"Get out of my way; I'm bigger than you."

"Yeah, I know I'm taking up both lanes going at half speed down Hawthorne. So what?"

"Go by streetcar!"

Yep, noticed that the thing went off when the bus would simply pull over to the curb and that it wouldn't start blatting until the bus was into a full turn and would continue halfway down the street.

It was also hard to hear and -- if you didn't understand English -- was useless even if you COULD hear it. Long ago, cities that know better used tones, horns or bells to alert people. Imagine if, rather than using a siren, ambulances had to broadcast a voice droning, "Ambulance coming - pull over."

I agree that tying the recording to the turn signal would help activate it at the correct time but why not simply let the operator turn it on when they turn? I know the operators aren't morons and could be trusted with this task.

At least TriMet admitted the failure of the bus turning alarm. (Maybe the real issue is that TriMet saw the price tag to actually install the devices on each of its over 600 buses, and figured, "Wait a second - that money will take away from art on the Milwaukie MAX line! We can't spend that kind of money on buses!!!)

Whereas...WES...and TriMet claims that the increasing cost of diesel fuel is necessitating a fuel hike. Isn't TriMet paying LESS for fuel now than a few years ago when it got several pretty high fare increases, and when diesel fuel went back down, TriMet refused to lower fares? What happened to all that money - something is fishy, and nobody is investigating. The fox is guarding the chicken coop, and nobody cares...that's what to expect when the Portland Tribune's Publisher is on TriMet's Board of Directors, The Oregonian has been in bed with TriMet for years, the radio news stations copy the other sources (not to mention KPAM is owned by the same entity that owns the Portland Tribune, so we know there's a conflict there), and the TV news outlets only care if there's blood and gore - they don't bother with mundane matters like transit.

It was a dumb idea period.
For crying out loud whats wrong with a back up beeper or just getting rid of the dangerous turns?
The real problem here is the failure of the City of Portland to design safe streets, as in they could easily mimic some of the east coast cities and have a pedestrian only cycle, where there is no traffic moving during the movement of pedestrians at the intersections.

It works on the east coast, but here they have some lame excuse like "it will create other safety problems".

As usual nobody bothers to define the "other safety problems" that having a pedestrian phase at traffic signals would create.

Can't pin these pin heads down on anything!

That's a really interesting question: why not use the turn signal?

I guess it's because you're typically activating your signal in the middle of the block, then (if it's a left) waiting for a while at the intersection.

They could still add a human-activated lever for the announcement, but it's possible that adding another thing for a driver to worry about on every turn would actually be counterproductive to pedestrian safety.

Meanwhile, that driver got her license back after her conviction...

http://www.kptv.com/news/28000788/detail.html

Don't buses already come equipped with a very complex device designed to warn pedestrians? Its called a Driver. Buses also have a less complicated device that the more complicated one can engage as the need arises -- its called a Horn.

The real problem here is the failure of the City of Portland to design safe streets, as in they could easily mimic some of the east coast cities and have a pedestrian only cycle, where there is no traffic moving during the movement of pedestrians at the intersections.

Seaside has such a signal right on Broadway in the tourist/downtown area. All vehicle lights turn red, all pedestrian signals are set to "Walk". During a vehicle phase, all pedestrian signals are "Don't Walk".

In the PSU area, this wouldn't be a bad idea. There's a couple intersections that buses have to turn at that it's nearly impossible for a bus (or any other vehicle) to make a legal turn, in part due to the number of straggling pedestrians that take forever to cross the street (or enter the crosswalk against the signal) with absolutely no enforcement.

That's a really interesting question: why not use the turn signal?

Because buses are required to use the turn signal to pull away from a stop or make a lane change, when the audible announcement is neither warranted nor desirable.