[nabs-l] transportation in your area

[T. Joseph Carter]

Living in Northwestern Oregon (Monmouth), I have regular interaction 
with several transit systems that happen to interconnect.

Monmouth, the place you can find Western Oregon University, has about 
five buses.  Not five routes, five times you can get on a bus and go 
somewhere.  This is highly advisable, since you can't even go to a 
proper grocery store without traveling to the next town over.  The 
bus runs as part of CARTS, whose website is so awful that I actually 
check the CARTS schedule on the Cherriots website when it changes.  
No evenings or weekends.  Any banker's holiday you'll find the bus 
doesn't run.

Cherriots in Salem runs evenings, but not weekends anymore.  It's 
primarily a hub system, though it's slowly changing shape into a 
multi-hub.  Allows the regional CARTS buses to pull into one stop in 
their central hub.

SMART is the bus system for Wilsonville.  They partner with Cherriots 
to operate route 1X, which runs weekdays mostly during commuter hours 
between Salem and Wilsonville.  SMART operates a hub with six routes, 
with 1X going to Salem and 2X going into Tigard.  All travel within 
the city of Wilsonville is free, bu 1X/2X require a fare.  During the 
day the 2X will get you to the Portland area's Tri-Met, but if you 
need a connection during commuting hours there's the new Tri-Met WES 
train that goes all the way to Wilsonville Station.  Another third 
connection point via SMART #5 and Tri-Met #96 is now mostly obsolete 
thanks to WES if you're not stopping along the way.

Denver residents can safely be somewhat envious of Tri-Met.  It 
connects a very large metro area, and even suburbs like Tigard have a 
good web of coverage.  To see Tri-Met service get spotty, you have to 
head out to Clackamas or Tualitin or something.  These are considered 
within the Portland metro area, but barely.

The thing is, I can start in Monmouth at 6:20am and be in Portland 
city center by 9am with access to about two dozen buses, a city 
center streetcar, and three or four lightrail lines, all going in 
different directions.  Of course you could do it in about 90 minutes 
by car (if you could find parking in downtown Portland when you got 
there), but you'll pay about $6 full fare.  Gas from Monmouth to 
Salem is at least that much.

Joseph


On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 04:21:32PM -0400, Ashley  Bramlett wrote:
>Hi all,
>Let's have a more productive topic than rehashing ACB/NFB frictions.  I've got one.  
>
>How is the transportation in your area?  Say where you go to school as that makes a difference.  If you're in a metropolitian area its probably decent.  
>How about near your home?  If you have transportation, is it adaquate? Are bus drivers accomodating by calling out bus stops upon request?  Are they helpful in giving directions to find seats if you want it?
>
>For me, its pretty decent at school.  I'm near DC, in northern va.  When I attended the large state school George Mason University, GMU was great.  The CUE bus came to GMU and went around the city and to the Vienna metro.  Metro Buses were just across the street from the college.
>At Marymount in Arlington, the school shuttle bus went to Ballston metro.  That's our subway.  From there you could take the metro, get Art(arlington) buses, many metro buses, or walk to many shops and restaurants.  Ruby Tuesday, IHOP, a pizza place, and Chevy's were just a few accessible.  
>At home there are not sidewalks and metro buses are not accessible to us.  So I have not done much public transit travel.  I did some on mobility and when I lived at MU since I had access to them.
>
>In my limited experience, metro is good.  Other customers are friendly and happily answer my questions as to what line to go on as there is no accessible way to know you're in front of an orange or blue train; they share the same track.  Drivers announce stops on buses although many now have talking systems announcing major stops automatically.
>On a crowded bus or subway as I'm departing its helpful that most of the riders move out of the way so I can have a clear path and exit before the door closes.  Especially on metro rail, subway, you have a limited time to exit until the door shuts and you miss your stop.
>On metro rail drivers announce stops, but if I can't hear them due to low voice or something, I count stops or ask fellow passengers.
>
>Metro service is better during the day time as with all public transit services.  On weekends its infrequent.  Some lines do not run and others only run a bus once an hour.
>
>So those are my thoughts.
>Ashley
>
>_______________________________________________
>nabs-l mailing list
>nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nabs-l:
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/carter.tjoseph%40gmail.com