Here’s a story of an out-of-towner that had a wonderfully positive experience using TriMet to get around Portland. He says:
“TriMet puts San Diego MTS to shame. This may be due in large part to the fact that TriMet gets three times the budget than MTS ($741m versus $239m), yet serves an area half the size, with half the people.
Also, Portland has a well-planned street grid. San Diego’s street grid was designed by a drunk six-year-old monkey playing SimCity 2000.”
Hey! When I played SimCity 2000, my street grid was all over the place for Christiantown (based off of my name, not the religion). And my residents loved it!
Anyway, awesome to hear of your experience - TriMet certainly is one of the best public transportation systems in the U.S.
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Hell I used to live in San Diego, I thought it was pretty good there!
“TriMet puts San Diego MTS to shame. This may be due in large part to the fact that TriMet gets three times the budget than MTS ($741m versus $239m), yet serves an area half the size, with half the people. ”
San Diego MTS Service District: 570 square miles
TriMet Service District: 575 square miles
San Diego MTS service area population: 3 million in San Diego County
TriMet service area population: Not available on TriMet’s website. The 2007 population estimate for the Portland Metropolitan Area is 2,159,720, and includes population in Columbia and Yamhill Counties, Oregon (for which TriMet serves no part of), Clark and Skamania Counties in Washington (for which TriMet serves no part of), and the entire population of Washington, Multnomah and Clackamas Counties - not all of which is within TriMet’s service district.
San Diego MTS Operating Budget: $270 million
TriMet Operating Budget: $370 million
It should be noted that TriMet includes “debt service” as an operating cost, but San Diego does not.
“Also, Portland has a well-planned street grid. San Diego’s street grid was designed by a drunk six-year-old monkey playing SimCity 2000. ”
Apparently one has not seen the “street grid” in Southwest Portland. Or Beaverton. Or Tigard.
“We took one bus from our hotel to Washington Park, and the driver was the most adorable old lady. We got on, and she said, “nobody gets on my bus downtown during the week. You must be tourists.” So we got the grand tour of everything on her line, and she even picked us up again when we were done at the park.”
That’s because there is only one vehicle that operates the 63 route. So you will have the same Operator going to and from. (That’s also a sign of the ridership; not to mention that it is one of the few TriMet routes that operates with a thirty foot bus.)
“MAX cars, however, don’t try and cram 225 people per car”
They do at rush hour.
“The bus system is similarly fantastic. From downtown, no matter where we wanted to go, we only had to take one bus to get there. No transfers. The line numbers were the same in both directions.”
If you don’t need to transfer, then why does the Operator give you a transfer slip??? Many Portland bus riders would disagree, transfers are a daily occurance here. In fact, a high percentage of MAX trips require at least one transfer.
“Some bus stations had LED signs”
Very few bus stops have LED signs. There is no such thing as a “bus station” in Portland, except the Greyhound station. That’s because TriMet doesn’t believe in “bus stations”, just “bus shelters” at best.
“buses themselves had signs onboard showing the next scheduled stop. Text-to-speech announcements, too”
Only a few busses have this.
“This was because their budget allowed them to put GPS transmitters on every bus and train”
There’s a lot of things TriMet’s budget DOESN’T provide for. (Like air conditioning on a day like yesterday or today.)
After living in Portland all my life, I lived in San Diego for a few years. I commuted from downtown San Diego to UCSD in La Jolla using the MTS system. I can attest to the fact that, compared to TriMet, MTS had:
1) Dirty buses that broke down on a regular basis, were not consistantly on-time.
Every bus and trolley that I rode seemed to have old upholstery that was clearly not maintained or cleaned on a regular basis. As a result, the riders probabaly didn’t respect what little cleanliness was left. One time, I saw a passenger (who was dressed nicely), drop his half-eaten breakfast sandwich on the floor of the bus - intentionally. GROSS!
And I couldn’t count how many times a bus would be late, or would break-down. A few times, the bus would be so late that by the time the bus finally arrived, it was crammed full of people that you didn’t want to take it anyway.
2) Unhelpful, unfriendly drivers (although I did meet a couple outstanding drivers who were clear exceptions to the rule).
After about a year of riding the same route and getting off at the same stop, one driver actually passed the stop. I politely asked why he passed the stop (that I’ve been getting off on for about a year), and he very rudely told me that the stop was moved and wasn’t there anymore. I couldn’t believe how rude he was. After getting off the bus, I walked by the stop I wanted to get off at, and, sure enough, the sign was still there, just like it was the day before. WTF?!
Needless to say, when I returned to Portland, I LOVED riding TriMet!
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