University Club: Doorway to posh. Wednesday night I entered a realm where few have tread: An exclusive cocktail hour with the Director of the Columbia River Crossing (CRC), Richard Brandman. Reader Barry Hawkey is a member of Portland’s posh University Club (he also owns a Ferrari, ladies), saw the lecture on the club’s monthly calendar […]
Transportation
Posted inTransportation
New TriMet Safety Rules: Drivers Must Turn Off Phones, Camera, iPods
TriMet chief Neil McFarlane handed down new safety rules today in response to the tragic crash that killed two young women downtown this spring. The new policies establish a new “Safety and Service Excellence Task Force” made up of two bus and rail operators, bike and pedestrian advocates, a Portland Police representative and several urban […]
Posted inTransportation
Bikes vs. Trucks: Metro Votes on Swapping Bike Funding for Freight
Liz Meyer Metro’s obscure-but-powerful Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation (JPACT) will vote this Thursday morning on how to split a $24 million pot of money between bike/ped projects and freight projects. As I reported last week in “Bikes vs. Trucks”, historically $19.9 million (about 88 percent) of the funds have gone to bike and […]
Posted inFood and Drink
Coffee in a Bus Shelter? Why, Yes!
New from the city that excels in turning every little nook and cranny into a full-featured espresso bar: a disused bus shelter will become a coffee shop! Yes, it’s true! This combination of public transit, creative reuse and fancy caffeine should give the New York Times a big, big boner: djcoregon.com The DJC has the […]
Posted inTransportation
The Official TriMet Bus Route Rankings
Former Columbian reporter Michael Anderson quit his stable newpapering job this year and struck out to found a little Portland newsletter about walking, biking and public transit issues. The first issue of Portland Afoot just launched this week. It’s an interesting media model: $5 gets you a subscription to the print version of the newsletter […]
Posted inTransportation
Car Crashes are the New 9/11
Yeah! What he said: Over 37,000 people died in motor vehicle fatalities in 2008 and that was a low year. Obviously you couldn’t reduce that to zero without totally eliminating motor vehicles, but even ten percent of that number is more people than died on 9/11. And yet the difference between the resources you can […]
Posted inNews
NW Mayors: We Want High-Speed Rail
The American Public Transit Association’s annual convention wrapped up yesterday in Vancouver, BC… leaving those of us who would have loved a badge and week in Canada to see if any of the discussions there gestate into actual newsworthy policy decisions. In a symbolic moment for the future of high-speed rail in the Pacific Northwest, […]
Posted inTransportation
Watch This Very Smart Video about the CRC.
I posted about PDXplore’s interesting, critical design discussion on the Columbia River Crossing (CRC) back in April, but now the group has edited together a video of bigwig international designers discussing the $4 billion project. It’s got no dancing cats or anything, but if you have 20 minutes, it’s seriously worth checking out:
Posted inDrunk
Today in “YEEEEEE-HAW!”
A drunk driver attempts a far too hasty exit from the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, and well… YEEE-HAWWW! Original video and the fiery aftermath here.
Posted inTransportation
My Favorite Former Mercury Columnist!
Portland Streetcar! All week long we’ve been waxing nostalgic about former Mercury columnists. Let us put on our wine- and rose-colored glasses for a look at the beloved and murderous Portland Streetcar. In 2001, this literary mode of transportation traveled from the Old Country to Portland’s blood-soaked streets, looking to sate his unquenchable thirst for […]
Posted inNews
TriMet Augments Your Reality
AUGMENTATION ENGAGED Luckily, this TriMet update doesn’t involve anyone getting hit by a bus. Or any bus lines being cut. This one’s more fun. And geeky. TriMet is partnering with mobile software company junaio to bring you an augmented-reality transit tracker app—another step in their efforts to make transit data app-friendly. The junaio app works […]
Posted inNews
TriMet Approves 5¢ Fare Increase, Cuts
TriMet announced today that its Board of Directors has approved fare increases and service cuts to take effect September 1. These measures are intended to address the agency’s $27 million budget shortfall this year. Jonathan Sperry Fares for Adult, Honored Citizen and LIFT tickets will rise by five cents each, bringing a standard two-zone fare […]