July 08, 2003

(Updated) TriMet Open House Presents Conceptual Designs For Transit Mall

Note: This post has been updated. Any and all updates appear at the end of the original post.

Today at noon, TriMet launched a quick series of open houses to present and discuss its proposals for running a MAX line up and down the transit mall:

The Portland Mall Revitalization Project is focused on enlivening the Mall and bringing light rail to the heart of downtown. The regional light rail system is poised to expand to Clackamas County and potentially Clark County in Washington. To provide capacity for these new extensions, light rail will be added to the Portland Mall between Union Station and Portland State University. Adding light rail to the Mall provides an opportunity to revitalize 5th and 6th avenues so they better meet the needs of citizens and the downtown business community. The options and designs are included in the Conceptual Design Report, now ready for public comment.

Clicking through to the URL above will allow you to find and download the various sections of the Conceptual Design Report, as well as Quicktime videos of the "left-side" and "island" proposals (the "right-side" proposal has not yet been simulated in computer-generated video).

But for convenience, the rest of this post offers a graphical preview of the three design proposals.

leftsidevideo.jpg
Left-Side Platform: Looking N. On 5th From Taylor

leftsidesection.jpg
Left-Side Platform: Section View

leftsideplan.jpg
Left-Side Platform: Plan View

islandvideo.jpg
Island Platform: Looking N. On 5th From Taylor

islandsection.jpg
Island Platform: Section View

islandplan.jpg
Island Platform: Plan View


Right-Side Platform: Video Capture Not Available

rightsidesection.jpg
Right-Side Platform: Section View

rightsideplan.jpg
Right-Side Platform: Plan View

July 08, 2003

Update

There's a brief bit on all of this from The Business Journal of Portland.

Posted at 02:31 PM | PermalinkComments (3) | TrackBacks (3)
More In Design & Development

« Previous Next »

Comments (3)

  1. Noah@AllianceWatch on 08 Jul 2003

    Thanks for the images and the links. Those videos were pretty interesting. After looking at the three proposals I am definately leaning towards the left-side platform because it seems to maintain the current feel of the transit mall and adds lightrail.

  2. The One True b!X on 08 Jul 2003

    Almost unquestionably, if this project moves forward, only the left-side proposal would work well at all. The island proposal just makes the entire route overly cluttered and jettisons too much sidewalk space. And the right-hand proposal is a disaster waiting to happen of epic proportions, with different types of vehicles weaving in and out of each other's path.

  3. Alexander Craghead on 08 Jul 2003

    Agreed. Left side works best, although I could live with using the island system.

    The right side platform was included only to round out the options, I think. Who would seriously advocate that design?

Trackbacks (3)

  1. Mass Transit on 08 Jul 2003

    I had an interesting conversation about the future of TriMet the other day with a bus driver on my way...

  2. Mass Transit on 08 Jul 2003

    I had an interesting conversation about the future of TriMet the other day with a bus driver on my way...

  3. Transit Mall Revitilization Open House on 10 Jul 2003

    I was able to leave work early yesterday and stop by the second of TriMet's Open Houses for the Transit Mall Revitilization. The open house was held in the board room at the Port of Portland Building next to the