So, exactly why are we rewarding drivers with a full-length auto lane on the transit mall when too many of them don’t properly use the partial one they have now, choosing instead to drive in the bus lane(s) even where there is an auto lane?
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So, exactly why are we rewarding drivers with a full-length auto lane on the transit mall when too many of them don’t properly use the partial one they have now, choosing instead to drive in the bus lane(s) even where there is an auto lane?
You can find long discussions of the transit mall project (and the auto lane in particular) at Portland Transport.
The business community’s short answer to your question would be that the discontinuous existing lane confuses the heck out of people (possibly prompting some of the odd behavior by drivers).
Whether the correct remedy is a continuous lane or the elimination of autos on the mall has been the subject of much debate.
I might buy that if the problem was people in sections of the mall with the auto lane mistakenly driving into the sections without the auto lane. But that isn’t the problem. The problem is people in sections of the mall with the auto lane driving in the bus lane. And then when the bus drivers honk at them and try to wave them into the right place, they turn further into the bus lanes in order to get out of the way by making a right-hand turn across bus traffic.
Those same people, who ignore the auto lane where it exists now, are not going to abide by it when it’s the entire length either.
Let’s be explicit. It’s there because PBA wants it, and because they’d pull their money for the Mall without it.