For question no. 1, regarding storm information resources, I answered, "Other: Looked outside".

On question 11, regarding conditions of streets in my area, why are the only choices "plowed", "graveled", "de-iced" and "generally passable"?

Where are "none of the above" and "generally f***ed"?

Thanks for the link, Jack. I always love slamming the city, especially when they deserve it.

You'd think they'd have listed local radio and TV as a "resource" for getting information on the storm. I'm guessing most of the folks at PDOT only listen to NPR...the one place you can't get the school closure or road reports.

most of the questions are geared towards the mass transit community.

I wonder if Sam stopped to think that maybe most people wouldn't touch public transit with a 20 foot pole.

I wonder if we will see the real results of the survey.

My own mass transit story: It wasn't good. In our neck of the woods, they cancelled everything but the No. 8 (a.k.a. the "Crazy 8"), and many of the 8's were so crowded that they couldn't squeeze any more passengers on.

Portland is utterly unequipped for snow and ice. It happens just about every year, but only for short periods, and the prevailing wisdom is obviously just to shut the place down when it arrives.

I'm not too sure about this "the likes of which we have not seen for over fifty years." Anyone with a memory will remember severe ice storms in 1980 and 1981 that left many Portland residents (including my family) out of power for 6 to 8 days. Now the snowfall was different, and other elements were unique, but I still recall the bus service was, for the most part, operational at least on the snow routes. And I specifically recall as a youth (even in the 60's) being bummed out because the "street graders" and snowplows and gravelers were so efficient at maintaining our streets - even up here in the hills - that we hardly had a chance to get our sleds out. So I'm not exactly ecstatic over the City attempting to meet the standards they met 40+ plus years ago.

I listed bojack.org as my source for storm info - because it WAS my source of storm info (seriously). Looking forward to the next big one!

I'm a regular, non-snow rider, and my experience with Trimet during the storm was a mixed bag. I was very impressed with the drivers: everyone I encountered seemed to possess the technical skills to drive in the snow, knew which routes were running and which were not, and generally kept a good attitude about the proceedings. My usual driver was as cheerful as ever.

On the other hand, I wasn't hugely impressed with Trimet Central Command. For example, notwithstanding its promises that it had recently been updated, the website's route notices were consistently incorrect.

I'd be curious to hear what other people thought about Trimet.

This is the single most poorly designed survey I have ever seen...second only to PPS.

I wouldn't worry about seeing "results" from this one.

What a most excellent survey! The American Planning Association should give Portland the 2009 Award for Public Outreach! Fantastic!

let's see--a mayor taking an odd and amateurish survey of all Portlanders, to "make Portland better" and "help inform future actions and recommendations."

now...where have I heard that before?

something tells me we'll see lots more "surveys" in the next few years, with questions like:

"would you like to see a big I-5 bridge, or a really, really huge I-5 bridge? we value your input."

These simpleton, fixed, poorly written "surveys" of Sam is his way for us to "vote". It's okay that only .04% of the population ever responds. Its okay that Sam doesn't provide the other answers that people want to click on.

This methodology makes sense because it follows Sam's fixed townhall system.

I love this transparency.

Next one: "How much should the tolls be on the Willamette River bridges? $1? $3? $5? or $10?"

It doesn't take any effort to say everything local government does is wrong... but seemingly it's hard for people to admit when the opposite is true. What thankless jobs they have.

I tip my hat to the Tri-Met drivers who managed to get my employees to work during the storm, preventing us from opening late. We lost precious holiday business, but adequate staffing ensured we didn't lose more.

I also tip my hat to the city's plowers... the Portland side of Beaverton-Hillsale hwy was in much better shape than the Beaverton end.

We don't get snow like this. Most people got through it, but complaining about the government is a passive pastime, no thinking required. Are we now asking government to buy and maintain a bigger vehicle fleet, to staff up to freak snowstorm- levels every year?

Mayor Sam using the internet to measure government's snow response certainly limits the range and demographics of respondents. Users of the internet, then those responding to a survey like this would favor the younger respondents that more often use mass transit. The 96% of citizens that rely on vehicles are more likely to say "what survey?", "I don't use the computer", "I don't use the computer as a news source for political things"...

This isn't a good way to run government.

I love this part:

11. Were the major streets on your route (please select all that apply)

Plowed

Graveled

De-iced

Generally passable

Buffoonish.

Where's the option for:

Bus over an hour late, and TriMet website giving you DISTANCE from stop rather than time?

Because that's what we had on the so-called Frequent Service route running up 39th. I saw four busses southbound in more than the time it took one to get there northbound (which I don't know how long that took, because I gave up after an hour).

Jack: The other option is to leave them all blank, as none of them apply.

The snow was not a real problem for me. We were able to drive where we needed to go, and never put on chains. Main reason is because we have snow tires.

But hardly anyone here does - I counted 50 cars in a mall parking lot before I found one with snow tires.

Why don't most Portlanders run snow tires in the winter? Because we seldom get major snow and most of us don't think its worth the expense to buy snow tires and mount/dismount them every year, when they will hardly ever be needed?

And yet we expect the city to go to the expense of buying a big fleet of snowplows and maintain them every year, when they will hardly ever be needed?