Check out this posting to the Rants and Raves section of Craigslist (pasted below). It’s from a concerned person who was driving a car behind a bike and a bus and witnessed the bus almost run over someone on a bike while the two traveled on Interstate Avenue:
Were you in the Trimet vs Cyclist incident today? (Interstate Ave)
It was a Trimet Bus on Interstate Ave, going southbound.
You were a cyclist. In bright yellow.
This aforementioned trimet bus had a penchant for traveling in the bike lane long before you arrived. In fact, I was wishing I had those dash mounted videos so I could send it in to tri-met about their bike lane travelling bus.
And then you came onto the scene.
You were in bright yellow. With a good brain bucket protecting your noggin. I didn’t see elbow pads though. I kayak with elbow pads and they help when you least expect it.
I observed you passing me. Then starting to pass the tri-met bus in your safely designed bike lane. I then observed the futhermuckin tri-met bus drift back INTO the bike lane while you were midway past it.
You started beating on the bus with your arm (elbow pads could have helped here). You swerved but you had no where to go, either under the bus or tripped over the curb landing on your side. You kept beating on the bus, repeatedly while trying to get out of its way.
I laid on the horn to try to get the bus to acknowledge you and get the hell out of your lane. But to no avail…you were finally able to get behind it as it continued in your lane before passing completely over to cross over the bridge.
I looked at you as I drove slowly by to see if you were ok. You just glared at me. Maybe you thought I was honking my horn at you? No….I was trying to get the bus driver to look in his damm mirrors and notice he almost made bug meat out of you.
I got the lisc plate number. I already called it into Trimet, more accurately their contractors who handle the handicapped/lift short buses.
You want to recover pain and suffering for your arm or mental distress..or any bike repair needed?….I am your voice.
from the married biddie in the red subaru who wished she could have gotten that bus to pull over an apologize for their shitty driving.
I have never perused the RR section of CL before, but heres to hoping you might see this…but as I don’t hang out here…I might not see a reply here.
Thanks for reading.
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Call Tri-met Transit police now! (503) 962-7666 and demand they \”pull the data pack\” aka preserve the bus on board video. If you don\’t call and demand it they will erase the video. This works, do it now! You will need as much info as possible. The route number, and the bus number are the most helpful. The State tags may get you into Tri-met giving excuses. Accept no excuse.
On weekends you have to get emergency status, don\’t leave a message, and when you get a human on the phone write down all names and tell them that you are writing down their names.
the sad ending is that I got my video, and it showed the bus drifting into bike lanes at 10mph over the speed limit with no bus stop nearby. I never found out the driver \”priors\” nor what happened after my complaint.
Both the bad drivers, and lack of feedback need to be corrected before the system causes another death. With the current lack of feedback the next death due to trimet is no \”accident\”
According to the story, the witness contacted LIFT, which is a Trimet sub-contractor. The LIFT buses do not have external cameras (data Packs). The newer ones have internal cameras only. Trimet is responsible for all actions involving their Buses. Sub-contractors are responsible for employee relations, ie: hiring, firing, scheduling, etc.
Wow….that was a scary situation! What could be wrong with the bus driver? Excellent action on the part of the witness in getting the license plate number.
It may be a mistake if this story doesn\’t go public beyond \’rants and raves\’ in Craigslist, or \’page two\’ on bikeportland. I myself often don\’t check \’page two\’.
Isn\’t this something Tri-met should be answering to publicly?
What could be wrong with the bus driver, you ask?! The motherf*cker works for Tri-Met! Seriously, this sh*t happens every day. It needs to stop. NOW.