http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2012/08/30/activists-stage-funeral-for-trimet-bus-lines Comments On: Activists Stage Funeral For TriMet Bus Lines by Sarah Mirk en-us Copyright 2013 Portland Mercury. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Portland Mercury readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Portland Mercury. webmaster@portlandmercury.com (Portland Mercury Webmaster) Sun, 26 May 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Sun, 26 May 2013 02:30:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Of course this is a complete lie but the ignorant public eats it up.
Trimet is a bloated blood sucking agency, over extended, way over their heads, and they expect everybody but the executive class to pay for it;
http://rantingsofatrimetbusdriver.blogspot…
Posted by Al M]]> Fri, 31 Aug 2012 12:40:49 -0700 Portland Mercury
Based on the 2009 salary numbers (Salary/benefits only - does not include future cost of health insurance/pension) for fare inspectors, Trimet spent $654,468.09 on enforcement.

Based on the figures they released in August, they made $327,017 in revenue from tickets.

327,017 - 654.468 = -$327,451

In other words, the entire plan could be revenue negative, unless people are so scared to ride without tickets that they've started buying them.

Using a 2-hour all-zone fare, 53,387 people who would not have bought a pass at 2010 levels of enforcement have to buy a pass now.

Enforcement isn't really the answer here. The problem, as @Colin says, is that Trimet has an unstable funding source (payroll taxes). If Trimet's funding was based on property taxes, they would have a more accurate way to project future revenues. Tying it to property tax also makes more sense to me, because public transit is an essential service that benefits *everyone* in the community--riders and non-riders alike.
Posted by falafelstomper]]> Fri, 31 Aug 2012 10:50:08 -0700 Portland Mercury
I've never been to another major city that makes it so ridiculously easy to avoid paying. Seems like the money they'd recoup from everybody paying a fare would pay for the cost of implementing turnstiles and/or employees at each station.
Posted by jriley]]> Fri, 31 Aug 2012 10:11:46 -0700 Portland Mercury
Trimet's caught in a classic spiral - without help from outside the system (e.g. taxes in some form), they have to keep cutting service and raising prices, driving down ridership and making the revenue problem worse. If they don't get the money from taxes or from riders, they go bankrupt. That's the whole problem, right?
Posted by Commenty Colin]]> Fri, 31 Aug 2012 09:12:28 -0700 Portland Mercury Posted by falafelstomper]]> Fri, 31 Aug 2012 09:00:52 -0700 Portland Mercury
It's bullshit that while dramatically increasing fares, Trimet [apparently] can't at least maintain service! And the WAY they've gone about HOW they now allow some passes to be paid for is kind of fucked up too.

I typically by 7-day passes (when not in school), if i know i'm going to have to be somewhere at least 6 days a week. The way that used to work was i could buy a weekly pass at Fred-Meyers, Safeway, or Whole Foods. So a place had always been really close by - walking distance. And b/c these were scratch-off cards, i could start using them whenever i damn-well needed to (in other words, i could buy a pass on Tues. but i could wait until Fri. for example to use it... b/c i might still be riding on a pass that was good until then).

But the way Trimet does this shit now is, scratch-off cards are no-longer available... only those 'validation' cards. But NOW i can only get them at a ticket booth or Pioneer square. And the cards are valid the very moment i buy them! And since i don't live any fucking where near walking distance of a MAX station or downtown, getting a pass now means having to pay $2.50 to get somewhere, JUST so i can get a (now $24) pass!!! Either that, or run on a pass that's been expired by a day so that i can at least get the FULL VALUE of what i'm about to pay for. Sometimes the driver doesn't notice, sometimes they do.

I cannot see a reason why Trimet can't still let people buy weekly passes at CONVENIENT locations and allow them to be validated when a person actually NEEDS them! What is the "cost-saving" measure in this!?
Posted by DamosA]]> Thu, 30 Aug 2012 20:39:32 -0700 Portland Mercury
How much would shutting down WES? No one uses that.
Posted by Chuck Garabedian]]> Thu, 30 Aug 2012 20:14:37 -0700 Portland Mercury Posted by PDXBIKER]]> Thu, 30 Aug 2012 18:42:34 -0700 Portland Mercury Posted by mikeschr]]> Thu, 30 Aug 2012 18:36:18 -0700 Portland Mercury
Posted by rth]]> Thu, 30 Aug 2012 18:02:29 -0700 Portland Mercury
Because most of their ridership has no alternative and they know it.
Posted by PDXJerk]]> Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:44:41 -0700 Portland Mercury
That's a 23% hike for reduced service, for reduced expediency, and for a more crowded, stressful trip overall. There is absolutely no rationality or decency in this.

If you are healthy and you can afford it, get a bike, and get one now. Get some decent rain gear, get some wool socks, and stick it to trimet all winter long. It will pay for itself by next spring if you shop smart. You will be in much better shape, you'll be less stressed out, and you'll be sending a message to Tri-met that they can't solve all their mis-management problems on the backs of the poor and middle class.

There are alternatives out there. You don't just have to meekly hand over your debit card or $100 bill and shake your head as you bear down on another month of depressing Trimet commuting.


Posted by lyle]]> Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:24:16 -0700 Portland Mercury