MAKING HISTORY 50 Years of TriMet and Transit in the Portland Region MAKING HISTORY 50 YEARS OF TRIMET AND TRANSIT IN THE PORTLAND REGION CONTENTS Foreword: 50 Years of Transit Creating Livable Communities . 1 Setting the Stage for Doing Things Differently . 2 Portland, Oregon’s Legacy of Transit . 4 Beginnings ............................................................................4 Twentieth Century .....................................................................6 Transit’s Decline. 8 Bucking National Trends in the Dynamic 1970s . 11 New Institutions for a New Vision .......................................................12 TriMet Is Born .........................................................................14 Shifting Gears .........................................................................17 The Freeway Revolt ....................................................................18 Sidebar: The TriMet and City of Portland Partnership .......................................19 TriMet Turbulence .....................................................................22 Setting a Course . 24 Capital Program ......................................................................25 Sidebar: TriMet Early Years and the Mount Hood Freeway ...................................29 The Banfield Project ...................................................................30 Sidebar: The Transportation Managers Advisory Committee ................................34 Sidebar: Return to Sender ..............................................................36 The Oregon Transit Association .........................................................36 Service Development and Innovation ...................................................36 Zigging Instead of Zagging .............................................................40 Sidebar: TriMet Finances: Understandable and Credible ....................................43 The Arrival of MAX .....................................................................46 Meeting the Goals of Inclusivity and Accessibility . 50 First Service and Oversight .............................................................50 Prepared by the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon with encouragement from Congressman Earl Blumenauer Committee on Accessible Transportation is Created ......................................50 Sidebar: The Committee on Accessible Transportation .....................................52 Philip Selinger, Author and Researcher Ride Connection ......................................................................53 Angela Murphy, Editor and Project Manager Melissa Schmidt Morley, Graphic Designer ADA Changes the Greater Landscape ....................................................53 Low-Floor Vehicles ....................................................................54 With special appreciation to reviewers, contributors and TriMet support staff: Shaping the Regional Vision of the 1990s . 56 Steve Morgan A Marriage of Transit with Land Use .....................................................56 JC Vannatta Roberta Altstadt Sidebar: The Portland Region: Making The Land Use/Transportation Connection. .57 Alan Lehto Portland Streetcar Fills a Niche .........................................................59 Bernie Bottomly The Next Level of Regional Transit Planning ..............................................62 Debbie Huntington Thomas Gelsinon Building Out The System: Opportunities and Challenges . 65 Steve Dotterrer Going West ...........................................................................67 Richard Feeney Sidebar: Beer Party with the President ...................................................71 Rick Gustafson Sidebar: The Shark Cage ...............................................................72 Neil McFarlane Sidebar: Ann’s Down ...................................................................74 Over—Or Through—The Hills to Hillsboro ................................................74 Special thanks to TriMet’s Communications Department staff for the numerous releases, announcements and reports from which material was sourced. Sidebar: MAX Construction Requires Creative Community Relations .........................77 The Bi-State South-North Proposal ......................................................80 We acknowledge and thank the contributors from the 45th Anniversary publication: Sandy Vinci, Philip Selinger, Janet Schaeffer, Laura Eddings, Andy Cotugno, Steve Dotterrer, Richard Feeney, Rick Gustafson, Bruce Harder, Tom Markgraf, Sidebar: Fast Work .....................................................................81 Neil McFarlane, Ann Becklund, Bernie Bottomly, Mary Fetsch, Debbie Huntington, JC Vannatta, Steve Morgan, Carl Abbott, Sy Adler and Ethan Seltzer MAX Grows Wings .....................................................................82 The Interstate Line Goes North .........................................................83 © TriMet, Portland, Oregon, 2019. The Total Transit Experience ............................................................85 Making History: 50 Years of TriMet and Transit in the Portland Region is available at trimet.org/makinghistory. Please check the web edition for updates. Sidebar: Making Transit Better, with Open Data, One App at a Time ..........................87 190143 • 4M • 10/19 Sidebar: Being Heard ..................................................................90 iii MAX in Clackamas County and Downtown Portland ......................................92 WES: Suburb to Suburb Rail ............................................................93 FOREWORD: 50 YEARS OF TRANSIT A Second MAX Line Into Clackamas County ..............................................95 Streetcar To Lake Oswego .............................................................97 Diversity in Contracting ...............................................................98 CREATING LIVABLE Working with the Railroads ............................................................98 Sidebar: Constructing MAX While Building Business ........................................99 Reaffirming the Commitment to Safety and Security ....................................100 COMMUNITIES Belt Tightening and Rebuilding: Getting Back to Basics . 101 The Great Recession .................................................................101 U.S. Congressman Earl Blumenauer, 3rd Congressional District of Oregon Labor Strife, Again ...................................................................102 Recovery and Restoration ............................................................103 scenes, like TriMet’s Dick Feeney and Metro’s Andy Cotugno, Sidebar: Making Good Things Happen: An Advocacy Story .................................107 business people like Bill Roberts and Bill Robertson and TriMet Gets a New General Manager ....................................................110 less well-known elected leaders like Don Clark and Shirley Fares Become More Fair ..............................................................110 Huffman. The combination of hundreds of key actors at Sidebar: The Alchemy of Success .......................................................111 the right time created an agency and a vision that was Transit Access .......................................................................113 much greater than the sum of its parts. As a result of these Sidebar: Hollywood Transit Center Tribute ...............................................116 accomplishments, TriMet is one of America’s most admired Division Transit Project ...............................................................117 transit systems. Our region is a recognized national model Southwest Corridor ..................................................................118 for transportation innovation and results. Innovation In Service, Technology And Policy: A Legacy Of Leadership . 121 Early Visionaries .....................................................................121 History also shows that progress is seldom linear. Regional Relationships ...............................................................121 Implementing new ideas requires taking some risks, and Suburban Champions ................................................................122 sometimes those bold moves don’t turn out exactly as Community Activism .................................................................122 planned. One secret ingredient in Portland’s success is Sidebar: Better Transit with Community Engagement .....................................123 a willingness to try new approaches and to adapt when Private Sector Partners ...............................................................124 circumstances change or things don’t turn out as expected. Legislative Support ..................................................................124 Portland has been blessed with citizens who are willing to TriMet Leadership and Talented Staff ..................................................126 embrace innovation and its challenges. Sidebar: A Light Rail System Designed and Built by Women ................................127 Heroes are not giant statues framed against a red sky. Sidebar: Running A Transit System with Generations of Employees .........................129 They are people who say: This is my community, While this history is only partly about Portland’s light rail The Role of Academia ................................................................130 and it is my responsibility