ETC Planning Process & Timeline:
The planning process began in the winter of 2017 and will conclude by the Spring of 2018.

Candidates being studied during the planning process:

This planning process is primarily focused on several bus lines that are part of the TriMet Frequent Service network. However, Enhanced transit can also include streetcar. In fact, many of the treatments in the Enhanced Transit Toolbox have been applied to our Portland Streetcar lines. During this planning process, we are studying the following candidate bus lines and segments of bus lines:

1. Line 4N (Central Segment only) – from Rose Quarter to N Killingsworth
2. Line 6 – MLK Jr Blvd/Jantzen Beach
3. Line 9 – SE Powell Blvd
4. Line 12 – NE Sandy Blvd
5. Line 14 – SE Hawthorne/Foster Rd
6. Line 15 NW 23rd (west segment only) – W Burnside and NW 23^rd up to Vaughn
7. Line 20 – E Burnside/SE Stark St
8. Line 54/56 (B-H Hwy Segment only) – Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy, both lines combined
9. Line 72 – Killingsworth/82^nd Ave
10. Line 73 – 122^nd Ave
11. Line 75 – Cesar Chavez/Lombard
    
    

Initial approach for identifying where it is most important to focus:

Our approach to identifying where it is most important to make Enhanced Transit improvements is grounded in understanding transit operations and guided by policy and ridership demand. TriMet has a wealth of operational data to analyze. The Portland Comprehensive Plan and Transportation System Plan provides policy guidance. Both help shape our proposed criteria for evaluating candidates for Enhanced Transit.

Initial Six Criteria/Indicators for evaluating candidates:

• Transit Reliability/Delay – Where buses are delayed by traffic congestion and it takes longer to travel during the most congested periods of the day compared to free flow conditions. Calculation: 90^th to 10^th Percentile Bus Operating Speed Variance.
• Transit Speeds – Where buses are slower throughout the day compared to the posted speed. Calculation: Average Bus Operating Speed to Posted Speed Limit.
• Transit Dwell Time – Where buses are stopped at bus stops longer. Calculation: Transit Dwell Time (with the door open) to overall Transit Run Time.
• Current Transit Trips – Where transit ridership greater based on the Average Existing Weekday Transit Trips. Calculation: Entering ridership load + boardings.
• Equity – Where in our community there are concentrations above the citywide average of the following populations:
  • People of Color
  • Low Income Households
  • Limited English Proficiency Households
• Forecasted Future Population and Job Growth between 2010 and 2035 – Where forecasted increase in population and jobs suggests more transit demand in the future, based on the preferred Growth Scenario for the Portland 2035 Comprehensive Plan.

Enhanced Transit Toolbox:

As a part of the of the Enhanced Transit Plan, our consultant team developed an Enhanced Transit Toolbox. This Toolbox is a collection of potential capital and operational treatments that can be applied to improve transit performance or create safer, more predictable interactions with other travel modes. Learn more about the tools in the Capital/Operational Toolbox Memo. 

Taking a Closer Look at Enhanced Transit Segments with the ETC Toolbox:

Over the summer and fall of 2017, our consultant team took a closer look at three corridor segments to learn from applying the ETC toolbox and start identifying potential improvements. PBOT selected three corridor segments that scored well in the initial technical evaluation and reflect different street conditions and contexts. This typological approach was taken to help learn how tools may be applied in corridors with different conditions and help inform how the tools may be applied on other similar streets. Selecting these candidates for a closer look does not necessarily imply that they will be the top priority project for implementing first. Though it may inform the development of future projects and what is feasible in these corridors.

Based on this approach and input from the community, PBOT selected the following three corridors to study more closely during the ETC planning process:

• Line 72 – Killingsworth/82nd Ave, with a focus on 82nd Ave
• Line 12 – NE Sandy Blvd
• Line 6 – MLK Jr Blvd/Jantzen Beach 

The findings from this closer look are contained in Memo #6 and appendices.

Learn more about the planning process and the initial evaluation that informed focusing initially on these three segments here.

In addition, we see opportunity to focus on portions of the following candidates through other planning efforts in the near future to develop recommendations for transit and the multi-modal safety and access needs in the corridors:

• Line 73 through the 122nd Ave Safety, Access and Transit Improvement Project planning process
• Line 20 through an Outer SE Stark Safety and Access planning process
• Key bottlenecks on multiple lines in the Central City, through the Central City in Motion project