Well, give us a SLUT to ride, and see what happens.

What are you, Rush Limbaugh now?

"What are you, Rush Limbaugh now?"
South Lake Union Tram (for real!)

Thanks
JK

It is a good thing that our transit use is lower than Seattle. That means we are saving money, and time.

Seattle transit costs 88 cents to transport each person each mile compared to the average car at under 25 cents. The average Seattle transit commuter spends 43 minutes on their commute while car commuters spend 23 minutes. (Home to work - double or more to get total daily time spent!)

And for all that cost and wasted time, Seattle's transit system uses more energy than a CAFE average car!

So, even here we are better than Seattle!

see http://www.portlandfacts.com/top10bus.html and portlandfacts.com/commutetime.html

Thanks
JK

Thank you, Jim. That message resonates with me every bit as strongly this time as it has the 962 previous times you have posted it here.

"Thank you, Jim."
OPS!

Thanks
JK

"OOPS!
Perhaps you would enjoy these videos about condo bunker tax abatements by Portland planners, condo weasels and Chief weasel Hales:

http://portlandpolitic.com/lrt-no_development.html

Thanks
JK

The Hales ones are great! The man's a tool.

Jim, thanks for putting that composite together. It is amazing that Hales and other pols and bureaucrats keep touting that lightrail, streetcars create all the development, then in the previous breath (forgetting what they said a year or two before) that it is all the subsidies.

This should be a major talking point at all the candidate fairs.

Those are some excellent videos. Too bad the local media isn't up to the journalistic standards of some of the citizens!

One of the nice things about the Puget Sound region is that while they do have light rail (a single line from downtown to Sea-Tac Airport), it is operated by a different agency - so King County Metro can't play the funny accounting games that TriMet does in charging the bus system with light rail operating costs.

Seattle has continued to invest in a popular bus system - operating a wide range of vehicles from neighborhood buses, express buses, articulated high capacity buses, and a very popular electric trolleybus network. Seattle was a leader in hybrid-electric buses, and put their busses in an underground tunnel - used today by both buses and light rail trains. Seattle's growing BRT network is very popular, very cost-effective, and growing. Community Transit, which serves Snohomish County, also has a popular BRT route that costs less to operate than MAX, provides all of the same benefits, and despite a similar distance as WES - provides seven day, all day service, and had a construction cost of only $30 million - less than 1/7th the cost of WES.

Portland seems more interested in building a single "wow!" line despite the cost, even if it means sacrificing the existing system. Seattle is more interested in slowly building up a line with incremental upgrades - one that is a proven winner, which resulted in double-digit ridership growth when TriMet was recording ridership drops, and a system that today is used for more trips than TriMet's.

Unfortunately, this will only cause Sam to double down on vanity projects like the streetcar and Portland-Milwaukie LRT in an attempt to retake the crown.