so why isn't a bus ride still $0.40??? that's what you need to do if you want people to use the bus. Right now we're subsidizing motorists to the tune of about the same dollar amount per ride, maybe more; I'm pretty sure our priorities need to change if we're serious about addressing climate change?

We should replace fares with a utility fee. This would be less expensive to collect and would speed up boarding systemwide. The fee wouldn't even have to be very large, around 10 dollars per household per month would completely replace the current farebox revenue.

Public transit should be a public service, paid for with public funds, accessible to all.

Tri-Met has worse problems than fare enforcement. As an advocate for light rail since the 1990's, I know what to look for in transit design. Barbur Blvd is completely unsuitable for a MAX line. Tri-Met, Metro and City Council know this is true but they're ready to spend at least another $40 million just in planning which is only 15% complete. Barbur is already a fine bus route - fast and scenic. Any widening of Barbur will clear cut the forest canopy and then require miles of tall concrete buttress wall where trees once stood. Between Burlingame and Taylor's Ferry, out of state developers don't care which businesses are displaced thanks to Mayor "rubber stamp" Wheeler. The sensible alternate MAX route to Tigard and Tualatin is an extension of the Red Line via the WES corridor from Beaverton.

The new Dark Blue bus color is like the Multnomah County prison bus color, the orange stripes, a chain gang in prisoner attire. Tri-Met director Doug Kelsey wants the public to subconsciously associate bus riders with criminals! The hideous new flashing light on the bus roof completes the police state image. What's the difference between a SUV cop car and a Tri-Met cop car? Nothing. Dark Blue makes buses less visible, a hazard for motorists and a disservice to transit patrons. Demand white bus color with the Red/Orange/Chocolate horizontal stripes. The new electric buses are cheap conversions of old rattletrap buses that will run less than 1/4 full most of the time. Demand Doug Kelsey's resignation!

Tri-Met's proposed route for a MAX subway route is the most disruptive to construct, the most expensive and not near the most productive route possible. Just as Tri-Met is wasting time and effort on a terrible MAX plan for Barbur Blvd, and their cheap conversions of obsolete 40' bus chassis to electric drive, their subway plan is never going to leave the drawing board. Tri-Met director Doug Kelsey's leadership is an intentional waste of time and a payoff to professional planners, contractors and car-related business interests turning Portland into yuppie schmuckville.