Portland Transit | TriMet/Mass Transit News

[zilfondel]

I'm kind of wondering if, in addition to streetcars on some of the main streets on the eastside, if we wouldn't benefit from some electric trolley buses as well.

Any thoughts on this? As far as additional service, anyways.

[rsbear]

I like the idea of electric buses, but I'm not a fan of all the overhead wires, at least from what I've seen in Seattle, Vancouver and San Francisco. I guess it's the fixed guideway of light rail and streetcars that reduces the number of cross wires and keeps the sky from looking like a horizontal spiderweb.

[zilfondel]

Yeah but BC has all those trolley bus lines, which work fairly well.

Although I remember it taking about an hour to go by bus from downtown to UBC. A subway wouldn't be a bad idea, really...

[sopdx]

Originally Posted by zilfondel

I'm kind of wondering if, in addition to streetcars on some of the main streets on the eastside, if we wouldn't benefit from some electric trolley buses as well.

Any thoughts on this? As far as additional service, anyways.

I spoke with some rail engineers regarding this once. I was told that the infrastructure for trolley buses is expensive and that the industry had moved away from installing them.

One mode of transit explored for many LRT projects as an alternative, is BRT - bus rapid transit. They've installed one in Eugene (although cutbacks killed the cool vehicles and different amenities) and in many places throughout the country/world. These things can actually be pretty cool. There are Dutch engineered buses that move laterally to the curb and have optical sensors that can detect through snow. The city of Curitiba in Brazil has built an entire transit system using BRT as the primary focus. It's just not as — as LRT.

[deasine]

Wow the news got to here... this is also posted in SSP: Local Vancouver. Though I would like to see more StreetCar lines and smaller LRT lines running throughout the city, I believe it is very important to built the Millennium Line. A streetcar is only a bus on rails, and we have buses running at least every minute on the Broadway Corridor and they are still very full. It's about time the 99 B-Line was replaced by an actual SkyTrain route.

The City of Vancouver has different plans for the city than the regional transit board & provincial governments. The City of Vancouver is building their own StreetCar system and we often use Portland's StreetCar as well as many European cities as a model system. Similarly, Portland looks at Vancouver and other European systems when it comes to the bike system.

[deasine]

Originally Posted by rsbear

I like the idea of electric buses, but I'm not a fan of all the overhead wires, at least from what I've seen in Seattle, Vancouver and San Francisco. I guess it's the fixed guideway of light rail and streetcars that reduces the number of cross wires and keeps the sky from looking like a horizontal spiderweb.

Yeah unfortunately that is the main problem with electric buses. It gets uglier when you have a junction of trolley wires.

But you have to see that an electric trolley network is incredibly expensive. I think it should only be used in urban, dense areas on high capacity routes. Anyway here are the ones in Vancouver that I captured:

[PacificNW]

⇡Actually Lane Transit (Eugene) has some pretty cool BRT buses in use right now....I don't know if they are what they are referring.

[pdxman]

Those are some nice buses! Makes trimet's buses look like pioneer wagons.

[rsbear]

Originally Posted by pdxman

Those are some nice buses! Makes trimet's buses look like pioneer wagons.

Bull —. You don't get out much. Take a ride on the buses in San Francisco or Los Angeles.

[philopdx]

They say "LRT" but they are really talking about streetcars which are neither rapid nor high capacity. Go for the subway!

[PacificNW]

⇡⇡ What the heck? Pdxman, has a right to his opinion without calling B.S. on his comment. Civility?

[rsbear]

Originally Posted by PacificNW

⇡⇡ What the heck? Pdxman, has a right to his opinion without calling B.S. on his comment. Civility?

The heck is - I said nothing personal about Pdxman. I expressed my opinion - I do not agree with him.

[pdxman]

^^^Its ok, we can agree to disagree. My comment was more sarcastic than anything anyways. I have actually been around on other cities' systems tho unfortunately not in LA or San Fran. Seattle, SLC, Sacto and others I have been on tho and the majority of buses I rode on or witnessed in those cities were of much better quality than the most of the buses I ride here. Even the much smaller systems of salem and eugene seem to invest in quieter more efficient buses than trimet(Cherriots I know will soon convert there entire fleet to low floor CNG buses, they've even considered articulated buses on busier routes). I don't have a car nor do I want one, so the bus is my lifeline. I ride multiple lines everyday of the week and i see firsthand the condition of the bus system so I'm not just saying this to be annoying. Trimet has chosen to invest heavily in rail, which is fine by me, but not at the expense of improving the bus system--which carries almost twice as many riders as rail. I, along with many others I'm sure, would appreciate a little more attention given to the bus system. Wouldn't cleaner, quieter, more comfortable buses be more of a draw to on-the-fence transit riders? Improve efficiency for the entire system? I can tell you some of the buses I've ridden were so drafty, dank, and rickety I thought the next pothole would break the bus in two. I'm critical not because I hate transit or trimet but because as a rider I see a lot of room for improvement...I guess I'll never be satisfied! Oh well, I guess its not a bad thing to always desire improvements for transit.

Anyways, sorry for the long-winded response...In short I think trimet is lucky to have us(pro-active, mass transit loving population), not the other way around. But this is just my opinion and no one has to agree with it.

[PacificNW]

I am not a prude by any means. My own way of "talking", at times, could make a sailor blush. I just don't care to use this type of language in print. It just seems a little extreme to call "b.s." on a less than threatening comment when a simple statement of disagreement would suffice, IMO. I do think the meaning of comments on this forum do get lost in the translation, though. Now, I will focus on reading "Transportation and Infrastructure" issues.

[Dougall5505]

I don't know if you guys have heard but there is a new new rule that NO PROFANITY will be tolerated at SSP. just a warning so watch your mouths

[PacificNW]

No problem...point taken.

[rsbear]

Originally Posted by PacificNW

I am not a prude by any means. My own speech, at times, could make a sailor blush. It just seems a little extreme to call "bull —" on a less than threatening comment when a simple statement of disagreement would suffice, IMO. I do think the meaning of comments on this forum do get lost in the translation, though. Now, I will focus on reading "Transportation and Infrastructure" issues.

I think pdxman's response to my post was well articulated and made his point that the bus fleet needs improvement. His first post did not, IMHO.

He also said "My comment was more sarcastic than anything anyways." and that's what I was calling out.

I'm sorry if I offended you, PacificNW, and you, too pdxman.

[Dougall5505]

just to clarify, it looks like the occasional swear work is OK but no excessive or vulgar rants are permitted

now back to your regularly scheduled programing...

[bvpcvm]

^ the thing says no "irreverent" language... dare i say - —? how is that supposed to be defined. sorry, off topic.

[Dougall5505]

i have no idea lets ask google
Definitions of irreverent on the Web:

showing lack of due respect or veneration; "irreverent scholars mocking sacred things"; "noisy irreverent tourists"

haha that didn't really help