Is Link just going to make bus riders into train riders? Is that really all we are going to get for $3 billion dollars?

PRE> DOT Performance Plan (FY 2001) and Report (FY 1999) Page 109 LIVABLE COMMUNITIES  TRANSIT SERVICE: For the 80 million Americans who do not drive, public transit provides access to school, work, market, community services and family. It lessens highway congestion and helps maintain environmental quality by slowing the growth of automobile traffic. And it provides options. Together, these features help to improve our human environment and make communities more livable.

Performance Goal & Result Performance Measure: Percent of urban population living within < mile of a transit stop with service frequency of 15 minutes or less (non-rush hour). Goals: 1999 2000 2001 11.56% 11.68% 11.78% Actual: 11.24% External Factors: The traditional commute from the suburbs into the city is becoming just one of many commuting patterns. People are moving farther away from the central cities, and jobs are increasingly located in the suburbs. The demographic shifts are often translating into longer commutes, and more scattered travel patterns.

1999 Results: The 1999 goal to increase the percent of urban population living within < mile of a transit stop with service frequency of 15 minutes or less was not met. Access to high quality transit service has remained essentially unchanged at 11.2% since 1996. The percent of the population living within < mile of a transit stop with service frequency of 15 minutes or less in non-rush hour can be increased either by extending transit service into previously unserved areas or by improving the service in areas that already have transit service. In addition to providing improved access to transit and better service for the current residents of the service area, both of these strategies are aimed at encouraging transit-oriented residential and commercial development. In 1999, there was only a slight increase in overall system route mileage and the mileage added did not contribute to achieving the goal because the service frequency exceeded 15 minutes or less.

This is generally true for new service areas without
the population density needed to justify more
frequent service. However, as the expected transit-oriented
residential and commercial development
begins to occur in areas with new transit service,
the number of people with access to high quality
service in these newly served areas should
increase.

Further, many of the new rail systems to come on line recently have replaced or led to diminished service on parallel bus lines, resulting in a small net increase in coverage.

Thus, these investments did
not produce a significant increase in the number of
people with high quality service.
Despite the difficulties in increasing the percent of
urban population with good transit service, FTA
continued to implement initiatives that are expected
to impact future achievement of this goal. TEA-21
eased some of the previous restrictions on joint
development of transit stations, and FTA continues
to raise awareness of this effective tool. Finally, the
criteria used to evaluate New Starts projects have
been modified to incorporate transit supportive land
use as an important factor in project justification.



FY 2000 Performance Plan Evaluation: The
development patterns of our country are changing
slowly. States such as Oregon and Maryland have
adopted land use policies that promote in-fill and
pedestrian orientation. As more states and
localities adopt such policies, the percent of the
American population living within < mile of transit
will increase. Anecdotal evidence indicates that
FTAs Livable Communities and similar efforts by
other public entities and private organizations have
successfully promoted more efficient land use
policies. Due to the importance that FTA attaches
to transit and pedestrian friendly communities, we
will leave this goal unchanged. 

-- Mark Stilson (mark842@hotmail.com), June 06, 2000

Answers

This HAS been the experience of most new light rails. Most of the riders are former bus riders. Many of them STILL ride the bus to get to the light rail and of course are counted as two unlinked trips every time they do so.

-- (craigcar@crosswinds.net), June 11, 2000.

Actually, there are a lot of reasons why it won't work

-- (mark842@hotmail.com), October 05, 2000.