A harrowing experience – bully TriMet ticket inspectors

I received this email from a TriMetiquette reader wanting to keep their name confidential. It’s a personal story about broken ticket machines, TriMet ticket inspector bullies & overall disgusting service from TriMet security officials. I’ll let the email do the talking:

There were 9 TriMet security people in yellow vests at the Lloyd Center stop at about 6:30 p.m., checking for validated fares and issuing tickets to anyone who was breaking the law. Fair enough. I don’t buy a fare when I go downtown because I live in fareless square, but I always pay when I’m heading east to the airport. But one Tuesday it was virtually impossible to pay legitimately, and the TriMet cops were taunting riders and making things worse.

There are supposed to be four fare machines at this stop. This was what I found:

• One of the two fare machines on the eastbound platform had been removed.
• The other eastbound fare machine, as well as the two westbound machines, were all unable to process credit cards.
• All three machines said they would take exact change only, and all we had was a $20 bill.
• After my husband found someone to make change for his $20, we learned that two of the machines would not take any cash – they rejected our ones.

So essentially there was only one working ticket machine, and it would only take exact change.

My husband and I missed the first red line train, and two blue lines passed us by, while we frantically tried each of the three machines with our credit card, then tried each machine with the $20 and realized we’d be throwing away almost $16 if we used it, then asked and asked until we found someone to make change, then tried each of the machines AGAIN before the third was finally able to take our money.

I politely tried to tell the TriMet cops that there were problems with the machines, and they were very rude and wound up escalating the situation. I got a lecture from one that we don’t live in a cashless society, and that it was foolish of me to expect to be able to use plastic at a TriMet station where I have been able to use a credit card for years. Another told me I should sue TriMet for my fare if I missed my plane. One nice officer told me he’d look the other way if my husband and I got on the train to the airport, because we were clearly distressed. But another officer overheard this and said that we’d be ticketed if we tried it.

At this point I was at one end of the platform trying to get a machine to work with my credit card, while my husband was at the other end looking for change. I was on the verge of tears, very angry, and started yelling at a crowd of yellow-vested TriMet officers that it was garbage that they were ticketing people for being in a situation they had no control over. There are teenagers beating up on people on the Yellow Line in North Portland and out in the suburbs, and here they’re harassing people who have legitimate business and who WANT TO play by the rules, when they should be fixing broken machines or stopping violence somewhere where it has actually happened.

One of the guards came forward and really got in my face, and started saying things like, “Do people come to your job and criticize you for the way you do it,” which I thought was pretty funny, because as a matter of fact they do. And when I screw up, I do my best to fix the mistake, I don’t make it worse.

At this point my husband returned to my end of the platform and pulled me away and told me to calm down. He was told that if he didn’t calm down, he would be banned to ride TriMet.

So we quieted down and waited for the next train. While we were waiting, a soft-spoken man with a heavy accent came up to me and told me that he’d put a $20 bill in for a two-zone fare, and had gotten no change. And when he complained to the TriMet cops, they told him there was nothing he could do.

I usually love the Max and the bus, love my neighborhood because of its great transit, and am happy to pay my fair share to take advantage of the system. But this was an extremely disheartening experience.

7:37am on Blue Line MAX this morning

Here’s a personal story from me (remember – if you ever have any comments or want to share a story, feel free to use the form on the “Care to Share” page):

It was 7:37am.  We were stopping at the 82nd Ave Transit Center on a blue line MAX heading towards downtown.  The operator came on the intercom asking all of us to get our fare ready to show to fare inspectors.

Panic.

As we pulled up, I could see the fare inspectors waiting there.  People around me were asking, “Are they going to come on?!” and saying things like, “I never buy fare because they never check!”  Luckily for them, the inspectors only checked those getting off the trains.

So we pulled away.  And everyone around me seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

This should not be the way it is.  I’m a very non-confrontational guy… but I wanted to ask the lady right next to me – one of the individuals out of the many asking if they were boarding with a panicked look on her face -  why she feels that she doesn’t have to buy a ticket to ride.  What gives you the right to ride for free while others like me pay for every trip?  Does she know that this $0.25 increase in September is happening?  Why should she care about that; she doesn’t even pay.

This reminded me a little of the Wall-e movie I watched on Saturday.  The movie, as you all already know, is really a subtle jab at how lazy, uncaring & selfish the people of the world are.  Wall-e is cleaning up the Earth because all of the Earthlings didn’t care; they threw garbage where they pleased, they didn’t care about anything (or anyone) but themselves.

As I walked out of the theater, I was walking out in aisles full of trash people left on the ground.  I mean, mounds of popcorn, popcorn boxes, drinks, candy boxes, everything.  Did these people just miss the whole entire point of the movie?!  Needless to say, my fiancee picked up some trash as we were exiting the movie theater (I’m glad she got the point of the movie!).

I sincerely ask all of you reading this blog post – please pay your proper fare.  You may be ‘saving a few bucks’, but the effects of you not purchasing fare can be felt by others.  Maybe, just maybe, if everyone purchased fare, we might be having a $0.05 fare increase in September, not a $0.25 increase…

TriMet giving tickets to non-hung bikes on Max?

My wife works in Beaverton, she normally uses a two bike system so she doesn’t have to hassle with bringing a bike on the Max. But unfortunately yesterday this wasn’t the case.

Blue line 185th Stop:
She was about to board, when she saw that Trimet ticket checkers were not letting cyclists board unless there was an empty hanger for their bike. Train after train they were kicking people off from previous stops, a group of 20-30 cyclists standing confused gathered. One was quoted “I guess I will ride to Portland…” My wife said one cyclist challenged them verbally and was given another ticket. His defense was that he was not blocking any one from moving in the cabin, and as he (and I) understood Trimet’s rules, this was allowed. No tolerance, bike on hanger or bike off train.

Here is my wife’s comment about the situation, taken from BikePortland comments:

Great work Trimet. You have ignored bike capacity issues, and now you are trying to force them off the train. Bravo.

*Update – Jonathan Maus from BikePortland.org pointed out that this is not a new issue:

http://bikeportland.org/2007/04/20/trimets-bike-policy-differs-from-actual-enforcement/

What makes me even more upset, is this line:

“we have clarified this point with our inspectors and expect no further issues in this regard.”

Here we are a little over a year later, same issue my friend.

**UPDATE2 -

BikePortland has contacted TriMet and has received a response, read here:
http://bikeportland.org/2008/06/27/trimet-security-still-saying-no-hook-no-ride/

 ***Update 3 -

BikePortland has another follow up based on another response from TriMet.

-Brewcaster

A(nother) nutty TriMet story

I love how there are so many personal stories about TriMet. I read this truly nutty one written by a member of the damnportlanders Livejournal group. Here’s an excerpt:

“When she stands up her crutches fall to the ground and she just leaves them on the bus and heads to the medium in the center of the road and squats…”

Truly bizarre behavior…

BlueOregon’s take on TriMet’s fare increase – hell no!

T.A. Barnhart of BlueOregon wrote a very compelling argument against TriMet’s upcoming fare increase in September.  He has also observed the increase in ridership many of us have personally seen ourselves – be it with our bus we usually take getting more & more full each week or MAX trains being packed more than ever.

Very nicely presented.. definitely worth a read if you’re interested in reading a well-written argument against TriMet’s September fare increase plans.