Wonder how many people decided to start driving in after West Side Max shut down for all of yesterday?

I rode in on the bus this morning -- as I usually do. And this is a nice, express bus with nice, quiet business types on it. I sat next to a woman who spent the entire trip chewing her nails and picking at her face. The fellow in the seat behind me must have had a doozy of a cold as he kept hacking and snorting phlegm from his nose and mouth. The guy was easily in his 40s but apparently his mama never told him about Kleenex. My first stop when I got to work was the bathroom -- so I could wash my hands. I really don’t understand why people prefer to drive rather than take mass transit.

God, when will these cretins ever learn? We put meters all over the place, turn downtown into a train switch-yard, take out as many parking spaces as we can, kill traffic lanes with streetcar/MAX tracks and drive out as many non-govt and retail jobs from downtown as we can - Yet they still think they can drive a car!

Time for Phase II.

Shhh! Don't tell the planners! This will only give them the idea that they're not trying hard enough to bully people out of their cars!

I live in Hillsboro and work in Gresham. I used to take Transit quite often. I have not taken it at all for several years due to the unreliability, higher cost, crappy service, filthy trains, crowded buses and huge time suck. 45 minute drive vs a 90 minute train ride.

This is a tough crowd -- nobody has anything nice to say about the fact that streetcar use went up above 1% for the first time in history, to 2% of commute trips. Obviously the Portland plan is working!

Perhaps the planners are paying attention, thus the goal to put parking meters on every street in Portland.

Jack, I agree with you that you should laugh at them. I also recommend laughing and pointing when they have kids and they suddenly discover that cars can be good things.

Car hater economics 101: Reduce driving and attack the car culture which will eliminate 1000’s of family wage private sector jobs and therefore much of the funding for transport infrastructure. Build more unsustainable streetcar lines, add more costly bicycle infrastructure for slacker freeloaders, and create more public sector jobs to manage all this all the wile keeping Portland an affordable place to live with affordable and subsidized housing and transport options. Humm, something just doesn’t add up.

Remember Metro's stupidly cheesy 'Drive Less, Save More' TV campaign? Uh, didn't work.

RJBob, and remember when PBOT's Matt Brown said SoWhat would have over 40% of all it's trips using mass transit?

The scam is up. When you have over a 20% increase in citizens using their vehicles versus mass transit, all the puffery from PBOT, the Bicycle Alliance, PDC, PSU and Planners is up.

I hope the media starts critically questioning all the hypothesis that the Planning agenda around here is throwing out, and get back to reality and common sense. You are helping to kill our city and region.

lw,
The close relationship of the City plans with PSU and other groups is unhealthy in my book. The schools are producing more of the same planning. Smart growth is all over the country. I wonder what happens to students who enter a planning program who do not agree with this movement?

Reduce driving and attack the car culture which will eliminate 1000’s of family wage private sector jobs and therefore much of the funding for transport infrastructure

I love it when Metro and others pounce on the economic benefit of bicycling - number of jobs, money, blah blah blah.

I wish someone would do the same for the "personal motor vehicle" industry in Portland. You have dozens of new and used car dealerships, gas stations, tire shops, repair shops, insurance companies and agents, road contractors...

The bike "industry" is, what, $150 million? The motor vehicle industry, in Portland alone, is in the billions. And that doesn't even include freight which would bring in Daimler Trucks North America (a.k.a. Freightliner).