People waiting for the bus in Portland get help from informative signs and labels. SW 4th heads north with alternating bus stops grouped as X, Y and Z. See the white sign on the right that points the way towards each one? Then there's the blue and white sign at this stop on the corner of SW 4th Avenue and Main, an X, that lists each bus that stops there. The sign in the plastic-covered rectangle shows a map of SW 4th and the corners where each of the X, Y, and Z stops is located, as well as the A, B, and C stops on SW 3rd Avenue. Finally you've got the lighted sign above the bus windshield which announces the bus route number and either the most prominent street or road on the route or the transit center at the end of the route, words that help the rider make the correct choice before boarding the bus.
SW 4th & Main in Portland going north, Stop ID 12767
Served by
12-Barbur Blvd
12-Sandy Blvd
17-Holgate
17-NW 21st Ave/St Helens Rd
19-Glisan
19-Woodstock
94-Sherwood/Pacific Hwy Express
Amenities
Shelter
Stop is on the near side of the intersection
Bench near stop
Sidewalk near stop
Schedule display
When I first walked up to the stop after disembarking at SW 2nd and Main, from the bus that brought me over the Willamette, commuters waited in large number.
Increments of time passed and people boarded each bus that stopped, leaving fewer on the sidewalk.
About 15 minutes, only a few were left waiting, like me. When the 17 came, I got on happily only to find that, while it was a newer-style bus, the air conditioning did not work and the slender slivers of windows that opened did little to alleviate the aggravating warmth in close quarters. When the driver explained that another 17 was right behind him and it's A/C worked, I got off at the next X stop and changed to that 17, bound for home Trader Joe's and home.
2 comments:
More mass transit in Portland. You know I love it. You ought to submit all your Portland stuff to the ad dept. of Portland's chamber of commerce or whatever.
I like the progression of photos: bus up close, seeing driver, person getting off the bus. Then, each shot as the crowd diminishes.
One has to realize that for each of those many people at this bus stop, multiplied my (X) amounts of bus stops---there is that much fuel NOT being burned by individual cars, that much pollution NOT being expelled into the air. That many cars not crowding the streets.
As to the signage, how to get where and interpreting all that directional stuff, I would be lost for a few months til I figured it out. (Not really any mass transit here, except for in the city).
TriMet makes it easy to navigate--you'd catch on, I'm sure.
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