Financial- COPS (Official Statement/Drafts)

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., ~) ~r~ The system currently carries about 15,000 riders a day at its peak. Summectime ridership drops about 10%, as vacations and good weather take people outdoors and away from Cherriot ---- --~"~ -~ss~s. The majority of transit riders-50'/o to 60%--have the downtown/Capitol Mall-area as - their destination. About 25% of all riders use the downtown transit center to transfer to buses destined for other parts of the Salem/Keizer area. The balance, about 15% to 25%, are not using the bus system to come to, or through, the downtown area. The routes are arranged as they are, in a radial pattern focused o~ downtown, for several reasons. First, the downtown and Capitol Mall area are simply where many people want to go. The single greatest trip pattern in the Salem/Keizer area is to downtown Salem. The reason is perhaps obvious...the volume and diversity of restaurants, theaters, retail choices, and employment opporiunities that are located there. The downtown Saleni business community has made a concerted effort to make the downtown area the focus of commerce and activity withi,i the wban area, and it has succaeded. Tlus concentrated pattern is beginning to change, with the development of smaller outlying shopping areas and industrial parks. Future route and service planning for the Cherriots will recognize the new patterns of development, and will establish routes that connect outlying centers of population and commerce. It is important to note, however, that the predominant travel pattern will continue to be focused on the downtown/Capitol areas, and that the need for a downtown transit facility won't diminish as our development pattern evolves. A second reason for the radial route pattern is a matter of simple geography and infrastructure. Our arterial streets are developed in a radial network, focusing on what has historically been the core of Salem's activity. Man-made and geographic featwes accentuate this radial patterq as the river, the I-5 freeway, the airport, rail lines, and the industrial parks of Salem render it virtually impossible to effect a grid pattern of street development that is evident in other locales. The transit system reflects the physical reali6es of Salem and Keizer, and is tailored to serve the transportation demands that have emerged within the urban network T'HE NEED FOR A FACILITY First, why does there need to be a"facilit~' at all? What if there were sunply a number of bus stops in the downtown area, with buses moving through and dropping off/picking up at identified stops? How about the continued use of the station that currently exists in the courthouse frontage? Oa-Street Facilities A circulating bus stop arrangement has been referred to within the transit industry as a "racetrack" system, where buses circiilate around a several-square-block area until a11~ routes have had a chance to unload and load their passengers. Such a system has been examined for Salem, and has been rejected for a number of reasons. First is the congestion that such a system would cause in a dawntown area that has limited street and sidewalk space. In order to access as many bus stops as possible, most of the buses would have to circulate widely through the downtown area, mixing with traffic on streets that are already becoming congested with automobiles. To drop off or pick up passengers, buses would either have to stop in a lane of 2