Drivers: don't forget to look both ways before crossing the EmX bus line

Register Guard--

More than half of the 4 mile route between Eugene in Springfield, the EmX bus could be coming from the left or coming from the right at any moment.

There have been - knock on wood - no accidents. But plenty of motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians are forgetting to look both ways before crossing the bus lane, LTD officials say. [that's why trains have crossing gate and bells]

LTD as a precaution, has erected between 30 and 40 temporary signs, mailed reminders to residences, and also took out radio and TV ads reminding drivers to look both ways for the bus.
Additional problems are drivers pulling into the bus lane to use it as a turn lane [probably because it looks like a turn lane, especially on a dark rainy night] or suddenly moving into the bus lane without warning. Other trouble spots include stretches where curbside parking used to exist along E 10th Ave between Perl and high streets.

So how is the EmX bus doing so far?
The EmX "green line" as had an early next record with ridership about 4200. An encouraging jump compared to the 2700 average number of weekday boardings on Route 11 bus, which previously served the same corridor. [of course the fact that ridership is free and it is a new bus to try has nothing to do with it]

On 10 occasions so far, LTD has had to pull a bus temporarily from the EmX line after falling too far behind to keep to the schedule. But in most instances, Vobora said the EmX, with four buses on the route at any given time, has maintained its goal of stopping at each of eight stations every 10 minutes during weekdays and every 20 minutes during evenings and weekends.

at the time of the article, January 23, 2007, the EmX had been running for 10 days and on 10 different occasions, LTD had to "pull a bus temporary from the EmX line after falling too far behind..." while I am not a math major, that looks to me like at least once a day.
More tomorrow…