You Know What's BS?

Ticket Vending Machines. Sure, they're sorta helpful, but there's some major BS around it.

First off, has this ever happened to you? You're going to get a ticket outside the station and like a little bit down the way you see your train coming. You're drastically trying to mash buttons and throw your money in, and your ticket decides to take its sweet time coming out. You're muttering one expletive over and over in frustration and anxiety and finally you grab your ticket and run to the train, and it LEAVES right before you get there. Doesn't that just RUIN your day?

Or even worse, you're in the same situation and you're trying to get your old wrinkly dollar bill in, and it keeps jamming or coming back out. That just makes it 100 times worse. I mean, who's the sadistic guy who programmed those money scanner thingies to only accept your bill if it's in the right way, president facing west, right side up, unwrinkled, unfolded, and made in 2003 or sooner... Okay maybe not the last part, but that machine is sure discriminative.

Or how about when you are using loose change and you get up to the machine and it turns out you dropped a nickel along the way or didn't bring enough fare. And with the godforsaken $2.05/$2.30 fare here, I can't blame you. Now, you're up there, anywhere between a couple blocks or a mile away from home, your only choice is to go back home and get a nickel, missing a train or two while doing so, or you could always choose the DELIGHTFUL option of begging for a nickel. Now you may say "Can't that happen on a bus too?" Well, yeah if the driver is a bitter old man, but most of the time they'll be nice and let it slide. A ticket machine has no heart. It has no soul. It is unforgiving and uncaring. It comes from Satan. If you don't have that extra nickel, you're screwed. Now imagine that happens to you on the streetcar outside Fareless Square, where the ticket machines are INSIDE. You realize you lost a nickel and you're stuck IN the streetcar. You're pretty much SOL and although you rarely ever see a fare inspector there, you sure can't transfer without that dang nickel unless the bus operator is nice. So time to head back home. Which also sucks since there's little to no sidewalk on Moody in the mile between the South Waterfront and Riverfront.

Oh, and if a ticket machine is broken, that's always fun, right? Isn't that FUN? Sure, you may get a free ride out of the deal, but most likely you'll get off at the next station and get a ticket there, wasting time, or you'll get pulled over by a fare inspector and have to explain that the previous machine was broken. Yeah, that's convenient. Fun Fact: The chances that the fare inspector will believe you are really really low.

And last off, this is a small thing, but it really really really annoys the crap out of me. If you buy a Month ticket at the store, it looks really cool, like all decorative and stuff. If you buy it at the ticket machine, it comes out all bland, like a normal ticket, just a letter and a date. What, you couldn't think about easily sticking nice Monthly passes in the machine? And that's why Ticket Machines are BS.

New Name?

Yeah, I was just thinking, I am, in fact, a TriMet Ally.

But most of my stories are about TriMet Executives and their doings.

And I do NOT like TriMet Executives for the most part. -_- Which makes me look like I thrive off of planning the destruction of TriMet. Which I am TOTALLY NOT DOING! *kicks away battle plan sheet targeting 4012 SE 17th Ave* Hehe...

Anyway, methinks I need a new name. I was tossing around the name The Great Equalizer, to show I take the side of both TriMet and the public, and maybe something to show my humorous (or at least I hope so to God) styling of the blog, uhm... something, well, humorous!

So what ideas to you have? :D

Oh, and can you EVEN change the name of a blog? O_o

Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiz

Yep! What a way to start a morning! I woke up to a cinnamon roll topped with cream cheese and a cup of coffee that suddenly lost its flavor in comparison to the cinnamon roll and then, as per usual to a electronic nut as I am, checked my Facebook.

A Graphical representation of the expression of my face upon reading the big news in Transit this Morning

:D ... :o ... :/ ... -_- ... X( ... XO ... *insert throwing phone back onto the couch here*

If you want a video representation of my response, here you go.

Yeah, the TriMet measure didn't pass this morning. And you can bet I'm gonna blog about it. I mean, how can you expect me to hear this and not B*tch and moan about it, pardon my French?

Okay, I'm not gonna get into the fact that the bond measure became a bombed measure. I don't think cussing out most of the Clackamas County will make me look very good, and besides, they've got Mt. Talbert, and... and... and ...

What I want to focus on was this particular quote.

Although the bond measure failed, General Manager Neil McFarlane has said TriMet still needs to purchase new buses, but it would take several years and possibly slice further into operations funding.

Uhm...


Let's get this straight... because you didn't buy buses awhile back, and the bond measure failed, you're JUST NOW gonna buy buses, at the expense of bus service.

Let's all say it again...

Listen. If you guys hadn't delayed it for so long (Can't really blame McFarlane too much, more like the Board of Directors and Fred RailSen... Light Hansen... RailEd HanLightSenMaxMaxMax... okay... you get my point) then we wouldn't have had to rely solely on the measure in the first place. Now that it's failed, you still need new buses, and now us, the bus riders, are going to have to pay for that. What an oxymoron, emphasis on MORON. Thanks for your lapse of judgment guys. I look forward to waiting 30 minutes for my 14 from now on.

Oh, and one last reminder- Congratulations.

That is all.

The board meeting laydown

Featuring SELECT tweets from my tweeterboard

Whoa... Jon Hunt of the ATU just got the biggest applause at the board meeting than every other testified combined BEFORE HE SPOKE.

Ah, one of the perks of bringing a protesting crowd of 50 into a crowded room. :D

Why is it the one meeting Lehrbach, the only sane board member, misses is the one where he is really needed? <_<

Yep, his presence was missed in this meeting of half-hearted board members.

Ah, look at all the smiley faces on the TriMet board. Seriously, all of them look like they ate a roadkill skunk. -_-

Yeah, seeing all the unhappy un-bull-tolerating members wasn't pleasant for them as much as it is when we swallow the bull with a fake smile on our faces. ;)

Van Beveren has the most discriminative habit of telling SOME people to hurry up if he doesn't like them. X_x

They installed a timer Wednesday! How nice! That means if they don't like your speech, they'll interrupt you until you leave. I mean, seriously, only if it's negative, as I'll explain later.

Shirley Carter is the most sensible person asked ever to speak by the board at the board meeting.

I don't know much about the safety committee, or if it's as full of it as the TriMet board, but if Shirley Carter's a sign of the Safety board she represented, then I wish I had been there. Spoke very intelligently about the interaction of bus drivers in people, defending both sides. I was in awe.

John Charles is now urging the board to postpone the decision on some grants. Watch as the board ignores everything he says

And then

Wow! I was right!

Seriously! I'm that awesome. -_-

And as a follow up

Here come the public speakers! Heck, you know what would shock me? If TriMet took ONE Single thing they said to heart

Spoiler Alert: They Didn't. Wait, wait a second...

I may just get my wish. A public speaker is supporting the Milwaukie rail. The one thing that matters to the board. <_<

Dang it, I gotta rephrase that wish.

Wow... never thought I would say this, but I miss that grouchy George Passa-something board president. Beveren's an inconsiderate old crab!

Okay, before some huge blogging community scandal breaks out, I may have used too strong a term for Beveren. But seriously, his scowl, his discrimination and his general attitude to non-worshipping speakers drives me up the wall, the ceiling and the chandelier.

Heh, I have never felt more confident speaking to the TriMet board

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhSoYsn8FH4&feature=player_embedded

(borken link) I killed it. I'm that awesome.

I hate it when people don't like all the cuts to the building of MLR when so many people are being completely screwed over by bus cuts.

Yeah, a nice lady who was nice enough to quote me in her speech unfortunately used her speech to complain about the rather insignificant cuts to Milwaukie MAX. Let's see... Cutting 6 whole bus lines in the last year or walking an extra block to a bus stop on Bybee. THIS IS NOT HARD PEOPLE.

Hey, board member. When you're doing a sigh of complaint, try not to do it into the microphone. X_x

A bit of a morbid LOL moment

'I ran into another friend of mine, this is Sandi Day.'-David Sale. I still gotta pull my jaw up! This is a guy who can forgive! Respect!

Quite possibly the best moment ever in a board meeting outside of my awesome, colorful presence. (JK)

Whoa-lee shiiiiiiiiiz... This guy has guts!

Nice way to tell TriMet to screw the timer, David Sale! :D

:) I am glad to see a special needs person speaking directly to TriMet. We need more positive.

A technically disabled but obviously very intelligent woman with a "disability" (I prefer to think of them as obstacles you can use to your advantage) praising TriMet for their easy use for handicapped people. And it may not seem like this, but even though I criticize the crap outta the board, I am a huge ally of TriMet's riders and system. It's pretty good.

Wow, Rick, nice way to let a Light Rail worshiper go as long as he wanted.

As I was saying earlier, the timer. It was red for 2 minutes while a person I do not remember the name of praised the Milwaukie Light Rail.

Lew Church is talking about sensitive subjects. Even though Lynn isn't here, I'ma duck my head to avoid gunfire.

Yeah... something about Reedville Cafe... I was too busy wincing to notice the rest.

'It is interesting when you speak to a committee and they give you blake stares.' A testifier says to a board full of blank stares.

Yep. Another dark irony brought to you by the Board of Developers.

Heh, the meeting is done. And that's not EVEN the most nervewracking thing I'm gonna be doing all day.

Yeah... no. You wish you knew. Or not.

Sneak Peek On My Rather... Abstract... Board Meeting Speech (Pre-Approval)

Hello, I am Cameron Johnson, 16 year old represneting OPAL Bus Riders Unite and to some extent the Mt. Scott Community Center Teen Volunteer Corps. And I brought with me some perturbing news.

Based off of blog commenters, something I observe very often, I have a feeling that the TriMet bond measure is going to be shot down, and not just shot down, but shot down by those with a vengeance.

I'm going to quote a blogger's comment who I will not name who said something that made me want to punch in a wall. He said, and I quote "Like to help you out TriMet, but you kind of lost your chance when you cut my bus line. Funny how it comes around, isn't it?"

Now while this absolutely disgusts me for two reasons, one being that vengeance is a stupid and useless thing, and two being that this guy's childish vengeance is part of what is costing me, someone unable to vote, new buses and bus stops, it shows a sign. It shows that you're changing the public's view of you into negative, and that is going to cost you.

Three things have been ticking riders off lately. The first is the service cuts and fare increasements, the second is the union situation which I know very little about, and third, the focus on light rail. And before you say "Oh this is only one commenter, how bad could it be?" Oh, it's bad. It's really bad. I read about 50 similar comments on ONE news article that read the same. There were 78 commenters. 50 is more than half of 78. If this is a sample, I'd recommend you fish out the white flag out of the basement.

People have been giving you reasons to stop service cuts because it impacts them. To be critical of you, you frankly haven't listened to those reasons. So I'm giving you a reason for yourselves to stop service cuts. People are your backbone, and when you hurt them, they're inclined to hurt you back. And thus begins a vicious cycle.

So how do you react? Some people, including me, fear that you will simply see this as a sign that bus service does not matter and when funding gets low, bus service will be first in line for the guillotine. I urge you, for all that is sane, do not do that. If you do that, you're no better than these vengeful commenters, and the vicious cycle will rage on until there is nothing left for either party. When you recover the body of the TriMet bond measure, learn from this loss. Learn that if you fire the first shot, you have started a war. If you are the first to make peace, you have not only ended the war, but unskewed the view of those on you. It's only beneficial to everyone.

Besides, I was never one to like war anyways, well, outside of video games. But that's another story...

Accident?

Among other things, the group recommended eliminating the term "accident" from its vocabulary, saying it implies that collisions are unpreventable.

So... what I'm hearing is that everytime a car crashes with a bus, even if it is an accident, someone is gonna get the blame, most likely the driver. Seriously. Is TriMet TRYING to fire drivers?

How to Fix the Mall Layout without getting wrecking balls and Going Crazy

(as posted on Michael Anderson's Post on BikePortland of a similar name)

Personally, as pro-bus as I am, The Green Line MAX was a relatively good idea. It serves lower income areas and such. (I could be biased because there's a stop right outside my house, but oh well)

But the idea to put it on the mall was total and complete stupidity. They had to take half of the buses off the mall to make room for it (14, 14, wherefore art thou 14?)and it obstructs traffic with that effed up layout. Seriously, what the hale is with that.

But it's too late to do anything about that, so here's what I propose.

Make the Mall MAX A seporate One-Train line between the Trolley Lloyd Center Station (Which would have a second track.)and PSU. The Gold line, perhaps (taking into account the price of it XD ) It would run every 10 minutes at the very least, because it makes no sense to run a MAX down the same place 10 buses run, except for the fact that it's free, and you can wait 3 minutes more surely.

The Green and Yellow Line would provide service on 1st and Yamhill, boosting it to 3.5 minutes every train. The Yellow and Red lines can stay at Galleria and the Green line could go to Beaverton to provide an East-West MAX Corridor, and let's face it, the only place along the rest of the Red Line tourists could go (besides homes in Beaverton-a slim chance) is PGE Park and Washington Park, and I doubt people will really get off the plane and cart their luggage there, and if they are crazy enough to do so, it can be timed so that a Green Line train comes 4-5 minutes before the Red line Train.

It'd cost more, but it'd relieve half of the MAX troubles (literally) and create an excuse for an East-West MAX line.