tl;dr
Pro-tip: If you're going to the Blazers game last Sunday and the Max arrives prior to your purchase of a ticket, just wait for the next train and buy a ticket. Captain Dumbass now has a $95+ ticket for failure to purchase a ticket or something.

Haha! Great editorial!

4

smug
sməg/
adjective
adjective: smug; comparative adjective: smugger; superlative adjective: smuggest

having or showing an excessive pride in oneself or one's achievements.
"he was feeling smug after his win"
synonyms: self-satisfied, self-congratulatory, complacent, superior, pleased with oneself, conceited More
(HOW CAN YOU DISAGREE WITH THE AUTHOR?)

So you hate the managers, the drivers, *and* the riders? But, guess what: you hate walking more.

I got that very same email. A bit of clarification: The email was in regards to TriMet having sold over 1 million tickets through their handy TriMet Tickets app in 7 months. That's actually a very significant milestone.

If you hate TriMet so much get a bicycle or moped. that way you can "stick it too 'em" by not using their services. But then you would probably lose that all-important impotent rage high you appear to be enjoying right now.

The real problem that exists, that I believe this IA touches on, is that Public Transportation here is getting pretty damned expensive.
We can continue to ignore it, and keep the outragous benefits, etc, that Tri-Met offers its' employees -- or we can try to make Public Transportation affordable by all, especially those lower income earners.

"and keep the outragous benefits,"
~~>Decent health care has become 'outrageous' in this country.
Boy are we in trouble as a society

Have you seen the shit TriMet drivers put up with?! Fuckers get shot and stabbed more than the cops do in this town. If anything they don't pay them enough.

I fucking hate Trimess. I will take any form of transportation over that hideous steel carton of human misery.

I happen to own a car but I have had my fare (get it) share of excruciating rides on buses or the Max. I can easily beat trimet any where in this city by bicycle and sometimes even by foot at peak hours on busy routes.

Al M .. Do you work for Tri-Met?

Why should those bennies, paid for by the public, far outweigh the average health care plans of Joe Blow out there.
Hey, I wish we had a single-payer plan like the Canadians, but these outlandish bennies cost a great deal.
For example, how long do you have to work for Tri-Met before you have Health Coverage for Life?

""Why should those bennies, paid for by the public, far outweigh the average health care plans of Joe Blow out there.
Hey, I wish we had a single-payer plan like the Canadians, but these outlandish bennies cost a great deal.
For example, how long do you have to work for Tri-Met before you have Health Coverage for Life?

~~~>I'm a retired employee now. The 'outlandish' bennies you speak of came in the form of the European style health care plans which was basically single payer because the fees for service were fixed. Yes they were decent, the kind of thing every American deserves. You had to be employed for 10 years to get the health benefit at least and at least 58 years old.
It turns out that this promise was a complete lie Trimet never intended to honor this formula but in order to get WES and the GREEN LINE completed on schedule without controversy Fred Hansen agreed to them. The union was hoodwinked by this whole process, part of that process was the union agreeing to never strike again.
Fred Hansen left Trimet after creating the "guru" myth about himself and handed the mess over to the careerist Mcfarlane.

TRIMET turned out to be slick indeed, they screwed a lot of people out of what they were promised. The most evil thing that Trimet is doing in this regard is not allowing for any grandfathering the current retirees.

Employees were lied to, and their union was suckered.

"""If you hate TriMet so much get a bicycle or moped. that way you can "stick it too 'em" by not using their services. """

~~~~~> That is really a condescending point of view. Trimet is a monopoly you don't get a choice if you want to get from HIllsboro to Gresham and have no car.

Trimet bragging about the things they are doing is the equivalent of the street department bragging when they pave a street.

THAT'S WHAT THEY GET OUR TAX MONEY FOR! DOING THE JOB THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING!

So what they sold a million tickets? Who really cares other than GLOBESHERPA who gets 7% of the gross!

Pay your fare and shut the fuck up.