Hey TriMet! Should Max cars be billboards?

Webtrends, the on-line survey outfit, has caused quite a stir in Pedaltown by posting provocative signs on Max trains reading “Should Cyclists Pay a Road Tax?”

Wrong question.

How about: “Should tax-subsidized MAX trains be used as billboards?”?

If you want to play Webtrends' little game, which is to show the effectiveness of asking in-your-face questions, you can go to the Webtrends site and tell them what you think. The questionnaire asks for comments. I can think of a few. . . .

Are we being taken for a $8.24 bus ride?

If you can believe TriMet's figures, it costs the transit agency $8.24 per rider to run the #55 Hamilton bus line, which serves Bridlemile and Hillsdale. TriMet could hire taxis to ferry riders to and from downtown for that. If the riders double up, TriMet might even save money using cabs.

Okey, all those cabs might pollute more, but they would employ more drivers.

Something is fishy about this whole TriMet financial mess. I hope hearings about the proposed service cuts shed some light on the workings of TriMet.

See the Hillsdale News for more about the #55 and other proposed cuts in local service.

Hailng the Hillsdale Hop-Along

Anyone with experience in journalism knows that government bureaucracies are up to mischief when they release stories on Fridays.

TV audiences are smaller on Friday nights, and newspaper readership drops on Saturdays.

So it was that this Friday, TriMet announced that it is considering dropping 12 bus routes and making service generally less frequent.

Too bad, TriMet. In the era of new media, this story isn’t going away.

As I read the headline in The Oregonian, I could almost feel Portland gasp and bloggers turning to their keyboards.

This move by TriMet is wacko.

What happened to the "truth" part of Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth"? TriMet is causing inconvenience and ignoring the truth.

Just as we should be using transit more — and in fact have been — TriMet is forcing us to use it less.

I followed The Oregonian story into the folds of the Metro section to see the impact on Hillsdale.

Most damaging is the proposal to drop the #55 "Hamilton" line that passes two blocks from my house. It’s a commuter route that runs only on weekday mornings and evenings. I don’t work downtown so I have used it rarely. But plenty of other people hop on board the little buses. The times I’ve boarded the Hamilton, the atmosphere has been downright familiar and friendly.

I confess I’ve felt more and more rebellious about urban governmental bureaucracies of late. City Hall, the schools, Metro, the county, TriMet. They really care little about neighborhoods per se. What we get amounts to lip-service. Okay, there are a few exceptions. I wish they were more notable and frequent.

I’ve been speaking out for "township" autonomy more frequently. It would at first be limited, experimental autonomy, to see how it goes. If it goes well, complete autonomy. We have a Hillsdale Town Center; what we lack is a town.

The potential demise of the #55 reminded me of thoughts I’ve had of a local township shuttle. It would consist of a small 24-seat bus that would transport folks whose homes are perched on hills and tucked away in dales. The shuttle's destination would be to the nearest TriMet bus lines, like the #55. Without TriMet feeders, the destination would be the Hillsdale Town Center (a Hillsdale Transit Center?).

It so happens we have people in Hillsdale who know a whole lot about buses. Buzz and Carolyn Raz ran the largest private bus company in the state until they retired a couple of years ago.

By chance, not an hour after I read The Oregonian story, I ran into Carolyn at Food Front.

We talked. And we will talk some more.

Believe me, there’s a lot to talk about, starting with liability and licensing. I'm inclined to avoid such topics.

I see a volunteer-voluntary shuttle, which might even have a Red Electric Line.

It’s 8 a.m. and the bright red Hillsdale shuttle pulls up to a doomed #55 stop. The volunteer driver greets the waiting passengers with “I just happen to be driving this way with a 20-person bus. Would you like a lift? Money? Naw, but if you'd like to make a modest donation for gas that's fine. Oh and if you would just sign this statement relieving me of liability etc. Sure, I’ll drop you off in Hillsdale where you can catch a TriMet bus.

"By the way, I’ll park up by the Library at 5:20 p.m. and 6 p.m. this evening. Just in case you and your old #55 friends need a lift.”

Wink, wink.

“Oh you like the name on the bus? I do too. It has a nice ring, ‘The Hillsdale Hop-Along.’”

Jack-knifed trucks and wayward buses

Today's winter follies hung up traffic at the corner of Sunset and Capitol when a dairy truck jack-knifed on the icy snow.

In other local storm news, TriMet buses are now being diverted from Capitol Highway east of Bertha and Beaverton Hillsdale Highway. The downhill slope to Barbur is just too much for big rigs.

The #44 and #45 have been canceled altogether. Go to the TriMet web site for updates.

In short, it's nasty out there. Even, or perhaps especially, if you are walking, keep an eye out for drivers rolling the dice on the ice.

One of the storm's lessons about Capitol Highway is that it manages quite nicely as a two-lane street. Think of all the things we could do with those three we don't need. Median plantings. Wide bike lanes. On-street parking. Underground utilities.

The sponsored exit

I rode the Portland Streetcar today to get to and from an all-day eye appointment (Don’t ask).

The trolley ride seemed as interminable as the appointment (six ocular pressure tests spaced 90 minutes apart).

Trolley operators, unlike exposed Tri-Met bus drivers, are hermetically sealed in their forward cockpits, kind of like terrorist-plagued airplane pilots. A sign near the door (is it locked?) invites you to talk to them, but not while the trolley is moving. What are you supposed to do, knock on the door? Bring a crowbar?

“Hello? Hell-OOO?”

It’s all so uninviting, I’ve never thought to ask a question.

On the other hand, I’ve listened to Tri-Met bus drivers conduct entire therapy sessions for mildly deranged passengers. How they do this and merge with traffic is beyond me.

So I was surprised today when the trolley driver actually flicked on the intercom and spoke to us. The trolley was stuck in traffic on Lovejoy, and the driver recommended getting out and walking.

As Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up.

He informed us that earlier in the rush hour he had been stuck in Lovejoy congestion for 15 minutes.

He also warned that this would be our last opportunity to leave the stuffy car while it was in gridlock.

About 20 of us got out and walked. It felt good.

But it wasn’t the traffic or stale air that made me want to get off; it was the syrupy recorded voice telling me that the trolley stops were sponsored by … what? A Realtor, a brewery, a condominium, a hospital, the PSU Viking football team.

Yes, I know, I’ve ranted about all this before.

Captive transit riders assaulted by piped-in advertising!

Portland Street car turns public intersections into verbal billboards!

Only the deaf could love Portland's trolley!

And, yes, I have complained to the Portland Streetcar “citizens advisory committee.” They treated me as though I had dropped in from Mars, or Halfway or Hebo.

I was told that no one — NO ONE! — had EVER, EVER! complained about the announced sponsorships. Besides, selling these “opportunities” brought in something like 60 grand a year (presumably off-setting fares passengers never pay).

Here, if you scroll down the link, is the price list. Listen up! It costs $500 per month to sponsor a stop and earn access to your captive ears.

My untoward appearance was four years ago. Afterwards, I crawled back in my curmudgeonly hole, muttering, “What will they sponsor next?”

Today I found out, from the Streetcar voice, which belongs to Cheryl Hanson, a local TV news celebrity-turned-trolley-shill. We are supposed to “feel comfortable with” Cheryl, but I don’t— at least not in this context.

What next? At some point in the tranquility between announced stop sponsorships, a computer-cued Cheryl informed us that our VERY CAR was sponsored by Portland General Electric. You know, the local private utility monopoly that bought the naming rights to, and expunged forever the proud name of, Civic Stadium (Yes, that’s another one of my curmudgeonly peeves).

So here I am back in my hole, muttering again: “What will they sponsor next?”

Here’s a clue.

The “voice” didn’t do much else besides announce sponsorships of up-coming stops and the trolley itself, but at one point Cheryl matter-of-factly piped in: “To request a stop, press yellow strip or door button.”

Now there’s a missed opportunity if I ever heard one. It should be worth a grand or two.
“To request this stop, sponsored by Powell’s Bookstore, press yellow strip, sponsored by Nike Sportswear, or door button, brought to you by Starbucks Coffee.”

Who knows, someday Cheryl may send me on my way with “Have a nice day … sponsored by Riverview Mortuary and Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon.”

Unity? Vision? We got it, now show us the money!

In yesterday's "In Portland" section, Fred Leeson has written a hand-wringer about the plight, and potential, of West Portland Town Center. That's where Barbur and Capitol Highway converge in a messy intersection near the I-5 on-ramp headed south.

The center has no center. It defies affection. The WPTC, along with "the Barbur corridor," were never included in the Southwest Community Plan because folks couldn't agree on what to do about them—nor did they much care.

The business association along Barbur was a disgruntled handful of guys who gathered at the Golden Touch largely to carp about City Hall. Their vision extended as far as their omelettes and hash browns.

But now the Barbur/WPTC area is getting some outside attention because TriMet is making vague mutterings about running light rail out Barbur (Don't forget a spur to PCC Sylvania!).

Moreover, high-rise development along Barbur is looking more and more attractive and lucrative (vis. the South Waterfront and the Pearl). The tacky thoroughfare holds promise for lofty, tony habitation and commerce.

Ever check out the knockout view of Mt. Hood from the top of the I-5 rise?

Despite the promise, businesses and residents remain tepid about doing anything.

So here's what gets me...

WPTC's doldrums are in marked contrast to the craving for change in the Hillsdale Town Center. Here we carry around a list of action items: a civic plaza, a solar-heated cover for the farmers market, a master plan for the Hillsdale Triangle, expansion of DeWitt Park, undergrounding Capitol Highway utilities, and sidewalks on Sunset.

But in Leeson's story, Metro Counselor Robert Liberty, who represents this area and knows Hillsdale's desires well, says that unless WPTC and Barbur show some enthusiasm, "unity of vision and purpose," don't count on Metro to put any money into the area.

Don't believe it, West Portland. Here in the Metro-designated Hillsdale Town Center we are bursting with vision, purpose and enthusiasm...and we are still begging for funds to move us forward.