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The #10 2817 at 5:57pm Bus Driver, You Sir, Are a Prick
You sir, are a prick. You drove along at about 5 mph (I'm not exaggerating I'm VERY good at judging speed, I race cars - I know) after stopping at the 3rd & Washington stop. Heading south bound you piddled along from that stop so slowly other cars swerved around you and through the light. Sure you were probably ahead of schedule, so no doubt you where killing time.
As the light turned yellow you slowed with no intention of making the light. You pulled up to the red light with an entire cycle to look forward to, obviously in no hurry. I figured I'd walk out and jump aboard.
With absolutely zero reason to not let me on you refused. You pointed at the light as if it where going to change soon. You sir, are an idiot. I said, clearly as you looked at me, "yeah, it's red, can I get on?" You pointed at the light again as if it where going to change miraculously. I tapped again amazed at your incredulity. You are AT A BUS STOP and have NOWHERE to go and you won't let me on? Sure I'm off a whole block. You're AHEAD OF SCHEDULE!
Summed up, you sir are a prick. There isn't a private company on the planet that is in the service industry (as you are by the mere authority TriMet posses) that would continue to employ you. You're lucky you have Union Protection, otherwise I doubt you'd stay employed screwing around like that. You're the reason why Unions have almost no support in this nation anymore. This type of service is inexcusable. But as things go, you're protected even in your horrid lack of motivation to do your job.
So this, my slight rant of the evening is dedicated to you Mr. #10 2817 5:57pm Bus Driver. You sir, are a prick.
To my regular readers, "please excuse my frustration, I find it beyond intolerable (up there with abhorrent stupid people) when someone in the service industry is so crass."
More Thoughts on WES, Portland Got Ripped
When will the inefficient money laundering stop!? As I road on my #12 to Tigard adventure on Sunday I noticed, and for the first time thought about something that is catastrophically limiting to future commuter rail expansion. That major limitation is WES.
Now before you get started and ranting at me that declaring our new commuter rail is an impediment to future commuter rail I will explain.
I stood looking at the station with the bypass tracks. These double tracks are almost a foot offset from the mainline tracks that run by the Tigard Transit Center Stop. These tracks are used for the WES Rail Vehicles to get close enough to the station so that there isn't a gap between the platform and the boarding doors. This is all cool, for safety reasons and such. I don't really have a problem with this from a technological implementation ideal, but what I have a problem with is the lack of the usual Commuter Rail Standard.
There are two main issues with this setup.
- One is that it causes the commuter rail to block tracks on the mainline and use tracks that are in addition to the mainline track. Why couldn't we just have little extensions like we have on the streetcar to close the gap? It would have been less expensive.
- Two is that on the side that doesn't have the offset tracks means that the freight trains most likely can't get past this station on this track. I don't know about you, but adding a lot of new capacity by double tracking an alignment like this, but disabling the main user (freight) from utilizing this extra throughput is absolutely stupid. Moving freight over this track is VASTLY MORE VALUABLE to the cities of Portland, Beaverton, and Hillsboro (and Forest Grove) than this commuter line will ever be in its current state.
The causes here are twofold, both are really at the hands of several entities; TriMet, City of Portland, Metro, and of course the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). Why, you might ask?
- The standards for commuter rail track, platform height, platform width, platform construction, and all of these things are supposedly controlled by the FRA. However many, if not maybe most, of the regulations, standards, and rules the FRA sets up are redundant, misguided, or outright contradictory (makes for great Sunday cartoons like Dilbert, but beyond that all they do is stop societal progress).
- TriMet, City of Portland, Metro, and any others I might have forgotten are the ones responsible for final design and implementation along with the responsibility to purchase standard, reliable, and capable vehicles at a price that is good for the customer (us, the Government merely acts as the middle man - wow, if only we could cut that middle man out). In addition TriMet (and entities specified) are responsible for designing the stations and transit centers around the vehicles and alignment or at least CHOOSING which final design of those platforms around the transit centers.
So here we are, using non-standard equipment (at least based on platform usage of commuter rail in the ENTIRE west coast) that can't be used on any other commuter system on the entire western United States from the Mississippi River to the Pacific. In addition trains from Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, Minneapolis, Vancouver (BC), or anywhere on the Amtrak System could not be used as extra equipment if need be on the WES line. That means the thousands of pieces of rail equipment in the western USA cannot be used on our commuter rail system. Also vice versa the WES Equipment can't really be sold off for reasonable prices to buy higher capacity equipment if we need to expand the system, because the FRA wouldn't allow the gap or height usage of the vehicles. We might be able to sell it to the few little short stretches that have old equipment in use on the east coast, but I doubt they even intend to keep those lines proprietary like that.
Expanding WES for HCT (i.e REAL Commuter Rail Vehicles)
If TriMet ever wants to expand the WES System to have real throughput of Commuter Rail Trains the station platforms would have to be completely removed and replaced with lower, longer, and shorter width platforms. We'd be looking at probably 10-30 million to fix all of these. The platforms are so short without any built in ability to upgrade, that the track alignment would also have to have long sections removed and replaced, or at least reset. That's another 10-30 million dollars.
Of course TriMet could just find more custom equipment, that would most like be 20-40% higher in cost than regular commuter rail equipment. So tearing down the platforms and correcting the alignment would be the appropriate thing to do at that time.
It almost seems, that TriMet or someone conspired, for whatever reason, to keep the entire WES Line proprietary and low capacity. I have to side 100% with the dozens of transit fans that have started, or have been, looking at the system and crying foul! Portland has again paid 2x the money, gotten 1/2 the capacity, and in a far more unreliable state than other entities in the country. We've been running railroads for over 150 years, at one point better than any nation in the world by a massive degree, and now we can't even setup a decent commuter system for a reasonable amount of money. For this price we could be running real commuter rail with 3 car trains!
One of these days, TriMet and the City of Portland are going to get bit in the ass. When that happens, the whole citizenry will end up bearing the cost upon our shoulders. This I'm afraid, is just how it will have to be.
A Year For City Ideas in Chicago
Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network
Chicago’s 100-year anniversary of the Daniel Burnham city plan offers an opportunity to rethink how the city works and how it should look for the next 100, according to this piece from Blair Kamin.
Baghdad Combats Street Beggars
Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network
Officials in Baghdad are instituting a new program to sweep beggars off the city’s streets — a number that has risen sharply since the U.S. invasion in 2003.
‘Green’ Governor Fast-Tracks Highway Construction
Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network
Environmentalists reject CA Gov. Schwarzenegger’s attempt to waive new highway construction projects from environmental review to qualify for Obama’s stimulus package, offering ‘fix-it-first’ construction and public transit projects as alternatives.
Hunting in the ‘Burbs
Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network
It’s open season in Montgomery County, Maryland, where hunters are being allowed — and in some cases encouraged — to hunt deer in populated suburban areas.
City Mandates Pet Tracking
Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network
San Marcos, Texas, joins a handful of other cities around the country in requiring pet owners to monitor their pets electronically.
Toyota: We must address the inevitability of peak oil…
ASPO International | The Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas -
Toyota Motor Corp. said Saturday it is confirming plans to have an all-electric vehicle on U.S. roads by 2012 by introducing an ultra-compact battery-powered concept car at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
"Last summer’s $4-a-gallon gasoline was no anomaly," said Irv Miller, vice president of Toyota Motor Sales USA. "It was a brief glimpse of our future. We must address the inevitability of peak oil by developing vehicles powered by alternatives to liquid-oil fuel."
"Our business is no longer about simply building and selling cars and trucks. It is about finding solutions to mobility challenges today and being prepared for more daunting challenges in our very near future."
Read more:
Kansas City News
Cnet News
Pittsburgh Looks to Transit For Rebirth
Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network
Officials in Pittsburgh are hoping that expanding transit-oriented development will spur growth in struggling and decaying neighborhoods — and they have the voter-approved legislation to help.
Global Warming May Trigger a ‘Perpetual Food Crisis’
Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network
A new study predicts that by the mid- to late- 21st century, scorching summer temperatures may result in massive failures of heat-sensitive crops such as wheat.
