By Michael Pearsall, P.Eng., CVS, CVM, FICE, FEC
This past month I had an opportunity to visit Portland briefly for a meeting and took some time to check out our 2019 Value Summit venue when I could.
One of the things I was able to check out briefly in Portland was the MAX light rail system. To be up front and honest, I knew absolutely nothing about the MAX system before going to Portland – I stumbled upon it in my frugalness looking for a cheap and easy way to get from the airport to downtown. Like many large cities, the airport is quite a distance from downtown and taking a taxi or renting a car can be quite expensive.
I guess I am showing my age when my first instinct was to look for a shared shuttle service like SuperShuttle as all the millennials would say they look first at Uber or Lyft. I was surprised that SuperShuttle didn’t run in Portland, so that made me start looking at options. Lyft is definitely available and a lot less than the cost of a taxi, but MAX could also provide a similar function at seemingly a fraction of the cost.
I was favourably impressed with the MAX light rail system and enjoyed an economical smooth ride from the airport to a short walk from our hotel. Looking out the window the congestion I saw on the roads made me feel that timing would have been about the same if not better taking the light rail.
Now of course the functions were not entirely equal in my value equation and so the value proposition might be different depending on my physical constraints, luggage and the weather. At the airport end, MAX was very convenient as the train was literally steps from the baggage carousel area, but downtown it dropped me off (according to Google Maps) a half mile from the hotel or roughly seven short city blocks. Luckily the weather was favorable, and I just had a light over the shoulder carry-on bag so public transit and a half mile urban walk suited me fine. However, had the weather been different, had I been lugging a large heavy bag or had I not had the physical ability to walk a half mile I would have valued the trip quite differently. We must always remember to keep all things comparable when looking at value. For my trips, MAX proved to be excellent transportation value for me in both directions.
This did get me wondering about the bigger picture of the MAX transit system and if the Value Methodology was fully applied to the capital construction and operation of the MAX system. Looking on-line I could find a few references to Value Engineering in documents from TriMet who operate the MAX system, but no clear evidence of successful past studies. I’m hoping that one of our readers has more to share with us about TriMet and their use of the Value Methodology or maybe we can convince them to attend our 2019 Value Summit. What can we learn about transportation value in Portland?
Next time, I will turn our attention to more Value in transit projects.
Just another reminder that at the 2019 Value Summit we have the opportunity to have a dedicated track for transportation. However, that will only happen if you step forward with your success stories and papers on transportation related VE. Mark Gabel has been working hard to make this happen. You can find more information about the transportation track here.
Until the next issue, I would like to continue to encourage any transportation professional out there who would like to share their stories to contact me at mike.pearsall@ontario.ca.
I hope to see you all at the 2019 Value Summit!
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