the continued rollout of Hop Fastpass, an electronic fare system that allows riders to earn daily or monthly passes as they go, rather than pay for them up front.
The budget, which will take effect on July 1, also allocates an additional $5 million for TriMet’s safety and security division. Some of those funds will be used to bring in more contracted security workers, and create additional TriMet fare inspector staff positions.
Fare enforcement is a controversial issue for TriMet—questions of constitutionality in the way it conducts fare checks have come up in recent years, and Portland Rep. Diego Hernandez introduced a state bill this legislative session that would have prohibited transit officers from participating in fare checks. That bill didn’t make it to a floor vote this session, but Hernandez recently told the Mercury that he expects a version of it to get more momentum next session.
According to TriMet, the increase in fare enforcers will translate to “more people on the system checking fares and enforcing the TriMet Code” in the next year.
Max station closures (and non-closures)
When TriMet announced last fall that it was considering closing four MAX stops in downtown Portland and neighboring Goose Hollow, the move prompted an outcry from people who live or work near the stations—particularly those who use the Skidmore Fountain MAX stop. The TriMet board voted Wednesday to keep the Skidmore stop open for now, though it will monitor ridership at the fountain and reassess the decision in three years.
As the Oregonian recently reported, the Skidmore Fountain stop is particularly important to vendors at the Portland Saturday Market, which is held just a block away from the station.
TriMet still plans on closing the Mall/SW 4th Ave and Mall/SW 5th Ave stops downtown, and the Kings Hill/SW Salmon stop in Goose Hollow, though no final decisions were made for these stops at Wednesday’s meeting.
While discussing the plan for the Skidmore Fountain stop, General Manager Doug Kelsey spoke about TriMet’s goal to speed up MAX service throughout downtown—a key motivation for closing MAX stops that are within a few blocks of another stop—and noted that the region’s transit needs have changed significantly since MAX lines first started operating in the 1980s.
Back then, Kelsey said, downtown Portland was the sole major employment hub in the area, and low-income communities could afford to live close to downtown. But as Portland’s suburbs continue to grow and low-income people are pushed further out of the city’s core due to rising housing costs, it doesn’t make sense to have so many MAX stops clustered downtown.
“This region is growing and becoming more complex,” Kelsey said. “Reducing travel times through downtown has a transit equity consideration we should not underestimate or overlook.”
The closure of the mall and Kings Hill/SW stations won’t happen until March 2020 at the earliest.
Funding for red lanes
The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) recently announced plans to create dedicated bus lanes throughout Portland by painting former roadside parking spaces and regular traffic lanes red. Transit experts say dedicated bus lanes are one of the cheapest and effective ways to speed up service and increase ridership, and the plan is being championed by City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, who oversees PBOT.
The TriMet board showed its support for the idea at Wednesday’s meeting by dedicating $3.1 million in funding for that program and other city bus priority projects. The funding will come from TriMet’s annual allocation from the Statewide Transportation Improvement Fund, which was created by the major transportation package passed by the Oregon Legislature in 2017.
A TriMet staffer noted Eudaly’s plan had generated excitement among Portland residents, and said there was a “ripeness within the city” for the pilot to begin this year.
