Hola! It's been a long time between blog posts (due to my crazy day job), but I want to share a few things I've come across, including a Valley Ride survey that ends TODAY (Sunday, March 6).
Valley Ride expects to bring bus service back to southwest Boise sometime this spring. The proposed route is a good one because:
It reinstates service to the Social Security office for our older and disabled neighbors.
It ties together one shopping and entertainment center (Boise Towne Square) with another (the Edwards cinemas and shopping west of Cole Road).
It provide service to Frank Church High School and the Boise School District offices (as well as one of the best auto mechanic shops in town).
Valley Ride has a survey about the new route. I believe it closes today, but I just heard about it.
In other urbanist news, Mark Rivers of Brix & Company has a new online flipbook, 10 Fresh Ideas for Downtowns in 2011. From comfy sidewalk benches with reading lamps to winter festivals (how about bringing back First Night?) to expanded truck-based commerce (why should taco trucks and bookmobiles have all the fun?), Rivers and crew are thought provoking as always. I still wish Mark would run for mayor; I'm still not surprised that he has no interest, since politics suck.
Showing posts with label transit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label transit. Show all posts
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
The people on the bus say 'Ride with us'
As an avid bus rider in Boise, I am part of this new video that shows a few reasons why it's cool and cost effective to take transit.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Ask for local option
I recently got a letter from Idaho Smart Growth with the news that the Governor's Task Force on Modernizing Transportation Funding is investigating funding tools for public transportation. Idaho is one of only three states without a dedicated source of funding for transit.
Does this mean that, at long last, gentlemen ranchers Butch Otter and Mike Moyle are going to climb down off their high horses and confess that, yes, we live in an urban area? Hmmmm, as a veteran of too many years in the local option battle, I'm not placing any bets. But I've submitted my comments (due by September 15) and you can do the same. Here's what I wrote:
Idaho officials talk about local control and being fiscally responsible with tax dollars. That's the very reason the Idaho Legislature and governor MUST , at long last, allow local communities with the option of deciding for ourselves whether we want to pay a little extra in sales tax to have better public transportation, a new bridge, bike paths, or what have you.
Idaho is one of only three states that does not offer a dedicated state or local source of funding for public transportation. Please enact local option authority for Idaho, with no more than a 60 percent pass threshold. As our population ages and we continue to see the costs of our reliance on oil, Idahoans will want more transportation choices.
Thank you.
Does this mean that, at long last, gentlemen ranchers Butch Otter and Mike Moyle are going to climb down off their high horses and confess that, yes, we live in an urban area? Hmmmm, as a veteran of too many years in the local option battle, I'm not placing any bets. But I've submitted my comments (due by September 15) and you can do the same. Here's what I wrote:
Idaho officials talk about local control and being fiscally responsible with tax dollars. That's the very reason the Idaho Legislature and governor MUST , at long last, allow local communities with the option of deciding for ourselves whether we want to pay a little extra in sales tax to have better public transportation, a new bridge, bike paths, or what have you.
Idaho is one of only three states that does not offer a dedicated state or local source of funding for public transportation. Please enact local option authority for Idaho, with no more than a 60 percent pass threshold. As our population ages and we continue to see the costs of our reliance on oil, Idahoans will want more transportation choices.
Thank you.
Friday, May 14, 2010
TOD workshop on May 20
If the phrase "transit oriented development" makes you happy, you'll want to know about a workshop set for 10:30 to noon next Thursday, May 20, at the U.S. Bank Building. Chris Zahas, a Portland-based planner, will talk about successful TOD principles and how they might apply here in Boise. Think "mixed use, walkable, location-efficient development in scale with the adjacent community and with sufficient density to support convenient transit." The State Street corridor is one such area being eyed for possible TOD in our town. Surely there are others, too.
The workshop is free and it is sponsored by Valley Regional Transit, the Ada County Highway District, the City of Boise and Kittelson and Associates Inc. For more info or to RSVP, contact Jackie Okun at 338-2683 or jokun at kittelson dot com.
The workshop is free and it is sponsored by Valley Regional Transit, the Ada County Highway District, the City of Boise and Kittelson and Associates Inc. For more info or to RSVP, contact Jackie Okun at 338-2683 or jokun at kittelson dot com.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Plans and more plans
The Treasure Valley may have an inadequate transportation network, but - as Caldwell Mayor Garret Nancolas pointed out in a recent op-ed for the Idaho Statesman - it's not for a lack of planning.
The Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho plans three open houses next week to seek public comment on the updated long-range transportation plan it must adopt this summer. The open houses are:
Boise - Monday, May 10, 4 to 7:30 p.m., Boise Senior Activities Center, Room E, 690 Robbins Road
Meridian - Wednesday, May 12, 2010, 4 to 7:30 p.m., Joint School District #2, District Service Center, 1303 E. Central Drive
Nampa - Thursday, May 13, 2010, 4 to 7:30 p.m., Karcher Mall lobby, 1509 Caldwell Boulevard
As Nancolas noted, all the plans in the world won't get us anywhere without funding. That means electing state legislators who will give local residents the right - currently denied - to fund local transportation options. Consider that when casting your primary votes this May and especially when you vote in November. Meanwhile, attend an open house and offer your input on the updated plan. You can learn more at the COMPASS website.
The Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho plans three open houses next week to seek public comment on the updated long-range transportation plan it must adopt this summer. The open houses are:
Boise - Monday, May 10, 4 to 7:30 p.m., Boise Senior Activities Center, Room E, 690 Robbins Road
Meridian - Wednesday, May 12, 2010, 4 to 7:30 p.m., Joint School District #2, District Service Center, 1303 E. Central Drive
Nampa - Thursday, May 13, 2010, 4 to 7:30 p.m., Karcher Mall lobby, 1509 Caldwell Boulevard
As Nancolas noted, all the plans in the world won't get us anywhere without funding. That means electing state legislators who will give local residents the right - currently denied - to fund local transportation options. Consider that when casting your primary votes this May and especially when you vote in November. Meanwhile, attend an open house and offer your input on the updated plan. You can learn more at the COMPASS website.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Transit: It's time to get creative
I grew up riding the Port Authority Transit trolleys in Pittsburgh. Two separate streetcar lines ran between Bethel Park (the suburb where my family lived) and downtown. The trolleys took us to Pirates games, movies and concerts. Even after I got my driver's license, I realized that it was way cheaper to take the trolley to my downtown summer jobs than to drive.
My childhood love for public transit hasn't let up. As an adult, I'm the sort of person who considers transit to be as much tourist attraction as transportation mode; I was almost as excited last summer to finally get a chance to ride the Salt Lake TRAX light rail as I was to see Green Day in concert that same trip. In other words, you'd think that I'd be a huge fan of the Boise streetcar concept, and that I'd be devastated at yesterday's news that our city lost out on the federal grant that would've underwritten a good chunk of its cost.
Nope. If anything, I was rooting quietly for the grant application to fail. For one thing, I prefer the idea of starting with a north-south line to connect downtown with our cultural district and Boise State. But beyond that, I question whether we ought to be pursuing any sort of fixed-line streetcar service when our bus system is so insufficient. I was far more disappointed to learn that Valley Regional Transit lost out on a $26 million grant to improve local bus service than I was to hear that the streetcar funds fell through.
Of course, I am familiar with the main reason our bus system is so bad: Unlike most states, Idaho refuses to let local citizens decide whether to pay a little extra in sales tax to fund public transit. Idaho was one of only nine states to get entirely shut out of yesterday's transit grants. Pointing to the four cities (out of a dozen applicants) that got streetcar grants yesterday, Boise Mayor Dave Bieter noted to the Idaho Statesman that Tuscon, Portland, Dallas and New Orleans all have local option authority.
Alas, living as we do in a state where legislators refuse to give citizens local control, Boise now has to get creative. The Statesman had an excellent editorial on Sunday pointing out how the city - faced with a strong vote of support for local libraries that still fell short of the unreasonably high two-thirds majority required - found a way to build the branch libraries we so badly needed in this city.
The difference is that 57 percent of Boise voters supported branch libraries, while nowhere near that high a percentage supports the current streetcar plan. It will also cost a lot more money to bring the local transit system into the 21st century than it will to build a few libraries.
But we have to start somewhere, and the answer - for Boise - is not a fixed-line streetcar route. It's buses that run past 6 p.m., and on Sundays, and more than once an hour mid-day. It's buses that serve the growing populations of Eagle, Meridian and Kuna.
It's temporary trolley service that runs at times when people are already downtown and want to have fun: First Thursdays, for example, or Morrison Center concert nights. We all know how popular the Boise State football game-day trolleys are; why not expand that concept?
Let's look at creative marketing and schedule tweaks that makes bus riding cool and fun. For example, how about special service that would allow people to take a bus between downtown Boise, Towne Square Mall and the Idaho Center (and back again at 11 p.m.) for big concerts? How about keeping bus service available until 9 p.m. on summer Wednesdays for Alive After Five or running buses until midnight for 10 days during the Western Idaho Fair?
Valley Ride is strapped for cash, and these ideas would require public-private funding partnerships along the lines of those that were envisioned for the streetcar route. But Boise's compact, walkable downtown doesn't need a permanent 2.3-mile streetcar running east-west or north-south so much as it needs a way to help people travel to and from downtown to eat, drink, work, shop and have fun in the first place.
My childhood love for public transit hasn't let up. As an adult, I'm the sort of person who considers transit to be as much tourist attraction as transportation mode; I was almost as excited last summer to finally get a chance to ride the Salt Lake TRAX light rail as I was to see Green Day in concert that same trip. In other words, you'd think that I'd be a huge fan of the Boise streetcar concept, and that I'd be devastated at yesterday's news that our city lost out on the federal grant that would've underwritten a good chunk of its cost.
Nope. If anything, I was rooting quietly for the grant application to fail. For one thing, I prefer the idea of starting with a north-south line to connect downtown with our cultural district and Boise State. But beyond that, I question whether we ought to be pursuing any sort of fixed-line streetcar service when our bus system is so insufficient. I was far more disappointed to learn that Valley Regional Transit lost out on a $26 million grant to improve local bus service than I was to hear that the streetcar funds fell through.
Of course, I am familiar with the main reason our bus system is so bad: Unlike most states, Idaho refuses to let local citizens decide whether to pay a little extra in sales tax to fund public transit. Idaho was one of only nine states to get entirely shut out of yesterday's transit grants. Pointing to the four cities (out of a dozen applicants) that got streetcar grants yesterday, Boise Mayor Dave Bieter noted to the Idaho Statesman that Tuscon, Portland, Dallas and New Orleans all have local option authority.
Alas, living as we do in a state where legislators refuse to give citizens local control, Boise now has to get creative. The Statesman had an excellent editorial on Sunday pointing out how the city - faced with a strong vote of support for local libraries that still fell short of the unreasonably high two-thirds majority required - found a way to build the branch libraries we so badly needed in this city.
The difference is that 57 percent of Boise voters supported branch libraries, while nowhere near that high a percentage supports the current streetcar plan. It will also cost a lot more money to bring the local transit system into the 21st century than it will to build a few libraries.
But we have to start somewhere, and the answer - for Boise - is not a fixed-line streetcar route. It's buses that run past 6 p.m., and on Sundays, and more than once an hour mid-day. It's buses that serve the growing populations of Eagle, Meridian and Kuna.
It's temporary trolley service that runs at times when people are already downtown and want to have fun: First Thursdays, for example, or Morrison Center concert nights. We all know how popular the Boise State football game-day trolleys are; why not expand that concept?
Let's look at creative marketing and schedule tweaks that makes bus riding cool and fun. For example, how about special service that would allow people to take a bus between downtown Boise, Towne Square Mall and the Idaho Center (and back again at 11 p.m.) for big concerts? How about keeping bus service available until 9 p.m. on summer Wednesdays for Alive After Five or running buses until midnight for 10 days during the Western Idaho Fair?
Valley Ride is strapped for cash, and these ideas would require public-private funding partnerships along the lines of those that were envisioned for the streetcar route. But Boise's compact, walkable downtown doesn't need a permanent 2.3-mile streetcar running east-west or north-south so much as it needs a way to help people travel to and from downtown to eat, drink, work, shop and have fun in the first place.
Update 10:30 a.m. February 18 ... Here are some other thoughts on Boise's transit situation (h/t Treasured Valley):
Randy Stapilus at Ridenbaugh Press
Kevin Richert at the Idaho Statesman
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