C-TRAN has car theft problem at Fisher’s Landing Transit Center

C-TRAN has a huge car theft problem at the Fisher’s Landing Transit Center park and ride which they apparently don’t wish to address.

Last night, my brother’s car was stolen from the parking lot at that transit center between 7:30am and 5:30pm. If you look at this map of the Fisher’s Landing Transit Center,  he parked his car on the East side of the parking lot (so, towards the bottom of the image). Apparently, this section of the parking lot lacks the light that the North and South parts of the parking lot have and, thus, are the last spots remaining if you’re running late and most of the crowd has parked.

Now, I understand that you may be thinking, “So this Mr. TriMetiquette guy’s brother has his car stolen and he wants to blow it out of proportion!” Fair enough. But when my brother was looking for his car, a gal pulled up next to him and asked if his car had been stolen… to which he replied it had. Apparently, her car had been stolen only a week ago from the same parking lot.

So what can C-TRAN do to combat this problem?

Install More Light Fixtures

The way the parking lot is set-up now, there are lots of bushes and shrubbery around where car prowlers can easily hide. I understand that they want the park and ride to look nice and not look like a flat slab of concrete. But I was there last night waiting for the cops with my brother and there were portions of the parking lot that had barely any light. That’s unacceptable.

Install Security Cameras

I don’t see this happening. Both TriMet and C-TRAN have the blanket “(Transit Agency) is not responsible for blahblahblah” on their websites. I know that they don’t wish to really be held responsible for any personal belongings being lost… but you could at least try to upkeep your park and ride parking lots in a fashion that doesn’t cater to car prowlers.

Has Your Car Been Stolen At A Park And Ride?

Please write up a comment if your car or personal belongings have been stolen at a park and ride location, either at a TriMet one or a C-TRAN one. Let me know what park and ride location it was as well as some general comments (such as maybe you thought the lighting wasn’t enough of a deterrent for car prowlers, etc.).

Nice new blog ranting about C-TRAN

The author of the blog Rantings of a Regular C-Tran Rider left me a note asking if I could take a look and let readers know about the blog.  It looks as if, yep, this blog definitely is all about ranting on C-TRAN.

In the spirit of sharing the blog to all of you, here’s my personal rant about C-TRAN: all caps?  Really?  Like you’re screaming at me.  C-TRAN.  No, I didn’t yell that… in fact, I whispered it in my head.  But I had to type it like C-TRAN.

In any case, feel like reading some ranting against C-TRAN?  Now you know where to go!

Riding public transportation from Salmon Creek, WA to the Portland International Airport

I recently had a reader contact me asking me how to advise him to take public transportation from Salmon Creek, WA to the Portland International Airport.  I’m not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to C-TRAN but I did take a stab at providing the best directions I thought were possible.  Here was my answer to his question:

So I’m assuming you could get to the Salmon Creek Park and Ride? If so, that would probably be the best.

Here’s another question: are you planning on going on taking public transportation on a weekend or on a weekday? I’m thinking the best way for you to get to PDX would be to take a C-TRAN Express bus… unfortunately, they only run on weekdays.

So it’s a roundabout way, but this is what I’m thinking:

Take the #134 – Salmon Creek Express – from the Salmon Creek Park and Ride to downtown. It actually should be fairly quick since there won’t be any stops outside of a couple in downtown Portland. From there, your best best would be to hop onto a red line MAX at 1st and Yamhill which would take you straight to the airport. Unfortunately, it’s not the greatest direct route to the airport… but I think it may be the best.

TriMet says it takes about 38 minutes to roll on the red line MAX from downtown to the airport; I find that a little much and would peg it around more like 25 – 30 minutes. So factor in another 25 or so minutes taking the 134 and I would allow an hour and fifteen minutes to travel.

The good thing is – when you buy a C-TRAN Express ticket for the 134, you won’t have to pay any fare for MAX – that C-TRAN pass covers it. So, that’s at least working in your favor.

Hope that helps. Yeah, it’s not the best route ever, but I think that’s the best you can do.

I would like to hear from any C-TRAN users if this is the best route for this reader.  If not, what route can he take to get from, essentially, the Salmon Creek Park and Ride to the Portland International Airport?

Vancouver is ready for light rail

I guess with gas being what it is these days, more & more Vancouver residents are in favor of having some sort of light rail.  The big question now is – where will it be?

The easiest way would be to extend TriMet’s Yellow Line over the Interstate Bridge and into downtown Vancouver.  But, as someone who has worked in downtown Vancouver and also has family living near there, after 5pm on weekdays downtown Vancouver is almost a ghost town.

If you go a little east from downtown, there’s more activity.  Walmart, I-205 & considerably more shops & restaurants bring in more people around that area.  Could you build off of the red line at the Parkrose Transit Center so light rail goes over the Glen Jackson Bridge and to Mill Plain?  Then again, it gets quite congested there during rush hour… and where would you have the line go?

While Vancouver might be ready for light rail, it’ll be a tough decision on how to implement it..

From Janzen Beach to Fisher’s Landing in Vancouver

I was sent a request from TriMetiquette reader Christine to map out a route about how to get from Janzen Beach to a specific address listed in the Fisher’s Landing area in Vancouver, WA.  Here’s the info:

First, you want to take the #41 – Camas / Washougal Limited from Delta Park to the Fisher’s Landing Transit Center.  From there, you can either take the #30 – Burton or the #37 – Highway 99 & Mill Plain bus lines to near your ending address.  Unfortunately, for the address you specifically mentioned, no route takes you right there.  However, if you just get off the stop by the Fred Meyer / Burgerville right there on 162nd, you’ll have a short walk to your ending destination.

That help?  Hope it does!