Why I don't like Mass transit.
 

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Even as big as I am I've been harassed on a city bus before.At least they finally caught them. I can't believe they're not charging them with a hate crime. Also, the mother and daughter duo in this have about 8 felony charges prior to this incident. The father of the girl was on tv a few minutes ago and I have to say he was pretty lackadaisical. I have a daughter near that age and I tell you I'd be hot. I sure would have had a few choice things to say to the police, press and those involved. He isn't a very good advocate for his kid.

To add more to this. The mother and daughter had a son shot several years ago in Portland and the mom did an interview stating the publics the only ones who can stop this senseless violence. Irony.

It is a good reason not to visit Portland.

Portland used to be a nice city. My dad worked downtown when I was a kid. At 10 years old I'd sometimes catch the bus into town, spend the afternoon with my dad and ride home with him.

I used to live on 14th and belmont, on sunday mournings I'd walk acrotst the bridge and wander through the city or just watch the bums down on burnside. A happy childhood can happen anytime, it did for me when I got out of there.:-drink

While heading to Washington park we got stopped at a light and saw the Max train pass. Got to wondering if we'd see a fight break out while it was passing. Told the passengers my thoughts and we all had a good laugh.

Sad what this world is coming to...

They're charged with some felonies so we'll see how that goes.
Can't stand the thought of going into Portland or any big city anymore and haven't for quite some time. A necessary evil that one must tolerate on rare occassions. Born a country kid and gonna die that way.

The only "mass transit" we have over here, is a semi load of cattle.........................lol

A semi load of cattle has more combined intelligence than a packed Max transit train.

:-missingt

There was some back yard scientist who invented a multi person pod for mass transit. It was pretty neat looking. He claimed that multiple vehicles that could carry no more than 4 people dispatched to individual locations was far more efficient than giant buses driving around the city. His little pods ran around on a special track (like a mix between roller coasters and sidewalks) and the pods which were electric, would use special batteries and would fast charge every time they entered a station or a stopping point. So... pretty much the cars we have today with the exception of using gasoline or diesel. I like his idea more than the buses we have now, but the infrastructure would have to be HUGE to run a system like that. The best thing about his idea was that you could ride solo if you choose. No crazies!

For the most part, mass transit in Portland isn't effective. Go someplace like Chicago and you will see how a real system works carrying people and getting people places in a decent amount of time.
For instance I live in West Linn and work in Hillsboro, it takes me about a half hour to get to work and an hour home. If I were to take max/mass transit it would take me 2 hours each way, and I work really close to intel.
In Chicago, there are huge bedroom communities that people commute in and out of the city to reach, but they pay for the service that they receive. If i remember right from the last time I was there, a ticket from Elgin to Chicago was about 20.00 for each way per person.

BTW I am born and raised in Oregon, but I have a large portion of my dads family in the Chicago Area.

Chicago..........is that a part of the U.S.?

It'll be a cold day you know where before someone gets me stuffed in one of them cattle cars, whether it is Chicago, Portland or Timbucktoo. Portlands mass transit would be much more cost effective if they banned bicycles.

I agree. I spent a lot of my younger years in Frankfurt, Germany (army brat, stationed close to there). That is a huge city, and their mass transit is amazing. I could literally get to anywhere in the city by way of subway, street car or "L train" and walking a few blocks. it was quick and cost effective. car drivers were second fiddle to the street cars. as a kid, it was great. I could by one ticket in Hanau Army Base, and be on the other side of the city at the childrens museum in 40 minutes, which by car would probably take an hour, and then have to find parking. They had the system Down! over here its a friggin joke. If I wanted to go into Portland without a car now, I would first have to walk down a busy road with no shoulders for 3 miles, where I could then wait 45 minutes for a bus that would take me to the depot in Oregon city, and then sit and wait another half hour for the right bus to take me to milwaukie, and from there I could get to Portland. a trip that would take me 30 minutes and maybe 6 dollars in gas (in my car) would cost me 3.5 hours and 15 bucks!

When I was stationed at NAS Moffet Field the transit system was pretty good. Buddies and I would often take the "bus" into San Francisco and leave the car on base. It was about a 45 minute bus ride to the center of downtown where we could pickup one of the famous street cars to Fishermans Warf or many other places. Parking fees were usually more than the bus and street car fares. Worked pretty well.

The bus system on Oahu worked pretty well as did the Memphis system. Once I got my car and motorcycle out to Oahu, I didn't take the bus mainly because I could go a lot places with them that was impossible with the transit system. My 69 Mach 1 Mustang was much better for picking up girls at the beach than that 50 / 60 passenger bus}> Of course there was no carnal intent!

The PI had jeepneys (for the foolish), Thailand had Baht mobiles (for the strong at heart), Iran had LPC's (not fun), even Pakistan had better public transportation, (just keep the camera hidden) and Australia had girls.

I suppose if I lived in Portland and had no other choice of transportation.........but a couple of times when we considered it, we went car because of schedules, time constraints etc. (Used to spend a lot of time at OSHU with a granddaughter that had a liver transplant). Portland just doesn't seem to have their act together.

Also, post military and post LEO, for some reason I don't get along real well with being in a confined crowded area where my ability to GTFO is restricted in anyway. Causes excess consumption of rolaids and tums. I still don't like sitting in a restaraunt with my back to the door or where I can't see what's coming and going.

I did leave out the obvious fact that tri-met doesn't allow you to "carry" while riding... which is a crock considering the people riding tri-met...


Super,
you and I used to not live that far apart, before moving to West Linn, I lived just outside of Colton just up the road that is across from Camp Adams. I loved living out there, but its just soo far out. Below is my truck in front of the old house.

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...13696713_n.jpg

ya know, I may have seen your truck around West Linn...Im in that area a lot. It looks very familiar. Old Supercabs are kinda hard not to see!

that and we are not too far out of town, we are just a mile out of the "Hamlet of Beavercreek". (its so funny saying that! haha...Hamlet....hahaha!) which you probably know is just a few miles out of Oregon City.

we used to live in town...and I hated the sardine-can feel.