TR Circular E-C058_9th LRT Conference_2003.pdf - Florida ...

Cooper and Furmaniak 345
120,000
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0
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Weekday Saturday Sunday Weekday Trendline Saturday Trendline Sunday Trendline
FIGURE 3 Portland Streetcar monthly ridership.
Operating Environment
The streetcar line operates in mixed traffic for the majority of its alignment. This suggests risks
to traffic flow, and the potential for vehicle and pedestrian accidents.
An initial concern was that the streetcars would delay the flow of automobiles and trucks
along its path as it halted at car stops. This has not materialized to any extent because the traffic
signal progression for Portland’s one-way streets is timed for about 24 kph (15 mph). While a
streetcar making a stop may affect the flow of traffic behind it, drivers have grown aware of the
potential and stay in the parallel running lane. Usually, the impact is only one light cycle at that
one stop, and does not accumulate as the streetcar proceeds down the track because it, too, can
catch the “green wave” for a few blocks. Sometimes it is the other way around; the traffic stopped
at a light at near side stops precludes the streetcar from getting to the stop until the light has
turned green and the traffic has cleared that location. In either case, the delay has not been
significant enough to raise any major complaints from the driving public. Similarly, the
scheduled travel time for the streetcar has not changed substantially from that originally assumed
when the service was planned, with a round trip requiring about 56 min around the 7.7-km (4.8-
mi) loop.
As with any nonexclusive rail system, there is exposure to conflicts with automobiles and
pedestrians. Over the first 2 years of service there were 18 minor accidents, all of which involved
autos turning in front of the streetcars. There have been three major accidents, one which
involved a Jeep Cherokee that ran a red light in the late evening and literally knocked the
streetcar about 8 m (25 ft) off the tracks. No major injuries were sustained by passengers in any