Public transportation allows students to travel around Portland
By Autum Dierking
Many UP students frequently use the Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) as well as the ever-popular bus system to travel all over the Portland metro area.
Some love taking public transportation. Others hate it. Either way, the TriMet bus and MAX systems are a part of the daily lives of many students and those without a car.
The 44-mile MAX, which is one of the most successful light rail systems in the country, was built nearly 20 years ago when federal and local governments spent over $1.6 billion on its construction. Since then, it has served in conjunction with Portland's bus systems to ferry commuters, students and the homeless community alike from the outer reaches of the city into downtown.
The system currently has three lines and 64 stations that carry an average of 104,000 riders per weekday, the fifth largest for any United States light rail system, according to the American Public Transit Association's Ridership Reports Statistics.
The far-reaching transit system allows riders to visit many different outlying areas of Portland as well as downtown.
The blue line runs from Hillsboro to City Center to Gresham, and the yellow line runs from the Expo Center to City Center. The red line carries passengers from the airport to City Center and then to Beaverton. The addition of this line to the system in 2001 made the MAX the first "train to plane" service on the west coast.
Many students make use of the yellow line from stops at Interstate Avenue and Portland Boulevard (Rosa Parks Way). Others prefer to skip the MAX trip altogether and take the bus.Some students, however, are afraid to leave UP by way of public transportation because they are unaware of how the system works.
"I knew what the MAX was freshman year, but I was too scared to use it because I didn't know where it goes or what times it comes," senior Patricia Zurfluh said. "I think I would have used it a lot more if I knew more about it."
It was for this reason that TriMet created its website, trimet.org, which allows potential travelers to use the Trip Planner feature. This option allows users to enter in their origin, destination and preferred time of departure or arrival. From there, it gives users the option to select results for the "quickest trip," "fewest transfers," or "shortest walk."
The creators of Google have also been working on a beta program, Google Transit, which is designed to aid travelers in the same way that the TriMet website does.
Valerie Wen, a senior, loves the TriMet website and makes frequent use of it to plan her trips downtown by way of bus and MAX. She also appreciates the friendly bus drivers who help out with transfers.
Many might need transfer assistance since the beginning of the Transit Mall remodel. The Transit Mall currently runs down Fifth and Sixth Avenues. The $557 million project, which was designed to take busses out of the Mall to make way for a two-year light rail project extending the MAX from Union Station to Portland State University, has caused most bus routes to be relocated to Third and Fourth Avenues.
Downtown retailers hope that the Transit Mall face-lift will bring in revenue similar to the original MAX construction which yielded nearly $4 billion worth of development near the stations, according to The Oregonian. At the very least, TriMet estimates that the project will bring in nearly 7,600 jobs for the duration of the project until the MAX line's predicted opening in September 2009.
As for convenient transportation improvements a little closer to home, Public Safety, TriMet and Flexcar provide a University shuttle which is available to take students from the Pilot House to the MAX station at Portland Boulevard and Interstate Avenue and back again. The shuttle leaves every half hour on weekdays from 6:35 a.m. to 8:35 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. On the weekends, the shuttle runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays and from 10 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.
The Flexcar shuttle could be a good option for students like senior Chelsea Williamson, who has found herself walking back from the MAX station in the dark because the bus has stopped running.
"If it's late enough, walking back can get kind of uncomfortable," Williamson said.
For many, safety issues like this one are a concern when riding public transportation or walking home in North Portland and other parts of the city.
Yet, according to TriMet statistics, the concern some people feel about riding public transportation might not be justified. In 2006, TriMet statistics show fewer than "one crime per 100,000 boarding rides."
Jeff Rook, an officer at Public Safety, said he considers Portland's transit system very safe, even at night. When used in conjunction with the University's shuttle system, he said, the public transportation system is even safer.
Senior Darcy Cinq-Mars said she wouldn't be afraid to ride the bus at night if she had to because the bus drivers make "courtesy stops," which are unscheduled stops, so that people will have a shorter and safer walk home.
As for the daytime rides, Cinq-Mars said that there is always an interesting group of people riding the bus or MAX, but she hasn't ever been "weirded out or threatened" by any of the other riders.
"Sometimes it smells bad," Cinq-Mars said laughingly. "But, hey, we're all people right? That's just bound to happen."
