[WEC-All] comments on Scoping for West Eugene Bus Rapid Transit

[Larry Reed]

To All,

Mark brings us interesting material. The article that Mark brings us
assuming it's totally true and will come to pass exactly as predicted is
better addressed by State, regional and Federal government policy and
regulations, not us (WEC)looking at only a portion of Eugene's land use
and transportation issues. I agree with Mark's general comments about
Eugene's "failure to properly do land use planning" but not necessarily
based on his specifics.  Over the years the City Council has continually
under funded long range planning, leading to a failure or lack of
coordinate among varies departments, lack of adequate information on
which to make planning decisions, etc. (One example is the failure to
have an updated land supply and needs analysis)

I'm old enough to remember the early 1960's predictions that earth's
population will out run the world's food supply. It didn't happen
because world food supply between 1970 and 1985 grew by 250% and is
continuing to increase. In college I also read most of the mid 1940's
predictions that the world would run out of oil by end of 1960's. Before
their was oil /gasoline there was wood/ whale oil. In fact there was a
short period of time just after the turn of the 20 century when most
cars were powered by lead-acid batteries- electricity until gasoline
stations became more readily available. As a land use planner with a
history minor I'm more optimistic. (Than Thomas Malthus, Paul Ehrlich
and Mark) I believe we'll keep the private vehicle because of the
freedom it affords and represents. As it did at the turn of last century
the type of fuel will change to something else; possible transition from
oil to Hydrogen, Electric, and /or Atomic; maybe even anti-gravity.
History has shown us these 'transitions' will happen fasten than
predicted and without serious economic upheaval.

Don't misconstrue my above analysis to mean I'm against walking,
bicycles, and mass transit, because I'm not. I use all of them and
believe their facility improvement will serve us well. There are lots of
reasons to support these modes other the "end of oil", better health,
better for the environment, life style-improved quality of life, to name
a few. 

Larry E. Reed. Principal
JRH, Land Use Planning Division
PH (541) 687-1081   
  

-----Original Message-----
From: wec_all at westeugenecollaborative.org
[mailto:wec_all at westeugenecollaborative.org] On Behalf Of Mark
Robinowitz
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2007 5:51 PM
To: we.emx at ltd.org; wec_all at westeugenecollaborative.org
Subject: Spam: [WEC-All] comments on Scoping for West Eugene Bus Rapid
Transit



Comments on Scoping of Alternatives for the West Eugene Bus Rapid  
Transit

November 6, 2007

Mark Robinowitz - www.road-scholar.org and www.greenwasheugene.com



Limited Purpose and Need

The Purpose and Need does not mention the reality of Peak Oil, which  
many experts in the oil industry state occurred in 2006.   Whatever  
the exact timing of the peak of petroleum production, it clearly will  
have happened before the design year of the project (2030?).    
Therefore, the traffic model, economic growth projection, and energy  
assumptions need to factor in the reduction in energy consumption  
that will be forced by the end of cheap oil.   While alternative  
energy sources do exist, none of them are more than a tiny fraction  
of current consumption / combustion of fossil fuels, and there are  
not any plans to rush substitutes into widescale implementation.

The 2005 "Hirsch Report" from the Department of Energy stated that at  
least two decades would be needed to adequately mitigate the impacts  
of Peak Oil -- but the peak is either here, or will be here soon.   
The failure to prepare must be included in the Scoping for any  
transportation projects, whether for bus rapid transit or road  
construction.

Sharp increases in the cost of oil and / or gasoline rationing, while  
hard to predict precisely, need to be considered as variables for  
future transportation demands and land uses.  It seems obvious that  
energy shifts will reduce single use car travel and make transit much  
more necessary -- yet these changes are not yet really incorporated  
into long term planning.

NEPA specifically requires that "new circumstances" must be included  
into an EIS or EA -- and the fact of Peak Oil is perhaps the most  
important "new circumstance" for a transportation project (whether  
bus route or highway construction).   See "Peak Traffic: Planning  
NAFTA Superhighways at the End of the Age of Oil" at www.road- 
scholar.org/peak-traffic.html for details.



Historic and projected increases in traffic congestion in the West  
11th Corridor due to increases in regional and corridor population  
and employment;


Historically, ODOT has overestimated the potential for traffic  
increases on West 11th (see Final EIS for the West Eugene Porkway,  
1989/1990 version, which predicted Level of Service F by 1996 without  
the WEP).   Projected increases in traffic are unlikely to  
materialize considering the limitations of rising oil prices and  
finite ability to increase levels of oil consumption.



	*	Growing reliance on transit by the region to meet
mobility needs  
in the West 11th Corridor;
	*	Prioritization of the West 11th travel shed by the City
of Eugene  
and LTD as the region's third BRT corridor;


West 11th is not a good "corridor" for BRT, since the road is  
entirely commercial west of Garfield.   Few people are likely to go  
shopping at the big box stores via bus travel.   There is no "multi  
use" zoning anywhere along the road, which shows the failure of  
Eugene's planning department.   Ideally some residential could have  
been infilled along the road (most notably the 11 acre site now  
occupied by Home Depot) but West 11th is mostly an example of how NOT  
to do urban planning.



	*	Local and regional land use and development goals and
objectives  
that target the West 11th Corridor for residential, commercial,  
retail, and industrial development to help accommodate forecasted  
regional population and employment growth; and


The best thing to do with west Eugene is to down zone planned  
overdevelopment along West 11th west of Beltline.  Virtually every  
square inch of proposed new paving of the landscape west of Beltline  
would destroy wetlands.   There is no realistic way to accommodate  
more sprawl along West 11th west of Beltline via transit (BRT or  
regular bus) that would have more than a small percentage of use by  
the public.   The proposed shopping maul at Danebo and West 11th  
(southeast corner) and Royal Node developments should be canceled  
since they would increase traffic and pollution - even if a few of  
the people using these facilities would ride a bus to get there.

Ultimately, the development financing charges the city uses need to  
be changed so that speculative real estate developers pay the full  
cost of transportation, school, fire and police services for their  
projects.   Forcing existing neighbors - and the broader community -  
to subsidize these speculators is immoral and should be illegal.



Goals & Objectives


The study should examine alternatives of free, frequent bus service  
using existing bus fleets instead of the BRT system, since the  
existing BRT line between Eugene and Springfield is mostly an  
enhancement of previously existing service.   The articulated double  
buses can transport about as many people as the BRT buses, and their  
use should be studied as a reasonable alternative.

Any BRT study for West Eugene needs to factor in the extremely  
hostile pedestrian environment along West 11th, the lack of safe  
bicycling facilities, dangerous intersections, the lack of good  
crosswalks and other impediments to pedestrians.



Issues & Concerns


A BRT line constructed merely to "greenwash" further car centric  
overdevelopment at the edge of the Urban Growth Boundary would be a  
waste of money.

Building the BRT along Franklin Blvd. to justify the Nike Basketball  
Arena is not a reduction of car use - merely statistical sleight of  
hand to pretend that we are dealing with traffic and energy issues.    
LTD officials have stated that building a single lane track for the  
initial BRT route was a mistake, and have said (on KLCC!) that more  
money should be appropriated to fund this.   One would have hoped  
that the project would have been built correctly at the start,  
although many construction projects seem to be merely schemes to  
transfer public dollars to private contractors who then make  
contributions to political election campaigns.   Some real oversight  
of this dysfunctional planning process is decades overdue.

A smaller issue is the name "EmX."  While some people might think  
that naming a bus route after Ronald Reagan's missile experimental  
system (MX) is a good idea, it's merely the type of boosterism public  
relations that spends lots of money without much result.

An additional concern is the strange shelters built for the initial  
BRT route, which seem overpriced yet inadequate to shelter waiting  
citizens in heavy rainstorms if there is a crosswind.   Adding  
shelters to existing bus stops, especially those where people wait in  
the morning (in the direction of downtown) would make bus riding much  
more pleasant during the wintertime.   Shelters would also benefit  
from improved information about bus schedules -- the Portland OR bus  
system has an automated system that states when the next bus is  
scheduled to arrive.  Some cities even have automated signs that  
state when the next bus will actually arrive - which is important for  
the many routes that do not have frequent service.


Scoping of study area boundaries

West Eugene has three areas of residential population:   River Road,  
northwest Eugene (Bethel) and West 18th (South Hills).   None of  
these would really be served with this BRT proposal (or the WEP).    
Connecting these three areas together is a higher priority that a bus  
rapid transit to Wal-Mart that few shoppers would use.   In addition,  
a BRT to an "office park" such as the complex on West 11th beyond  
Terry Street would be inappropriate since few people would need to go  
to that location in the middle of the day - it would only serve the  
morning and evening rush hours, and that does not require BRT.

A BRT on or near West 11th is likely to fail for the same reason the  
WEP would not mitigate traffic on West 11th - the trip origins and  
destinations are often not on West 11th, and neither a BRT nor a WEP  
would serve the main centers of population in West Eugene.

Instead, a BRT alternative along from downtown to Highway 99 to  
Bethel should be studied as a reasonable substitute to a West 11th  
route.  Much of the route would have enough space to add a lane for  
the BRT, and this section of town needs even more mitigation for its  
ugliness than West 11th.

Any BRT would have to implement land use changes to the  
dysfunctional, ugly landscape of West Eugene to have any potential to  
reduce traffic congestion.

The Amazon Creek routing for a BRT line needs to be dropped, since  
this would have major impacts on this damaged waterway and probably  
would require considerable seizure of private property.   This is the  
old proposal for routing a road along this path that was in the 1959  
and 1967 transportation plans, and it should remain relegated to  
dusty file cabinets.    Section 4(f) of the 1966 Transportation Act  
would require examining prudent and feasible alternatives to the  
"use" of public parklands along Amazon Creek - since 4(f) applies to  
all federally funded transportation projects, not only roads.

In 2002, LTD staff told me they were examining the potential for a  
BRT alignment slightly north of West 11th between Garfield and the  
Seneca / Fred-Meyer bus stop which would weave between the buildings  
to provide a dedicated route (since there is not any room for a BRT  
or other extra lanes on West 11th between Bailey Hill and  
Garfield).   The fate of these preliminary studies should be included  
in the scoping of alternatives for the BRT.

The WETLANDS alternative to the West Eugene Porkway - archived on the  
internet at www.permatopia.com/wetlands.html - should be considered  
as part of a broader west Eugene analysis of traffic, land use and  
energy issues.   This alternative, West Eugene Transportation and  
Neighborhood Design Solutions, showed how intersection fixes along  
West 11th, some minor tweaks to the road network, and a reorientation  
of the land use projections would be a good substitute for the WEP.    
An introductory slideshow about the WETLANDS alternative is at  
www.permatopia.com/wep-slideshow.pdf - and should be incorporated by  
reference into the scoping for the West Eugene BRT

If the "No Build" alternative for the WEP at the West Eugene Charette  
on June 18 & 19, 2001, had been adopted by the agencies that promised  
it (FHWA, BLM, ODOT, Lane County, City of Eugene), the WETLANDS  
alternative, or something similar to it, would have been built by  
now.  The intransigence of Mayor Torrey and the Pape brothers are  
largely responsible for the fact nothing has been done to fix West  
11th intersections over the past six years.  More money has been  
spent to endlessly "study" the WEP than would be required to add turn  
lanes and good crosswalks for the key West 11th intersections.   It  
would also be interesting to know why the City allowed the Dutch  
Brothers franchise to build a store in the right of way for the  
needed Chambers southbound to westbound West 11th turn lane -- the  
planner who permitted this should be fired for incompetence, assuming  
that accountability is a desired goal.



Support the desired land use patterns and development in the Corridor;


The planned land use and development patterns along West 11th would  
need to be changed to be more transit friendly in order to maximize  
the potential of BRT and/or improved regular bus service.   West 11th  
is probably the least transit friendly section of Eugene, and merely  
adding a BRT line without making major changes to its land uses  
between Beltline and Garfield would be a waste of tax dollars.


Help accommodate future growth in travel demand in the Corridor;

The "growth" is the problem, not something to accommodate.   The end  
of cheap oil means that a very different approach to urban planning  
is long overdue.   Further suburbanization of the wetlands west of  
Beltline should be banned, with or without BRT.




Efforts to reduce climate change in West Eugene would be best  
accomplished by:

protecting existing wetlands inside the Urban Growth Boundary

if new urbanization is desired, it should be focused onto converted  
parking lots

mandating a shift from clearcut logging to selective logging for  
timber companies (potentially the biggest contribution to  
desertification in Lane County)

phasing out of toxic production in favor of green chemistry, which  
would apply to herbicide applications, glue manufacture for plywood,  
wood preservatives, and toxic compounds sold at Home Depot and other  
locations.  Silent Spring was 45 years ago, yet it is still legal to  
sell 2,4-D despite the cancer epidemic.  Agent Orange was a 50-50 mix  
of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T and the fact that 2,4-D is still legal shows  
that decades of environmental concern about the public health  
disaster of synthetic poisons has not really been taken seriously by  
bureaucracies.



the "Saving Oil in a Hurry" study referenced in the previous email  
should be included into the Scoping of Alternatives, and the West  
Eugene study expanded beyond mere BRT to include a range of  
alternatives that would be able to reduce travel demand, oil  
consumption, carbon emissions, etc.   Perhaps the most important  
"need" for these goals is to abandon the fiction that further paving  
of the west Eugene wetlands can be done in an environmentally  
acceptable way, and the wetlands west of Beltline along West 11th,  
and the wetlands at Roosevelt and Beltline (currently threatened by  
EWEB) should be protected for their flood control and carbon  
sequestration purposes, not converted to concrete and asphalt.