Friday Profile: Carfree drag queen Poison Waters
“I wouldn’t be able to spend what I spend and look the way I look if I had a monthly car payment and insurance and gas and all that crap.”
TriMet
Transportation Time Machine: TriMet bike permits
Everyone who takes long multimodal trips knows the routine: before leaving the house, double-check to make sure you have your keys, wallet, and TriMet bike permit. Right? Well, that last one isn’t necessary anymore. But some commenters on our recent throwback article about what bike advocacy looked like at the beginning of the millennium reminded … Read more
‘Moving Forward’ into the forest with TriMet’s new service concept
With all those trees in the way, it can be really easy to miss the forest. So, last week, when TriMet released its Forward Together Draft Service Concept, many people, myself included, made a beeline to our neighborhood bus, and then immersed ourselves in the tangle of other nearby routes Meanwhile, staring the reader in … Read more
TriMet Draft Service Concept shows potential for 30% more bus service
TriMet has released its Forward Together Draft Service Concept (DSC) based in part on community responses to a survey they released back in March. TriMet says people want the transit agency to “focus on ridership and improving connections to destinations for people with low and limited incomes.” While the Forward Together service concept includes changes … Read more
TriMet opens new FX line on Division to much fanfare
TriMet’s long-awaited Frequent Express (FX) line on SE Division Street is finally here. On Saturday, the transit agency celebrated the occasion with multiple events along the bus line, and eager transit lovers showed up in droves to ride the new “bendy buses” and mark the historic opening. We took a more in-depth look at the … Read more
Police, TriMet team up for enforcement action on SE 122nd Avenue
A multi-agency effort netted 15 arrests, including gun and drug seizures in just four hours last Thursday, September 8th. The location is likely familiar to many of you: the busy intersection of SE 122nd and Burnside, where a light rail line, bike lanes, and many other traffic lanes come together. Statistically, this intersection is a … Read more
Bike advocates want to improve TriMet’s Hollywood Transit Center redesign plans
The collaboration between TriMet and affordable housing developer BRIDGE Housing to transform the Hollywood Transit Center (HTC) into the “HollywoodHub” – a redesigned light rail and bus station with a 200-unit housing development and new courtyard – is moving forward. HollywoodHub planners presented their latest design proposal to the Portland Design Commission in July and … Read more
Taking a ride on TriMet’s new FX line
TriMet has spent six years and about $175 million to establish a new kind of bus service on Southeast Division between downtown and Gresham. Now it’s finally time to see what this thing can do. The Division corridor has been the poster child for our region’s struggles with climate killing car dependency, traffic deaths and … Read more
How to take your bike on the new TriMet FX buses
Believe it or not we are now less than one month away from the debut of TriMet’s long-awaited new “Frequent Express” (FX) bus service along Southeast Division Avenue. TriMet says the new $175 million line — which they promise will go from downtown Portland to Gresham 20% faster than today — is set to open … Read more
Tell TriMet how they should spend $183 million
TriMet, Portland’s regional transit agency, has plans for how to spend funds from the Statewide Transportation Improvement Fund (STIF) in the fiscal years 2024-2025. Now the agency wants your input on how they should use it. This funding amounts to about $183 million over two years and makes up just one portion of TriMet’s funding … Read more
Despite some pushback, PBOT presses on with ‘Rose Lane’ bus project in Hillsdale
If all goes according to plan, the Hillsdale neighborhood will have a Rose Lane by the fall. In a presentation to the City of Portland Pedestrian Advisory Committee on Tuesday, Portland Bureau of Transportation Senior Transportation Planner Nick Falbo shared that the planned “bus and turn” (BAT) lane will be the only Rose Lane in … Read more
As TriMet struggles with driver shortage, union leader says agency is part of the problem
TriMet, Portland’s regional transit agency, has taken on an intense marketing campaign, touting their benefits in employee testimonial ads on YouTube and social media posts to reel in potential employees to fill the bus and light rail operator deficit they’ve been dealing with in the wake of the pandemic. But despite the ad blitz, increased … Read more