Multi-destination bus system. Wow! Brilliant. Forget subsidizing the rich who own downtown with their own light rail system. Give the people a system that takes them where they want to go. Like to their job which probably isn't downtown.

And the bike rack on Broward county bus carries 50% more bikes than Tri-Mets. Another wow!

Someone forgot to drink their koolaid. Expect attack dogs to appear immediately.

Tri-Met's routing of everything downtown first has always been ridiculous. That might've made sense back when Cleveland was President and there wasn't much place else to go but downtown, but it hasn't since, and certainly not since WWII.

Personally, I've long felt that is one of the big reasons why the vast majority of area residents who can afford a car simply prefer to drive where they need to go... they don't want to waste huge amounts of time having to go all the way downtown, only to have to wait and transfer to some other line that goes back out of downtown towards their destination.

Of course now, instead of redesigning dumb routes, Metro wants to demolish neighborhoods and redesignate where people can live just to fit the dumb routes.

"Before we try to change the built environment, we need to make sure transit takes riders where they need to go."

That's gross.

Those articles are clearly blasphlemous and should be declared heresy.
Drown the witches and then burn them at the stake!

No kidding. We live out in Lake O. My daughter is working for Zupan's new store in Lake Grove. The store has been open about a month and they've suddenly become concerned about employee parking. So, we thought we'd help by having our daughter take the bus. There are two Tri Met routes that go close enough to the store that she could take them, EXCEPT that both make last pickups in either direction before 6 pm, and neither run on weekends. So much for the bus if you work one of the 5 shifts that get off after 5:30. My daughter mentioned this to one of the bosses; he wasn't happy. She's back to driving every day.

My sense is that our elected representatives are shielded from information like this. I wonder if they'd push so hard for the misguided status quo if they knew about such persuasive, effective alternatives. Probably they still would, but I wonder. At least "new" transit studies offer them a plausible explanation and way to pivot away from more decades of poor policymaking.

Cheer up, the problem will solve itself in a few years as trimet continues to cost more and cars cost less.

The final blow will be when trimet can no longer claim we should pay over $1 per mile to transport people when self driving cars can carry anyone anywhere for 20% of the cost, faster and safer.

In the meantime, before switching from car to transit, look carefully at what driving a car, you already own, costs compared to transit fare. You can drive almost clear across town for the cost of a Trimet fare. See: http://pdxtransport2.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/when-does-mass-transit-save-money-for-the-rider/

Thanks
JK

It isn't just getting to work that people need decent bus service. Try getting to your kid's school if you don't have a car.

From our house to David Douglas High School where our son attends...10 minutes by car. "Best option" on Trimet--55 minutes, including a walk of "no more than one mile."

To take TriMet to our younger son's middle school...37 minute trip, including 35 minutes of walking.

To get to our local elementary school, the 36 minute trip involves 31 minutes of walking.

Trips like these discourage parent involvement and attendance at parent-teacher conferences.

Jack thanks for the link.

The hub and spoke went out with the Model T. Timet's transit routes for the most part still follow the old hub and spoke streetcar lines of the Model T era. Today, driving cost far less per passenger mile than transit; which is second only to passenger rail service which receives the highest taxpayer funfed subsidies per passenger mile.

Sal,I disagree, elected officials haven't been "shielded from information like this". Many times before TriMet the spoke concept vs dispersal has been presented. This blog through the years have discussed this. There have been numerous papers, presentations on this subjected for decades.

It boils down to TriMet having an agenda dictated by fixed rail-which is very costly to even imagine as a dispersed system. Plus it can't be responsive to inevitable changes of a city, its workforce locations, and changes to economic forces.

Take a look at South Waterfront URA. The 10,000 biotech jobs didn't occur. Actually a small number of jobs have been created by SWURA, they have been mostly relocated jobs from Pill Hill. And even at that, the preferred residency of possible biotech employees could/would be substantially different than OHSU research jobs, or the now emphasis on PSU classrooms/research jobs. PSU/OHSU students and employees, with all kinds of support for workforce and student housing right in the District, makes the reliance of lightrail much less needed.

Is it a good $1.5 Billion expenditure for MLR though SWURA, when the future workers there may live there or in the inner city where it's much more convenient to just walk or ride a bike? Besides, SWURA turned into more of a condo/apartment district than a work district where fixed transit even has less of a need. The market didn't follow the Planners.

SWURA is a good example how fixed rail isn't too responsive to changes like this. And this was supposedly all PLANNED. Things change.

I've read the academic study referenced in the magazine and it's very compelling. I'm going to give a copy to each TriMet board member at their next meeting.

Of course, they've been told before -- many times -- that their obsession with rail transit in a hub-and-spoke configuration is wrong. They just prefer to live in a fantasy world.

Don:

Forget subsidizing the rich who own downtown with their own light rail system. Give the people a system...

Bob T:

But "the people" (most of them) are the problem in many ways because they keep this system going for years by electing people like Blumenhauer, Hales, assorted Metro candidates, and many other smaller ones who help keep the gravy train running.

Mr Fearless:

EXCEPT that both [Oak Grove buses] make last pickups in either direction before 6 pm, and neither run on weekends. So much for the bus if you work one of the 5 shifts that get off after 5:30.

Bob T:

An easy solution would be for private jitney service or shuttle bus runs to fill in such gaps, but the government's response to this point is, "No, we're not going to run any buses there at night and weekends, and no, we're not going to let anyone else do it, either."

The statists love to repeat that line about if the government can't do it, no one can. And to make sure it remains true, they prohibit any activities by those who can.