Trimess

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

TriMet runs Union Manor Shuttle but undersells it

Line 19 service alert:
From Monday, June 27, through November, the Union Manor stop at SE 23rd & Tolman (Stop ID 7172) will be served by a shuttle due to construction. The shuttle will operate every 30 minutes on weekdays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and weekends 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The shuttle will stop at eastbound and westbound Line 19 stops at SE Bybee & Bybee Blvd MAX Station and at SE Tolman & 23rd. Trip planning and TransitTracker will not be available for the shuttle stops.
An updated alert has since been put out removing the "Trip planning and".

TriMet is generous in running the shuttle since many able-bodied people could walk the 1/2 mile from the MAX station (or ~1/4th mile from Line 70 on 17th).  But it seems pretty poor decision making to run such an infrequent service without readily providing a schedule.

However, some digging reveals that the shuttle is actually fully programmed like a regular route and trip planning and Transit Tracker both work for it.  While there is no service scheduled at the regular SE 23rd & Tolman stop on the TriMet Stops and Stations page or in the GTFS data, it turns out that the shuttle is actually using a stop around the corner (ID 13866).

Transit Tracker:


Trip planning:


note that by default, it will tell you to just walk:


There's even a full schedule on the TriMet Web site and in the GTFS data. I wonder how bored the operators doing it get, seeing that the shuttle isn't well advertised, many riders don't really need to take it, and the schedule gives a 19 minute break after every 11 minute round trip.