This has to be the greatest boondoggle that Tri-Met has ever pulled off! When I moved to Milwaukie several years ago, the commute from my place to DT Portland took about 30 minutes. Now it is about three times as long thanks to this $2,000,000,000 rolling dinosaur.
This thing slides along at the speed of a slug, meandering from stop to stop where practically nobody is, or would want to be; then crossing the Bridge of the Politicians at a top speed of up to 20MPH. Is there any other bridge in Portland where the speed limit is 20? On the RI Bridge I believe it's 45 but now the poor commuters on lines 9 and 17 are also forced to use this circuitous route, adding even more time to routes that were exasperatingly slow in the first place!
Heading into Milwaukie the "train" leaves one at Milwaukie HS, and if you do not want to stay there, you will have to walk several blocks to wait for a bus which you would have probably already arrived on a long time ago, were it not for this improvement. It slays me that every time this cash cow makes things worse for people they call it an improvement: Such improvements have brought us articulated buses that were frigid rolling gas chambers with the doors falling off, an end to all night (owl) service, hugely increased fares, an end to the fare-less square, bus benches that are tilted so no one can sit on them, the elimination of many useful lines, bus shelters with flat roofs which they initially installed backwards and require some one with a squeegee to get on top to scrape off the leaves and the bird dung, and epic studies in foolishness, e.g. the Hollywood TC, to name a few.
If you continue on from Milwaukie High, you will end up at Park Avenue, where there is a 7-11. You may want to get yourself a 24 ouncer at this point as there is little else to do there, especially since Nancy's Mexican Restaurant closed down. You could go to the Elk's Lodge if you're an Elk. Or, you could retrieve your car if you are parked at the Elks or the nearby park and ride. I can understand having a car and being too cheap to pay for parking downtown, but I still think that the system should also serve those who for whatever reason do not have a vehicle, as the lines 31, 32, 33, and 99 did so well before this farce!
Kate Brown, why don't you give up on the graft? Why not relinquish control of Tri-Met to the people, so we can have an elected Board of Directors who are accountable to those they represent? Maybe instead of your appointed cadre of pathetic, lazy, greedy, ignorant, self-serving boobs, we could get some public servants who realize that people just want transportation that comes to where they are, then takes them where they are going; as quickly, safely, and inexpensively as possible. read more
