Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my 23rd birthday, and apparently City and RTA officials decided they needed to get me something nice. It was very thoughtful, guys, but you didn't need to spend $9 million on little 'ole me.

The Riverside Multi-Modal Transit Centre is "on track", according to an article in the PE today. From the looks of the little infographic, the center will fit in where the current Lifetouch photography building is now. This isn't quite the optimal location for it- rail patrons will still have to walk across the parking lot to reach their train- but it's a substantial improvement to the 6+ block walk between the train and bus terminals that currently exists. Also mentioned in the news story is a building with a waiting area, restrooms, and Greyhound and RTA ticket sales. Yes, Greyhound would also be invited to use the terminal. That means Amtrak trains and buses, Greyhound, Metrolink and RTA all on the same spot. This is a very, very good thing.

Of course, one little thing that does draw my ire in this article is the fact that the biggest threat to the terminal project is- you guessed it- freeway widening. The 91 may be widened to the point that the property in question is not conducive to building a transit centre. With the bias that RCTC has towards Metrolink parking, I doubt they'll give up any of Metrolink's parking spots in favour of a transit centre, so that might kill the project. If a road project kills my transit centre, I will be a very, very unhappy blogger, but I think that goes without saying.

I'm also very glad to see that the PE quoted RTA CEO Larry Rubio on this, because as recently as the last RTA meeting, I was told in no uncertain terms that RTA's official position on the transit centre project was to remain at the Mission Inn Ave. site. Good to see they've changed their minds.

And guys, if you need to dedicate this thing to somebody, consider a tireless advocate for better transportation in Riverside. ;)

P.S.- Apparently, an old high school friend of my mother stumbled upon this blog site and thought it was cool. Hello! I'm glad to know I'm famous.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday to Justin

Happy Birthday to Justin

Happy Birthday to Justin


And many happy trips on public transit.


Thank you for all you do and for acting as watchdog on transit of all types for Riverside/IE/Southern California citizens.


On another note, two posts I put in the last couple of days about the Riding in Riveside blog and the Five Before Midnight Blog on Inland Empire Craigslist's politics classified ads were quickly removed. Don't know why, but some folks around don't seem to like independent information sources that are linked to the source documents, or report first hand what is going on.


I continue to advertise both blogs in flyers I hand out, emails I send out, and my ads on Craigslist.

Good Job. Riverside/the IE/ and Southern California will be better because you were here.

twodogkd