Meetings Steering Committee(Folders 1-2)

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The District accepts the notion that the downtown area is slowly growing northward, and that this site may become slightly more central in the future. There remains, however, a significant anchor of major employment and attractors on the south end of the downtown area--the civic center, SAIF, a growing Willamette University, new businesses on Trade and Ferry Sts: -that will attract more transit hips in the future. And, it seems reasonable to assume that the south portion of downtown will continue to redevelop, and attract new employment and commerce in the future. It is estimated that two to three shuttle vehicles would be needed to connect the southerly downtown destinadons with a transit faciliry located at the Marion Parkade. While this is not as costly as other more remote ]ocations, the added operating costs and passenger inconvenience related to the Marion Parkade's distance from the core of downtown is a significant factor in our evaluation of the site's potential. Oddfellows 5ite This site is well located to serve the combined Downtown/Civic Center/Capitol Mall area. Transit riders indicate a very high degree of satisfaction with the central location of the cuirent Cherriot Station. Looking at future growth in its entirety--expansion and new development to the north, Riverfront development directly to the west, intensification of state employment to the east, and the existing anchors of the civic center and SAIF combined with increasing densiry and redevelopment in the south--indicates that the Oddfellows site is and will continue to be a very central location to serve the public's needs. Due to the short distances to the major attractions of the downtown area, one circulator bus should suffice in the future to distribute persons throughout the area. This location presents a significant savings in operational costs. OPERATING CIIARACTERI5TICS The foremost operating concem at a transit site is the ease of bus ingress and egress through the auto and pedestrian traffic in the area. This is related directly to traffic volumes on the adjacent streets, pedestrian activity, intersection signalization, and the turning geometrics into and out of the facility. The site must permit buses to come and go independently of each other. Marion Parkade The streets on which buses would access and depart the faciliry--Liberty and High Streets, north of Mation--are reported by City staff to have compatible h~affic volumes. Tuining radii for buses into and out of the facility are rather tight, but appear to be 2