Financial- COPS (Official Statement/Drafts)

Home Browse Search

~ ~ ~ A city/transit staff review was conducted of the downtown area, seeking the best location to --- --- ---~- --- develop an interim tran'sit center ('iriterim 'in fhe sense that the transit district had been called upon by the city to develop a permanent off-street transit facility in downtown). The best location available was H'igh Street between Court and State, and the Cherriot Station proceeded to be developed jointly by the city and the district. It was formally referred to as an interim transit center, to serve for an ~anticipated period of five to eight years. The station was designed to accommodate the 14 routes and 8,000 daily riders that the Cherriot system served at that time. The two bus lanes are 12 feet in width, and the passenger platform is 15 feet wide and approximately 320 feet long. Several shelters are installed on the platform, with a capacity to hold about 100 standees. There is limited seating in the ~helters, and no heating or lighting. Four signs at the station indicate which bus routes queue in the east and west lanes, adjacent to the platfor~. Buses enter the dedicated lanes from both ends of the facility. The west lane is accessible only from State Street, and the east lane from I~'igh Street. Each lane will hold 8 buses, lined up tightly fr~nt-taback A signal preemption system controls the traffic ligtrts at the State and Court Street imersections, enabling buses to exit the station while other traffic is stopped. Facility Limitatioas Cherriot Station has many critical deficiencies today. The primary shortcoming is the inadequacy of space to serve the aumbers of riders that the Cherriots is canying in 1998. Designed to meet the needs of 14 routes and 8,000 riders per day, the Cherriot system is now bringing 18 buses to the station, and up to 15,000 daily riders. During peak periods, we are simply out of room at the present facility. Complaints about congestion on the platform are among the most frequent comments the District receives from our customers. . With substantial overcrowding on the narrow platforn~, one of the District's biggest concerns is the safety of transit riders. Buses are pulling into the facility at a time when the pedestrian population on the platform is at its highest, and those people are moving quickly about to get to their buses. Thirty-five and forty-foot buses, weighing 35,000 pounds, travel down their lanes a matter of one or two feet separated from hunareds of moving pedestrians. Patrons moving along the platform include many senior citizens, young children, and persons with a variety of disabilities and mobility impairments. As many as 60 trips a day are made on the Cherriot system by persons in wheelchairs, many of whom use the station for transferring between routes. Acadents at the station are too &equent, and include: persons standing near the edge of the platform being clipped by side mirrors as buses erner the station; an operator having his legs cnished between two buses at the station; and another operator struck by an auto turning too close to the bus lane on I~'igh Street. The District's concerns about the safety of its riders aad operating sta~ and the hazards that exist at the present facility, cannot be overstated. Traffic volumes on High St. are double what they were when the station opened in 1983. Ridership levels are approaclung double the design capacity. Whatever might i~ecome of thc Courthouse Square project, it can and shauld be stated that, based on safety concerns alone, the District will be seeking to develop an off-street transit center in the earliest possible timeframe. But safety is not the only concern.