So were are we meeting at?  We narrowed it down to the #12, south west area, Saturday about 7:00(ish) and we'll hang out & talk until we're done or last bus!

Everyone throw in an idea and I'll finalize and post location this afternoon or early tomorrow.

That is the question!  Railway Age has a piece on this titled “Amtrak gets funding for Western services”.  As quoted from the article, “The Coast Starlight, running between Los Angeles and Seattle, will receive $81.1 million; the Cascades, supported in part by the states of Oregon and Washington, will get $56.1 million.”  So I want to know!  Will we get increased service?  Will we get more equipment?  We ought to get more trains AND more service for that amount of money!

$81.1 million should EASILY buy enough sets to almost double frequency on the Coast Starlight Route.  Amtrak might of course need to split some existing equipment and such, but the point is, they could do it.  Maybe they could fix a few of those stretches that have wretched slow orders too?  I’m almost scared to actually know what we’ll get for the money.  I dread to think that it’ll all go to silly absurd things like painting stations or adding something stupid like parking, but I’ll give’em the benefit of the doubt.  I look forward to the news.

As for the Cascades landing $56.1 million, we better get some more of that service Washington (and Oregon sort of) has promised us for years!  We could easily double the passenger carried by doubling the number of trains.  With $56.1 million that should get the system AT LEAST a few more engines and another 1-2 train sets.  Of course those FRA regulatory mafia will have to lay off in order for Amtrak to get anymore of those excellent (and VERY safe) Talgo Trainsets, if Talgo would even sell us anymore.

So does anyone have any news on this?  Any word lemme know!!!  I’m chomping at the bit to know!

I got to thinking, with all the heaping of hatred on Wal-Mart about destroying small towns and encouraging sprawl, what really played the largest part of encouraging sprawl?

Wal-Mart, Interstates, or Zoning?

I kind of see the joint catastrophe of zoning changes the Government made to enable sprawling housing, that then needed an enabler which was provided by the auto industry, which then was further enabled by pouring Government expenditures into Interstates & highways, which then landed us with Interstates.  This exacerbated the situation.

With a growing demand for ever cheaper stuff and the change in zoning and lifestyle changes based on the automobile larger and larger consumption volume was met with larger and larger stores.  In turn we finally got the mediocrity that is Wal-Mart.

It appears, that it be a downward spiral to lower and lower standards.  The majority, and key actions that kicked off the spiral I still stand by, where primarily Government actions to “engineer” a new lifestyle and to mitigate many of the problems post-WWII.  Such as what to do with a market that had nothing for the 10,000,000 soldiers coming back from war, the plunging of the economy back into the depression which wasn’t truly finished before the war, and other issues.

Agree?  Disagree?  How did we really end up in this mess?  Did people really choose cars & sprawling mess because of choice or where there other key motivators?  Any other key indicators that lit of this ongoing catastrophe?  How did we lose our transit, really?  I still contend strongly, that the Government and NOT the market got us into transit unfriendly, pedestrian unfriendly, non-human, auto oriented lifestyle.  What are your thoughts on that notion?

This first shot I got of my trip out to Wilsonville was classic.  Click on it and look at that speedometer!  Yeah, I was rolling!  The next shot just tells the future ever so brashly.

Yeah.  Passed up with not a sound.  The WES flew right by me while I rolled a double digit 20 or so MPH.  Behind me in the rear view mirror you can see the traffic stacked up.  This was at 6:07pm.  I ended up in scheduling and alarm clock debacle after debacle.  I ended up driving out Monday which really sucked, I could have been on that ride instead I was stuck in traffic in the ole’ Zed (350Z for those non-Nissan peepz).  Real good use of a sports car, NOT.

The next day I grabbed a few good shots.

Here I grabbed a shot of the conductor walking the station before departure.  I think the sign embodies the ideal of the system from the perspective of Wilsonville & Beaverton.  Because really, out of all the riders, all but about 5 total people went into downtown Portland.  Everyone riding the WES went somewhere within the corridor or transferred to a bus or MAX heading westward.

Over at The Light Rail Blogger, a Pheonix Resident who has gone car free, has a story about domestic violence.  Ok, this story really doesn’t entail violence at a transit stop, but near it.  Commonly people here in Portland also write or talk about various acts of violence at light rail or other transit stations.  There are a few things that really bother me.  I’m going to elaborate those real quick.

• Domestic violence?  WTF is this?  Violence is violence.  I don’t want to see someone beating a dog, another human, a woman beating a guy, a guy hitting a woman, or anything of that sort.  I don’t even like to hear the ghetto kids (or whatever they refer to themselves as) acting all tough and making what amounts to idle threats.  Be proud, be strong, watch out for each other, and stand up for those people that are threatened.  Do everything you can like “The Light Rail Blogger” did.  Call 911, step up, do something do anything.  Don’t let that type of behavior go unstopped and uncontested.  If you don’t act, you are AS MUCH part of the problem as those committing the violence.  Sure, it takes courage to do something, but nobody loves, needs, or wants anymore cowards around than we already have.  So don’t be another one.
• Transit is something more and more of us ride with each other to and from work, to and from our daily errands, and just around via transit to enjoy a Sunday ride.  Something all of us will notice as we actually encounter our fellow citizens and general human beings out there, is that some of us humans aren’t all there.  Suburbanites just ignore these differences, bypass them, and don’t act to remedy or resolve issues with these people with problems and problem people.  But us urbanites are in touch with these individuals and it is up to us to maintain our lifestyles.  This means we have to become accustomed, but also learn how to enable and assist each other.  As Christian has written over on TriMetiquette before We’re in this together!  I reiterate, we ALL ARE IN THIS TOGETHER!
• Those out there that say it is more violent on transit or that transit brings violence to areas and the stories go on and on and on.  Seriously, go study statistics, correlation, and history.  Go read up on how and where violence and crime occurs in a city.  Transit isn’t anymore of an enabler than the automobile, and probably is at least a safer enabler than an automobile.  So give it a rest.  It is ridiculous to say transit causes the violence or crime.  People cause the crime, environment is only part of the picture, but the crime starts and stops with the individual perpetrators of said crimes.  Don’t blame inanimate objects, that’s – well – asinine.