Dear readers: Please do not take this 4-minute survey about your employer’s great commuting benefits
…instead, send this link to the person who manages your benefits.
If you are someone who manages a Portland-area employer’s benefits, that’s great! You should brag about your benefits on this 4-minute survey right now.
Here’s the deal: Portland Afoot is creating the first-ever comprehensive ranking of the best commuting benefits across the metro area. We’re talking free transit passes, swanky bike lockers, generous telecommute options. That sort of thing.
We’ll use the results of our survey to publish a special edition of Portland Afoot that’s going out in April to 6,500 local households that care about low-car life. The rankings will also run on our website, where they’ll probably be our most popular feature of the year.
Posted by Michael at 12:26 am February 3rd, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
Craigsbest: Our favorite TriMet missed connections of January
Blog posts sponsored by DriveLessConnect, ODOT’s sweet new ride-matching service. Craigsbest is our monthly roundup of the weirdest and wonderfulest transit-related missed connections on portland.craigslist.org. Keep connecting, kids.
Coffee or beer or a million love songs
Black on Black on Black – m4w (Loyd Center Max stop) 22yr
(Jan. 21)
I’ve never done one of these before, but after seein you this afternoon its hard to think about anything else
You: incredibly gorgeous girl wearin a black leather jacket, black thigh high boots and black black hair, waving bye to me outside of the max, after it had been sitting there wayyyy too long. I kept tryin to look away, but I was completely floored by you.
Me: white boy in plaid shirt and paint-stained jeans holdin a banjo, probably rocking out a bit too much to my music and tryin to catch your eye
I would love to buy you coffee or a beer or write a million love songs to you if you’re interested.
Really hope you see this and hit me back
Max (thats my name)
Unexpected harmony
westbound 14 stop across ‘castanga’ – w4m (hawthorne & 19th) 19yr
(Jan. 5)
I was singing to myself waiting for the bus the other night. you were passing by and told me I did the song beautifully. I asked if you wanted to join. you did, which I found fantastic.
I was Megan in army green coat with fur (faux) and (lots of) curly hair. Can’t remember if you said your name but you had dark hair and eyes, maybe a little taller than I. You were pretty handsome and I think we should meet again and these are embarrassing but I’m okay with that. Name what we sang!
Getting to the point
nose ring #9 – m4w (The Bus)
(Jan. 19)
We were riding the #9. You had a nose ring. You smiled. I smiled. We smiled. And that made my night. Thank you. You’re beautiful.
Hi.
Let’s talk endlessly.
(Creative Commons banjo boy photo by Sylvia McFadden.)
Posted by Michael at 10:56 am February 1st, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
Our January podcast: The Berlin episode
Berlin might be the biggest low-car-friendly city in the Western world.
Thirteen percent of Berliners’ work commutes happen on a bicycle, 26 percent on public transit and an amazing 30 percent of commutes are afoot.
So it’s pretty cool that, from now until June, Portland Afoot will have a woman in Berlin. It’s Lillian, our podcast producer, who’s studying there and will be working from an apartment she refers to (dubiously, in my opinion) as "suburban."
That’s why Berlin’s the main focus of our monthly commuting podcast for January. The two of us discuss frequencies, fares and auto parking in Berlin, what Portland can learn from them, and what sort of city it takes to get Lily off her bicycle and onto the sidewalk.
Posted by Michael at 3:07 pm January 28th, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
TriMet to propose eliminating fare zones
Blog posts sponsored by Drive Less Connect, ODOT’s sweet new ridesharing service.
The Oregonian reports that TriMet is indeed nearing a staff recommendation to eliminate fare zones and replace them with a flat $2.50 fare.
It’s not entirely clear, though, whether they think you should need to buy a daypass for $5 in order to transfer to a second vehicle. In this scenario free transfers would be eliminated; As we’ve been reporting, this would be a massive change to the system, especially for folks who use TriMet for more than just the daily back-and-forth work commute. Admirably, the O’s Joe Rose has tracked down the documents that move this proposal into broad public debate as soon as possible.
(An earlier version of this post said TriMet was proposing eliminating free transfers. See the comments for some discussion of this issue.)
Posted by Michael at 10:35 pm January 26th, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
Could TriMet save $25 million by caving to anti-MAX activists?
Blog posts sponsored by Drive Less Connect, ODOT’s sweet new ridesharing service.
Who needs Clackamas County anyway?
Looks as if TriMet could save $25 million of its own money by lopping off the planned Orange Line one stop south of the county line, Scott Johnson reports in Portland Transport. As he notes, it’s not a very cost-effective stretch of track.
Federal taxpayers would save another $50 million. And Clackamas County taxpayers, a few of whom headed up to condemn the new MAX line at Wednesday’s board meeting, would also save $25 million – though a lot of that would just be shifted onto commuters who’d have to make it to Milwaukie by bike, car or bus. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Michael at 10:14 am January 26th, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
TriMet board member says she knowingly violated city code with Pearl parking lot
Blog posts sponsored by Drive Less Connect, ODOT’s sweet new ridesharing service.
The senior member of TriMet’s board said Wednesday that she knew her development company wasn’t allowed to pave a Pearl District parking lot when tenants started asking about it in 2008.
But the prominent Portland developer said she did it anyway, because she disagrees with the city’s ban on adding surface auto parking downtown. Her company charged $100 a month per space in the illegal 112-space lot for three years.
"I think it’s a goofy code," said Tiffany Sweitzer, president of Hoyt Street Properties. "I think it needs to be changed."
Sweitzer’s firm was a primary landowner of the future Pearl District and helped engineer the walkable, transit-friendly neighborhood with the help of major investment by city taxpayers. She’s served on TriMet’s volunteer board of directors since 2004.
Posted by Michael at 11:52 pm January 25th, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
A public transit game: Imagine strangers laughing
Blog posts sponsored by DriveLessConnect, ODOT’s sweet new ridesharing service.
Here’s a heartwarming little trick for cheap entertainment on public transportation.
It comes from Julia Turner, a daily New York transit commuter, an editor at Slate and one of the hosts of their “Culture Gabfest.” (I haven’t missed an episode for years.)
Here’s Turner:
If you’re in a bad mood on the subway or on any form of public transit … if you imagine everyone on the subway laughing – imagine what they might look like when they’re laughing and what sort of thing might make them laugh – (a) it will entertain you for entire subway rides, and (b) it just makes you instantly empathize with and see the humanity in the teeming masses that surround you. Because you know, faces look different when they’re laughing, you can kind of tell from the crinkles in the laugh lines.
What a great little game. You can listen to Turner’s brief description here and subscribe to their podcast by iTunes or RSS.
(Creative Commons subway smile photo by hiroshiken.)
Posted by Michael at 10:48 am January 22nd, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
A quick word about SOPA and PIPA
Portland Afoot isn’t participating, with our big wiki brother, in the web blackout to protest the "Stop Online Piracy Act" and "PROTECT IP Act." But we are certainly the type of small web-based startup that could be affected by laws that prioritize copyright enforcement over innovation.
I’m a content creator, of course. We’re rigorously respectful of copyrights here, and always will be.
But the reason Portland Afoot uses a Creative Commons license (you can use all our stuff anywhere for free as long as you credit us) is that we think that these days, it makes a lot more business sense to encourage your fans’ creativity than to discourage it.
Be informed, and take action if you feel it’s right.
Posted by Michael at 9:31 am January 18th, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
In fight with union, is TriMet about to throw a long bomb?
Blog posts sponsored by Drive Less Connect, ODOT’s sweet new ridesharing site.
Something is brewing in TriMet management’s battle with its union.
Barring either (A) a substantial tax hike, (B) a huge service cut or (C) a rapid and unforseen transformation of the U.S. healthcare system to European cost-effectiveness, TriMet can’t afford to keep its promises to its workers. So managers have increasingly been looking for ways to bring the public around to the idea of breaking those promises.
The Oregonian’s labor-skeptical editorial board reports today that Gov. John Kitzhaber "will soon announce two new appointments to the TriMet board of directors. … In addition, some shakeup is likely in the makeup of the three-person Employment Relations Board."
Posted by Michael at 6:28 pm January 16th, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
OPAL says leadership change will refocus on transit organizing
Blog posts sponsored by Drive Less Connect, ODOT’s sweet new ridesharing service.
Portland’s most prominent transit advocacy organization is restructuring to take advantage of a major new grant and "make sure that organizing is front and center of all the work."
The Rev. Joseph Santos-Lyons, OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon‘s co-Executive Director for two years, has dialed down his role, leaving co-founder Jonathan Ostar as sole executive director.
A new hire, Galadriel Mozee, has taken the new title "director of organizing" and will continue some of Santos-Lyons’ previous responsibilities overseeing direct outreach and organizing of TriMet riders. Ostar said Friday that his own duties now "lie primarily with fundraising, relationship-building in a broader sense."
The new grant that will pay for most of Mozee’s time is a two-year, $150,000 award from the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund, announced last month. This triples OPAL’s 2009 $50,000 grant from the local foundation.
Posted by Michael at 10:39 am January 16th, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
