Jo and I, while checking out the new apartment in downtown on Sunday, decided to swing by Powell’s to find some books.  We arrived with no fuss via the streetcar and went about our business.  As we walked through though I noticed a table where TriMet was taking a survey of drivers, riders, or whoever.  I decided I was a perfect candidate to take the survey so went back after walking by to put in my two cents.

First off, I have to complain.  Whoever setup the survey setup a broken survey, but I get the gist of what TriMet was trying to get to.  The key points were as follows:

1. What type of stop do people prefer.
2. What type of vehicle/mode do people prefer.
3. What is the wait time people allow before driving.
4. What type of seating to people prefer.
5. What type of security do people prefer.
6. Walking vs wait time.
7. How important is vehicle/mode cleanliness.
8. How important is driver friendliness.
9. What of the above is more important to you.

I might have forgot one or two.  Here’s my take on how and what I prefer.

1. I don’t care about the stop, and personally am bothered by the wasteful amounts of money TriMet spends on some of the stops.  Especially for the streetcar.  There are lots of streetcar systems, some with better frequency and ridership, that basically have no real curb or stop of any sort.  The extra time it takes for these fancy stops in mixed traffic modes is just annoying.  Forget it, non-functional.  Give me a marker and a schedule and I’m a happy rider (maybe a shelter in places where the traffic may splash waiting riders, etc)

2. This is easy.  In order based on Portland’s available modes:  Light Rail (Type 2 & 3, Type 4, and Type 1), streetcar (2nd gen, 1st gen), and bus (high floor bus, others…)

3. As long as I have transit tracker, I’ll schedule around the bus.  Without transit tracker the bus better have a 10 minutes or less frequency, otherwise I won’t use transit.  The simple rule I go by, is I’m not standing at a stop for an extended amount of time if at all possible.

4. I’d prefer plush, but I really don’t care.  The seating TriMet has is just fine.

5. Security is not TriMet’s responsibility.  Saying it is, the fact that TriMet is somehow forced to be responsible, is a direct violation of logic.  It is stupid to have TriMet setup this way, the plain fact is society allowed police departments to be setup for the purpose of personal security.  It is THEIR JOB to enforce security within society.  The police, not TriMet.

On another point that I have contention with.  Anyone that relies on others for their personal security endangers themselves and those around them.  Always, ALWAYS be prepared to flee, defend, or otherwise take charge of your personal security.  If you expect others to do this for you, you might as well give up.

6. I’ll walk up to 10 minutes if it is an infrequent trip, and up to 8 minutes for a daily commute.  For multiple trips during the day I won’t walk more than 2-6 minutes to a stop.  Once at a stop I prefer not to wait more than 5-6 minutes at most.  This is of course resolved by simply timing my walk & wait times with Transit Tracker.

7. Cleanliness only gets to be important to me when things are really dirty.  If a mode is dirty, I will turn around and call a taxi if it is too bad.  Otherwise newspapers, mud on the floor, water, etc is not a big deal.  Human or animal feces, other rancid items, or overpowering stenches will have me in a taxi without a second thought.

8. I get along with the fact that many drivers are not much more than blank faces and spent as human beings.  But I commend and LOVE when a bus drivers enjoys, loves, and thrives as a driver.  I like it when I hear a driver make announcements and chats with riders.  Al M, Dan Christensen, streetcar driver Fred, and others come to mind.  These drivers are GREAT!  This is VERY important to me.  It is (and Al may hate this statement) to me the last semblance transit has to the private existence it started as in this country.  The streetcar operator stories, the human elements, these are the things that draw transit into the very human existence that it is.  Put simply, this is the one thing that buses have over light rail and the “modern streetcar” of Portland.  The human-less, face-less experience on light rail and streetcar is frustrating.  Here Portland is building a human city versus a car city and we have these faceless transit modes.  But I will choose the financially reasonable option that provides more for society than the human face of the bus, only because the community is still involved in the ride, but I’d rather have both features.

9. The most important aspect of transit to me is complex.  It however boils down to something that isn’t the actual transit itself.  Instead it is the lifestyle that it allows.  The car-free, worry free, relaxed lifestyle and relaxing trip enabled by transit service.  The ability to get home and not be strung out or mentally warped and skewed from commuting via the automobile.  The zoning changes and more compact and connected communities that transit also enables (more so than automobile based zoning).  So overall, it is the lifestyle, not particularly the transit.  But one really doesn’t go without the other.

So what are your priorities?  What are the most important things for you in the transit service you use (or don’t use)?

[11/14/09 – Correction:  I stated “and personally am bothered by the wasteful amounts of money TriMet spends on some of the stops.”, which is a faulty statement.  TriMet does not and did not fund any of the stops for the streetcar, the City of Portland, or more specifically the non-profit subsidized Portland Streetcar spent the money on those stops.  I still am bothered by their spending taxpayer money
(and lots of it) on stops that are ridiculously overbuilt.]

So here’s the lowdown.  We’ll all meet at 5:00pm, and discuss transit topics from then until whenever.  I figure we’ll probably go until at least 8:00pm, so if you want to swing by a little after 5:00pm please do.

Here’s some of the topics that have been brought up for discussion so far.  Of course, anyone can talk about anything they want to, these are just kick starts.

• The New Light Rail Efforts – i.e. The Orange Line (Milwaukee)
• The West Side Express, or WES – i.e. The money bleeder (or maybe someone can convince us it isn’t?)
• The future of TriMet in general – Should it be altered?  Broken apart?
• Advocacy – Groups, plans, ideas, organizing, etc.
• Random topics – generally, we can always just bring up things.

The last topic of debate – where shall the location of the meetup be?  Please weigh in with your thoughts and ideas on location.  Preferably someplace that has some food, and is all ages.

Chad mentioned an area that is available near south waterfront and we could BBQ, BYO Beverages, or do a potluck style.  Chad’s space is available via streetcar & Bus #35.  So that’s one option.

Just FYI:

• BNSF stands for Burlington Northern Santa Fe
• BNSF is made up of many consolidations & acquisitions of 390 railroads over the last 150+ years.  It serves a vast rail network from Seattle to Chicago to LA and has trackage rights on other networks that allows access to hundreds of other locations.  For more history on the companies that make up the modern BNSF railroad check out their history page.

On to Warren & his Purchase

Wow, the suspicion I have behind the Warren Buffet purchase of BNSF has my mind racing through ideas on why.  The simple act of a single individual owning a major railroad in the United States again is awe inspiring, suspicious, and in some ways fills me with hope for the nation.  Let me explain why.

The last private owner of a railroad that was anywhere near the scale of BNSF was a long long time ago.  Now, modern America will have a railroad that can literally act in seconds, move with the speed and innovation pushed by an individual.  Boards can’t act that fast, Governments have no hope to even remotely act fast, let alone act, and other forms of organization just can’t compare.  This of course can be a good thing and a bad thing.

Does Warren know railroads?  I don’t know if he does or not, he does seem to be able to pick investments pretty well, and he just bet the farm on the purchase of an entire railroad.  That is saying a lot.  Is he literally telling America that he believes in the underpinnings of free-market (REAL free-market, not that psuedo psycho Republican free-market ideal) capitalism?  Or is there some hidden agendas being played out?  Do these agendas possible come from somewhere else besides Mr. Buffett himself?  I have some suspicions about this, but I’m not betting anything on it yet because there are a lot of factors that haven’t shown their respective cards.

Re-regulation?

Over the last 5 years or so a lot of energy, money, and other political willpower has been put into re-regulating the freight railroads again.  This, by any turn of events, would be horrible for the freight carriers and bad for America in general.  I’m not even going to bat around the nonsense that it would be an increase in competition or anything of that sort.  This re-regulation would starve the industry, quite rapidly, by requiring the railroads to sink more money into political pandering and less into the functional investment of the railroads themselves.  Already pricing and other things are regulated by the Federal Government, we don’t need additional nonsense for them to deal with. 

Does Warren know about a death of this effort?  Because there would be zero reason for him to invest if he thought there was a remote chance that re-regulation would go through.  Indeed, this is something to ponder.

Political Positioning

The key players in the administration, which would be Obama and Biden, both are in support of high speed rail and rail transport in general.  Biden especially, loves passenger rail.  BNSF of course is not involved in passenger rail, but having a huge supporter owning the railroad puts the administration in a very powerful position to make change.  This can happen on two major idealistic fronts;  the free-market advocates viewpoint and the more socialistically minded & environmentally friendly supporting Democrat.  With Warren owning the railroad the administration could easily encourage without any legislation at all some very positive actions, winning accolades for the railroad, for the administration, and getting the administration more in tune to what is really going on at the rail.

Does Mr. Buffett have some inside knowledge on some political action by the administration?  Does he know about some major event or is guessing at some major event that would position the railroad to drastically expand operations into new realms of service?  Once again, another legitimate thought to keep in mind when pondering this purchase.

Summary

So do I know what Warren is up to?  No.  Do I think I even have a remotely logical idea about his action?  Nope.  Overall I have absolutely zero idea why he would step out this far in order to purchase an entire freight railroad.  In some ways the political environment seems to make this an absolutely bad idea, and in another it seems like a great idea.  From an economic stand point it appears to be a really odd play, without a significant ROI in comparison to some other parts of the market.  Especially with the economy in the position it is currently in.

What do you think?  Any ideas, conspiracies, inside knowledge?  I’d love to read some comments on this so light em’ up.

I knew there would probably be more, it isn’t like people are actually becoming re-employed.  Most of the people who pay the taxes (i.e. upper incomes) that actually pay the bulk of TriMet’s costs haven’t increased employment in the area either.  So no matter what way one looks at things, more cuts are coming.

So I wasn’t terribly surprised when I saw this list of frequency cuts.  But at the same time I wanted to know when this list came up.  Rightfully they haven’t cut any rush hour services on these routes, but even these off hours seem like they’re really starting to stretch for areas to cuts.  I know also that MAX isn’t in this round of cuts, and rightfully so as it is cheap to operate compared to buses.  Going car-less and moving back downtown is definitely going to help cope with these cuts, as I will barely need transit for anything really, but it is getting kind of awkward.

It seems TriMet needs to get a grip on things and maybe start cutting something besides actual transit service.

$1.8 Billion for ALMOST 10k jobs (re: Oregonian)

That pans out to $180,000 dollars per job – WTF?!  I doubt many of those are economically sustainable, useful, or even needed.  The bailouts are extending our uselessness as a nation and perpetuating our inability to generate actual wealth (i.e. create something vs. just shift money around).  These types of numbers, also not surprising, are still unsettling no matter how prepared I am for them.

As Oregon has blown through $1.8 Billion, and gotten dozens of millions for random work around the transit system, the state can’t seem to manage to get a measly $23-26 million to TriMet to stave off these service reductions.  Yo, politicians WTF are you doing?  You guys break laws and distort all sorts of legal lines to push money into less legitimate things than transit all the time.  Get on the ball and get the buses moving again – at least on the frequent service lines.

Anyway, that’s all I got for today.  Go have fun on Halloween…  because I’m just loitering about and observing the mayhem!  : )

It has only been a week with no car.  I’ve had ZERO issues getting to anywhere in Portland I need to be at, on time, by schedule, or whatever.  Neither has Jo.  We have travelled literally 10+ miles from downtown, still no problem.

Even though we have zero issues getting around almost (not everyone) every auto dependent person asks when we are planning to go somewhere, “do you need a ride?”  Not in a “I’m going do you need a ride” but a “Oh dear you don’t have a car and maybe I should provide a hand out”.  No, we don’t need a ride.  We will find out where we are meeting and we’ll probably be there before you, with your car.

So far in the car free life that has been our number one retort we’ve received since it has become official.  Jo & I have been somewhat amazed by it.  As if somehow, because we had a car before, but went everywhere on transit, bike, or walking it made us more capable of getting somewhere.  It didn’t, we never used it, it didn’t matter.  So what is different now?  I think the biggest thing is the mental hurdle, especially for most Americans, to get over the fact that someone can live a fully productive, entertaining, honest, involved life without a car.

What Else Has Changed?

That last stop gap attempt to hurry somewhere.  Before with the car, if a bus was late I didn’t pay much attention.  For some reason now, when a bus is late I actively think about the fact that if it is late, I don’t have an alternative.  Partly that is my fault, I’ve been procrastinating getting a good commuter bike for months.  But the fact there is no car to fall back on really makes me think about that.  It makes me think that a weaker and less organized individual would easily fall into the trap of relying on a car for things that are absurdly unnecessary.  Which of course, is exactly what America has become in this context.

Why Did I do it?  Why Did We do it?

Jo has kept a simple life for years.  Not wanting the headache or annoyance of a car.  She had her head on straight long before we met.  I also had the idea, but was flung into working in areas that had horrible options.  We finally moved out to Portland in 05’.  For me I was returning, for Jo it was a new city.  Within 6 months there was no way she’d ever want to leave again, and here we are years later and we have no intention of leaving.  Portland by far is one of the greatest city’s in this country.  Only the largest of cities can even give it a run for its money; Chicago, San Francisco, New York, New Orleans, and there may be one or two more I’ve missed.

When we moved up here, Jo had been car-free for a year or two already.  Even in auto-dependent Jacksonville, Florida she was car-free.  With our arrival we went immediately into a functional car-free existence.  The car I had, a Nissan Altima w/ V6, got parked in a lot and moved about once a week.  I never really used it more than that.  For a time I did use it in conjunction with the MAX for part of my commute.  It helped me get that last 2 miles, and transit covered the other 8+ miles.  Eventually I figured out where I was going and that there was a bus line, and even that usage stopped.

All this time, from the Altima to the 350Z I was following the traditional American approach of paying a car note.  In addition I have somewhat unsightly insurance.  Those costs kept adding up and it got to a point that it didn’t really make sense to have a car sitting there that was costing me so much money.  So the decision was made, that we’d sell it.  No need to watch the car sit there and look pretty in the parking lot.  So with barely any miles on a 3 year old car we sold the Daytona Blue Nissan 350Z.

I thought I loved her, but was glad to see her go.

Jo and I are on the end of our first week without a car.  We rarely think about the fact, as it isn’t really important.  We’re doing all sorts of positive things by not having a car, but there is a more important factor here.  We’re living a more complete, simplified, easier to live, less complicated life than most Americans.  Not just a little, but by a large degree.  I’m finding more and more, as is Jo by our complete car-free lifestyle, that cars actually complicate and make life more difficult.  The novelty is slowly wearing off for millions of people in America.  I hope it isn’t too late to reverse some of the damage the change in infrastructure and political perversions to support the automobile have wrought.  It would be a grand thing for more Americans to clean up their act.  I don’t say that in an environmental sense, that’s just an extra benefit.  I’m speaking in the sense of life itself.

Well we’re off to breakfast, and a treasure hunt of modeling supplies, without a car.  So enjoy the day, cheers!