Tri-Met flip-flops on "unsafe" Northwest line
What a difference a day makes. Today they tell us that they're going to reopen the No. 15 bus line in Northwest Portland despite a hairy turnaround at the end. How? They're going to have flaggers on site to help the bus turn around, and eventually they're going to install some sort of warning devices to replace the flaggers.
The neighborhood meeting for tomorrow evening is still on.
| Posted at 2:31 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (12)
Flaggers? Wow, that's a dream job for somebody. Sit in a chair and wait for a bus to come along, stand up and wave a flag for a minute or two, then sit back down again. Can they at least give them a desk and some papers to push around between buses? At the very least, I hope they use somebody who's on the Light Duty roster.
Posted by Michelle | August 25, 2010 3:06 PM
My money is (sadly) that the flagger is the first person to get hit by a turning bus.
Posted by darrelplant | August 25, 2010 3:10 PM
We would all be much safer if we simply banned wheeled transportation from Portland entirely.
If god had wanted us to travel faster than 7 miles per hour, he'd have given us wings.
Ten toes good, all wheels baaaaaaad!
Posted by Mister Tee | August 25, 2010 3:56 PM
How in the world will the flaggers get up there?
Posted by Allan L. | August 25, 2010 3:59 PM
For an active warning device, I pick the WES train's horn.
Posted by Allan L. | August 25, 2010 4:00 PM
The flaggers are needed in TriMet's accounting department.
Posted by Ben | August 25, 2010 4:01 PM
I wonder what our friends at OPAL think of this?
Seems it's special treatment for a more affluent part of the city.
I haven't heard of McFarland restoring service to the poor eastside/county in response to the many complaints by bus riders at TriMet board meetings.
Posted by Ben | August 25, 2010 4:08 PM
Flaggers. Plural. More than one flagger. How many will be necessary to turn the bus around?
Posted by the other Steve | August 25, 2010 4:16 PM
I hope they use somebody who's on the Light Duty roster.
No, they'll be creating six new "Visibility Specialist" positions with full union salaries and benefits. They'll fund them by cutting the 72 82nd/Killingsworth route, since nobody influential rides that line and the ungrateful plebes that do should be riding the shiny new Green Line.
Posted by Eric | August 25, 2010 4:36 PM
Who is going to supervise them? Workers can't just be left alone. It's unsafe and they might wander off. Randy needs to put an outhouse up there first. Or do we call it a loo? Where will people go for breaks and what about lunch?
Posted by Bluecollar Libertarian | August 25, 2010 8:35 PM
Maybe the flaggers will just ride up there on the bus, come down on the turned-around bus, and switch to the uphill bus as they pass.
Posted by Jack Bog | August 25, 2010 8:37 PM
Just when summer promises a hiatus in Portland's lunatic version of officialdom, we get this. Still, some commenters seem to be on target by calling out Trimet for its obvious bias in behalf of wealthier neighborhoods.
Posted by Don | August 26, 2010 4:57 AM