Portland’s MAX is great! Their commitment and dedication to rail travel has led them to creating another rail system (the Transit Mall) which will open in September of this year.

Very expensive, you are right about that. It’s definitely a model system for the Treasure Valley (as we continue to grow). I just hope we start somewhere, buses are okay but we need to make the leap to rail sometime. Portland’s got a great street car set up as well.

To anyone opposed to rail systems…spend a more than a month in Portland with no car. You’ll change your mind!

I think you answered your own question. There is no need for a bus system forget it.

So how many more public jobs can Kempthorn get to improve his retirement pay? And what was the deal about spending $235,000 to remodel a bathroom at his office that he will be gone from on Tuesday? Is that a real story? If so, he is more of an idiot that I thought.Happy to report I never voted for him – well, maybe for mayor….

The best transit systems are a solution to a problem, not one of several alternative solution to a problem. By that I mean, the state, and the city, are spending a bundle expanding the capacity to the freeway and for additional parking garages down town. Every time they do that, they make it harder for busses and trains to compete with automobile transportation, and thus, extend ever further into the future the time when, if ever, alternative modes will succeed..

Come on “leaders”, pick a solution and go for it. But, let’s not try to fund all possible solutions simultaneously. That is just an expensive ticket to failure.

What if:

– our near future looks nothing like our present?
– the experts on energy are right about the dire impacts of the global peaking of oil production?
– we waited too long to build an alternative to the oil powered economy?
– most everyone needs to be involved in food production in the near future?
– we waste valuable time and resources trying to prop up the industrial economy even though it can’t possibly survive?
– our future is one where no one needs to go much of anywhere because farmers don’t commute?
– the freight rail system is what we really need to improve so that we can get food when the ‘high energy consumption’ container trucking business goes into freefall again just like it did a few months ago?
– our leaders positive thinking does not overcome the worlds geological reality?
– we created a local, sustainable food system that could feed our people with good, healthy, local food?
– we continue our fetish with ‘mobility at any cost’ and it destroys any possible future because most people end up starving to death?

These thoughts are what keep America’s geologists up at night. Introduce yourself to a geologist and ask them what they think about ‘Peak Oil’ and our obsession with mobility.

Went to Idaho City to see the sun. Did not need to go too much past Hill Top to do so, but it was such a lovely drive. Not many cars on the road, the sun causing the snow to sparkle.

very nice

New Topic:
If Butch wishes to save money for the state, why not decline the $4500/mo he receives for living in his own home? This is outlandish!!! Laying people off will lower the income taxes paid to the state, while drawing out less (and putting it in your own fat pocket) will save the state money. very simple math, Butch.

Cyclops – you gotta start somewhere. Either we go all in on an effective public transportation scheme for Boise or don’t. I hate to say it so black and white but there’s really only two directions to go. One costs money and should demand spending cuts and one is the cheap route which just adds to our existing problems.

Also, Portland’s rail system isn’t the least bit difficult to navigate. It’s incredibly simple and anybody should be able to figure it out after looking at a map for a second. I’ve been living here for school and it’s become a staple of everyday life. The MAX/Streetcars/Buses (and hopefully the upcoming Transit Mall) are nearly always full.

I like slim jims comment. I’m not advocating Boise to copy Portland’s set up exactly (there are obvious differences between Portland and Boise – population being the big one) but I’d rather not see Boise turn into another LA (it’s headed toward the latter’s direction).

Went snowshoeing this weekend, near ID City…sun felt great! I didn’t want to come back into the abyss of grayness either.

Smitty: “so much for not drunk posting.”

HAHAHAHAHA! Excellent! (I’m giving our Guardian the benefit of the doubt, and will assume he was using one of those altoids-box-size internet devices.)

Regarding public transit, and transportation in general in Boise:

The SLC-area light rail is awesome, too, and by most measures very successful. (The trains seem to run pretty full.) Of course, they have been given the liberty of supporting it with a slight sales tax premium… Idaho citizens can’t be trusted to make such a choice. In both Portland and SLC, I believe it’s safe to say the light rail was preceded by a successful bus system, and people were already accustomed to public transit. That doesn’t seem to be the case here yet, unfortunately.

slim jim seems to imply that Boise isn’t “bike friendly.” I’ll have to differ with that. I’ve been a dedicated transportation cyclist in Boise since 1986, and I believe with rare exceptions, it is indeed a “friendly” climate for bicycle riding. ACHD is doing a good job of putting bike lanes where it is practical, including on all new construction. The laws are bike-friendly (I wish they were more stringently enforced). The citizenry is generally tolerant of bicycles on the roads. (And the exceptions – little blue-haired ladies, testosterone-charged teenage punks, cell-phone idiots and pick-em-up drivin’ rednecks – will be found everywhere, even Eugene.) The climate and geography are extremely bicycle-friendly. (I might not be able to convince too many people of that in January… but 10 months of the year…)

Bikeboy, my Eugene biking experience was long ago and it may not be as good as it was back then…back in the 60’s.
I could ride from Fern Ridge (on the way to the coast) to the center of Eugene with no problem from cars. Perhaps we could liken it to riding down State Street with a baby on my back and a load of laundry on the back of the bike, from Star to downtown Boise.
I used to bike with my two children all around Boise. I would not do that in today’s traffic. But then, one of those little kids just turned 40… traffic has increased quite a bit in the past 25 years.

bikeboy- it took SLC, UTA, and UDOT approximately 9 years before they got the first TRAX line running…a major catalyst of funding the development for the transit line was the Winter Olympics. People railed (pun intended?) against the idea of a train going through their neighborhoods, residents of Sandy and Murray wanted large walls put up, UTA did such…then they realized it wasn’t a visual or noise nuisance, and wanted the walls down!

Now that the line has been in place for 8 years, ridership has been consistently high and very much a favorite of SL valley residents. So much, that there are plans for development throughout the much larger (than Treasure valley) SL valley…including current progress to connect downtown SLC with the airport. The commuter line is up and running, from Ogden to SLC on UP rail lines, and is doing quite well. The transit system doesn’t generate additional cash flow, but the ridership pays for a large portion of the infrastructure that was needed. For such a conservative area, there are some forward thinking politicians and planners in the SL valley. Even though I don’t come from there originally, I feel a certain pride in gaining my education there and being involved with some of the planning (through Envision Utah)and maintained growth that the SL valley will continue to see over the next few decades (Kennecott has alot of land to develop!).

Part of my grad thesis, MS Urban Planning, at the U of Utah was regarding transportation…and the SL model was studied very indepth (as well as other great models from around the world).

Boise is too small, at the moment, for a rail-based system. I’m glad the Guardian finally saw a light with a bus system (AMBUS). BRT is a great solution, with little relative cost in infrastructure and much more flexibility in route changes. Nothing ever works perfectly when it is first started. Changes should be made as the valley grows.

I find it amazing that intelligent, well educated people would still dare to share just the information and facts that support their pre-existing views.
Texn is correct with all the data. Unfortunately, the part he fails to share is that one of the major conditions of hosting the Olympics was a substantial increase, and up grade, to the surface transportation system. (For those of you from Eagle, that means roads)
There is also a failure to share the fact that the traffic in SLC still sucks! Also less than 8% of the population regularly uses the rail system. But that didn’t support Texn’s position so it was ignored. It seems that a “substantial portion of the costs are born by ridership” means that 55% of operating costs are all that is important. Never mind that 45% of the costs are still being paid for by the taxpayer. I suppose that the master’s thesis failed to consider that the Salt Lake Valley is a natural, narrow corridor. Being 12-15 miles wide and 125 miles long naturally lends itself to public transportation. Never mind that our leaders here at home have allowed 360 degree “sprawl” that cemented failure for mass transportation years ago! So, once and for all, let’s cease comparing Boise with Portland or Salt Lake City. The ONLY thing we have in common with them is we all three speak English!!!

Here’s an idea for a complete Treasure Valley public transit system that could instantly free up congestion, reduce pollution, get everyone to their destination quickly, and cost nothing.

Encourage hitchhiking. People buy ‘hitchhiking tokens’ and give one to whoever picks you up. These tokens could then be spent for gasoline or redeemed for cash by those with electric vehicles.

The hitchhiker would carry a dry-erase board that they would write their destination on, then just stand next to the road.

Presto, problem solved without huge infrastructure costs!

Guardian, let me be the first to say that buses suck. I used to ride them every day…not by choice mind you, but because I could not afford an automobile.

Living life on a fifteen minute till the bus gets here so I can sit next to a stinky homeless guy is a tough adjustment. Next try getting laid without a car.

Cyclops said: “I find it amazing that intelligent, well educated people would still dare to share just the information and facts that support their pre-existing views.”
Why do you find that amazing? Isn’t that what a blog is for — I tell you my thoughts, you tell me yours, other people can chime in and offer different opinions and ideas, and, who knows, among all of us, we might even come up with something really good and useful that others of us could agree with. Pretty much like sitting around in a coffee shop or in a friend’s home (except Guardian ain’t buying the coffee or handing us any beers). Sharing ideas, opinions, prejudices, whatever you want to call them, is an important part of democracy. You want only one side, let King George and Rush Limburgercheese resume their rule. Meanwhile, the rest of us can keep on arguing, discussing, learning from one another, and having some fun in the process.