You'll hear the city talk about "140 people each shift working 12 hours" to clear the snow routes (mostly streets with bus routes). But the truth is, they only have 55 trucks, according to Sam's own webpage.

Reasonable questions whose answers we are likely to be underwhelmed by:
Does the city actually control all 55?
Are they all working now?
Is there more than 1 place to get the sand?
What distance can 1 truck sand at a time?
Enviro-friendly pre-storm de-icer, actually working...or "not so much"?

It's always good, too, when the planes actually get to the airport, but the outbound flights are cancelled anyhow b/c the airlines tell the staff to stay home. Great coordination.

By comparison, at 3:00 Sunday afternoon, when the snow had started to fall and stick to the ground but before conditions got truly bad, I saw a snowplow of the City of Lake Oswego on the move, on Boones Ferry Road.

Jack,
Shame on you.
You should have been taking light rail, not your "wasteful" car.

thanks
JK

N Williams, Alberta, and Interstate were all cleared and sanded by 9 o'clock. Not bad...

N Williams, Alberta, and Interstate were all cleared and sanded by 9 o'clock. Not bad...

Doesn't Sam live in North Portland?

--Doesn't Sam live in North Portland?

Robert Liberty and Rex Burkholder do, I believe.
Or close in Northeast.

Since Robert represents SE and SW on the Metro Council, that would be a good trick :-)

The MAX wires froze up again and stopped or really slowed down the east side line for hours, starting at Lloyd Center.

So, okay, if we can build a tram for $45+ million, why is it too expensive to build the subway that Ray Polani has been talking about for the past 20 years?

Inner S.E. and downtown were all sanded up when I drove in this morning, for what it's worth.

I doubt that the Tram would have been usable in this last "surprise" minor weather event.

Imagine being stuck 300 ft. above Barbur in a swaying Tram car in 50mph wind and you have the flu with an extreme upset stomach; with 2" ice build up on your supporting cable and obscuring the views from your 360 degree windows; the power is out so your Tram car is 19 degrees; and TriMet hasn't yet figured out how to move the Tram car up or down without power and all the ice build-up; and your communication link from the car is iced up too. And you're late to your yoga health club appointment at the "so-called" OHSU building.

Hmm, that's funny. I thought Trams were sepcifically designed to run in cold blizzard like weather? Last I checked, most have been built in ski resorts... like the Alps. Or Lake Tahoe. Montana. etc.

Justin, trams do have problems with ice conditions and wind and power failures even in the locations you mention. Did you notice that Art Pierce of PDOT quickly made a media release that the OHSU tram wouldn't be able to operate in winds over 50mph after the above posting during our last ice/snow event? And how does PDOT know exactly how the Tram cars will be affected by 50mph winds? Who knows, it could be 30mph winds that affect the tram. Wind velocity generally increases exponentially above the earth's surface. So, what might the wind speed be 200 ft up, halfway up the gulch to OHSU with increased east wind speed due to the uplift affect of wind racing up the hill to OHSU? It is also true that at ski resorts that have Trams, winds many times stop the use of Trams. I've been in Heavenly's gondola at Tahoe (much different in wind consequences because of its much smaller size-four people) in 15mph winds and its swayed considerably. In fact some trams in ski resorts are being taken out of service because of related costs, liability insurance, quick aging , etc. They are an expensive mode of transportation ($65 dollars per trip at todays projected OHSU Tram cost), and recently the voters of Vail turned down a measure to fund a Tram there. Also consider that icing conditons of Portland are generally not the type/frequency experienced at high altitudes of ski resorts. Precip usually falls as snow which doesn't kling to cables and cars like ice. I live somewhat near the OHSU Tram site, and believe me the east winds here are substantually more than even downtown Portland. The microclimates around Portland have much diversity. Last week the wind was blowing 25mph at my house, but when I went downtown, even with the tall buildings, it was only about 5mph. PDC and the PATI Board (tram building/ operating entity) haven't even done "life cycle costing" for the the tram. Have they appropriately considered the weather factors with real expertise?

I should add to my last post. Did they consider the weather factors like they did the initial costs of the OHSU tram being $8.5 million; or the center tower once being a skelton-like wood tower with architectural merit, but now a thickened steel semi-generic tower; or the west terminal being downgraded to a smaller semi-covered entrance platform without bathrooms, heat, while you wait in the wind driven rain, maybe ice pellets?