A TriMet Rider: August 15, 2011

Bus VS. Car

3 hurt after car hits TriMet bus in N Portland

For apparently the first time in the United States, a government agency shuttered mobile-internet and phone service in a bid to quash a demonstration — the same type of speech suppression exercised by Middle Eastern tyrannies to quell dissent.
Thursday’s move by Bay Area Rapid Transit authorities was greeted by an uproar of comparisons to Egypt and Libya. The hacking collective Anonymous responded in typical form over the weekend by defacing the agency’s website, and stealing and releasing the private account information of some 2,000 San Francisco–area transit riders.

San Francisco Subway Shuts Cell Service to Foil Protest; Legal Debate Ignites | Threat Level | Wired.com

They really did open one big can of worms by screwing with peoples' freedoms, huh?

Southeast Portland bike goof; dangerous driving cities; TriMet deer art debate: Commuting roundup

http://blog.oregonlive.com/commuting/2011/08/southeast_portland_bike_goof_d.html

Now hearing that trimet is supposedly in the process of repainting the old buses, does that mean trimet is repainting the few max cars left that are in the old scheme, too?

Trimet's excuse of why there is no ac on old buses?

It never gets hot in Portland.
You dont need ac! You've got a mini fan that doesn't work!
And you've got an air vent that doesn't do anything!
So now why woould the operator and passengers need ac?

These old buses look so nice with the new paint

Turning old buses new.

Heard from a 51 driver that trimet is supposedly repainting all the old buses into the new scheme. Bus 1624 is proof.
How did I find this out? A 1600 (1624 to be exact) is on the 51 route today (8.15.11) bearing the new paint scheme and this bus used to have the old colors (I know my 1600s).
But frankly, i'd rather these old buses get air conditioning than new paint.

BART VIOLATES THE FIRST AMENDMENT

In 1967, the California Supreme Court ruled that a city couldn't prohibit nondisruptive political activity inside a railroad station.

The treasury department has issued a new dollar bill to reflect the state of the economy.

http://rantingsofatrimetbusdriver.blogspot.com/2011/08/treasury-department-has-issued-new.html

James Howard Kunstler

One thing I'd really like to know about the Republican party, though: if they're so all-fired up about fiscal rectitude and the honest disposition of money, and stuff like that, then how come not a single one of these dissembling ninnies has suggested the investigation and prosecution of the entire Wall Street matrix of swindling grifters - including the officials who rotate between the too-big-to-fail banks and the regulatory agencies like the SEC and the CFTC and all the other utterly failed official watchdogs who stood by whistling Dixie while the future of this country was blatantly sold down the river?
Clusterfuck Nation: High Corn