Return to then Bus
My days as a mass transit commuter in Portland’s and why I never want to return.
My miss adventure started last Saturday when my Truck alternator died. Not having the money at that time, I know I was going to ride he bus for the foreseeable time.
While some thing changed from 2001 when I decided to forsake New Urbanism political and Environmental correct statistism for the freedom of transporting myself. Some good occurred online tracking still mass transit is not an efficient use of time and resources. For example, my old job was a 12-mile round trip commute. It cost me $2.47 (2.89 per gallon) and 40 minutes round trip. Now let look at Trimet. It cost anywhere from $4.00 (single daily ticket) to $3.75 (monthly pass) and takes 1Hr 30Min round trip. Now let look at a Sunday trip to church. Using my tuck, it is a 40Mi trip at $8.46 in gas; Trimet wins on price. On the other hand, Trimet looses big time on transportation time. It takes a whopping 5 hours per round. I leave at 7:00am and will not be at home until 2:30pm. I can drive to Tacoma WA and mot of the way back in five hours.
Speaking of WES or should I say West Side Mess has been running ads on TV and YouTube on how great WES works.
Nothing is farther from the truth. Cascade Policy Institute has put out a report on the Westside Commuter rail, a finical train wreck.
“The daily ridership is only half of what was projected, and taxpayers subsidize each rider by at least $45 per round trip.
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■WES was originally projected to cost $65 million and open in 2000. It actually cost $161.2 million and opened in 2009.
■TriMet projected an average daily ridership of 2,400 weekday boardings in the first year; actual ridership was 1,150. Since each rider typically boards twice daily, only about 575 people use WES.
■Passenger revenue has been so sparse that TriMet averaged $455,318 in monthly operating losses for the first 12 months of operation – an average subsidy of $792 per rider each month. These deficits have to be made up by taxpayers, through at least three different methods: the TriMet general fund (financed through a regional employee tax); the City of Wilsonville (which pays $25,000 per month); and Washington County ($203,040 per month until July, then $166,667 per month thereafter).
To truly appreciate the high cost of commuter rail, we need to compare it with other types of service offered by TriMet: light rail and bus.”
“The operating costs for WES are nine times higher per hour than bus service, but the public benefits are not nine times higher. In fact, WES is not even equal to bus service; it is far less flexible, takes years to bring on-line, and the equipment is unused most of the time.”
No wonder I traded my bus pass for a driver’s license.
