Friday, January 13, 2006
Portland prepares for more deadly light-rail lines
Portland's Fifth and Sixth Avenue transit mall is open to pedestrians, buses, and on certain streets cars. Now Portland wants to build a light-rail line down these streets, even though it is going to create more dangers for pedestrians and clog up the bus traffic. Fortunately, Portland's transit agency is fully aware of the risks and is nobly willing to take them on behalf of Portland pedestrians.
This light-rail line is expected to be more deadly than most because the street layout requires the rails to weave from lane to lane. Such weaving would not be necessary on any other street. But, the transit agency says, "a political commitment had already been made to businesses in the area."
What that means is, the businesses on Third and Fourth avenues as well as Broadway (Seventh), Eight, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh all said, "We want light rail, but if you put it on our streets, we are going to move out of downtown." The reason they said this is that construction of the original bus mall destroyed numerous businesses on Fifth and Sixth and the streets never recovered. So the goal for a business is to be one block way from light rail, not to be on the line itself.
Meanwhile, the family of a wheelchair light-rail rider is suing Portland's transit agency for killing him in 2004. The man was leaving the light-rail train but his wheelchair was not clear of the car when the train left the station. The car knocked his wheelchair to the tracks, where he was crushed by the train. If the transit agency were a private company, they would sue it for millions of dollars, but they are suing for only $100,000, because this is the liability limit on public agencies in Oregon. Just one more subsidy for light rail.
Postscript: Planners for Portland's transit agency explain to skeptics that traffic on the bus mall will be fine because cars, buses, light rail, and pedestrians will "all move in a carefully designed ballet of motion that will be designed to minimize accidents." That's fine if everyone on the street is a trained dancer. But just imagine if ordinary people tried to perform the Nutcracker or Swan Lake.
This light-rail line is expected to be more deadly than most because the street layout requires the rails to weave from lane to lane. Such weaving would not be necessary on any other street. But, the transit agency says, "a political commitment had already been made to businesses in the area."
What that means is, the businesses on Third and Fourth avenues as well as Broadway (Seventh), Eight, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh all said, "We want light rail, but if you put it on our streets, we are going to move out of downtown." The reason they said this is that construction of the original bus mall destroyed numerous businesses on Fifth and Sixth and the streets never recovered. So the goal for a business is to be one block way from light rail, not to be on the line itself.
Meanwhile, the family of a wheelchair light-rail rider is suing Portland's transit agency for killing him in 2004. The man was leaving the light-rail train but his wheelchair was not clear of the car when the train left the station. The car knocked his wheelchair to the tracks, where he was crushed by the train. If the transit agency were a private company, they would sue it for millions of dollars, but they are suing for only $100,000, because this is the liability limit on public agencies in Oregon. Just one more subsidy for light rail.
Postscript: Planners for Portland's transit agency explain to skeptics that traffic on the bus mall will be fine because cars, buses, light rail, and pedestrians will "all move in a carefully designed ballet of motion that will be designed to minimize accidents." That's fine if everyone on the street is a trained dancer. But just imagine if ordinary people tried to perform the Nutcracker or Swan Lake.
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