Feel like having a cut-out TriMet bus toy at home, at the office or even in the kitchen?  Then print this image out, cut it out & fold it up!  All you need is a little bit of tape and viola - you’ll have your very own TriMet paper bus.  I have a couple of these crashing into each other at work.  And yes, I’ll admit: I do play with them… rumbling bus noises included.

This is one of them in action:

Christian is going to be gone from July 13 - July 28 on a honeymoon.  This post is part of a series looking at TriMetiquette’s Flickr photostream while he’s gone.

Indeed, this is a picture of a TriMet tow truck towing a TriMet bus.  Phew!  I know - it’s like a “peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers” situation.

Christian is going to be gone from July 13 - July 28 on a honeymoon.  This post is part of a series looking at TriMetiquette’s Flickr photostream while he’s gone.

As I sat there on a nearly empty bus riding home after work, I thought to myself, “It’s almost like a metallic jungle in here!”

Definitely a whole heck of a lot of metal going on in the bus.  Something I really didn’t notice until that evening I snapped this pic.

Christian is going to be gone from July 13 - July 28 on a honeymoon.  This post is part of a series looking at TriMetiquette’s Flickr photostream while he’s gone.

I appreciate everyone’s patience while I’m gone.  Thanks, and see you in two weeks!

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?

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..

Enjoy the outdoors and live music at:

Red Star Roast House and Tavern, SW 5th & Washington

* Laurie Martinson’s piano student showcase, 12:30-1:30 p.m.
* Laurie Martinson’s piano student showcase, 2-3 p.m.
* Michael Allen Harrison, 3:30-4:30 p.m.
* Tom Grant, 5-6 p.m.
* Outside dining and beer garden, all day

Porto Terra Tuscan Grill & Bar, SW 6th & Taylor

* John Bunzow, 12:30-1:30 p.m.
* Terry Robb, 2-3 p.m.
* Jon Koonce, 3:30-4:30 p.m.
* Warren Pash, 5-6 p.m.
* Outside dining and beer garden, all day

Saks Fifth Avenue, SW 5th & Taylor

* Hoop Shine, Noon-1 p.m.
* DJ Rick, 1:30-4:30 p.m.
* KingNik Duo, 5-6 p.m.
* DJ Rev. Shines, 6:30-8 p.m.

Check out some of the events and activities for you to enjoy:

* Summer sales from Pioneer Place retailers
* Cosmetic makeovers and product samples from Macy’s
* Painting demonstration by local artist Gene Gill
* Beautiful vintage boat, provided by the Maritime Heritage Festival
* Portland Parks and Recreation’s “Rec’n'Roll” bus, featuring craft activities and a climbing wall for kids
* Outdoor dining and beer garden at Porto Terra Tuscan Grill and Bar and the Red Star Roast House and Tavern
* Hoops action with the Portland Trail Blazers
* Face painters and balloon souvenirs for kids
* Music and dancing to DJ Rick
* DJ Rev. Shines

For more info, go to The Next Big Thing Downtown’s page about the Street Fair.

TriMet has a nice round-up of Portland metro activities with links included to the Transit Planner for each.

Have a happy & safe 4th of July!

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.

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…