- TriMet
- What do these numbers MEAN? You decide.
I know, this headline sounds like your everyday stuffy, soggy, armpit-y commute—and it’s never something you’re very elated about. But this time, it’ll hopefully be different. If you’re really into buses, that is.
TriMet’s offering up a chance for 15 lucky riders to get a VIP tour of its shiny new bus fleet, slated to hit the roads for public use this September. One of the contest’s main draws? “Smell the new bus smell” (followed by “kick the tires”—is that weird?), a smell I’m sure few alive have had the pleasure sniffing. While the winners of this incredible award will only get to putz around a sole prototype of the “3000-series” bus, TriMet promises 55 of them at a bus stop near you by the fall.
About time. The local transit union’s top beef with TriMet is the crumminess of its current ancient bus fleet. According to TriMet, about 150 of their current running buses are over 18 years old. THAT’S REALLY OLD.
Here are a few perks of the new model:
-“Easy-to-clean” vinyl seats
– Bigger windows
– Fancy new GPS
– Lighter interior color scheme
– Automatic drop-down snow chains
– Quieter ignition (and no “blue smoke”)
I’m excited to see how these babies ride. Sign up to get a sneak preview here.
Why the hell does a bus need GPS? They run the same routes every day, if the driver needs a GPS they’re too stupid to be allowed to drive a bus…
@stu: transit tracker
The GPS allows transit tracker to tell you more accurately when your bus will soon arrive.
I want to know what routes these buses are being added to.
Also, vinyl seats make my heart gladden. Ever since one of my friends sat in a cloth seat drenched in pee my heart has feared.
Give those buses about 3 months of unwashed hipsters, bums and SE hippies with B.O that will make your eyes water and that” New bus smell” will go away.
@4 Oregonlive is that way –>
As a part-time driver,I must ask,”Who is going to clean the windows?” They are filthy fleetwide.
Suzette, they aren’t being added to the fleet, but simply replacing old buses on old routes. Womp womp.
I have a bus stop outside my window, and the obscenely loud ignition at 6am is the only reason why I don’t keep my windows open during hot nights. It sounds like they’re massacring a herd of elephants every time they start that thing.
That’s a trimet bus?
Our buses looks way nicer when they have no advertisements sprawling along the side.
The OHSU environmental research and advocacy group recently released its annual study on automotive toxic materials. They tested more than 200 model year 2011 and 2012 cars, SUV’s, light and heavy duty trucks, crossovers, hybrids’, long busses, short busses and found that long-term exposure to the chemicals in “New Car Smell” have been linked to major health problems including allergies, birth defects and cancer.
TriMet General Manager through his spokesperson Mary Fetchit stated recent polls throughout southeast Portland showed residents want it.
Gotta love the Trimet ministry of propaganda, the best propaganda department in the world of transit.