Trimess

Friday, February 17, 2012

Tweet

Erik Halstead @sp_redelectric
#trimet 0606 operator forced to make evasive lane change to avoid collision - good job. Y no transit police to cite drivers here??
from Portland, OR
2h Erik Halstead Erik Halstead @sp_redelectric

#trimet pull video recording from bus 2011 @ 7:10 AM near miss with car illegally passing a stopped bus in rt lane...rt 94 tr 0606.

2 comments:

Erik H. said...

Unfortunately I hate Twitter as it's a horrible communication method but it's the only thing that prompts a response from TriMet in less than four weeks (in some cases).

What happened was that we were on the 94 heading northbound on Barbur in the center lane at Hamilton. A bus was stopped at the northbound bus stop at Barbur just north of Hamilton (a common stop used by routes 1, 12, 38, 44, 45, 54, 55, 56). I was looking down at my phone when all of a sudden I heard a loud horn, the bus both slowed and and veered to the left lane. And then a car just sped off in front of us - clearly it tried to take out the center lane that we were in.

This is video TriMet needs to pull right away and put on the 5 o'clock news...and this is not the first time that an event like this has happened at Barbur & Hamilton. This is a good place where Transit Police (who can enforce motor vehicle laws) should be stationed and start nailing these idiot drivers for unsafe lane changes...fortunately my 94 wasn't a crush load today as our leader was running several minutes behind schedule and picked up a bunch of our load, because if there was a collision it's not uncommon for there to be 40-50 riders on the bus. I'm not sure TriMet would want THAT on the front page of The Oregonian when it could have used its police powers...

Of course, it's not a MAX line...

MAX Redline said...

Barbur/Hamilton's dicey enough. The city really needs to improve safety at that intersection, but that'd likely detract from their bioswale/bike rack installations. Glad to see everyone's okay.