BIKE: Commuter Rails with Trails

[Mike Dahmus]

alan_drake wrote:

>>I don't know where you're getting either one of those statements 
>>from.
>>
>>1. The Ramada Inn is TOD? A _hotel_? You must have a definition of 
>>TOD  quite different than the standard one. There's nowhere useful to
>>    
>>
>go 
>  
>
>>from  there - this is 5 minutes from my old home - I know the area
>>    
>>
>quite 
>  
>
>>well.
>>    
>>
>
>As you said, the only attraction to building a hotel next to the
>Deerfield TriRail station is, well, the TriRail station. 
>That, IMO, makes it TOD.
>  
>
Uh, no, the hotel was built there because the land was available and 
because it's near I-95. This portion of South Florida is basically 
built-out with wall-to-wall suburban sprawl, hemmed in only by the 
Everglades. Even tracts with what would normally be considered poor 
freeway access are getting snapped up, because the supply of buildable 
empty land is basically gone.

I guarantee that, apart from riders there for a transit conference, 
there aren't many Tri-Rail riders originating from this hotel.

> It is an inexpensive and convenient "jumping off " point via TriRail to
>much of South Florida.
>  
>
Yes, as long as you don't mind spending three times as long getting 
where you're going than if you used your rental car.

> The operating limits imposed by sharing a single track with a major
>
>freight line & Amtrak did hurt ridership significantly.  When double
>tracking is finished next year and they speed up, go to 20 minute
>headways, offer later northbound service, etc. ridership will definitely
>improve.  The question is how much.
>
>Given the growing population & congestion in South Florida and higher gas
>prices, the ridership should increase with time as well.  One can spend
>$5 today just on gas in stop & start freeway driving from Ft. Lauderdale
>to Miami.
>
A system that relies on shuttle-bus distribution to drop off passengers 
at their destinations will not achieve great gains in ridership when 
traffic congestion goes up. The same congestion slowing down the car 
will also slow down the shuttle bus - even worse in many cases due to 
the shuttle bus' performance characteristics.

Tri-Rail is not attracting any choice commuters _today_, even with the 
stop-and-go freeway driving. I don't know why you would view this as 
anything other than a huge problem.

- MD