I just hope no one actually thinks this should place any liability on the pedestrian. That would be the vehicular equivalent of the ol' "I'm just going to walk in your general direction and punch the air repeatedly and if I hit you it's your fault."

There's an error in your post Sarah; you wrote "the last TriMet bond measure" when you meant to write "that horrible failure that we do not discuss".

Problem solved and apology accepted!

Good post Smirk, thanks. This sounds fairly irritating and like a waste of money. Unless TriMet is using RoboCop's voice. Or maybe someone will record this and put it on the internet with auto-tune?

I think this is a fantastic idea. Because just having the noise of buses going past your house 19 hours a day clearly isn't annoying enough at the moment, what we really need is a loudspeaker going off every 30 minutes to make sure sleeping is completely impossible.

Not RoboCops voice! They need ED-209! "Pedestrians move aside. You have 20 seconds to comply."

This reminds me of something.

My morning bike commute takes me over the Broadway Bridge. I'll frequently shout out to pedestrians "On your left!" to let them know I'm coming. Most of the time, they move rightwards.

Every so often, though, they simply turn around as if to say "Who could it be that is addressing me in such a public and demonstrative manner?" I am then faced with a pedestrian staring at me head on (instead of moving) and have to subsequently hit the breaks.

I don't fault pedestrians for this- I've done the same thing. I just assume that they're new here and haven't yet learned how to react to "On your left."

We're all going to be that dumbfounded pedestrian pretty soon. Instead of moving, like we're told, we're probably all going to turn and think "Hey, that bus is talking!" It'll definitely cause more WTF moments than anything else.

A RoboCop voice, though, would make it all worthwhile.

There's another reason for this step: every year, a number of people sue Tri-met for the driver suddenly doing something (braking or turning) that makes them fall and hurt themselves, and this can help Tri-Met fight those suits.

"Dead or Alive, you're giving the right-of-way to me."

Hey, I hear that homeless fellow with the golden voice is seeking new employment.

What a load of stupid. This has the potential to be more annoying than when cyclists and joggers shout "on your left."

What a load of stupid. This has the potential to be more annoying than when busboys and waiters shout "corner".

I imagine this is triggered by the bus's turn signal system?
That means it's going to go off EVERYTIME a bus pulls out from a stop.

so, yeah....

This reminds me of the warning lights and bells that go off when a car is exiting a garage downtown, to warn pedestrians. It is actually required by the city on all downtown garages.

There is no warning bell or light that alerts the driver of the car to the pedestrians.

Yet it is the driver who is supposed to yield to pedestrians on the sidewalk! You'd sure have a hard time guessing who has the duty to yield based on who gets announced by a loud bell and a flashing light.