RTC has another survey: Alignment and modes

[Waterbuffalo]

Your feedback is needed: Alignments and Modes Survey

A new online survey is now available on the Clark County High Capacity Transit System Study website. We need your input on which transit modes and alignments are the most promising short and long term options to include in a Clark County system plan. Attendees at the June 26, Sounding Board open house have already provided feedback.

You can access the survey directly or you can learn more about the study at http://rtc.wa.gov/hct/. The survey will be available online until Friday, August 29.

Want to learn more?
For more information, or to share your comments, you can contact the study in the following ways:

* Visit the study website for more study information, public event announcements, further project information, and our comment form

* Share your comments by email or calling:
Dale Robins at the Southwest Washington Regional Transportation Council
hct@rtc.wa.gov
360-397-6067

[Chief]

yah...if you look at the Map that RTC is circulating, it shows a massive transportation hub in Downtown Vancouver, and everything they are considering is built on the premise of Loot Rail on the Columbia Crossing, and massive urban development at the former Boise Cascade site.

Neither of those items are anything more than a hot idea at this point, and all ignore the 800 pound gorilla in that area, which is the West Vancouver Freight Access Project which is the only thing that is underway in that area.

RTC doesn't give me warm fuzzies with their plans either...and they have way less money to throw around than the CRCP does...

[Waterbuffalo]

Yeah, I saw the same map they showed on the CRCP call-in. My question is why are they not looking to build in area that are raring up for building in Orchards, Camas and the east side?

Downtown Vancouver can only be densified only so far unless one is looking to remove the old world war ii charm that glows and ambiance with more tract row of multi-story buildings they are proposing for the Boise Cascade site.

[Waterbuffalo]

Why are we wasting multiples of Billions on Downtown when most of the lands that the City will be looking to build in the twenty year Urban Growth Boundary are to the north and Northeast?

[ceiliazul]

The best survey answer I gave was "neutral" and 2 questions received that rating from me. The 205 express is long overdue, and BRT makes sense for that long highway route. I estimate this option has the lowest capital *and* lowest maint costs of all the ideas.

The other "neutral" response was given to Mill Plain BRT. Mill Plain buses are well utilized, and probably come closest to actually breaking even on their own costs. BRT would mean more construction, but within 5 years it may actually provide an economic benefit.

Vancouver cannot afford to maintain, let alone build, any of the light rail or streetcar <laughs> ideas.

[ceiliazul]

The most-positive answer I gave was "neutral" and 2 questions received that rating from me. Some kind of 205 express is long overdue, and BRT makes sense for that long highway route. I would guess this option has the lowest capital and lowest maint costs of all the ideas.

The other "neutral" response was given to Mill Plain BRT. Mill Plain buses are well utilized, and probably come closest to actually paying for themselves. The Mill Plain corridor would need some construction, but I can see this proposal having a positive effect on Vancouver's economy.

[Chief]

The problem I have had all along with much of what RTC is putting out is based upon the maps they are using for their "Corridors". Everything is funneled into and through Downtown Vancouver, and if you look at the map, a massive hub of congestion is there to be addressed by intense transit...

The problem is that there is absolutely no congestion there now, and the goal of the Boise Cascade Project is to create all of the congestion possible, so that Loot Rail AND a trolley can be justified.

It's a classic house of cards down there, and if you remove one thing, the whole mess collapses of it's own weight. Right now the magic card that's being yanked is the funding one, and it's the most important of all. As always, it's about the money, and how much you can sweet-talk the voters into letting go of.

cewl

[Waterbuffalo]

To ceiliazul, yeah I ride Mill plain out to 164th Avenue now.. Its busier than when I left more than three months ago from the East side. Now how about the shorter Fourth Plain Corridor? I thought that was being advanced in the study as well?

To Chief, Yeah, that the same old, same old.

[Chief]

To ceiliazul, yeah I ride Mill plain out to 164th Avenue now.. Its busier than when I left more than three months ago from the East side. Now how about the shorter Fourth Plain Corridor? I thought that was being advanced in the study as well?

To Chief, Yeah, that the same old, same old.

So why in the name of God does the Mayor think it is vital to "...build a new City, right here! " like he told Patty Murray the other day about the former Boise Cascade papermill site??

We have plenty of City building going on up on this end of town, and it isn't costing the City a dime for it to happen; quite the contrary, the City of Vancouver uses the East Side as a massive piggy bank, as this is where most of their property taxes hail from. If any section of town deserves traffic and transit solutions, it's the East side, mainly because that's where the people are, and where they need to go. We don't need to build a system that funnels everything into Downtown Vancouver.

Yet we have RTC being lead around by the nose, by none other than Hizzonor, Mayor Royce Pollard, who has been leading the Loot Rail charge for a decade. The fly in the ointment though is turning out to be the City of Portland, whose future Mayor, Sam Adams, isn't turning out to be such a great friend of Royce after all...

ddrrii