America’s Sorriest Bus Stop: Broomfield, Colorado vs. Hillsboro, Oregon

Second round action continues in Streetsblog’s hunt for the Sorriest Bus Stop in America. Rochester narrowly beat Buffalo earlier this week to clinch the last spot in the Elite Eight.

Today a very sad bus stop in a Denver suburb takes on a disaster in the Portland burbs. Which one is Final Four material?

Broomfield, Colorado

This comically inept entry on US-287 beat out a Portland bus stop on an elevated road in the first round. Submitter Aaron Schultz says:

This bus stop serving the city and county Broomfield and RTD (Regional Transportation District, both of whom should be shamed) sits on a highway, and could have taken me to school and to work, but there is no sidewalk to the bus stop, no bench, and the bus stop is on a sign forbidding pedestrians.

Furthermore, the bus stop could get more use, as a new spur is intended to alleviate traffic along the highway, and the bus connects to a regional station. However, the nearest pedestrian crossings are nearly a mile in either direction.

The shame belongs to: Colorado DOT, City and County of Broomfield, Denver Regional Transportation District.

Hillsboro, Oregon

Look hard and you’ll see someone standing by the sad little bus stop on the left, which overcame a San Francisco bus stop in round one. Submitter Sameer Moudgil sets the scene:

It has no bench, no shelter, no sidewalk and no crosswalk access within 0.3 miles. It sits sandwiched between the edge of a 50mph 7-lane stroad (including 2 bike lanes) and a heavy railroad track. The cherry on the cake is the Ford car/truck dealership on the other side of the stroad. I wanted to get a better angle from near the bus-stop but I couldn’t muster up the courage to cross this freeway-like behemoth. I wonder how the lady in the Google street view image managed to do it.

One reader added some more context:

[It’s] down the street is Permapost Products, which appears to be a lumber factory, and it serves a cemetery and a small subdivision. It’s a thousand feet away from a much better stop: https://www.google.com/maps/@4…

Going in the westbound direction, the gap is about 2800 feet, so without this stop, the spacing is around 3/4 a mile, which is pretty high. TV Highway is on the Trimet frequent bus network so a lot of riders pass by it. One concern if you eliminate the stop is that cemetery visitors, many of whom are elderly and probably carless, are now walking an extra quarter mile to and from seeing their departed loved ones.

Blame Oregon DOT and Tri-Met for this one.

Here’s a map showing all our contenders with today’s matchup in green.

And here’s the current bracket — voting is also open until midnight in the fierce St. Louis County vs. Kansas City match.