85 Hours On The Bus (Part 1)
Posted: September 5, 2012 Filed under: Epic Transit Journey, Fun, Transit 1 Comment
“Leave the driving to us!”
When I first landed in Tampa on March 5th, I was only planning on staying for a few days. At most, I figured I would be there for a couple of weeks. Though the story gets pretty complicated, let’s just say that due to a series of events beyond my control, I ended up staying for a while. 143 days to be exact.
While I will admit that Tampa grew on me (apart from the humidity), and I enjoyed getting to hang out with Jason (@yobusdriver3507) on the bus all the time, I knew it was time to return to the Pacific Northwest. With the limited resources I had at my disposal, I was left with a choice: Fly, or take a bus.
Care to take a guess at which option I went with?
The Empty Bus (And The Case for More Frequency)
Posted: September 3, 2012 Filed under: Transit Leave a commentOne of the most frequent arguments I hear from detractors of public transportation has always been something to the degree of this:
Every time I see a bus, it’s always empty!
While I’m not saying they’re lying, they’re not exactly correct either. 
As gas prices continue to rise further and further and demand for alternatives climbs alongside it, we see more stories of transit agencies getting bogged down by extraordinary ridership numbers. In Tampa, HART has seen 28-months of consecutive ridership growth, and that’s even with cuts in service. And as many a rider can attest to, it’s getting harder to find a seat on the bus.
The problem though is not with the bus capacity, but the lack of resources to add that desperately needed capacity.
The Destination Sign
Posted: August 31, 2012 Filed under: Transit 2 CommentsPerhaps the most important feature of any public transportation vehicle is the destination sign. Without it, riders would never know which route/line the vehicle coming towards them was operating on. They come in all shapes and sizes, and can be a simple as a letter to as complicated as quantum string theory.
Rollsign on a ex-Ben Franklin Transit GM New Look.
Historically, one of the most popular destination signs was a “roll-sign.” Just like destination signs of the present, these signs had some combination of a route letter/number, where the vehicle was heading, and what streets/areas the vehicle would be encountering along the way. The roll itself was just like it sounds, a long sheet with all the various destination signs the vehicle needed. To switch signs, most vehicles were equipped with a manual lever that the operator had to turn to get to the correct sign, but there were some vehicles that had powered levers that the operator powered on and off with a button installed with all the other vehicle controls. While rollsigns were relatively easy for riders to see, they started to fall out of favor eventually, as they could be costly to print and weren’t always easy to keep maintained.
Walla Walla Valley Traction Company
Posted: August 29, 2012 Filed under: History, Transit 2 Comments(The following was originally written by Blair E. Kooistra for his website “The Virtual Walla Walla Valley Railway.” The site is no longer active, and is only accessible via web crawlers.)
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Walla Walla Valley Traction trolley car 12 on the streets of Walla Walla.
Incorporated on May 17, 1905, the Walla Walla Valley Traction Company was franchised by Walla Walla to operate trolleys in city limits. Despite Walla Walla’s small size, it was blessed with an extensive street railroad system. Within a year, the WWTC had begun expanding southward 14 miles through the apple and cherry orchards along the Walla Walla River toward the twin Oregon towns of Freewater and Milton. Grading on the extension to Oregon began on March 20, 1906. The first rails were laid on September 6 the same year, and within five days, limited operations began. Regular operations to Milton began in April, 1907. The yellow cars made the 45-minute run hourly between 6 a.m. and midnight, meeting at a spring-switch equipped siding just south of the Walla Walla River.
Tribal Transit – Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation
Posted: August 27, 2012 Filed under: Transit Leave a commentIn the northeast corner of Oregon lies the Umatilla Indian Reservation. It’s here where the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation operates a transit system. Originally, the system only served destinations within the actual reservation boundaries with a few routes. Since that time, the system has greatly expanded it’s service range, and now operates with 7 routes covering a span from the Tri-Cities WA to La Grande OR and from Walla Walla WA to Pilot Rock OR.
The system is primarily catered towards members of the tribe, but any member of the general public is able to ride. There are no fares charged for the service either. Most routes run 3 times a day Monday-Friday, with limited Saturday service on a few.
Ever since I first learned about the system several years ago, I’ve noticed that the tribe always does a good job with their published schedules. Maps are another story however. As the system is primarily catered to members of the tribe who live on the reservation, it seems that the planners have an assumption that riders are already familiar with the destinations served. This isn’t always the case though. In the last few years, people living in Pendleton have started using the system more, as the city only has a demand-response system operated by a local cab company.
Transit Tourism – St. Petersburg/Clearwater FL
Posted: July 2, 2012 Filed under: Epic Transit Journey, Fun, Transit, Transit Tourism 4 Comments(This is the first in a semi-regular series I will start posting here at TransitZac. Soon, I will have the long promised posts about my transit adventures from early March ’12.)
On Thursday, June 28th, I had the chance to go west across Tampa Bay to the other side of the metro area, in Pinellas County, to ride the local transit agency, Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) and see how things operate over there. Joining me (or rather, leading the journey) was fellow transit nerd and HART bus driver Jason Eames, aka @yobusdriver3507.
PSTA MCI #2308
Photo Credit: RidePSTA
Starting our journey at Marion Transit Center in downtown Tampa, we boarded PSTA’s Route 100X. This route, along with PSTA’s other express route, 300X, are operated with a fleet of 10 2003 MCI D4500’s. My memory fails me a bit on this detail, but I believe we rode on unit #2307. While enroute to the western terminus, Gateway Mall, I mainly just watched the road and enjoyed the scenery, as this was the first time I’d ever been across the Gandy Bridge. Jason chatted with the driver about bus driver stuff (for lack of a better term) in the meantime. Other than us, there was just one passenger onboard the bus. (While the bus runs in both directions, the peak emphasis is on Tampa during AM and Pinellas County during PM). At Gateway Mall that other passenger disembarked, while we remained onboard, as the bus driver had kindly offered to let us remain on while he deadheaded back to PSTA’s base.
A Ride on Route 41
Posted: June 25, 2012 Filed under: Fun, Transit 7 CommentsWhen I first arrived in Tampa back in March, one of the goals I gave myself was to see just how much of the HART system I could cover. Having been here for almost 4 months now (quite a few weeks more than I’d originally intended), I’ve been able to ride on just about every single route in the local system and a few express routes as well. Having only two local routes left to ride and finding myself with enough free time on my hands (in part thanks to Tropical Storm Debbie), I decided to check another route off my list today: Route 41.
Brandon Open House (November ’12 Service/Fare Changes)
Posted: June 14, 2012 Filed under: Fun, Transit 3 Comments(Note to my readers: The last time I had a new post here, which was way too long ago, I was living in the Tri-Cities WA and talking mostly about Ben Franklin Transit [BFT]. Since then, I’ve moved to the complete opposite end of the country, and now reside in Tampa FL, home to Hillsborough Area Regional Transit [commonly referred to as HART]. I’ve been promising for a while that I would have several new posts ready asap, but that’s still on the back burner right now. In the mean time, I thought I would just go ahead and jump right ahead into talking about transit here in my new locale. I hope you enjoy, and once again I thank you for continuing to read TransitZac.)
Tuesday night, June 12th, I went out to Brandon to attend the first of several open houses HART is hosting before a public hearing and an official decision from the board on the November service and fare changes. As it was my first time attending an official HART meeting, I was a little apprehensive, but nonetheless excited and intrigued. Since I reside in downtown Tampa, just getting to the meeting itself was half the journey. Below is a bit about the different routes I used to get to/from the meeting, and everything that happened at the meeting itself.
Catching Up… (Blog Update)
Posted: May 5, 2012 Filed under: Blog Update 2 CommentsWow… Has it really been more than two months since my last post? Time sure does fly. I apologize for the lack of posts recently. Sometimes life happens and you have to deal with it. Trust me when I say I’ve been dealing with quite the handful of things lately.
Since my last post, my venue of residence (so to speak) has changed a “little” bit. In the next few weeks, I’ll be uploading some posts about my recent transit experiences in other cities, and also about transit in general in the new city that I’m slowly warming up to the fact that I’m living in.
As always, you can catch me on Twitter by following @ziggzagzac. Thank you to everyone who has continued to follow my blog, and be sure that you don’t miss your bus!
A Map of Transit Across Washington State
Posted: February 28, 2012 Filed under: Epic Transit Journey, Fun, Transit 4 CommentsA few years ago, I was planning a trip to visit my hometown of Whitehorse, Yukon. In an effort to see how frugal I could be, I started exploring any and every option I could find to get me from the Tri-Cities to Vancouver BC. Along the way, I learned about the Airporter Shuttle and how to use transit to get from Seattle to Vancouver BC. It was also around this time when I learned about a website called Epic Transit Journeys. Just as it sounds, an Epic Transit Journey is where you see just how far you can get using only public transportation. (Check the “Epic Transit Journey” category on the right panel to see my posts on past trips.)
The one thing that I always felt was missing from the ETJ website is a map. Without a visual aid to refer to, someone unfamiliar with Washington State who looks at a schedule for Astoria to Longview won’t be able to make sense of it. Since there is quite a few schedules covering just about every inch of the state, I figured it would just be easier to have one full map showing all the different routes one could take between cities using transit.
Transit 509 