Trimess

Monday, February 17, 2014

Taylor Rice gets TRIMETIZED!




























7 comments:

Anonymous said...

it's been all over the news for days now

Al M said...

Not everybody watched news

@nonpartisantoo said...

Sorry, can't feel sorry for her. We know that TriMet is unreliable. So the moment things start to go awry, I start considering alternate options. Blue lines will get you downtown. Yes, there was a problem with the Steel Bridge today. Even if no bus bridge, take blue line to 7th Avenue and connect with the 6 on Grand Avenue. That'll get you downtown. Or take the streetcar.

Here's what it boils down to: the things I need to do and my getting from point A to point B are more important than how fucked up TriMet may be at any point in time. If you're going to use TriMet you must use whatever resources are available to you even if it's far different than what Transit Tracker's Trip Planner will tell you.

@nonpartisantoo said...

And if you're going to use TriMet, you must pay attention to the news. Or Twitter. TriMet Scanner. Because you're not going to get all (most?) of the information you need by listening to TriMet alone.

Jason McHuff said...

It appears there should have been a service alert posted, but the Twitter post infers that Monday wouldn't be affected.

Anonymous said...

You should not have to watch the TV news to know what's going on with TriMet service (or otherwise).

If you're near a TriMet screen twitter, web, and FB updates should run on the damn screen.

But, as we know, Triscum does not give a rats ass about riders.

Time for a revolution.

@nonpartisantoo said...

"You should not have to watch the TV news to know what's going on with TriMet service . . ."

You should not have to worry about your bank account being hacked. You should not have to worry about being burglarized or assaulted. We should not have to have arguments about the 1% or fairness in this world.

Here's the reality: unless your trip is regularly a single leg, or perhaps two legs, you cannot truly, effectively, use TriMet without a portable source of information. I've found Twitter to be best, Transit Tracker to be second best, and Transit Tracker Service Alerts to be third best. It is unrealistic for TriMet to provide real-time update devices at every stop outside of the downtown core or at MAX stations. (And several MAX stations don't have tracking service, which is something with which I disagree -- every MAX station should have a display board.) If TriMet can't (or won't) provide effective communication, then the onus is on the rider to make sure he/she is up-to-date through whatever means possible or take your chances by going without. You implicitly agree to this by using the TriMet service knowing how problematic it is.

That means the rider must take the initiative to watch Twitter, Service Alerts, or the local news (which is where I've found numerous TriMet issues -- even before they appeared on Service Alerts, typically in the early morning). I feel this brings another aspect to the argument about electronic fares creating a class warfare/class division -- if you have to watch Twitter or Service Alerts to know what's going on, then those without portable Internet access are very much at a disadvantage. Most drivers are not going to know (and, frankly, not care) what's going on with your connection later on down the line. It's not even worth asking.

As I said previously, my ability to get from point A to point B is more important to me than what information TriMet chooses to or chooses not to provide. Many's the time I've expected a blue line only to have a red line show up. I grab the red line to get to Beaverton TC. It's not my final destination, but at least now I have further options -- I can call a family member en route, or grab the 88 and take the long way home, or wait for a blue line. But downtown, my options are more limited in terms of alternatives that are still effective in utilizing my time.

In my opinion, Taylor brought it on herself by not grabbing one of the arriving blue lines when the green line was overdue.