November Open Thread


Have at it…


11 responses to “November Open Thread”

  1. -_-

    Don’t worry about passing that rather humorous post of mine giving you the idea for this in the October thread!

  2. I wanted to commit this idea to the ether:

    When the new streetcar is up and running, and there’s two different lines running on those tracks, the stops-are-too-closey-spaced issue could be fixed by having certain lines only stop at certain stops, maybe every other stop, without having to actually dismantle anything.

  3. Thanks to the Seattle Transit Blog for their coverage of this one: a contest to determine the best bus route in America:

    http://www.good.is/post/project-what-s-the-best-bus-route-in-america/

    Please, someone submit the TriMet 72! Or, one of the Merlo-serviced routes that never get anything but a 18-year-old 1700-series bus (52, 67 immediately come to mind)! And, please note the severe level of elitism–if you don’t rent a camera phone (I call it “renting” because of the required monthly service charges), you can’t enter.

    Blumenauer is one of the judges!

    (Better still: If someone finds a way to enter the TriMet 74 or 95. Now THAT would be impressive!)

  4. I was quite surprised to hear Kitzhaber go out of his way to publicly support the CRC. Any idea why he would do this?
    Here’s the quote from the Oregonian:
    He also plans to talk to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood about starting construction of a new Interstate-5 bridge across the Columbia River. I-5 “is the bottleneck between California and Canada,” Kitzhaber said, and the current bridge doesn’t meet seismic standards. “To me there’s no question whether we do it or not,” he said. It’s a matter of making sure it’s the right size and will improve freight traffic.

  5. I was not thrilled either, although I’m told by others who got the complete remarks that he did include caveats about environmental impacts that we not included in the Oregonian piece, so I hope he is not completely on board with current direction.

  6. I missed Kitz’s pre-election going out of his way to support CRC. Didn’t the O report his support as being lukewarm and questioning of the current direction? Dudley was reported to have been a much stronger supporter. Guess who won.

  7. I’d like to use the open thread for a public service announcement.

    This is based on something which just happened in the vicinity of NE 57th & Fremont.

    Helpful tip for saving lives: If you come up behind a car which is at a full and complete stop at an intersection (that would be me), it is quite possible that I’m not just some obstacle to be avoided but in fact am waiting for a pedestrian to make a legal crossing.

    This particular pedestrian, in fact, had done all the correct things. She waited for me to stop. She made eye contact. She looked both ways. And then she stepped off the curb.

    That’s when the semi truck which had been approaching from behind me slowly (and which appeared to be stopping behind me) decided to take a shortcut through the bike lane and pass me on the right nearly mow this woman down. She had to leap back to the curb.

    And then car after car decided the semi truck was some kind of leader of the pack and continued to go around me in the bike lane.

    This sort of thing happens more than 50% of the time when I stop for a pedestrian at a legal crossing on an arterial street, especially multi-lane streets (but this one wasn’t).

    Be alert, people.

    That is all.

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