In countries such as India, China, Singapore and Indonesia, traffic is a big problem. Many of the cities are overcrowded and the combination of private and public transportation solutions has not worked to rectify the situation.
But this doesn't mean that those solutions have merit. Many of them make sense in a city such as Portland precisely because of the successes it already enjoys. Portland has the resources to properly implement these solutions that have not worked in places such as Indonesia. Lets review some of them. Just remember this essay is meant to touch the surface of this issue. If you have any further questions, please feel free to let me know.
Intra-city Transport
In Jakarta and its surrounding areas as well as the larger cities, there is a public transportation system called Angkot (short for Angkutan Kota; City Transport). These are small mini buses with specific routes around town. They are buses for all intents and purposes. But they're very small, each can seat maybe 10 people maximum. The ones I have seen are all Suzuki Carry vans.
While I think the Suzuki Carry is a perfect vehicle for this task even in Portland, any SUV or minivans will work. The Suzuki Carry comes with either a 1.0 or 1.3 liter engine with about 60 and 75 horsepower respectively. The point is, a vehicle with space enough to carry 10 or so people powered by a small efficient engine is a perfect vehicle for this task.
In short, I am proposing two things using the smaller vehicles as public transports:
- passenger load management, during light passenger load hours, use smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles
- service fringe areas normally not served, often would be public transportation users cannot use buses because of the distance they would have to walk or ride their bicycle
How would these things work in Portland?
- These small vehicles can reach the fringe neighborhoods, especially with the narrow streets
- During the hours where the buses only have a few passengers, these small vehicles will save fuel
- The smaller vehicles will replace the full size buses during slow hours. When there's a sudden spike in ridership, either more of these things can be deployed quickly or the regular buses can be put back in service
- These things can serve additional routes inexpensively, especially the fringe neighborhoods. These small vehicles can make a circle around mall neighborhoods as its route, picking up passengers at the end of the regular bus lines.
These things are not meant to:
- be on the freeways or highways
- replace the large buses during heavy bus use (morning and early evening)
Advantages:
- efficient mileage per person transported during the hours when regular buses are empty
- able to service more fringe areas so more people will be able to take the bus
- many models of widely available vehicles can be easily used for this duty
Disadvantages:
- it is another vehicle that the public transportation company will have to service and manage
- passengers might feel crowded because the vehicles would often be already full
- passengers might have to wait for additional vehicle deployment when there's an unexpected heavy ridership
Here are some pictures from the web:
http://jakartadailyfotolagi.blogspot.com/2006/03/angkot.html
http://jakartadailyphoto.com/index.php/2006/03/28/angkot/
And here are some pictures I took:
The first picture shows the angkot only lane (on the left of the concrete barrier)
The second picture shows the side door where you would come in
The third picture shows how angkots serve small neighborhoods where buses can't go into
Inter City Transport
Craigslist already does this function, if a little hectic. There are companies in Indonesia who you would call to travel between cities. The mode of transport are regular vans/SUVs.
With Craigslist, you would search for people already traveling to the city you want to travel to on the date acceptable to you. On the opposite side, you would post the time and date and destination of your departure. If you're lucky enough, you will find each other.
In Indonesia, these companies supply the vehicles to travel between cities and they will get the people together who are going in the same direction at the same time. The companies will dictate the time of the day they are leaving and they will pick you up at your residence.
There is no reason an enterprising web programmer cannot parse the existing information from Craigslist and put them all in a single website. People will then be alerted when what they're looking for is available. This business can then expand slowly to include a few vehicles of their own, serving common routes.
This is something that is lacking in the Northwest. Many people are already living a life without a car, but many others kept a car strictly for long distance trips. If this mode of transport is more prevalent, these people will have even less of a reason to own a car. In addition, people who own gas guzzlers for their own needs can use this service if they don't really need to drive their gas guzzler once they've arrived at their destination. They can rent a more fuel efficient car at the destination city.
Carpool restrictions
Another thing I saw was carpool restrictions during heavy traffic times. Many major roads are restricted to 3 or more people during these hours. This will work very well in many neighborhoods in Portland. There are more than enough side streets to be used by single riders, leaving more room for the carpoolers on the major roads. I am thinking of Lombard, Powell, Barbur, Broadway and many other major thoroughfares.
Actually, to be fair, this idea is really about separating different users and focusing on the most efficient ones. I would like to propose separating the bicycles from the major thoroughfares WHEN CONVENIENT. I don't think the bicycles should be punished and relegated to crappy side roads. But when the side roads are just as good as the main roads, why not let them use that road almost exclusively?
For example, Milwaukie Ave in Sellwood. There are plenty of safer side roads paralleling it, yet the bicycles, motorcycles and cars are stuffed together during rush hour. When I was riding my bicycle, and my scooter at other times, I chose 17th ave instead. There are hardly anyone on that road, and if it's busy I take 16th, or 15th or 13th. Why endanger myself on the bicycle or scooter AND slow myself down at the same time?
So for bicycles, I propose when there are alternative roads, make that road mostly for bicycles (wide, 2-bike width bicycle lanes on either side, make it a little uncomfortable for cars to be driving on this street. This way the bicyclists are safer, the carpoolers have a nice road with less people on it, and those who still choose to drive alone will be the one inconvenienced, but still free to do so.
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I will add more as I have time. But these are the ones I can think of for now.