Guide dogs & TriMet - you see an occasional rider with one.  The dogs, themselves, are always obedient and not distracted (which every guide dog SHOULD be).

Read a story over at the Courageous Heart about a woman and her guide dog… and it’s written as a day in the life of an individual with a guide dog riding the bus & MAX.  And I have to say, seems like it’s always a fun (yet eventful) adventure.

My fiancee’s sister trains dogs… and downtown Portland, Oregon is a popular training ground for guide-dogs.  There’s even a guide dog campus located in Boring.

Definitely worth a read - it’s a really well-written story.

TriMetiquette reader Kristin sent me this story:

Kristin notes: face has been cutout to protect identity

Most riders are conscious of this unspoken etiquette: keep the volume low (conversations, music, drunk ramblings, etc.) and respect the almighty SILENCE.

It’s 5:30pm on Tuesday evening and I’m taking bus #12 home from Downtown. It’s the end of the workday, people are tired and we all want to enjoy a few minutes of solitude before we get off the bus and have to get back to the demands of our lives.

The bus is at full capacity; every seat is taken and people are standing so close to one another that I can smell my neighbors’ lunch on his breath. Fortunately, we can all keep our cool. Upon entering this bus, each of us vowed to respect thy neighbor by maintaining a code of silence.

Just as the bus is taking off, heading over the Burnside bridge, I hear a woman talking loudly – almost yelling – ‘Come on damn it, it’s Earth Day – smile! What the hell’s wrong with everyone.’ She proceeds to look at the people sitting to the left & right of her, gets up in their face and says ‘Why aren’tcha smiling? COME ON SMILE!’ People are looking away from her in hopes they will be spared from the rude awakening.

I can appreciate wanting to spread a little cheer. It would do us good to smile a bit more. Being rude & overtly loud certainly didn’t make me smile; in fact, it turned my smile upside down.

Alison Wiley over at the Diamond-Cut Life blog wrote about how she personally took some steps to help lower her “consumption lifecycle.” She took a cue from Michael Pollan’s piece in the NY Times called “Why Bother”. What she’s been doing:

“Me? I’ve been working in our food garden and enjoying a car-free weekend, using my legs and a TriMet bus to get me everywhere I’m going — church, the film “End of Suburbia” at the Bagdad on Hawthorne, and a dinner party reunion of our cross-country skiing group. Fun!”

Awesome about the bus part!  I’m interested in knowing - did Alison never ride a bus before?  I mean, I know some people have this “thing” about how the bus is not an attractive mode of transportation.  And while this may be the case in some cities, I find that commuting on the bus in Portland is not only attractive (they keep the bus in about as good as shape as possible considering the rider #s) but is also quite speedy.

Keep it up Alison!

Missed this little nugget of news, so apologies for it being a couple of days late:

TriMet is now testing automated stop announcements on seven bus lines.  What exactly is an ASA (automated stop announcement)?  From the news release:

“Buses with internal Automated Stop Announcements (ASA) are now notifying riders where they are along bus routes on seven TriMet bus lines. ASA ensures people who are hearing or sight impaired and those new to transit are informed of upcoming stops, by providing both internal readerboard and voice announcements of major stops along a bus route.”

The seven bus lines that are testing this out are:

• 6 - Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd
• 14 - Hawthorne
• 54 / 56 - Beaverton Hillsdale Highway / Scholls Ferry Rd
• 57 - TV Highway / Forest Grove
• 72 - Killingsworth / 82nd Ave
• 75 - 39th Ave / Lombard
• 79 - Clackamas Town Center

I personally think this is a nice feature to have on buses.  I know if I haven’t ridden a particular bus line before, I get antsy about which stop is coming up.  And most of the time I can’t seem to hear the bus driver over the speaker announcing some of the stops.  What is everyone else’s opinion on this?  Good, bad, indifferent?

If you’re interested, you can read more about this feature.

Since when did a seat on the MAX or bus have a sign on it that said, “Your dirty feet are welcome to be placed here”?

Not only is this some “TriMetiquette” but isn’t this something that is universally taught all during schooling? You’re in elementary school - your teacher tells you to not put your feet up on a seat. You’re in high school - your teacher tells you not to as well. Now that you’re on the MAX though, it’s perfectly fine to do it! Come on now…

To me, putting your feet up on another is really a sign of disrespect. If there are people on the MAX or bus, then you’re disrespecting other people. If there aren’t any people riding at that time, then you’re disrespecting TriMet’s property.

So please: keep those feet off of the seat.

I am all for keeping my body as clean as possible. Some may say I have a little OCD. But, some of the ways we clean ourselves should be kept in the home, behind closed doors.

I am talking to you Mr. “Rides line 8 every morning and Q-Tips his ears on the bus”. I am almost to the point of vomiting when I see that you are going to be on the bus with me. Without fail, you sit down in the priority seating area and begin to go to down on your ears with the Q-Tips. You only pause to inspect your findings left on the Q-Tip. Really man, I love that you are keeping your ear canals clean, I do too. But I would beg of you to do that before you leave the house. I can’t keep from looking, its like a train wreck. STOP!

-brewcaster

Aniceé over at Aniceé’s Digital Existence wrote about how she has been on a TriMet bus not once… but twice when it has crashed into something. Wow, how unlucky! I agree with her on this point:

“However, I will say this; I would much rather be in an accident on a Trimet than in a car. Ya get jerked around a bit on Trimet, but it’s more like driving over a beat-up speed-bump than hitting a car. Just a quick little bump-n-jerk.”

Very true…

This photo is an example of an area on the Max you are not supposed to stand. On the Max I believe this to be a pretty “light rule”. True, standing here may impede the ramp from extending, but I have yet to see that happen. When the train is full, sometimes you gotta stand here.

But MORE IMPORTANTLY, there is a similar area on the buses where you should not be standing unless the next stop is yours. I want to encourage riders to not stand in the little area where the back door is. It makes it very difficult for riders to exit around you in a space meant for a single person to walk through.

Don’t be that guy (or girl, but that seems to be rare)

-brewcaster