Transportation Aug 16, 2010 at 5:06 pm

Comments

1
yes i am worried about so much $ being put into MAX systems that the venerable bus network begins to collapse... this has happened before... when $ was put into buses and cars at the expense of streetcars and rail transit. chickens have come home to roost, as they say...
2
What the fuck? Why is this even news worthy? A bus stop with only a sign? Listen, I've been taking trimet for most of my life. It is gross, it is uncomfortable and depressing but it will get me to where I need to go for cheap.
If you expect a trashcan or a bench while waiting for a bus maybe your expectations are misplaced.
3
Photoshop contest!
4
better infrastructure would be nice but it isn't what is needed right now. We need money for actually running buses. Service is being cut all over town. I don't care about a shelter unless I am having to wait more than 10 minutes, less new infrastructure, more actual buses driving around picking me up!
5
Q: How to make trimet more WSH friendly?
A: http://30.media.tumblr.com/preview.nriaikv…
6
the bloggiest blogtown bus stop

http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l7a5myFx…
7
Trimet, you're fucked! I'm still walkin'!
8
We need the buses to run first before we work on the extras. There is a quick way to save operating funds by getting rid of biofuels. They increase bus downtime, cost more, and have negative environmental impacts. It is just more of Randi's grandstanding.
9
Bus stop fail! Lol Omg what a headline! i like it when things are labeled "fail" like "fat guy on bike fail". it's like a text version of a laugh track- great for stupid people. I want it to be 2007 Forever!!!
10
"If you expect a trashcan or a bench while waiting for a bus maybe your expectations are misplaced."

Ha ha, yeah! If you are old and have some sort of crazy health problem that, I dunno, prohibits you from driving, FUCK YOU! If you want a bench, MOVE TO FRANCE, AMIRITE?????!!!11!!!
11
Evil Wm,
Oh my God, those photos are so great. I can't believe you snapped a pic of JB on the bus!
12
You guys may not be aware, but the Milwaukie MAX line will cost $1 billion or more, and can probably still be stopped.

Even once it's built, subsidizing MAX lines continues to take money from bus service.
13
@ Rusty, I don't what bus service you are talking that is cheap. Trimet is anything but cheap. My company will pay for 75% of my monthly bus pass, the 25% I pay is still MORE $$ per month than what I use in gas driving to and from work. And as far as getting you where you need to go, yes but it takes two or three buses to get there and waiting 1/2 or more for each bus if you try to get anywhere after 10pm, or travel anywhere beside to and from the downtown area.
I will continue to drive thank you. Cheaper, faster, and I don't have to deal with people who reek of cigarettes, fragrance, body odor, or bad breath. Plus I don't have to deal with crazy people wanting to talk to me all the time.
15
Given that MAX receives far more federal funding than the buses do, it's not entirely fair to say that light rail is taking money away from the buses. The funding comes from very different sources and can't be moved around much, unfortunately.

As for shelters, I'd say that yes, the above is inconvenient, but we're sort of spoiled in Portland. We have a great transit system (we really do) and we are right to expect a lot from it. High expectations can help maintain quality and prevent complacence. Right now, though, money's tight I'd take reliability and service over frills any day.
16
Anyone who thinks Portland has a great transit system has clearly never left North America.
17
Joe, in terms of BUILDING light rail, you are correct. Then the federal spigot comes to a full stop. Money for operations and maintenance for the rest of time comes from you and me. (Same with street cars.)

Even with a lot of federal and state funding, TriMet is still contributing plenty to the new MAX line.
18
While this doesn't solve the problem of poorly-accessible stops, this could help in terms of people's comfort while waiting.
We just hosted an industrial designer at ART DEPARTMENT, Shelton Davis, who was building Adirondack chairs from old pallets. His goal is to provide his hundreds of neighborhood bus stops in Atlanta with an inexpensive, sustainable, and easy way to produce its own seating. All it takes is a pallet (or two), some tools, and his printable, Ikea-style instruction booklet.
Sometimes I think it's just a matter of taking the reins when things aren't being provided. Why complain to deaf ears when the community can band together to inexpensively and efficiently make its own solution.
http://repurposedgoods.com/home.html
Check it out.
19
Blabby - that's true, but running and maintenance costs for a Max line are lower than for a bus line running the same route at the same frequency. By a lot. Plus, ridership goes up (although that's not much help unless they start actually enforcing fares on the Max a bit better).
20
I live about 2 blocks from the bus stop Sarah is writing about and she's absolutely right- get off the new Max line and wha? You'd think that at a location that could almost be considered a southeast's transit hub they would have included improvements to the bus-side of the freakin' thing! I hope they get the money- and I hope some of it makes it to Lents. We'll see. I've actually thought about just building a bench or two myself. There's an old concrete garbage can cover in the lot behind the vacant commercial building right behind the stop- that's another piece of the puzzle! All we need is a shelter- too bad we can't use one of the old ones from the Portland Bus Mall.... can we?!!
21
Thanks Sarah for once again shedding some light on an important regional transit issue. Blabby is right, in that the majority of the money to build light rail comes from the feds, but the money that triggers the federal funding is local (state). And it's that money that could be put to other use, particularly at a time when fares are increasing (for the 11th time in the past ten years for a cumulative increase of 70%), and service is being cut (some lines eliminated, some lines with weekend/nights cut, some lines with longer intervals between trips). As for maintenance, once you internalize all the costs of light rail (i.e. construction, infrastructure, operation, etc.), the benefits - both economic and environmental - become a lot fuzzier.

If you're a bus rider or live in a community that needs improvements to your local stop, come check us out. There is a quick online survey that helps us understand issues bus riders are facing. OPAL is having a Rally for the Bus on September 1st, 4pm at City Hall (the day the fare increase and cuts take effect). Plus, we're having a kick-ass block party fundraiser on SE 49th and Division this Saturday. Hope to see you out there. www.opalpdx.org.

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