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Public Transit

AIR DATE: Tuesday, November 30th 2010
POSTED BY: JULIE SABATIER
Download the mp3 for this show.

The TriMet bond measure, which would have paid for new bus shelters, LIFT vehicles and 150 new buses, was narrowly defeated in this month's election. As a result, the agency says they will not be able to add shelters or make other bus stop improvements and, while they will still purchase some new buses, they won't be able to get as many as they'd like. Funding for the new MAX line that will move riders between Portland State University and North Clackamas County was not affected by the levy defeat. It is still slated to open in 2015, despite a reduction in funding from the federal government.

Developing a new light rail project while cutting bus services earlier this year (before the November election) did not go over well with some, even though funding often comes partially from dedicated federal dollars that must be applied to a specific mode of transportation (which includes buses). Some say that bus service should be TriMet's prime concern because it serves people who are dependent on public transit, rather than those who choose to ride rather than drive. Given the many contributing factors, there are no simple arguments for either buses or rail service at the expense of the other. In Eugene, rapid transit means buses, not light rail and the debate over whether or not this is the best option is just as heated.

Do you use public transportation? Why or why not? How could trains or busses serve you better?

GUESTS:

Tagged as: environment · metro · politics · transportation · trimet

Photo credit: Bruce Fingerhood / Creative Commons

I've got a suggestion for TriMet. How about if they take the money they were going to waste on their next rail-based boondoggle and use it for buses instead? Buses (and perhaps busways like what they've built in Curitiba, Brazil) are a lot more cost-effective than anything on rails. I would bet that disappointment with the cost/benefit ratio of WES (high cost, low ridership) was a significant factor in the defeat of the TriMet bond measure.

MichaelTrigoboff —

"Real" Trains could be usefull if I could drive my car onto one in say Bend and drive it off in PDX or Seattle that would be great!  Doing that would allow me to pick up the supplies and parts I need and take the train back to Bend!

Desolation —

I do not have a car and use TriMet a lot to get around. The deterioration of service has created problems for me over and over. It's not safe for a woman to stand on a street corner in the rain at 10 PM for 40 minutes waiting for a bus that used to be a "frequent service" line. TriMet spends too much money on gadgets and not enough on basic service. Several years ago, it installed bus-schedule holders at great expense--and now they no longer have the bus schedules posted in them!  When I asked why, I was told that posting bus schedules was not "cost effective." I suggested that they could sell ads on the schedules if they needed to make them profitable. I received no reply to my suggestion.  But then the agency insituted a text-message version of Transit Tracker--whch is of no use to those of use who do not have text-messaging service. In addition, the Transit Tracker information is not always relaible and the phone version has serious flaws... such as poor enunciation of the words and lengthy automated instructions that defy logic. For example if you are waiting at a stop that has no ID number, you have to go through several steps to get bus arrival information. The first piece of information then given is the stop ID number. What is one supposed to do with that while holding a phone, an umbrella, packages, etc.? I honestly wonder if TriMet employees actually ride buses.

DowntownResident —

Lane Transit down here in Eugene/Springfield recently attempted to roll out a new service called "Route Shout," which was a text-message based service to provide the scheduled time of arrival for the next two or three busses at a given stop. I tried it a few times before I down-graded my cell-phone service and got replies of "Service not Available" or "Information not Available," both of which were pretty useless. Now that my partner and I have switched from an expensive contract to very economical Tracfones, we no longer have text message service, making the Route Shout service useless to us.

Penny From Eugene —

If this program is intended as a discussion of Tri-Met's on-going financial and service woes, wouldn't it be useful to have someone on the panel who is a critic of the agency?  This panel appears to be nothing but mass transit cheerleaders, who are unlikely to be able to provide your listeners with a balanced viewpoint.  I would suggest amending this group by adding a John Charles or Steve Schopp or Mel Zucker to give at least the appearance of fairness and a balanced discussion that might benefit your listeners.

MattEvans —

Matt, thank you for your suggestion. It is a bit late for me to book one of those guests, but I would certainly welcome their viewpoint — or any other critics — if they call in.

Sarah Jane Rothenfluch —

I would be happy to call in, Sarah.  I used to be an advocate of Tri-Met, until I saw how shabbily they treated a friend of mine that they ran over and almost killed.

However, I'm guessing you're not interested in my input.

CSTaylorJr —

Mr. Hansen, please discuss the failures of WES.  If $167 million had been spent on improving bus service on the entire West side of Portland what level of improved service would the entire West side of Portland have experienced.  Instead Trimet is operating a very expensive train that serves a minor portion of the commuting population.

Mrs. Collette, why does the Oregon Zoo rent parking spaces a mile away from the zoo for its employees?  Why are these employees then shuttled in a van to the zoo?  The Oregon Zoo sits on top of a major Trimet station.  Shouldn't all zoo employees be required to use mass transit?  Is Trimet capable of serving the commuting needs of most zoo employees?

cfbednarek —

I just moved back to Portland after living in London, England for the past five years where I used the trains, tubes and buses everyday to commute to and from work. It is so nice to be back in Portland with Trimets' friendly drivers and relatively clean buses. I like the system for calling to see when the next bus is due.

I do think that Trimet needs to improve their monthly pass system. In London riders can buy passes from any date to any date. I think Trimets' current system is NOT user friendly, where you must buy a monthly pass on the first and it expires on the last day of the month! It needs to be flexible to accommodate a wide variety of riders individual needs.

ravenlloyd —

Here in Eugene, LTD begins selling the ssubsequent month's passes on the 20th, which is helpful for families whose paydays fall on or near the 20th. They can get their buspasses on payday and be ready for the coming month. Does TriMet not do that?

Penny From Eugene —

The questions asked - "Do you use public transportation? Why or why not? How could trains or busses serve you better?" - miss the mark in terms of the benefits transit has those who don't ride. I only occasional ride TriMet, but I benefit everyday in my car or on my bike because transit reduces traffic and air pollution, and keeps taxes lower because people who might otherwise need social services can get to a job afffordably.

cjrall —

I moved here from Boston and voted for the ballot measure but I'm not happy with the speed and efficiency of the system. The streetcars are slow and the wait is too long between cars. In addition I don't think it's fair to cut service to save money when the health care plans offered the employees are the "cadillac" plans. I can't afford those plans for myself or my employees ( I own a small business) but our tax money is going to fund high end plans for public employees where the services we're paying for are getting cut. Also I think it's unproductive to cut services when you're trying to build ridership, we should be adding services and and cutting in other areas to make the service more efficient. I would ride it more if I could get around easier and quicker.

pdxtobias —

Briefly, why doesn't the city allow motorcycles to park for free or for lower cost (a car spot can take up to 6 motorycles). This would help the public to get around more freely. Paris allows motorcycles to park on the curb for free...I doubt anyone would argue that Portland is better than Paris...

Francois —

I live at 4400 NE Broadway St, PDX.

Why have you taken away the trash cans and the schedules?  We are a building of over 200 people across the street from the Adult and Family Services offices where people who are poor and sick go to apply for State services?

Why don't you have kneeling busses on the 77 rt?

I have been a supporter for years, and a complainer.  Now, you stand and deliver!

Respectfully,

Neil H. Goodman

nhgoodman —

I'd like to discuss ways to improve bus stops; our Garden Home community just built a bus shelter with volunteer dollars and labor. TriMet allowed but did not contribute. We now have an improved bus stop.

terrymoore —

I guess I just use a different Tri-Met. I am a zip car member that has not owned a car for 12 years and I get around mostly using bike and transit, only using a car or truck a couple of times a month.

I find the Tri-Met drivers generally friendly and helpful and the "transit tracker" and "trip panner" functions amazingly useful. But then I have used transit in several other cities and have experience in just how bad/difficult/unhelpful it can be.

katied —

I gave up my car over five years ago for public transportation and have used public transit options while living in Boston, NYC, Austin, Chicago, and now in PDX. They all have their benefits and drawbacks.

PDX has good bus service and while I take light rail for most of my traveling, PDX is not dense enough to make more effective use of it especially out of the city proper. Trains often run close to schedule (but not on, like in other cities, i.e. Tokyo) but are far and few inbetween out of rush schedule; 15 minutes between trains is unnaceptable. There should be digital displays at every light rail stop displaying the time and next arrival time (such as at Sunset and the Zoo stops). I would really like to see the busines plan and argument for the WES line. Whilst it may connect an un-connected segment of the region, it would seem that the audience is just not there to use this service. It may have been a decade or so ahead of its time.

The cost of a montly pass ($88) is feasible and consistant with other serivces throught the country. Compare this with owning a private vehicle and all the headaches that come with it (car payment, insurance, petrol, maintenance, etc.). Anyone who is having an issue with the cost most likely has underlying financial problems or hasn't been to other cities and used other transportation systems.

Shelters would be nice (especially semi-enclosed/heated ones like in Scandanavia) but the reality is PDX is a warm climate area - Having to wait out in the rain (use an umbrella!) for 10 minutes in 40 degree (F) is no problem. Dressing adequately will negate any complaints of "cold" weather (layer, scarves, gloves, hats, umbrella, thick winter jacket, not these thin plastic "outdoor" jackets that do not insulate).

I agree the safety issue is present at times. My fiancee who uses transit too often needs to be in early or leave later than a typical 8-5 job. If she knows ahead of time she'll be going in before 7am or getting out after 7pm, she'll drive. She doesn't feel safe at many of these stops due to the unruly homeless, druggies, and rude men that like to harrass people (some of this is a cultural aspect of PDX and does not occur in other cities in this country to the extent it does here).

Rail and bus need to work in a harmonous manor. You cannot service a large geographical area effectively with only type of service.

The systems is better in PDX than many other cities similiar in population and density but there is much room for improvement.

*[PDX = shorthand for portland proper and surrounding area]

Mikael —

Actually, PDX originated as the Airport Code for the airline industry, just as EUG represents Eugene and SEA represents Seattle.

Penny From Eugene —

Correct - As my notation indicated [I] used PDX in this thread to eliminate the nead to type out Portland (and surrounding area).

Mikael —

I live in the burb’s *Tualatin* right on the I-5 corridor.  What I want is to get home in a decent amount of time from downtown after a night of fun. So honestly until we get a MAX system in my neck of the woods, I will almost never use TriMet.And just as a side note according to the TriMet website it would take me 2 hours to get to work using WES. What a joke when I can take a 15 min. drive

I want Bart in the Portland Metro.

kermittgirl pdx —

I use light rail about once a year and buses once every 10 years. Trimet doesn't go where I want to go, when I want to go, for a price I'm happy to  pay. I drive, ride a bike, or walk instead. Trimet is my next to last transportation alternative.

Trimet places too much emphasis on light rail. In the early 1960s there were rails in MLK (Martin Luther King Boulevard). Portland was at the end of trollies as the U.S. entered the gas guzzler phase.

Light rails were removed from MLK when it was "improved". Much of the light rail infrastructure being built now will be removed in 20 years because the public won't use Trimet's ineffective, slow and relatively expensive services. Trimet will be dead when solar and electric cars evolve to usefulness.

Trimet is an annoyance to drivers. Portland never addressed that many of the streets Trimet buses ply are too narrow. Buses get in my way when I drive and I'm sure I annoy bus drivers if I fail to let them back into traffic.

Running beneath all this is my long-term ambivalence of Trimet. I remember as a high school student being passed by drivers of crowded buses day after day. My brass baritone was bad for my reliance on mass transit during rush hour. I scrounged up a beater car and gave up on mass transit at age 16.

I did not vote for the Trimet Bond because Trimet has over-emphasized light rail at the expense of bus service. Businesses thare aren't able to operate with the revenue they earn might have inherent shortcomings that require repair.

trurl9 —

I don't use public transit as much as I would like because of busses not running according to schedule. The transit tracker system only reports what time the bus is scheduled to arrive, not when it WILL arrive. We need either real-time tracking or buses sticking to the schedule. 

I live in Buckman, only two miles any destination in the Pearl or downtown, yet it can take almost an hour to get where I'm going. It's often simply not worth the hassle.

crystalbeasley —

Ironically enough, it seems that Trimet tries to cater to too many riders. The transportation system would be far more efficient for people if the MAX didn't stop every other block through the central business district. Does every bus on every route really have to stop every other block? Express service lines on MAX and bus routes would be so attractive to me and many commuters.

bonzosa —

Also, bus vs rail - I think rail makes more sense for routes that won't change (to the airport, city center to city center, around downtown) and the bus for routes that need to be more flexible. That is more or less what I see in the Portland area.

katied —

It sounds like any meetings or hearings open to the public ought to be in the evenings when the public can attend. Even with the current joblessness problems, most people work in the daytime and cannot take time off to attend hearings.

Tom D Ford —

Trimet clearly serves the morning and afternoon commute into and out of downtown, but fails to do a good job for commuters who don't work downtown.  The few times I have an opportunity to use Trimet are weekends or for the airport.  Unfortunately the service on the weekends is sparse, and as most flights leaving PDX are in the neighborhood of 6am, I cannot get a bus or train early enough to check in and make my early am flights so I still drive and park at the airport.

Equipment is not the problem for my using Trimet, service frequency and lack of early am service to the airport is why I cannot use Trimet more. 

Ed in Portland

ed123 —

Does Carlotta Collette use Trimet on a regular basis?  If not, why not?

cfbednarek —

I'm willing to bet not. Down here in Eugene, our Transit District has ONE board member who uses the bus (since it is easier to negotiate with his wheelchair than trying to get in and out of a car), but I have yet to see ANY of our local elected officials (save for Peter DeFazio) anywhere NEAR a bus station, let alone aboard a bus. (Are you listening, Kitty?)

How about you, Andy Vobora, do you or any of the upper management at LTD ride the bus on a regular basis?

Penny From Eugene —

Penny - Currently four of the seven LTD Board members ride the bus on a regular basis.  The remaining three are occasional riders.  Having a bus rider's perspective is important and this current Board represents riders more strongly than most Board's of the past.

As for me, I rode the bus or my bike for 20 years while commuting from West Eugene.  In nice weather I'd prefer to ride my bike the 15 mile round-trip, but when the rain came I quickly switched to the bus.  For the past seven years I've lived in Junction City and while I do commute by bus at times, my schedule isn't always conducive to catching the last trip back to JC. 

Many LTD staff also utilize EmX for meetings during the day.  The convenience of ten minute service makes it quite attractive to jump on the bus and head to one of the two downtown areas for meetings. 

AndyV —

Regarding the failure of the TriMet bond measure, it seems to me that enough isn't being said about the fact that in a deep recession, after cuts to service and increases in fares, the proposed measure was focused on the narrow aspect of new buses and enhancements, not on service.  That was the disconnect I saw.  And yes, there's all that money going to expanding max on the other hand.

Regarding ridership, I use max regularly and it works great for me. But I wouldn't use it much if my employer didn't pay for it.

Whether it's local money or fed money, greater emphasis should be made to increase bus service.  It seems to me we could have much better bus service if we put a fraction of the max money into expanded bus service.

steve reinemer —

I ride the bus everyday to work, and my only complain is the fellow passengers and the lack of bus driver stepping in when people are making other unconfortable. I realize what a tough job the drivers have, and have to deal with a lot of different problems each day. But as a rider I would appreciate a bus driver being more of a presense in the bus environment.

jessicamarin —

I use Max often and love the service.  I have been impressed with the extra services that i have witnessed such as the advanced ticket sales at Rose Quarter events and added traiond.  My only peeve with the system is the awkward way the tcket machines work.  Unless one knows the system of what to do first, understand if it is a one, two . or three ZONE ride...and add to it that one is under pressure if the train is approaching.  Also what happened to buying tickets in advance, like a block of ten??

muralz1 —

I was the chair of the Aloha Citizen's Participation Organization when Washington County and TriMet decided on and built WES.  Unfortunately, they built the project WITHOUT a citizen involvement committee even though  a citizen involvement advisory committee is required by law.  That disaster could have been avoided if Washington County and TriMet had followed the citizen involvement law.  They didn't.  Ask Neil McFarland to look into that problem and get back to the citizens of Washington County on their failure to follow the law. 

Thank You, Lauren Paulson

laurenjpaulson —

I live in Sellwood/Westmoreland and I'm lucky because I don't have to commute, via transit or otherwise, but I am a firm supporter of public transportation. 

Right now there are 3 huge transportation projects right around my neighborhood:  portland-milwuakie lightrail, sellwood bridge and the Lake Oswego Streetcar.  it concerns me that there appears to be very little if any integration or larger scale planning on these projects together: the projects seem to be in their own worlds. 

To Mayor Adam's credit, by pushing streetcar across the Sellwood Bridge he's forcing some integration.  However, he's doing that without any analysis of whether or not it makes financial sense to put streetcar along Tacoma Street for that 1 or more mile between the Sellwood Bridge and 99E and a future Tacoma Station for the Milwaukie MAX line.  I would argue that we should do this analysis before spending $6M or more putting rails across a new bridge.  Would it make more fiscal sense to have a bus along Tacoma?

Eric Miller —

I live in Southwest Portland on  the Vermont #1 line.  It runs on a commuter schedule. THere is no service at all on Sunday.  Would it be possible to add a bus that took people to the max at the Zoo? It could go up Oleson to Scholls Ferry and then up to the Zoo.  I  think it would be much faster and certainly more convienent than the current bus schedules.  Right now it takes 45 minutes for me to take the bus downtown to work but only 15 minutes by car.  I would like to use public transportation but it needs to be conveienent.

judithnaomi —

We are young parents that recently moved from the "Eastside" to the "Westside" and are proof Westsiders can use public transportation well.  My husband mixes up his commute to downtown Portland with 1) biking over the West Hills, 2) taking the bus and 3) taking the Max from the Zoo. So, thank you, TriMet, for all the good options. The Zoo lot, however, does NOT have any safe bike parking or bike lockers and it's not open for parking at all. Can we make the Zoo a better center for commuters? 

amandac —

I use the MAX line because it is closest to my house and gets me to downtown Portland, my usual stop.  TriMet can't do anything about the types of riders who are noisy or rude, but I wish they could remove the Spanish announcements to cut down on the noise factor. There are plenty of people who speak Spanish and English and can translate for those who MIGHT need help with where the doors will open or what the name of the stop is.  Why do all of the rest of us have to suffer with the endless Spanish announcements?  I've heard TriMet say that they are required by Federal rules to provide the announcements in Spanish because of the large number of Hispanics that ride, but how do other cities in this country avoid doing that?  I will choose my car over MAX as long as those announcements are recorded in languages other than English.

bimmerboomer —

LTD doesn't avoid that...our busses have announcement in both English and Espanol. My gripe with the announcements is that THEY ARE TOO LOUD!

Penny From Eugene —

I dislike the Spanish announcements. My European family that immigrated here learned English since that is this countries primary language and kept their European language for use at home. This is the same anywhere you go in the world, you are expected to learn the local language. If we are adding Spanish to everything, let us please be democratic about it and add many of the other most popular languages such as French, German, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, Arabic, etc. Let us not be selective on only Spanish - This is disciminatory.

Mikael —

It isn't discriminatory. Announcements in Spanish are a matter of equity and a recognition of the number of people in our city who speak Spanish. 

English-speakers aren't the majority on the West Coast, not anymore, and they certainly won't be in the future. Time to learn Spanish! :)

lizsimson —

Perhaps, it should be time to learn English! Regardless of what opinion you may have of the predominant language on the "West Coast", I encounter very few people in my day to day activities who speak anything other than English. I'm familiar with a handful of European and Asian languages (albeit Spanish; no interest in it), the world standard is English. You can be a German traveling to Japan and both the German and the Japanese could communicate in a juvenile form of English. Again, just my opinion if you're going to add Spanish language to things (auditorial, print, etc.) add others. This is standard practice in the EU - Products especially come with instructions et al. in nearly 10 languages.

Mikael —

Penny - Setting the announcement volume is a balancing act.  If you set it too low, then folks don't get the benefit of the announcement.  Too high and folks are irritated.  The staff takes into consideration the HVAC system and full bus loads in attempting to find this right balance.

AndyV —

Penny - Setting the announcement volume is a balancing act.  If you set it too low, then folks don't get the benefit of the announcement.  Too high and folks are irritated. -- AndyV — Tue Nov. 30th 1:20p.m.

Well, count me among the irritated, then, AndyV, because when I ride the bus (which is nearly every day), I am usually riding alone and therefore I am listening to the previous day's edition of Talk of the Nation (or some other podcast) on my iPod, and then the announcement comes on, "VALLEY RIVER STATION. PLEASE GATHER YOUR BELONGINGS, INCLUDING BICYCLES, BEFORE LEAVING. (THEN THE SAME REMINDER IN ESPANOL)." (Caps and bold used to represent the volume of the announcement). The announcement is often loud enough that it drowns out my iPod. I would prefer not to have to adjust my iPod to allow an even louder maximum volume, but the loudness of the announcements almost makes it necessary.

Penny From Eugene —

I live in NE Portland and commute to Hillboro for work.  I've checked on several occasions on how long it would take and the answer is 2 hours and 10 minutes one way.  That would be almost 4.5 hours a day.

I've emailed several times to see if there were plans for a WES type of train running east/west through the heart of the metro area but no plan exists.  I would think an express through the highest traffic area would be a much better plan. 

I can't use Trimet with the current and planned system.

gspdx10 —

Yes, please talk about EUGENE and LTD and the EMX bus/light rail=like system we're trying to build here in Eugene.  It's funded by a grant from the Fed's but we can't afford to run it. 

It's very topical and -confusing.  You bet - we hope you can help us make sense of why it is confusing. 

Thanx for all you do for Oregon. \

eugene DRiX

Drix —

It barely got a mention... Apparently in a discussion like this, Eugene is an afterthought.

Penny From Eugene —

The funding for service is planned in the District's long range financial plan and LTD must demonstrate it can run the service and existing service or the project won't be considered for funding. 

EmX is more efficient to operate because it doesn't get slowed by traffic congestion.  Current traffic congestion is having huge financial impacts on the District's operating budget, while also making the service worse for the customer.  You might check out the LTD website at ltd.org.  The West Eugene EmX page has a lot of information that will make the subject less confusing. 

Be informed and be a part of the dialogue!  The time to join the conversation is now!

AndyV —

@ AndyV:

I, for one, am in favour of EmX, and generally do not do business with the obstructionist "No Build"-ers. Fortunately, most of the places I do do business with along the West 11th Corridor are larger businesses that eschew getting involved in a quasi-political fight like this (mainly Fred Meyer, WalMart, and Staples). But the consequence is that smaller local businesses lose out, and that is a consequence they brought upon themselves.

Penny From Eugene —

@ Penny

Thank you for your support of EmX in West Eugene.  You should let the City Council know of this support via email, letter, or testimony when the time comes.

With regard to announcement volume, please let me know a bus number and I'll have it checked out.  You've probably noticed there is variation by bus, so sometimes it just takes adjusting a particular bus vs the entire fleet.

AndyV —

I live in NE Portland and take 2 buses to get to work (the 22 to the 77). Most of the time it works out ok, but if the 22 is late I get stuck waiting (no shelter on Halsey on any side of 102nd) for 30 minutes in the rain.

I would love to see more shelters in East Portland and better lighting. When I lived in West Portland I always had a shelter. Not to be suspicious, but I suspect that TriMet invests less in EastPo because we are primarily lower income and people of color.

Is there any kind of equity policy with regard to how TriMet spends its money? How much does it spend per neighborhood? More accountability please!

lizsimson —

Liz, this is actually one of OPAL's new campaign priorities for 2011 - addressing the insufficient amenities and infrastructure at and around East Portland bus stops.  Your questions are the right ones to be asking, it is an equity issue that implicates various levels of government: the City, TriMet and Metro. We'd love to meet you (and anyone else concerned with the state of East Portland bus stops) and have you participate in the campaign.  www.opalpdx.org

opalpdx —

I'm Michael Andersen, the local public transit journalist interviewed early in today's program. I thought some of the wonkier comment readers might be interested in this email exchange I had with TriMet's Eric Hesse, an analyst in McFarlane's office.

Eric: I was listening to the OPB show this morning and wanted to follow up with you on one point you made regarding per capita ridership levels in the Seattle and Portland regions.  The data we look at suggests that the Portland region has higher per capita transit ridership than does Seattle, so I’m curious what data you were considering so I could understand the claim.

Michael: Thanks a lot for asking, Eric. I was looking at Census journey-to-work mode share across the metro area. Seattle's at 7.8, PDX at 6.1. At the city level, Seattle's transit mode share is 18.1, Portland's 12.2. As Carlotta pointed out on the show, there are lots of other trips than the work commute, and it seems plausible that Portland would be better at those than Seattle.

*

On the show, I criticized what I see as TriMet's lack of public engagement. But I think Hesse's interest in checking the facts (and correcting my facts, if I turn out to be wrong) is a good sign.

I really appreciated the invitation to your conversation, OPB folks. I'm a longtime fan of TOL.

johnatthebar —

Hesse responds:

Eric: I think some of what you see in the commute numbers is that the Seattle region’s system is geared more towards commute trips (lots of commuter rail and express buses coming in from the outer suburbs), while we try to provide high quality service across the region throughout the day and week to meet the needs of the 80% of non-commute trips made by households on average.

For that reason, we think it’s important to assess ridership across all trip types normalized against the service district’s population (“service district population” is an FTA defined figure based on population within the district boundaries and proximity to transit service).  Both of these data points are available from the FTA’s National Transit Database, which is the data we use for our peer comparisons.

For the 2009 Report Year, TriMet’s per capita ridership is 73 boarding rides per service district resident, while King County Metro’s is 61 and the combined ridership for King County Metro and Sound Transit normalized against the larger regional (Sound Transit) service district population is 50 boarding rides.

johnatthebar —

Here's a post from back in July I posted on BlueOregon about the issues with caregivers and children on MAX and buses.

http://www.blueoregon.com/2010/07/accepting-all-riders/

Since this post, I have met with TriMet twice to discuss this issue. It has been great to see them willing to engage on this issue. I think a core issue of accessibility in the broader sense is that caregivers with children have not been a class of riders built into TriMet's planning. With some other parents, we have been encouraging TriMet to include a caregiver advocate in their planning/safety committees just as they engage with the senior and disabled community and the bicycle advocate groups. In addition, more could be done to make the TriMet policy in regard caregivers riding with children apparent in marketing and other communication tools.

Here are some other ideas we have brought to them:

* Make the bike hanger area on MAX a multi-purpose space and visibly mark it so that caregivers with children could ride with their stroller intact and out of the aisles.

* Establish a "courtesy" seating on buses for caregivers with children who can't yet walk and pregnant women in the seats facing inward near the exit in the back.

* Welcome the newest riders to the transit system in hospital birth packets, outling safety and riding concerns and perhaps throwing in a free ticket to encourage caregivers with children to ride the bus instead of taking the car.

novanewcomer —

I would like to see TriMet show the numbers of riders vs actual ticket sales.  TriMet has adopted the "honor system" for the rail system and my guess is there is a lot of loss of revenue.   They have to hire Fare Inspectors who radomly check fares, missing many.  It is a good thing TriMet has the bus lines because they are really the stable source of income. 

I have taken both rail and bus and so far I have not seen anyone allowed to ride the bus using the "honor system".  You pay or you don't ride.  Why is this lost on the rail system. Is it an "elitistim"? Only the best get to ride the rail so they don't have to pay??

I didn't understand whey the first rail line came in on the honor system,  they knew it was going to be a problem with getting fares paid so why have they just expanded the same losing system? 

Until TriMet gets its act together and makes sure people have to pay before they ever get to the train, they will lose money and have to depend on income from the bus.

roscoemom —

The EmX busses down here in Eugene were free for a while, but they went to a ticket system about a year ago this September. There are ticket machines that accept currency, coin and cards on the platforms at all EmX stations. Transit Security will randomly board the Emx from time to time and check fares of all aboard. All fare instruments are recognized, whether it is a group pass, a UO student/faculty ID, a regular monthly pass or an EmX ticket. Riders transferring to another route can exchange their EmX ticket for a Day Pass upon boarding. Maybe triMet needs to try random fare inspectors so that riders will be more likely to buy tickets or passes rather than risk getting ejected from the bus or train.

Penny From Eugene —

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