At three hours I think you're going to get way too many people able to sneak round trips in.

Ideally, you'd just make it free outside peak hours/areas. It's only because we've decided that the system has to be (partially) funded by fares that this is even an issue.

That said, if transfers are good for three hours, the trips you're encouraging are short ones, like to the store, or downtown or to Hawthorne or Mississippi to buy clothes/knickknacks, or similar one-destination-then-home trips. These are exactly the kinds of trips that cause the worst kind of traffic congestion.

I think this would be a good move to balance out service cuts. It shouldn't cause too much of a revenue reduction, and might even increase ridership.

Great idea. You already see a fair amount of drivers giving people an extra half hour or hour on their transfer slips, it only makes sense to make it official policy.

How about we reduce the cuts by not spending so much $$ on boondoggles like WES and the Milwaukie line?

@ Mike H, I disagree. MORE BOONDOGGLES, PLEASE.

That 3 hour transfer would keep me from driving. Plus it lets you stack shopping visits instead of one in and out.
How can you get to a job in Hillsboro in under 2 hours with the service cut.

If you have two pay both ways into downtown that pays for 2.5 hours of parking so you might as well drive.

Agree.

Why are we still even talking about paper transfers? A smartcard based system may have fewer benefits than it does in other cities (we're lucky enough that almost all public transit in the region is operated pretty seamlessly by one agency), but such a system would still have great benefits.

London doesn't generally have transfers, other than within the Underground, but the Oyster card does something pretty neat: it charges you for each journey (at a discount compared to the price for paying cash), and when you've used enough transit that a day pass would be cheaper, it automatically caps how much you pay at that level. If you run out of credit, it can automatically top up from your bank account. It can handle distance based fares pretty well. We need to move into the 2000s, and have a fare system that makes it easier for people to use transit on an impulse.

@Rosy: Move to Hillsboro. No, wait, what am I saying. I wouldn't even wish that on Spindles. Well, maybe. But I kid Hillsboro. My uncle owns an alpaca ranch out there. Lovely town. Plagued with zombies, but lovely.

@Commenty Colin: Good Blogtown username: boondoggy. I already have a sockpuppet, so someone else is welcome to it.

@SMIRK: Dear Sarah;
Don't use the word "decimated", unless you know what it means.

It means "to reduce by 10%". Look it up.

As a matter of fact, kindly refrain from using ANY words who's meaning you are unclear on. You've got a bad addiction to big words, which you tend to use incorrectly.

We could definitely crowd-source you a dictionary, if needed. Remedial English lessons available by appointment.
.

@rabblevox - The word "decimated" appeared between quotation marks, indicating that Sarah, as a reporter, was directly quoting someone else, in this case the official OPAL website.

She named her source, and provided a link for you to view their word choice yourself.

If you have questions about the meaning of any other punctuation marks, please do not hesitate to refer to an English textbook. In the meantime, please kindly refrain from mouthing off like an ignorant asshole.

Look it up, LOOK IT UP! There's an archaic meaning that I read about somewhere, I'm smart!

Where's the Goddamn Good Morning News?!

TriMet's surely getting some extra revenue from people forced to overpay that extra nickel.

Three cheers for OPAL. Three more for @reymont.

"As a matter of fact, kindly refrain from using ANY words ->who's,<- meaning you are unclear on."

That's an awesome fuck up!

@RabbleVox

Why crowdsource when you've got Webster's Third New International Dictionary?

A few excerpts:
"Decimate: 1. to select by lot and kill every tenth man of. 2.a. to take a tenth from. b. to take a tenth part of. 3. to destroy a considerable part of: decrease greatly. 4. to rearrange (an alphabet or text) into another sequence by taking every nth item until all are taken (as, if n is 3 ABCDEFG becomes ADGCFBE if the counting applies to the complete original sequence but ADGECFB if the letters previously taken out are skipped in counting)."

My guess is OPAL was using the fourth definition. Or maybe the third.