Different from the moment you step in: TriMet’s 55 new buses (Photos)
If you’re lucky enough to swing onboard one of TriMet’s 55 newest buses this fall – it’s about 9 percent of the agency’s fleet, its first bus purchase in three years – you’ll know.
The inside of these 42-foot Gillig-built vehicles is bathed in light:
This will be because the windows are bigger, especially in the back, where they stretch almost from seat to ceiling. The lights are LEDs, not flickering fluorescents. The window frames are silver, not black. The seats are bright blue vinyl, not dark blue fabric. And the back wall and the inside of the doors are white, too:
Posted by Michael at 1:28 pm May 18th, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
$15 to Vancouver BC (and 5 more things you didn’t know about BoltBus)
Blog coverage sponsored by Drive Less Connect, ODOT’s sweet rideshare matching site.
It hasn’t even launched yet, but it’s clear (from our traffic logs, for one thing) that Portland already loves BoltBus.
The insanely cheap express bus service, which tomorrow starts running six times daily between Portland and Seattle with fares that start at $7 and top out at $25, is already adding direct service to Vancouver, BC, too.
Service starts May 31. Most fares to British Columbia will probably hover around $35, BoltBus General Manager David Hall said Wednesday – though earlybird fares to Vancouver seem to start at $15 and, like the Seattle service, one randomly selected seat on each bus will sell for $1.
Tickets to BC are available now – check it out. And yes, the wi-fi will still be free.
At BoltBus’s launch event in Pioneer Courthouse Square Wednesday, Hall shared some more details of this exciting new travel option.
Posted by Michael at 1:56 pm May 16th, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
Jeff Smith’s back pages: His 2011 thoughts about MAX-stop music and hot donuts
Blog coverage sponsored by Drive Less Connect, ODOT’s sweet carpool matching site.
Before he was a come-from-behind mayoral candidate in last night’s primary, Jefferson Smith was one of the first politicians whose staff started returning Portland Afoot’s calls.
Our 10-minute newsmagazine was barely six months old, with a few hundred subscribers, when the state representative took half an hour to talk to contributor Rebecca Robinson for her March 2011 “Street Talk” feature. In celebration of Smith’s openness to an odd little journalism startup (and our charitable desire to share Smith’s tip about East Portland’s best donut joint), here’s the short piece, in full.
Pick your punchline: “Mozart mellows muggers.” “Scofflaws Bach off.” State Rep. Jefferson Smith (D-East Portland) says TriMet should curb crime by broadcasting classical music at the worst MAX stops. We caught Smith between a visit with President Obama and a MAX Action meeting to dig into his kooky, creative concept.
Posted by Michael at 1:08 am May 16th, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
Car2go on NW service disruption: ‘We’re going to get this fixed’
Blog coverage sponsored by Drive Less Connect, ODOT’s sweet ride-matching service.
Portland’s flashy new carsharing service is having technical difficulties in northwest Portland.
A cell tower disruption in the Pearl District last week has knocked out much of Car2go’s service in the area surrounding its own office, roughly between Lovejoy and Burnside, Interstate 405 and the Willamette River, spokeswoman Katie Stafford said Tuesday.
If Car2go members try to start or finish a trip in the area, they may find themselves unable to open the car – or unable to end their trip, for which they’re paying 35 cents a minute. This is because, unlike Zipcar, Car2go vehicles must communicate with their central network at each end of every trip.
See below the jump for how to avoid paying for a bad connection, plus details about Portland Afoot’s new unofficial email alert for future Car2go disruptions.
Posted by Michael at 11:12 pm May 8th, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
BoltBus, launching in May, offers rides to Seattle for $7
Howdy, first-timers! We share useful news for Portlanders who get around without cars. You can follow our work by email here, or follow us on Facebook here.
Portland, you can now catch a bus to Seattle for $7 to $9. Including wi-fi. And if you can squeeze necessities into a carry-on, your bike rides free.
Too good to be true? Nope. You can already buy tickets on the BoltBus website. Service starts May 17.
BoltBus, which is actually owned and operated by Greyhound, has been providing ultra-low-cost express bus service around the Northeast U.S. for several years. They’ve chosen the Pacific Northwest as their first corridor outside the East Coast.
BoltBus even randomly picks one of its early ticket-buyers to receive a mind-boggling $1 fare. Full details on our wiki’s new page about BoltBus.
You might also enjoy our tips for getting a good seat on Amtrak Cascades.
Creative Commons BoltBus photo by Frank Gruber.
Posted by Michael at 5:04 pm April 30th, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
TriMet union votes to raise its medical premiums, documents suggest
As TriMet’s management and union continue to jockey for public sympathy amid fare hikes, it looks as if workers have agreed to make a key concession on their benefits.
Unionized TriMet workers apparently voted Friday to, for the first time, accept health coverage that requires them to cover a share of their monthly insurance premiums.
The 607-336 mail vote was reported Friday on the union’s website. Below the jump, I’ve posted what I’m told is a copy of the union’s newly approved proposal.
The public fight between TriMet and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 is far from resolution – at an Occupy-affiliated event this month, the union called this month for the transit agency’s top executive to be fired – but the union’s willingness to cut its own medical benefits would be a symbolically important gesture.
Posted by Michael at 2:20 pm April 28th, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
Low-car voter guide: 3 differences among Eileen Brady, Charlie Hales and Jefferson Smith
Part of our series about issues that matter to transit riders in Portland’s 2012 local elections, a project of Aaron Brown. Blog coverage sponsored by Drive Less Connect, ODOT’s sweet new ride-matching service.
It’s Friday, and we’ve saved the most interesting local race of the year for last.
The Portland mayoral primary May 15 looks like anybody’s game. All three leading candidates have an interest in transportation – two of them even said last month that they’d dismiss the city’s sitting transportation director – and all are clearly fans of low-car movement in general.
But they certainly don’t agree on everything that matters to transit riders. Some of their differences, lifted from our low-car voter guide to the mayor’s race:
- Hales would continue to be one of Streetcar’s biggest fans; Smith calls it a lower priority and Brady doesn’t see expansion “in the near future.” Portland Streetcar is Hales’s baby – he was given a lifetime Streetcar pass when he left the city council in 2002 – and Hales told us that after shoring up transit service he’d look forward to streetcar “possibilities all around the compass rose.” Smith ruled it out unless the feds pay the bill, and Brady is against Streetcar expansion, at least for now.
- Brady and Smith are enthusiastic about using tolling to fight congestion; Hales is comfortable with tolling only on new facilities. Congestion tolling matters to transit commuters because it would get them off the hook for the cost of highway expansions that are useful only to rush-hour auto commuters. Though all three candidates support it, Hales doesn’t think it’s a good idea unless it’s used to pay for a recently built project, while the other two suggest it could be useful on any crowded highway. (Also, don’t miss Hales’s interesting solution for funding the new Sellwood Bridge.)
- Brady and Hales get excited about expanding rural bike paths; Smith gets excited about redeveloping urban parking lots. We asked each candidate to name their favorite transit and active transportation facilities. Brady praised the Springwater Trail and called for its continued growth; Hales pitched his vision for a riverbank bike path to Astoria and added another passionate plug for the Streetcar; and Smith said his favorite transit facility is the Gateway Transit Center, for its “tremendous untapped opportunity.”
And that’s a wrap for our 2012 low-car voter’s guide. We plan to update it occasionally during the general election, adding links to other coverage when appropriate, but the project is mostly done. Check out our other summaries of each race:
- the Metro race for North, Northwest, downtown and inner Northeast Portland
- the Metro race for inner Southeast and Southwest Portland
- the city council race for Commissioner Position 1
- the city council race for Commissioner Position 4
…and don’t forget to vote by May 15.
Posted by Michael at 11:56 pm April 26th, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
Low-car voter guide: 3 differences among Steve Novick, Mark White and Jeri Williams
Part of our series about issues that matter to transit riders in Portland’s 2012 local elections, a project of Aaron Brown. Blog coverage sponsored by Drive Less Connect, ODOT’s sweet new ride-matching service.
Two neighborhood activists from lower-income parts of Portland – North and East – face uphill fights for city council against happy (and well-financed) Portland political warrior Steve Novick.
But though neither has the political background of Novick, who made a strong race for a U.S. Senate seat in 2008, White and Williams are legitimate campaigners – Williams is endorsed by former Mayor Tom Potter – and, as our voter’s guide to this May 15 primary race shows, each has a reasonable grasp of local policy.
And all three have interesting disagreements with each other on transit issues. A few:
- White and Williams oppose the Columbia River Crossing as proposed; Novick could accept it. Novick says he’d test tolling before making “final decisions” on the bridge, but expressed (in our interview and his questionnaire for Bike Walk Vote, which endorsed him) that he could support an I-5 expansion if it brought light rail, better freight access and improved bike/pedestrian facilities. White opposes tolling, a bigger highway and light rail unless it’s requested by Clark County; Williams is a longtime bridge skeptic on air-pollution grounds.
- Novick would prioritize YouthPass for poorer students, while White would prioritize it for East Portland. The free TriMet passes offered to Portland Public high schoolers, scheduled to disappear for most students after June, were once paid mostly by the state, which has long subsidized public school transportation in other districts. With state funding gone, all three candidates said they’d support tapping the city budget to continue the program, but Novick would restrict it to lower-income students who either don’t attend their neighborhood schools or live far from schools. (Other low-income students are already covered by PPS.) White, meanwhile, wants it expanded to East County school districts (if there’s money) and Williams seemed to be confusing the free YouthPasses with TriMet’s fare discount for youth.
- Novick wants to improve transit by making public health plans smarter; White wants to cut demand with more mixed-use neighborhoods; Williams supports higher fares for people with jobs. Alone of all the candidates we interviewed, Novick answered our question about transit efficiency with a suggestion for improving transit workers’ health: renegotiating union contracts to offer better preventative care for the most expensive workers. White thinks rising oil costs will require more mixed-use neighborhoods. Williams said it doesn’t make sense for her employer to subsidize her TriMet pass while unemployed people pay full price.
Anything missing from our guide? Add it yourself – just click “edit” on the right side of the page. And check out our introductions to other races from earlier this week:
- Metro race for North, Northwest, downtown and inner Northeast Portland
- Metro race for inner Southeast and Southwest Portland
- city council race for Commissioner Position 1
Posted by Michael at 2:38 pm April 26th, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
Low-car voter guide: 3 differences between Amanda Fritz and Mary Nolan
Part of our series about issues that matter to transit riders in Portland’s 2012 local elections, a project of Aaron Brown. Blog coverage sponsored by Drive Less Connect, ODOT’s sweet new ride-matching service.
The Portland City Council race that’s looking tightest has split the active transportation community, too.
Incumbent Amanda Fritz, a Southwest Portland neighborhood activist turned politician, has been a loud voice for better sidewalks but more dubious of some bike projects. Mary Nolan, a former majority leader of the state House of Representatives, nabbed the endorsement of Bike Walk Vote on the strength of her own support for low-car travel and played a big role in funding the upcoming Orange MAX Line to southeast Portland.
Our new voter’s guide to this race in the May 15 primary shows clear, valid disagreements between a pair of politicians who think in different ways about low-car life:
- Fritz thinks Streetcar is mostly a way to encourage denser development; Nolan sees Streetcar as transportation for places that are already dense. If Streetcar expands further, Fritz would prioritize building a standalone Streetcar loop in Lents. Nolan would prioritize expansion into the Lloyd District.
- Fritz wants more local control of TriMet; Nolan thinks this would endanger state funding. Nolan, who worked hard to secure $250 million in state lottery revenue for the Orange Line, argues that localizing TriMet board appointments would make state lawmakers feel “off the hook financially.” Fritz, though, calls it “a problem” that TriMet’s board is appointed by the governor and confirmed by state senators.
- Nolan wants to encourage more transit-oriented housing; Fritz wants to concentrate transit-oriented housing in areas already served by transit. Nolan said she sees a limited role for the city in encouraging affordable housing near transit, but supports lighter regulatory processes for transit-oriented projects. Fritz has a different tack: she thinks the city can help affordability by removing subsidies and and zoning for big apartment buildings from areas that don’t already have good transit.
Anything missing from our guide? Add it yourself – just click “edit” on the right side of the page. And check out our introductions to the two Metro races from earlier this week:
- for North, Northwest, downtown and inner Northeast Portland
- for inner Southeast and Southwest Portland
Posted by Michael at 2:21 pm April 25th, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
Low-car voter guide: 3 differences between Jonathan Levine & Bob Stacey
Part of our series about issues that matter to transit riders in Portland’s 2012 local elections. Blog coverage sponsored by Drive Less Connect, ODOT’s sweet new ride-matching service.
If you want a candidate who’d try to improve bus service by hitting the breaks on TriMet’s light rail construction, it’s Jonathan Levine.
If you want a candidate whose sleep murmurs probably consist of detailed plans to improve land efficiency along major transit corridors, it’s Bob Stacey.
The two are vying to represent inner Southeast and Southwest Portland in our regional government as councilors from Metro District 6. Stacey has worked on staff for the state, the city, TriMet, Congress and the land-protection group 1000 Friends of Oregon, where he started as staff attorney and later spent seven years as executive director; Levine has been a project manager at the University of Western States chiropractic college and worked in educational travel, language education and writing.
Here are three ways they differ, some of the highlights of Portland Afoot’s guide to this Metro council race:
- Levine opposes MAX expansion. Levine says light rail “is nice technology now but is very expensive and is probably going to be outdated in 15 to 20 years.” Stacey isn’t a rail absolutist – he told us he’d be open to bus rapid transit as part of a compromise for a smaller Columbia River Crossing, a project supported by neither candidate – but Stacey’s prescription for making transit dollars go farther is to build a “more vigorous network of bus and rail service” that riders would be willing to pay more to use.
- Stacey’s bursting with detailed plans. For example, Stacey called in his interview to replace the gas tax with a three-pronged “utility” fee system modeled on the way we pay for electricity: a universal access fee paid by all residents; a fee per mile driven, to offset wear and tear; and an anti-congestion fee during peak hours that could be used to fund alternatives to auto transportation. Levine, for his part, refused to share his position on gas taxes.
- Levine wants to cut bike and pedestrian projects to increase spending on urban freight; Stacey says that money should come out of automobile projects. Both candidates agree that freight projects are important.
Anything missing from our guide? Add it yourself – just click “edit” on the right side of the page. And if you’re voting in North, Northeast or Northwest Portland, check out our introduction to the separate Metro race there.
Posted by Michael at 2:00 am April 24th, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
