Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Odd Line 96 deadhead

-----Original Message-----
From: Jason McHuff [mailto:jm@jasonmchuff.net]
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 1:53 PM
To: 'collinsj@trimet.org'
Subject: Odd Line 96 deadhead


The Line 96 bus that deadheads in the middle of rush hour which I mentioned
at this morning's board meeting is train 9601. It gets to 95th & Commerce
Circle at 7:25 AM and then deadheads all the way almost to the southern end
of downtown on the way to Center Garage. It could be combined with 9603,
which dies the opposite and leaves Commerce at 7:30 AM.

In addition, service could be added by having 9609 go in service back to
Portland after it gets to Commerce at 9:09 AM. And I think there may also
be some afternoon 96 trips that could be combined. I don't know if the
planners at this evening's meeting would know about these so I thought give
the details to you.

I noticed these when trying to set up the following pictures of both a
TriMet and Salem Cherriots bus at 95th & Commerce Circle. I had to figure
out when there would be a TriMet bus laying over there while a Salem bus
passed. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmchuff/3186606211/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmchuff/3186606525/

My other annoyance about Line 96 deadheads is that between 6:38 and 8:28 PM
all the northbound buses from 95th & Commerce do so. This means that if you
get there on SMART Route 5 at 6:43 PM or 7:13 PM or SMART Route 2X at 7:00
PM you have to wait a LONG time for the 96 and then spend time meandering
through Tualatin. Allowing those people to ride the deadheads to 1st &
Arthur (which is on the deadhead route and has good connections) would
result in substantially better service to them at virtually zero cost.
http://www.ridesmart.com/Index.aspx?page=120
http://www.ridesmart.com/Index.aspx?page=116

Also, do you know if they have the testing the Type 4 on the mall that was
going to occur on Sunday rescheduled? (See
http://twitter.com/pdxcommute/status/1232855804 ) And I should have asked
you to see about assigning the first trip of bus 2901 to Al's 67 or 89 as a
surprise.

Lastly, if you're interested, you can check out the TriMet diagrams I've
made at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmchuff/sets/72157613789234327/ or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Transportation_in_Portland,_Oregon and
my other TriMet photos at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmchuff/collections/72157605312794015/

Monday, February 2, 2009

JEFF FRANE

-----Original Message-----
From: Jason McHuff [mailto:jm@jasonmchuff.net]
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 1:20 PM
To: 'Frane, Jeff'
Subject: RE: Those tiny pictures!


Thanks for the explanations! More juicy TriMet details! Seriously, I do
understand that the stop was originally closed due to the construction on
the hotel on that block. However, instead of allowing the bus stop to
re-open, the city has now put parking there.

I'm not really concerned about the lower sign, except for the possible
accessibility issue. I think my biggest issue is that people might check
Transit Tracker for Stop 12792 expecting info about the 38, 43, etc that
were "temporarily" moved from Stop 12793. Overall, I feel that when the
permanent stickers for the 38, 43, etc were placed on the 12792 sign
(instead of using a Temporary Bus Stop sign), the info should have been
entered in so that it shows up in the Trip Planner, Transit Tracker, etc.

If you haven't seen it, I explained this issue and some others to Al. See
http://rantingsofatrimetbusdriver.blogspot.com/2008/12/map-is-wrong.html

Also, does SAM really stand for "Stops and Amenities *Manager*"? And
knowing the cost of the lower sign, I'll forgive you for not fixing some of
those (like in Chinatown) that are beat up/have been vandalized. The good
news is that (I'm assuming) they won't be used after May.

Lastly, I like what they did on the other side of the hotel:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmchuff/2501765552/

-----Original Message-----
From: Frane, Jeff [mailto:FraneJ@trimet.org]
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 9:50 AM
To: 'jm@jasonmchuff.net'
Subject: RE: Those tiny pictures!


OK, so the missing stop. First of all, the lower sign comes from England and
costs $1200. Getting replacements takes forever, apparently. At the time it
was installed, the information was supposed to be correct, but then other
routes were added.

The missing stop was supposed to be a temporary construction closure, so it
was not turned off in SAM. "Temporary" turned out to be a very long time,
but TriMet has repeatedly been told that it's "almost" there. My preference
would have been to close it down, but it's not my project. The bus stop
expert says she's expecting something definitive on the subject this week.
We'll see!

--Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: Jason McHuff [mailto:jm@jasonmchuff.net]
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 12:13 AM
To: 'Frane, Jeff'
Subject: RE: Those tiny pictures!

You reached me fine. As for the pictures, I think I fixed the links (I gave
them absolute paths; I have a feeling that you were browsing the set or the
photostream, which results in longer URLs than just the
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmchuff/3221075683/), but if not they should
point to these: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmchuff/2884516228/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmchuff/2883679423/

I'll have more stuff later.

-----Original Message-----
From: Frane, Jeff [mailto:FraneJ@trimet.org]
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 2:34 PM
To: 'flickr@jasonmchuff.net'
Subject: Those tiny pictures!


Jason,

In a cursory and lackluster search, this is the only contact information I
could find. Feel free to email me about the pictures you looked to. When I
clicked on the photos of signs, it just led back to the same page I was on.

--Jeff Frane

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Second response.

-----Original Message-----
From: Frane, Jeff [mailto:FraneJ@trimet.org]
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 8:55 AM
To: 'jm@jasonmchuff.net'
Subject: RE: Those tiny pictures!


I'm still waiting for some explanation about the route numbers on the
TrueForm signage. In regard to the missing shelter (it no longer shows up
that way, but lists a shelter installed), here's the official response from
the one person that knows more about our stops than anyone else. SAM refers
to the Stops and Amenities database; the stop information on the website
pulls information directly from SAM.

"There is always a delay from the time most amenities are installed to the
time it shows up in SAM. This is due to a number of factors including the
need for an inspection of the installation before we can deem the workorder
complete. Prior to this past fall, cost information was also required
before amenities would show up in SAM, which generally meant waiting for an
invoice (which oftentimes was at least a month after the installation took
place). If there were issues (either from the inspection or the invoice or
even with the system) that then added even more time. As of this past fall,
we no longer need to wait for the costs to show the amenities in SAM, so
that has shortened the wait time a bit."
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