Lighting looks about right for the time, but I can tell you that he is shooting from the far end of the parking lot, not that would make too much of a difference, since there only seem to be a few cars there.

People do ride buses, though! Why don't they cut WES and maintain the bus service?

Clearly, this is the EXACT same photo that Governor Palin used back in May, to show that she...

Oh wait... wrong thread.

I'm totally amused by the "well, with this lighting, the photo was clearly take at 4:59 PM and NOT at 5" comments these sort of posts attract.

Obviously the problem is that all the workers who ride WES work the night shift. You just have to take your photo at the right time.

First, 5pm is well after the first runs, so some cars are already gone from the lot.

Second, if you took the same shot looking south from the entrance, it would appear full.

How about numbers instead? Currently the lot is averaging 40 cars a day. The lot itself can only hold about one hundred cars. TriMet never anticipated high ridership here and only made the lot this large due to local pressure with fears that riders would be parking on city streets and thus impacting the local business community.

I went by this same lot at 4:15, there were just two more cars.

But I can tell you that this photo was not taken on Tuesday. There was a 50% blue sky at 5:00PM in Tigard. Also it is obvious where Alexander's 50 cars went; notice how the lot in the photo slopes down to the right, bottom corner-the lost 38 cars rolled down to the bottom right out of the picture.

Sorry Alexander, I used 50 instead of your 40 cars.

Since the WES trains don't run during the middle of the day, why doesn't someone take a photo during their lunch hour? All of the morning riders cars will still be there since there haven't been any return trips, unless some WES riders are in the habit of riding into Beaverton at 6am and returning to Tigard by 9am.

Hey,

I took the photo. It was 5:00 PM.
It had indeed clouded up.

Yeah sure there are some cars at the other end, by the train platform.
I pointed that out in the last pics.
So what?
Why would I take the pic from the other end and make the very few cars give a false impression the lot was full?
That's the kind of thing TriMet/Metro does with their propoganda.
If anyone has a beef with my pic angle you must really dislike what they tell you.

WES is a waste.

These pics and oousy ridership are demonstrative of the misrepresentation our planners, agencies and politicians use to advance boondoggles like this.
And even after they flop, by any genuine measurement of merit, they proceed with more of the same.

photographer: I only brought it up because it is fair to point out the perspective from which the photo is taken. This angle is beneficial to your point of view, whereas from the other end would be detrimental to your point of view. I don't really care one way or another so long as the train doesn't slow my morning commute. But, just because you took it doesn't mean there isn't some bias built in (conscious or subconscious). You have an agenda just like everybody else and it's important to be able to recognize the spin each person puts on their argument.

Sarcasm mode "on".

Those who ask why Tri-Met loves trains and hates busses don't see the big picture. Trains come with all those fancy planning and construction grants, and employ planners at HQ for years and years and years, and require lots and lots of consultants whi provide jobs later on in cvareer for lots of Tri Met employees. Trains also require a lot fewer operators per 100 passengers than buses do.

Trains are also "sexy". Busses are so last century.

Sarcasm mode "off".

Sadly, Tri Met really does not have much interest in opertaing a bus company, and more than a few of the directors have made that very clear.

My agenda is the truth.
TriMet's is not. They lied about WES from start to finish.
My perspective, however unrevealing of the few cars, aligns with the truth.
The ridership numbers are so low each rider calculates to cost around 270.00 each.
There is no benefit to this new line at all. It's just plain stupid.
Yet our bone headed planners and politicians, who do have a bias and agenda, lie about it's worth.

As a former homeowner in Tualatin, I testified at the Metro/TriMet/ODOT public comment meeting. It was clear from the almost complete lack of eye contact and the disinterested faces of the panel, that they were going to go ahead with this absurd BOONDOGLE no matter what the public said. It didn't really matter that I had the names of 30 homeowners from Wilsonville and Tualatin who said they had no real reason to ride this train EVER. Even the US DOT was very sceptical of TriMet's projected passenger numbers; but they built it anyway at huge cost. And we can see that it's a huge failure as far as moving any real numbers of passengers.

Spot on Dave

We can click our cameras any time of day....the only picture that will emerge is a consistent "no cars in the lot" and "no riders on WES".

Where is the outrage!!! The rail scam just rolls on....I-205.....Milwaukie.....streetcars. Quit electing these pathetic a...holes! Stop the F-ing insanity!

I'm not sold either way. I rode it the other day at about 9:30am and assumed it would be empty since it was after prime commuter hours and it was more than half full. What do the parking lot pictures prove? That people aren't driving to ride it?

Don't worry about the high cost of this thing per ride. We can always cancel more bus lines that the working poor use, to make up for it.

The photos get attenion, obvioulsy.

If you were on one train that was half full that means nothing.

The volunteers to did a full count that showed a sickly low ridership means a lot. The calculated cost per rider measns a lot.

TriMet should be sold.

Between each of those planter sets there are 14 spaces. Multiple it out. If you are standing on the end planter that you turn around at the bottom of the lot, looking north, all you are seeing are 42 empty spaces. If you're standing one planter north of the end, and those behind and out of frame are empty, that makes 56 spots empty.

The total lot size is 103 spaces.

Between each million TriMet wastes is the opportunity to provide better transit service to more people in more neighborhoods.
The incompetence and dishonesty that continues to perpetrate more of these rail transit boondoggles always has the defenders coming out of the woodwork with the gibberish.

Counting actual space numbers is gibberish?

I took WES on Tuesday, March 24, from Tualatin to Wilsonville, for reasons involving my commute that are somewhat unusual, and so they haven't been repeated. Anyway, the train each way was perhaps 2/3 full, and there seemed to be plenty of cars in the Wilsonville lot, and not as many in the Tualatin lot. I was pleasantly surprised that the train wasn't a "ghost town."

Also, it was faster than the SMART Wilsonville bus between Tualatin and Wilsonville, which winds around all over the place. It also gave some great views of the backs of Tualatin apartments, the edge of the Coffee Creek correctional facility, and a decrepit quarry/junk area somewhere between the two cities.

Alexander,

56 out of 103 spaces is a majority. You know, a majority in how having a majority in a chamber of legislature gives a political party dominance in agenda setting and procedures.

Of, but wait that does not apply to grown-up toy train tracks like the MAX in some peoples thinking. However, when it comes to issues like Gay Rights and Gay Marriage, then those same people who do not believe in majorities for disassembling grown-up toy train tracks are the ones screaming for their majority to ram it through.

I understand where some people are coming from. They want it both...Excuse me, ALL ways when it comes to their point of view. However, some people do their best in marginalizing and silencing the opposing point of view. Just like those good fascists Lenin, Stalin and every leader of the USSR.

Do you know who these people are? I do.