Roux Institute Campus Development | Portland

Are they going to do some dredging since there is a designed pier and/or waterfront park? If not, the resulting odors will be off-putting and the views unsightly at low tide. They can select a water taxi company to operate a shuttle boat to the new public city dock next to Ocean Gateway. Maybe just once every hour during the daytime. I think until the dorms and a hotel are built, the back-and-forth will be somewhat confusing and busy. Students from out of state and the country will not have their own cars (most). The garage is only for the staff, really. And isn't this what the neighbors feared most? More traffic? I hate the building idea in stages thing. Just build the key components from the get-go. Most of these students will be living all over Portland, or where they can find a reasonably priced short-term apartment (good luck). That means multiple van or rideshare pickups (not bus). USM helped its commute dilemma, and so Roux and its eventual 5,000 students with no substantial housing would be overrun with transportation vehicles. Sorry, a bus does not work. Why would someone take a bus only to take a rideshare for the final destination? I think Roux dropped the initial housing idea only because of its fiery neighbors. Sometimes you have to just bulldoze through the old provincial minded Mainers to get something done right for future residents.
 
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TC_zoid said:
Sorry, a bus does not work.
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Uh, what? I don't disagree with your premise that Roux needs to build on-site housing, but have you ever ridden a city bus? Metro averages over 5,000 riders every day, and the new Roux campus is within walking distance of three routes – the 9A, 9B, and the 7 – that together offer direct connections to roughly 80 percent of the rental housing in the city (and other cities, too if it gets a new stop on the Breez, which is likely).

Under the same rationale I don't really see any great reason to introduce an expensive new water taxi shuttle between Roux and Ocean Gateway, an area where there's basically no rental housing available. After the new harborside pedestrian bridge gets built, it'll be a 10 minute bike ride between Roux and the Old Port on a mostly flat car-free path, or a 45 minute walk.
 
cneal said:
After the new harborside pedestrian bridge gets built, it'll be a 10 minute bike ride between Roux and the Old Port on a mostly flat car-free path, or a 45 minute walk.
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We could shorten that time even more if... instead of on-site parking... Roux gave all students a new Trek Madone and some lycra :p (would probably be more cost effective in the long run)

My understanding is METRO is considering extending Route 5 to the Campus which could also bring more transit frequency to Washington Ave. or East Bayside depending on the exact final alignment which would be a win-win for both Roux and the transit network as a whole.
 
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I wish they would utilize the track to the Plant that goes to Montreal. Light rail to Auburn or passenger service to Montreal. Just a dream... the tracks are doomed, and people want a trail...uggh
 
cneal said:
Uh, what? I don't disagree with your premise that Roux needs to build on-site housing, but have you ever ridden a city bus? Metro averages over 5,000 riders every day, and the new Roux campus is within walking distance of three routes – the 9A, 9B, and the 7 – that together offer direct connections to roughly 80 percent of the rental housing in the city (and other cities, too if it gets a new stop on the Breez, which is likely).

Under the same rationale I don't really see any great reason to introduce an expensive new water taxi shuttle between Roux and Ocean Gateway, an area where there's basically no rental housing available. After the new harborside pedestrian bridge gets built, it'll be a 10 minute bike ride between Roux and the Old Port on a mostly flat car-free path, or a 45 minute walk.
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And so Metro will pick them up and drop them off within a short or reasonable walking distance of where they live? Hardly. The Metro is not a viable from of transportation for everyone in Portland, or unless they are willing to walk a bit in the cold or rain. Like I said, it's a car rideshare added into the equation too. Portland is not Boston in regards to mass transportation. And most of these students are older, or past undergraduate college. Many are from another country and have their startup businesses already established and need the necessary skills to grow them. They aren't getting on a city bus in Maine in the winter, unless they are from Canada or above the 43rd parallel. And riding a bicycle is even more of a stretch.
 
TC_zoid said:
And so Metro will pick them up and drop them off within a short or reasonable walking distance of where they live? Hardly. The Metro is not a viable from of transportation for everyone in Portland, or unless they are willing to walk a bit in the cold or rain. Like I said, it's a car rideshare added into the equation too. Portland is not Boston in regards to mass transportation. And most of these students are older, or past undergraduate college. Many are from another country and have their startup businesses already established and need the necessary skills to grow them. They aren't getting on a city bus in Maine in the winter, unless they are from Canada or above the 43rd parallel. And riding a bicycle is even more of a stretch.
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A lot of Portland actually does have the population density and land use to support high-frequency bus transit (15 minutes or better) and there's a lot of evidence from other cities and transit systems that if you make transit good and frequent and speedy then ridership will grow basically exponentially. With a few (relatively) easy tweaks, METRO could double or even triple its ridership.

Nobody is expecting transit to work for everyone everywhere and yes cars will probably always be with us, but the last 60+ years of transportation planning have taught us that we shouldn't want or expect everyone to lug two tons of metal with them everywhere they go.
 
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METRO gets 5000 riders/day? In a direct service area of just over 130,000? (I counted Portland, Westbrook, Falmouth, and half each of Gorham, Yarmouth, Freeport and Brunswick since they get limited service). I'm not sure that's bragging numbers.

I would think that one of the leading benefits to moving to Maine from elsewhere is that car travel isn't onerous here, so one isn't effectively forced to travel around with a bunch of strangers on a daily basis.
 
5K is averaged over the entire year – average weekday ridership is higher than that.
Source:
https://gpmetro.org/1625/Performance-Statistics

Note that 2024 ridership is on track to ~almost~ match pre-pandemic ridership, which is pretty impressive compared to other transit agencies. Metro definitely punches above its weight class – it gets about 2/3rds the annual ridership of the Worcester transit agency, even though Worcester has about 3X the population of Portland.
 
cneal said:
5K is averaged over the entire year – average weekday ridership is higher than that.
Source:
https://gpmetro.org/1625/Performance-Statistics

Note that 2024 ridership is on track to ~almost~ match pre-pandemic ridership, which is pretty impressive compared to other transit agencies. Metro definitely punches above its weight class – it gets about 2/3rds the annual ridership of the Worcester transit agency, even though Worcester has about 3X the population of Portland.
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Well, as I like to say, a city's metro area is the true size of a city. Otherwise, El Paso, Texas is bigger than Boston and nearly double that of Miami. I've been to El Paso and it doesn't appear to be anywhere close. And so Worcester is not much bigger than Portland in that regard. Also, Worcester's land area measurement is close to double that of Portland so that more people are counted this way (37 to 21 sq miles). But my main point here is that Roux students are not typical students, and many are already business owners learning new technologies to advance their businesses. I don't see them getting excited to ride a Metro bus with the typical ridership.
 
The contractors hosted a neighborhood meeting on September 10th and presented their timeline for work:


Screenshot 2024-10-07 at 11.36.08 AM.png

Link to presentation recording and slides:

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Given that they're usually buildings of low public interest (other than the arena at Orono), it's far less confusing than the Cross Insurance Center/Arena business.
 
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