The transit mall downtown is opening for genuine MAX traffic soon and it is lookin’ good. Really good. The kind of good only lots of money can buy.

There’s been a lot of discussion at the city over the cost of the the “furniture elements” of the transit mall – the trashcans, bus shelters, benches and bike racks. How much money is too much money to spend on a trashcan or a bike rack? Well, TriMet architect Bob Hastings points out that the transit mall is “the most important thing we’re doing for streetscape improvement in downtown Portland” and wanted to have the everyday elements “look good and stay good for 25 years.” That’s how the transit mall team wound up mandating very classy stainless steel elements. Sadly, stainless steel is expensive. Here’s how the transit mall costs break down:

188 trashcans at $2000 each ($376,000 total)
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30 benches at $2600 each ($78,000 total)

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53 bus shelters of varying sizes costing $3,844,780 total

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and yes, 117 bike staples that clock in at $367, plus $100 installation costs. (about $55,000 total)

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Current TriMet budget deficit: $13.5 million.

Anyway, the bike racks present an interesting dilemma. TriMet ordered 117 of them, but the city saw that is not nearly enough to meet demand and wants to install 100 more. Sadly, in the two years since the contract was signed, the price of the stainless steel bike racks has jumped to $900 each, plus installation fees. And while federal funds covered 60 percent of the initial costs of building the transit mall, it’s not clear who will pick up the tab for future work (like, say, one of the trashcans gets set on fire). Not the federal government, that’s for sure. Right now the Portland Bureau of Transportation is looking around for transit mall bike rack funding – maybe the PDC can shell out? According to PBOT’s Sarah Figliozzi, Portland’s famous blue staple bike racks cost only $150, including installation, and start to look shabby after about 10 years. But the city can’t use those ubiquitous racks on the transit mall because of the strict, stainless-steel only design guidelines.

While the city and TriMet sort this out, Portlanders have found a practical solution:
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Sarah Shay Mirk reported on transportation, sex and gender issues, and politics at the Mercury from 2008-2013. They have gone on to make many things, including countless comics and several books.

19 replies on “Behold! The Transit Mall’s $2000 Trash Cans!”

  1. I wouldn’t put my bike on any Portland bike rack.

    Now that the costs have been announced, I’m sure entrepreneurial thiefs will have a blast figuring out ways to uproot them from the streets for scrap metal cash.

  3. This is why the gov is out of money. I swear who ever does the purchasing has some close friends that sell them everything they need. I think benches and garbage cans and all that crap is needed, but do we really need this designer junk?

  4. The new bike racks are complete crap. Not only are they far too expensive, but they also have shaped oddly (bad for small ulocks) and have squared edges which scratch will scratch our frame.

  5. I’m glad to see some folks are questioning aspects of the new transit mall. Personally, I thought the whole concept was flawed to begin with. Putting trains, buses, cars, trucks, bikes, and pedestrians all on one street is a formula for trouble. To think that people are actually going to want to “window shop” amongst this mess is just plain flawed logic and poor planning.

    As for the trash cans and benches. You’ve got to love $2000 trash cans with locks on them and benches with arms so that no one could possibly get the inclination to lie down. It’s a hell of a showing for a city that says it’s “dedicated to ending homelessness.” I guess they figure that if they push them out of sight they can call it mission accomplished.

  9. Who ever signed off on those new bus shelters needs to be shot. They’re only going to provide like a tenth of the rain protection the old ones did.

  10. Why the drive-by about the TriMet budget deficit, Sarah? Since you are a well informed, cutting edge Reporter, surely you know the difference between Trimet’s capital budget and its operations budget, right? You know they can’t just transfer money from one to the other, don’t you? You know that the sources of these funds are different and there are very strict regulations how and where it can be spent, right? You’re really smart, so I assume you knew all that already.

  11. We were ripped off on the trash cans: they’re ugly and will look even worse when people start using the sides to stub out their cigs.

    The benches seem more fairly priced.

  15. I have to say, I was in PDX last weekend (visiting from Bend) and I noticed those trash cans.

    I think they look really cool.

  16. Those are trash cans? I thought they were Daleks!

    The good news is neither trash cans nor Daleks are impervious to my Judoon blaster. Took out five today.

  17. I think I like “design-y” things more than the average guy. But yeah, what Kyle said– the new bus shelters don’t provide shade OR much shelter from the rain. When summer temps hit 90, people will be leaning in the nearest shady doorway (what about the window shoppers?!). When January’s blowing rain around, people will be huddled in the center of the big glass panel. Or, more likely, they’ll be hiding in those same doorways. Bad design.

    Bike Portland covered the new racks…$300? $400? $900?

    http://bikeportland.org/2009/03/24/crews-r…

  18. When “MAX” or “Streetcar” or anything else is involved, break open the checkbook because TriMet hands out checks like candy – and for ease of use, they’re blank but with Fred Hansen’s signature – not even a signature stamp!

    But…if all is involved is a bus…then TriMet gets stingy REAL quickly. There are only bus shelters for one out of eight bus stops in our region. One in EIGHT! And many of those shelters look quite grungy. TriMet cleans a shelter MAYBE once a week, but the Transit Mall gets several DAILY cleanings. TriMet’s buses? Don’t get me started…some of TriMet’s buses are 20 years old, when federal guidelines state that they should be replaced between 12-15 years. Ever sit on a old TriMet bus on a 80 degree day? They don’t have air conditioning, but EVERY MAX train (including the original cars from 1986) have them – the ’86 cars were retrofitted with A/C in the late 1990s.

    The Mercury ought to be investigating why TriMet treats bus riders as second class citizens while MAX riders are given the red carpet treatment. Riding a bus in Portland is like a second-world country, when many Communist countries have better, more frequent, more reliable, more extensive bus systems than Portland does – and we’re CUT-CUT-CUTING our service.

  19. The shelters are no worse from a rain/wind standpoint than the ones on Interstate Ave. (They are worse than the old ones. But the homeless lived in the old ones, which might explain why they always smelled like urine, so maybe a tradeoff was made on the wind/rain vs urine front.) I was dating this woman that owned a business on Interstate who was complaining that the downtown business got whatever they wanted in the name of window shopper, and I didn’t argue at the time, but no, those shelters are no better/worse for Tri-Met costumers and/or window shoppers than Interstate, (as for my ex, her window shoppers are hurt more by where she parks her van than anything TriMet does.) For shade, those shelters are worse, but I’ve never really had a problem finding shade downtown, the street trees are bigger, and there are all these big building things all over the place…

    Erik’s rant about TriMet being stingy with the bus system made me laugh. 3/4rd of the stops on the new mall are for buses, and they actually have bigger shelters than the MAX stations do. But hey, never let the facts get in the way of a good rant…

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