“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” -Martin Luther King, Jr

Monday, January 2, 2012

New proposal for Lake Oswego-Portland transit

http://rantingsofatrimetbusdriver.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-proposal-for-lake-oswego-portland.html

Erik Halstead

Free Rides New Years Eve...what's the catch?

Why people think TriMet's fares are convoluted

Line 15 passenger tells of the story of an accident

Funny-Bit-of-Meaningless-Trivia: SO! Its 4:35 pm and my daughter and I are on the 17 bus line, coming home from having our necks and backs adjusted from my great Chiropractor, Dr. Mark Walsh, and picking up my Thyroid medicine from my Naturopathic Dr. Marz, after having lunch together and hanging out. The bus is going South on 21st avenue, in NW. Right there on Marshall, this crazy woman in a whit...e SUV runs a stop sign and the bus swipes the back end of her vehicle. Made quite a loud sound and the driver slams on the breaks. Pulls into the church there, (I think there's a church there) but the bus end is blocking traffic. Technically, THAT makes it a police matter. So, exercising my right to engage my civic duty, I call 911 and tell them of the car/bus collision and that the East/west bound lane of traffic is now blocked. Then after about 15 of the 20 people on the bus leave like rats jumping from a sinking ship, me, my daughter and the other 3 or 4 good souls stay on and fill out the little forms, giving our vital statistics and explaining what we saw. My daughter was all ready to hang the poor woman who got swiped and told me how I should fill out the form but I had not technically seen this woman run the stop sign. I think it was a combination of the bus driver and the car driver, (both women) thinking they had waited long enough and then both accelerating at around the same time, an understandable accident. I explained what I saw and tried to be honest, while Amelia berated me for not hanging the (old woman) in the car, who had collided with the (old woman) driving the bus. But I had to hold on to my ideals and my understanding of accidents AND the law. 

Mobile Metal Churchland: Night Bus Noir

An implied fatigue with the close (or culmination?) of the day contradicted by all the stopping/waiting/starting in even this slackly attended night service; a growing tension seeming more apt to snap. Snuggle into the window for comfort or shield while you watch and hide in this secreter city. You feel like your cover has been blown. Or your voyeurism is especially transparent. You are prone to look to the bottoms and corners of faces and doorways. You wonder what this city is capable of when fewer people are watching. You maybe better understand the riders who talk the drivers’ ear off from seat 1A and never look back.
TriMet Diaries

I wish Blogger did this!

http://maxfaqs.wordpress.com/2011/annual-report/
MAX FAQS got a sparkly year end report from Wordpress

Somebody fakes fireworks at MAX train

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9B_e64PXUkY

Clusterfuck Nation

The Blue Bus is Calling Us

Suspended Civilization

Your New American Dream

The Cookie Crumbles

The Fourth Wall

A Christmas Carol 2011

2012 Forecast: Bang and Whimper

Sandboxes

MAX FAQS

A SHOCKING Day in the Life of a Full Time Metro Driver

http://pstonews.com/2011/11/26/a-shocking-day-in-the-life-of-a-full-time-metro-driver/

Iconic

MaxRedLine

TriMet bus driver saves a life

(Old story, yes, I know, but I wanted to post it anyways because I never got a chance to post it).

TriMet bus driver helps rescue toddler at NE Portland intersection | KPTV

TriMet driver rescues toddler from busy NE Portland street | Koin Local 6

TriMet driver reunites lost toddler & mom | KGW

TriMet bus driver rescues toddler from middle of Northeast Portland street | Oregon Live

Is Free Transit the Key to Portland's Thriving Downtown Economy?

Downtown's economy thrives on rails | Portland Tribune

TriMet makes the Washington Post

For their bad scheduling resulting in a bus operator's death.
(Go check out the comments, some of them are really good)

County may look at health impacts of bus transfers

http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=132554220073685800
Go OPAL!

TriMet News Releases

Just the usual BS...
TriMet launches FY13 public budget discussion

TriMet reports increase in citations and fare revenue since move to fare enforcement (Well of course this 'worked'! Would TriMet ever go out and say something like this did not work and they were wrong?)

What the heck is this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVP2sDgtJHo

How Have We Become the United States of Fear?

After all, in those last years of the Cold War, the Soviet Union, the far weaker of the two superpowers, threw money into its military while its deficits rose and its infrastructure crumbled - and of course it got mired in a terrible war, a "bleeding wound," in Afghanistan. It all sounds eerily familiar, no? Washington's decision, in its moment of Cold War triumph, to follow essentially the same path and the Bush administration's wild belief that it could drive U.S. military power unilaterally into the heart of the Greater Middle East and establish a Pax Americana there (the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were only supposed to be the beginning of the process) had a similar effect. Now, of course, we have soaring deficits, rotting infrastructure and unending war in Afghanistan (and elsewhere). It could give you the chills.
TruthOut

Awesome Bus Pix

http://www.busesonline.com/pictures.cfm#Top

Portland AFoot December 2011 Podcast

Non-Itunes users link--> http://portlandafoot.libsyn.com/webpage/portalnd

Itunes users link--> http://portlandafoot.org/2011/12/our-december-podcast-the-money-episode/