A guy and his lady sit on the #9 with another guy sitting across from them.  Both silent as they look forward at the low floor section of the bus.  They don’t know each other and have no idea who each other are.  Then it happens, the lone fellow asks the guy with his lady something about good venues to check out at night in Portland.  A conversation, politely and at a respectful tone strikes out.  The young lady chimes in also, words of Seinfeld coming to town, places to go after hours, and what to do are sent back and forth between these strangers.  Smiles are had and both continue on in their discussion.  The conversation continues unabated with a friendly tone, new friends it is, whether single serving or not, they’re friend and cohorts for this ride!

You’ll never see that in a traffic jam or while driving about in an auto, isolated and alone.

Several more people board and we have a full bus.  Enough to make an average per passenger of about 45mpg!  That’s a VERY respectable efficiency at 11:21pm!

I get off before even half of these people have finished their ride.  In calm the bus lurches forward into the darkness down Powell.  Now I stand alone, to walk across the street and into home.  Another grand night of nerdy and awesome in Portland complete.  I am satisfied with my night.  Another 30+ people off to a calm comfortably warm night.

Logo

I shelled some pennies out of pocket and have a working logo that will be introduced to the site soon!  Yeah, I’m digging it.  It goes with the whole transit and sleuth theme, and has a bit of Portland style to boot!  Yes, I hired local, cuz I’m cool like that.  Stay tuned, it’ll be up real soon!

Interviews

I’ve sent out a few (ok, 100+) interviews to Portlanders, Chicagoans, San Franciscans, and many more about their respective commutes.  This I’ll put together in a series of entries and also do a kind of roll up aggregate of the totals.  It is, at this time, a bit biased since it is mostly tech related & Twitter users.  But none the less, it’s still rather interesting when you get into the different commutes different people have for different career fields.

Transit Influx

Looks like PDX is starting to go hard core on transit planning again.  Of course, leading the charge is light rail plans (cuz ya know, you can just toss buses into service without planning?!?  I suppose, seems they’re often left out).  I’ll have more on some of the maps and other thoughts soon.

Took these during my commute experiment on the WES.

This is a shot of the Cherriots Express Bus to Salem.

The design definitely stood out, even though it had a rather 80’s feel to it.  I still dug it, regardless.

I had hoped to jump one of these buses down to Salem and back in the afternoon after work one day, but since most of the week was screwed up I didn’t make it.

Also note, the hybrid design of the bus, which I’m still surprised TriMet can’t find more use for Hybrid buses or at least clean fuel burning buses.

The next set are photos I got while waiting at Beaverton Transit Center.

Over the next couple weeks (or maybe months even) I’ll be posting interviews I’m lining up with commuters all around Portland and the world for that matter.  The interviews will follow a certain set of questions but also not be limited to those questions.  The general theme will be what someone uses for their mode, why they use that mode, and what they like or don’t like about their commute.  Ending with what one would do to change their commute if they could.

If anyone out there in the blogosphere would like to be interviewed, or would like me to chase someone down specifically, let me know – leave a comment.

Some key people I’d like to interview in regards to this is Portland’s Mayor Sam Adams & it would be real cool if I could land an interview with President Obama.  Maybe that is a bit high to aim, but hey, I don’t like to put limits on myself.

Any other ideas for interviews or suggestions on topics related to commuting, transportation, or things of this nature pop a comment in.