Erik H. @ Rantings of People who use Public Transit in Portland Oregon
and here is his comment from the original Oregon Live post. He tells it the way it is!:
Joe...REALLY?
Believe it or not, the ONLY service updates that TriMet bothers to Tweet are MAX service alerts.
Try riding the bus sometime. Please. I've told you where and when to meet me before. You will never - I repeat, NEVER - see TriMet dare post anything on a bus service disruption. In fact I'm the one who has to tweet TriMet with disruptions up and down Barbur Boulevard. When there's a wreck that causes delays - NOTHING. When the traffic signals are out - NOTHING. When there's a disabled bus - NOTHING. When the buses are bunched up - NOTHING.
It's bad enough that you have to have a cell phone with a data plan, while MAX riders at most stops and Streetcar and WES riders have Transit Tracker signs. Even at the WES stops where they bother to include bus info on the Transit Tracker sign, the signs are on the WES platform but nowhere near the bus stops (explain why a bus rider at Beaverton or Tigard TC, in particular, should have to walk a considerable distance to the WES platform to get bus info - why aren't those signs posted AT THE BUS STOPS???)
Spare me your whining about how bad you have it as a MAX rider. Ride the bus sometime, and you'll see how horrible TriMet is. Compared to the bus system, MAX riders have it made - gold-plated trains with red carpets that roll out when the doors open. Bus riders get stuck with 21 year old buses with exhaust leaks (just in the last week, three Operators have had to be removed from their buses by paramedics and hospitalized due to CO2 poisoning), buses without air conditioning in the summer, roof leaks in the winter, and because TriMet refuses to install automatic tire chains - buses have to be chained for no reason (which causes massive maintenance headaches and ruins wheels and the asphalt - not to mention throws the entire bus schedule off.) But I don't see you reporting on that. I don't see you reporting why TriMet refuses to obtain federal grants to replace buses at 12 years of age - the age that Federal Transit Administration guidelines specify when a transit bus should be replaced. I don't see you reporting why TriMet is **removing** schedule information from bus stops.
Things should improve with the recent hiring of a $53,000-a-year web coordinator, Witt said.
And, exactly how much of their time will be spent on BUS issues - remember, buses transport 2/3rds of TriMet's riders. If I don't see any twits about bus service, that salary had better be paid fully from MAX revenues...meaning, bus riders deserve a fare decrease.
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And I would like to point out to Joe that although he mentions 'bus' in the title of his article, the actual article swims with Max this, Max that. NOT bus.
Hey Joe! Buses matter too! You MAX riders have it good! Try riding the bus!
