October 5, 2009
 
 
Hello,
   My house is on west 13th, halfway between Arthur and Garfield, on the
proposed Amazon EMX route. I did some car counting on a particularly sleepy
afternoon, to get a sense of what kind of change having a vehicle every
five minutes would make. Past my house, I counted 19 vehicles in one hour
(five of them residents), so a rate of one and a half in five minutes.
Significantly, I also counted 52 vehicles passing 13th and Garfield, half a
block away, in five minutes. 23 went east on 13th, and 29 went by on
Garfield.
   Thus I conclude that the presumed shattering of the revere in the
neighborhood with the addition of the EMX is quite overblown. The regular 40
foot busses that pass half a block away presently are significantly louder
and polluting than the average car, but the EMX is not. Certainly no-one
whose place isn't directly on the route will be able to register a change,
and even I probably won't either.
   The one bus stop that would be installed is also half a block from an
existing stop, so an argument of increased pedestrian activity is likewise
a bit silly. I counted seven bicycles and seven pedestrians going past my
house, in the one hour, none of them going to the bus stop.
   While my study may not be scientific enough for your purpose, I suggest
that the virtually unanimous horror expressed by my non-bus riding neighbors
is based on images that they would never actually face if the EMX were
installed.
   I believe that the wildlife impact would be similiarly trivial. I have a
lot of wildlife in my yard, including racoons, and I don't observe them
being deterred significantly by my activity around them. Separated by an
eight foot concrete wall, and perhaps some brush, from the bus lanes, I
believe the racoons will be unaffected and the heron will go a hundred feet
down stream, if away at all.
   On a different topic, I noted that the sidewalk on west 11th between
Seneca and Garfield has many many telephone poles set right near the curb,
all of which will have to be moved to make a route there. I am not sure that
that route will prove substantially cheaper to install than the Amazon
route.
   I have also been musing about what sort of person might be coaxed by the
EMX to make use of the bus. The common image in the public discussions I've
been part of has always refered to people leaving a car at home or at a
park and ride, but when I was a regular bus rider 25 years ago, the other
riders as a rule did not give me the impression of being able to afford a
car at all. More important though, I noticed a very striking difference in
ability to field eye contact and cope with being in a fishbowl, compared to
people shopping at Fred Meyer or people hanging out at LCC. Discussions
always focus on price and convenience as the primary limiters on people
being motivated to use a private vehicle. I suspect that abhorance of a
fishbowl may be the major deterrent to bus use.
   That I know of, only two people in my near neighborhood make any
significant use of the bus, out of an estimated hundred people. Neither of
them have cars and both are quite troubled by the fish bowl challenge. I am
fairly certain that if either of them obtained a car they would never ride
the bus again.
   In looking at ridership statistics on the internet, I note that crowded
cities with relatively dangerous bicycle challenges have the best
ridership. Eugene made the list of the top fifty (in percent of commuters
on a transit service) but at the bottom of the list. I attribute the lower
rate to the ease of bicycle travel here, people avoiding the fishbowl by
using a bike. Certainly I and most of my friends would ride the bus some if
there were no bike routes in Eugene at all. I also don't ever recall meeting
a bus rider that I knew had a car they could have used. There probably are
some, in a different class of people than those I generally converse with.
   I think there might be value in LTD fostering overt discussion of the
fishbowl challenge of the bus, not as a grim nuisance but as a spiritual
challenge that creates an opportunity to demonstrate and practice emotional
maturity, both with familiar people and with nonverbal sharing. Perhaps a
flyer available at the downtown station could directly describe details of
nonverbal fishbowl dynamics, suggesting various spiritual or party animal
approaches to mastering it and making it a game to look forward to. Maybe
bus fare could be converted in some people's minds into a tuition or dues
in a club, that would inspire them to forsake their car the same as they
would for an LCC class in meditation or a hike with the Obsidians.
   Myself, I'm still on the bicycle.
 
                    Adrian Wolfe



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