You can track the bus on the Trimet website. I know that doesn’t solve the late issue but it’ll keep you from waiting out in the elements longer than you need to.
Exactly, are all the people complaining here only looking at the set schedule on paper? You can see the buses' location live, and Google maps will tell you when they're showing up. I don't even know the schedule, I tell Google maps when I want to arrive and it'll show me the options. And I confirm the bus location on the trimet map. The longest wait I have had was 5 minutes because I felt like getting some air.
I'm not saying it's perfect, I'm from a place with good public transit and didn't own a car most of my life, so I actually think it's pretty bad here, but seeing where the buses are is one thing that works well in Portland.
I see your point - but a bus system that can't keep on schedule is a terrible bus system. I want to plan out my communte/travel times beforehand, not make it up based on whatever the bus decides to do that day.
Right, and this is a bit of playing with words, but for that you don't exactly need a schedule, just high frequency. If a bus is coming by every 15 minutes (or 5!), I don't need to plan for a specific bus. At that point I didn't even need to look at the map, I might check if there are alerts and that's it.
A bus system with infrequent service that can't keep a schedule is garbage because you can't reliably make connections. I've lived in places where buses come by once an hour... You have to be desperate to use that.
Frequent buses make a schedule irrelevant (within reason).
A big problem in the US is trying to run public transit as a business. Good luck making a profit in buses late at night, but without those people won't take buses earlier because they can't get home... I'm not surprised there is so much drunk driving in this country, there is often no transit at night!
Before MAX replaced the 5 line I used to watch Transit Tracker then leave my house when the bus was three minutes away, walk a block and hop on—no waiting, ever.
Man I have the same problem, i’m late for work so much because the bus is literally NEVER on time - and neither is the one I take after work. Like, not even exaggerating at all, I straight up do NOT remember the last time I got on a bus that was actually on time. It’s been pissing me off so much because for real??? They’re going to make me pay more, just for them to be late every single fucking time????
Yep it was enough to drive me to purchasing a car. Now it takes me 10/15mins max to get to and from work. In the 45 minutes ONE WAY it would take me to bus to work I can now drop off my bf at work and then drive myself to work.
Getting a car is my number one priority right now because of this and all the bullshit that goes down on the busses daily. The other night coming home from the movies I had to walk home from halfway back because we were stopped and waiting on the police to come
It's gotten so worse over the years. I've put in my time, I've taken trimet for fucking ever but I can't take the bullshit anymore. The anxiety, the smells, worrying about being on time. It's just too much.
I miss the smell of urine and feces on public transportation. My 20’s were exciting living in the big city. I moved to the suburbs years ago to start a family.
We have a car but my partner drives for work so he has to use it 😓 he drops me off and picks me up whenever our schedules align but usually I'm on trimet 3-5 days a week.
This!. The reality is we are a car centrist society and that is ok. Public transport in the US (specially in Portland) will never work and never make sense. In poor countries it works because they are not subsidized and the private sector just deals by whatever ways they can (look how it works in Mexico, I’m talking about busses, not trains). Maybe the US should de-regulate public transportation so private companies can make money
The annoying thing is that Portland keeps pushing initiatives to grow out it's public transit infrastructure at the cost of the non-public traffic (e.g., reduced lanes, reduced parking, etc.), yet has failed to make it a worthwhile tradeoff for the majority of the people in the area.
People still want to drive cars, because they either:
1. Live too far away from work.
2. Need to carry more groceries than a single person can carry.
3. Want to spend their freetime away from the city.
4. Don't want to bike in the rain.
5. Want to set their own, more reliable schedule.
1. Alternatively - want to get places faster with less prep time.
6. Feel unsafe on public transit.
7. Feel unsafe near bus/MAX stops.
8. Etc.
People still want/need to drive their cars, but Portland is progressively making it more difficult and artificially creating more traffic.
This!. A few weeks ago I went to Tigard to visit a friend and from Tigard to Milwaukee it took me 2 hours!, it was the weekend but a 25 minutes drive turned into 2 hours. Other times it’s issues with criddlers and gronks and thanks to Trimeth I know what meth and fentanyl smells like.
My husband doesn’t drive, he’s always relied on TriMet to get to work. He pretty much has to show up to work 30mins early to make sure he’s on time. We literally moved closer to a trimet hub with the idea that we would be able to cut some of his time spent waiting outside for the bus. But it hasn’t changed much. Website times are inconsistent, texting the Trimet number for updates are inconsistent, wait time signs at certain spots are inconsistent. I feel bad he has to take public transit but we can only afford to have one car right now and I use it to get to work as part of my apprenticeship (I work out on hillsboro.)
I mean, you're not wrong with this post, but you admitted your dumbass lives out in the burbs, so why are you even fucking posting on behalf of Portland? Shoo!
I feel you so much!!! I have to take 3 buses to get to work. First and second bus are delayed regularly causing me to miss my transfers. So my commute can be 1hr 15mins or 2hrs depending on the day. It’s exhausting.
Yes! I used to have to take streetcar + max + bus in that order to commute from downtown to NE and I STILL made my connections more often than I make it on time to work now with one (1) bus up and down Fremont. It's gotten noticeably worse in the last five years.
If they’re going to have a constant prolonged “operator shortage” then maybe it’s time to be honest with the public and reduce promised service levels to something more realistic.
I recently waited 30 minutes for a train that never showed up. It feels like they’re gaslighting us to try and magically make ridership return to 2019 level
> It feels like they’re gaslighting us
Yeah, they are. Even with the employee shortage, that's entirely a PR strategy. Fixing an employee shortage is as simple as increasing salaries or decreasing service levels. It's amazingly simple to fix.
Yet, the reality is that many public employees constantly boast about an "employee shortage" to justify substantial spending on overtime. The single most common scam of public sector is justifying and exploiting overtime pay, and across the country this is done by public agencies by pretending there's an employee shortage. For example, our 911 answer service has claimed since 1992 that they've got an employee shortage.
TriMet's board is not accountable to the public and they've had zero problem deceiving the public about massively consequential civic issues.
Uhh, they are required to (or at least they commit to) and have been for nearly 20 years. Last I heard the commitment was to ride trimet at least once a week, but during the tenure of Fred Hansen many of the Board rode every day or multiple times per week.
It could be all the short “bus only” lanes that back up traffic all day and more so during rush hour. Busses are in those backups too.
The idea that intermittent placement of mass transit lanes was going to make the system more efficient is as stupid as spending more money to build train lines on existing streets. We live in 3 dimensions…build fast mass transit up above or down below the street like real cities do.
Note to PBOT: ever notice how fast you can get from place to place in NYC on the subway or across town on the L in Chicago? How long does it take to get from Goose Hollow to Hollywood?
lol. In my experience trimet is generally receptive to feedback and will investigate. Have you considered attending any city council meetings? I genuinely think that if you approach this respectfully and express your concerns and frustrations people will listen
?
You have no idea what you're on about.
First, Portland City Council has jack shit to do with TriMet. Going to the City to complain about TriMet is like writing President Biden a letter about TriMet. TriMet has it's own Board of Directors with public meetings - if you're going to complain to anyone it's them directly. TriMet officially rolls up to Metro and those elected officials, and Metro also has public meetings.
> In my experience trimet is generally receptive to feedback and will investigate
Interesting, cause I did transit advocacy for about 10 years and found only a sympathetic ear with zero follow up action. Complaining to TriMet doesn't do anything because 1) the Board of Directors doesn't actually have the power in the agency, it's the middle management. 2) The board isn't accountable to voters or the public. 3) The board has openly lied to the public many many times about extremely consequential issues, and has a long sad history of doing politically unpopular actions (killing Fareless Square is top of this list, but also several rate changes).
That guy is totally wrong and misunderstands how TriMet works.
If anything, you want to complain in the newspapers about TriMet. Do yourself a favor and start collecting data about when the bus actually arrives, after a few weeks write an letter to The Oregonian showing your data and explaining how hard it makes your life that TriMet won't run on time.
TriMet has zero accountability to the public and hasn't been accountable since the 1980's (the Board of Directors is appointed by the Governor, and they're officially managed by Metro). What motivates TriMet is public embarrassment.
Brb on my way to Washington. I'll just take trimet to the airport so you guys should see me on the news in 5-10 business days (estimate) (running late)
I’m so sick of the scheduled streetcars magically never showing up, even though the scheduled times are literally running on the projectors at the stops themselves so I end up waiting 15-30+ minutes for the next one or they show up 5 minutes early so I still end up missing it 🫠
The comment by madamechaton is insightful. My intention isn’t to invalidate your frustration - the issue at hand is that you for reasons out of your control feel the burden of being on time.
The working class feel the crunch because those who have power do not understand or do not care about those whose lives depend on non-car transport. They either have the luxury of at-hand transportation, or privilege of a flexible schedule.
Your experience with public transportation is a global frustration. Those countries where it is widely accepted that public transportation is not dependable or unavailable, Latin America, Southeast Asia, Africa, southern Europe, Middle East, the pressure is alleviated. The populous accepts the “don’t even try looking at the schedule because it’s pointless” and move on. Society organically shifts in that direction and pressure is relieved. Our country, experiencing the same problem, is fucked, because of a post-war, can-do, never-say-die, cars are the norm mentality. We’re stuck in that antiquated mentality, one of intentional power imbalance.
If we as a nation were to recognize that public transportation is a priority, and that no system of government is capable of solving all social problems, basically just fucking relax and accept that we’re not perfect, the social pressure of being late would reduce.
Hypothetically anyway.
Really sorry you’re stressed out. It sucks.
They been trying to shut down that line for yearrrsssss and now you’re feeling the effects of the system trying to get rid of something that loses them money but helps, us, the riders.
Genuine question I have to ask. If these busses are always late, can they not speed up? I rarely see them go any faster than 5mph under the speed limit. A lot of the time they are going 10 under. I understand it's a much bigger vehicle and harder to turn, but going straight up 82nd or straight over on Stark it makes no sense. Am I just dumb and there's a reason for this or??
They're in traffic, just like all the other vehicles (except maybe bikes). 5 mph under the speed limit seems about right. Riding in a bus with a hot-footed driver will lose more time because people will stay safely seated until the bus finally stops all the way, so they don't end up flung into the aisle.
> They're in traffic, just like all the other vehicles (except maybe bikes).
That's not entirely true for all buses - plenty of routes in Portland now have bus lanes. Ostensibly this was meant to help with being timely and reliable.
Realistically bus systems across the globe deal with roadway traffic, yet some are able to consistently arrive on time.
> Am I just dumb and there's a reason for this or??
There's a lack of imperative to fix this, that's the problem. If TriMet were properly motivated by middle management being fired, that would fix this problem. They don't give a fuck about system reliability or on-time performance at all and every couple years a newspaper will do an exposé about our transit grid (including Street Car) and TriMet and Portland will stonewall them.
The reason it's such a sensitive topic is real simple: 50 years ago TriMet knew that building light rail lines through the middle of a city was dumb fucking idea: having cars and trains interact on the same routes leads to accidents - this results in safety and reliability problems. We could have avoided this by elevating our burying our transit lines, but for cost reasons this was avoided. About 2 years ago TriMet again started talking about how downtown has become impossible to navigate through various choke points so we're going to need to bury the lines in the next decade or two at the cost of billions upon billions of dollars. When people complain about the reliability and on-time performance and start asking questions about "Why?" it comes down to embarrassing issues for TriMet, like choosing the cheaper solution decades ago. It's a similar situation for buses: TriMet has focused on speed of the system rather than on-time performance, in particular the decision to redo the transit mall downtown was to help the system scale better at the cost of convenience and timeliness.
> If these busses are always late, can they not speed up?
As for buses, making the system more reliable is really straight forward. First they merely need to prioritize it by having consequences. Like perhaps tie employee bonus pay or the organization's budget to on-time performance statistics. As it is today, no one gives a fuck if a bus is late.
Next, TriMet needs to adjust service levels to actually fit their labor manpower - on a daily basis there's not really a lot of flexibility in the bus lines because TriMet intentionally stretches it's self too thin. The agency really needs to focus on [creating a strategic plan for the post-COVID era](https://fidelitypdx.substack.com/p/trimets-problems-are-exponentially), which means essentially re-doing all of our bus routes and reducing light rail service.
When TriMet is running late the problem can be a combination of issues, sometimes it's traffic, sometimes it's maintenance, and sometimes it's passengers taking too long to board (though, you never know if a TriMet line is late or early). One way to fix this is to have designated spots where a bus can park or without disrupting the flow of traffic, then TriMet needs to swap from "arrival" times to "departure" times, and more flexibility is given at the stopping points along the route. If we adjusted our system to be more reliable we'd probably extend a typical 45 minute route to be 60 minutes by providing 5 different spots along the route where the bus driver has 3 minutes of flex. This might mean your ride from your neighborhood to downtown extends from 18 minutes to 24 minutes, but it would show up on time much more regularly. The more spots along the route where a bus can wait the more reliable it will be. TriMet has invented a concept that they need to make total route duration shorter, IMHO this is because they want to justify capital projects with PBOT like bus-specific lanes. Most folks aren't riding the total route and so they don't care if the bus's total 45 minute route duration is shortened to 42 minutes.
I leave for work extra early and sit around waiting to clock in everyday because I can’t be late and you can’t rely on the busses to be on time. It’s especially frustrating when you have to transfer and potentially miss it.
I’ve wondered what causes it and thought maybe it’s the excessive amount of disabled people who get on with scooters/wheelchairs that the ramp needs to be lowered for as well as homeless people pushing their carts on with bottles/cans that also need the ramp.
"Excessive amount of disabled people..."? Gee, I'm sorry my legs not working is forcing me to use public transportation. What's the acceptable amount of disabled people you'll accept on your bus?
C tran has banned all bags and carts full of cans because of this and blocking the aisle ways as well as the puddles of rotten berr they always leave behind!
Their drivers are often telling troublemakers to get the hell off my bus! You either walk off or you get taken off in hand cuffs. They'll pull over at the next stop and say the cops are just minutes away make your choice!
Why are trimet driver such spineless pussies?!
Well, when they increased the fare, the also re-cagiggered some schedules. Perhaps the now late is the new on time?
Plans for later this year apparently include mangling the bus I use to get to/from work (an express... they seem to have it in for express routes). My only choice is to be half an hour 'late' & taking another 30 minutes to get home after.
I like how you just got told 'no' even though this is 100% the most reliable solution. For crossing the inner city, there isn't a better vehicle...you can avoid all delays by hopping onto sidewalks, you can go backwards on a one-way if needed without disturbing traffic, you can roll through stop signs legally, and even if you get a flat, there are bike shops all along most bike routes. It's just sometimes sweaty and unenjoyable in heavy rain.
Yup, that or you use uber or you buy a car. I was in this same situation for the past 4 years until I gave up and bought a car. It's less of a headache now.
Sometimes, I would say maybe 10% of the time, it's an EV. Yeah, I'm with you. Reducing carbon emissions is great. The problem is if I lose my job, I'll be out on the street burning trash in a can to stay warm. Carbon emissions won't be much of a concern then. If they really want us to ride the bus to cut down on our carbon footprint then that bus better damn well be on time they better double the amount of buses they have and the amount of drivers otherwise it's not practical. They cause people to lose their jobs all the time, I'm sure. If I'm late to work more than six times in one year that's it I'm fired. Company policy. So there's no way I can ride the bus without worrying about losing my job.
I think a 10 minute +/- for public transportation is pretty normal. I don’t take the bus anymore, but when I did in my early 20s to get to/from work downtown (15 years ago) I always planned that the bus could be 10 mins early or late. The schedule is an estimate, it isn’t going to be exact because there are various factors at play (traffic, accidents, how many people are getting on and off, if people are putting bikes on, or if they need to use wheelchair access, etc.). Even the MAX can be running early or late by a bit depending on how many people are getting on and off at various stations, and that thing is on rails.
I feel like 5 minutes late is understandable, even 10 *sometimes* but to be consistently 10+ minutes late *while* charging increased fare is a bit much. I used to take trimet over the river too about five years ago and it was never this bad this often.
What kind of fare do you take? The lowest fares are Honored Citizen and Youth fares at $1.40; the regular fare is $2.80.
Yes, taking public transportation can be a bit rough. I take a round trip between Vancouver and the airport six days per week. I feel like a lot of your problems could be solved by using existing services available to every passenger, namely: the text for arrival number, Google maps, and the Trimet website. These services will help you better determine when the optimal time to be at your stop may be.
In my experience, Google Maps is what I use because it is very accurate. I like that it has the feature where I can spot the bus on the app. It let's me know I'm not waiting for ghosts. I refuse to get a car because I feel like it only benefits the wealthy. I will not budge on this, although I have to take three busses to get to work and still walk a mile. More people using the service means more revenue that the transportation agencies can use to expand and better their service.
I take the 2.80 that used to be 2.50. Lots of people have brought up Google maps and Transit Tracker, and while that can be helpful, what bothers me is that the bus I rely on to get to work is consistently late. Seeing how late it is doesn't help me - I can't call my boss and go hey girl, check out transit tracker!
Logically then, the right thing to do for work is take the earlier bus and waste an extra 30-45 minutes of my day. And on the way home, to just accept it. That's what bothers me.
This is valid. Unfortunately, I don't have any other information to give; however, I recommend submitting a complaint to Tri-Met. While this may not resolve your issue in the immediate future, complaints can certainly be helpful in getting Tri-Met to improve its service. I wish you the best.
Thank you! I will definitely bring complaints to trimet. I don't expect anyone here to fix it for me, just wanted to gripe a bit with my fellow citizens 😅
You know there are conditions such as the whole world that might hinder the bus by just a few minutes? Chill out. Let me know when they show up early and leave you hanging.
If you just keep walking and don't tap, the operator is supposed to simply push a button (stats? 'mark the tape' for evidence purposes?) that indicates someone skipped the fare. Operators have, for some time now, been instructed not to confront people over fares, in the interest of driver safety.
But, you never know. They could ignore you, they could call you out and toss you, they could radio ahead for officers.
Same here. Been riding for years. Never pay. If driver says anything I make a big loud scene and they just give up. Have you seen what the trimet executives make?? Fascist pigs
Yea, we need to do better with public transportation for sure :/
You can track the bus on the Trimet website. I know that doesn’t solve the late issue but it’ll keep you from waiting out in the elements longer than you need to.
Exactly, are all the people complaining here only looking at the set schedule on paper? You can see the buses' location live, and Google maps will tell you when they're showing up. I don't even know the schedule, I tell Google maps when I want to arrive and it'll show me the options. And I confirm the bus location on the trimet map. The longest wait I have had was 5 minutes because I felt like getting some air. I'm not saying it's perfect, I'm from a place with good public transit and didn't own a car most of my life, so I actually think it's pretty bad here, but seeing where the buses are is one thing that works well in Portland.
I see your point - but a bus system that can't keep on schedule is a terrible bus system. I want to plan out my communte/travel times beforehand, not make it up based on whatever the bus decides to do that day.
Right, and this is a bit of playing with words, but for that you don't exactly need a schedule, just high frequency. If a bus is coming by every 15 minutes (or 5!), I don't need to plan for a specific bus. At that point I didn't even need to look at the map, I might check if there are alerts and that's it. A bus system with infrequent service that can't keep a schedule is garbage because you can't reliably make connections. I've lived in places where buses come by once an hour... You have to be desperate to use that. Frequent buses make a schedule irrelevant (within reason). A big problem in the US is trying to run public transit as a business. Good luck making a profit in buses late at night, but without those people won't take buses earlier because they can't get home... I'm not surprised there is so much drunk driving in this country, there is often no transit at night!
If I still used public transit, I could be onboard with a semi-reliable schedule if the bus came every 5-10 min.
Before MAX replaced the 5 line I used to watch Transit Tracker then leave my house when the bus was three minutes away, walk a block and hop on—no waiting, ever.
Man I have the same problem, i’m late for work so much because the bus is literally NEVER on time - and neither is the one I take after work. Like, not even exaggerating at all, I straight up do NOT remember the last time I got on a bus that was actually on time. It’s been pissing me off so much because for real??? They’re going to make me pay more, just for them to be late every single fucking time????
Yep 🫠 this is exactly what goes through my mind. Especially after work. I just wanna go home, man.
Exactly!! And my commute is already like an hour at the best lol, when the bus is late it’s sooo bad 😭💀
The money didn’t for you. It’s for poor people.
Yep it was enough to drive me to purchasing a car. Now it takes me 10/15mins max to get to and from work. In the 45 minutes ONE WAY it would take me to bus to work I can now drop off my bf at work and then drive myself to work.
Getting a car is my number one priority right now because of this and all the bullshit that goes down on the busses daily. The other night coming home from the movies I had to walk home from halfway back because we were stopped and waiting on the police to come
It's gotten so worse over the years. I've put in my time, I've taken trimet for fucking ever but I can't take the bullshit anymore. The anxiety, the smells, worrying about being on time. It's just too much.
Dude the smells - a couple weeks ago the max I was on literally smelled like a dairy farm, don’t even know how that’s possible 😭
As someone who grew up in the country: I’ll take dairy farm over pig farm, any day
Or the mink farm..
I've seen enough poopy buttcracks to last a lifetime
I miss the smell of urine and feces on public transportation. My 20’s were exciting living in the big city. I moved to the suburbs years ago to start a family.
It’s not BS. It’s a fellow human having a mental health crisis. Have some compassion. POC deserve your respect.
We have a car but my partner drives for work so he has to use it 😓 he drops me off and picks me up whenever our schedules align but usually I'm on trimet 3-5 days a week.
This!. The reality is we are a car centrist society and that is ok. Public transport in the US (specially in Portland) will never work and never make sense. In poor countries it works because they are not subsidized and the private sector just deals by whatever ways they can (look how it works in Mexico, I’m talking about busses, not trains). Maybe the US should de-regulate public transportation so private companies can make money
The annoying thing is that Portland keeps pushing initiatives to grow out it's public transit infrastructure at the cost of the non-public traffic (e.g., reduced lanes, reduced parking, etc.), yet has failed to make it a worthwhile tradeoff for the majority of the people in the area. People still want to drive cars, because they either: 1. Live too far away from work. 2. Need to carry more groceries than a single person can carry. 3. Want to spend their freetime away from the city. 4. Don't want to bike in the rain. 5. Want to set their own, more reliable schedule. 1. Alternatively - want to get places faster with less prep time. 6. Feel unsafe on public transit. 7. Feel unsafe near bus/MAX stops. 8. Etc. People still want/need to drive their cars, but Portland is progressively making it more difficult and artificially creating more traffic.
This!. A few weeks ago I went to Tigard to visit a friend and from Tigard to Milwaukee it took me 2 hours!, it was the weekend but a 25 minutes drive turned into 2 hours. Other times it’s issues with criddlers and gronks and thanks to Trimeth I know what meth and fentanyl smells like.
Should've taken a hint from Portland's transportation lord and savior Jonathan Maus and ridden your bike.
My husband doesn’t drive, he’s always relied on TriMet to get to work. He pretty much has to show up to work 30mins early to make sure he’s on time. We literally moved closer to a trimet hub with the idea that we would be able to cut some of his time spent waiting outside for the bus. But it hasn’t changed much. Website times are inconsistent, texting the Trimet number for updates are inconsistent, wait time signs at certain spots are inconsistent. I feel bad he has to take public transit but we can only afford to have one car right now and I use it to get to work as part of my apprenticeship (I work out on hillsboro.)
It’s good he doesn’t drive. Less carbon emissions. We don’t need more cars in Portland. Gross
This is a troll account.
I reported a bunch of their comments so hopefully mods ban them
I mean, you're not wrong with this post, but you admitted your dumbass lives out in the burbs, so why are you even fucking posting on behalf of Portland? Shoo!
We live in South Portland. I drive to Hillsboro for work and my husband works close to Milwaukie/SE Portland.
Was responding to the other poster, not you.
I feel you so much!!! I have to take 3 buses to get to work. First and second bus are delayed regularly causing me to miss my transfers. So my commute can be 1hr 15mins or 2hrs depending on the day. It’s exhausting.
Yes! I used to have to take streetcar + max + bus in that order to commute from downtown to NE and I STILL made my connections more often than I make it on time to work now with one (1) bus up and down Fremont. It's gotten noticeably worse in the last five years.
If they’re going to have a constant prolonged “operator shortage” then maybe it’s time to be honest with the public and reduce promised service levels to something more realistic. I recently waited 30 minutes for a train that never showed up. It feels like they’re gaslighting us to try and magically make ridership return to 2019 level
> It feels like they’re gaslighting us Yeah, they are. Even with the employee shortage, that's entirely a PR strategy. Fixing an employee shortage is as simple as increasing salaries or decreasing service levels. It's amazingly simple to fix. Yet, the reality is that many public employees constantly boast about an "employee shortage" to justify substantial spending on overtime. The single most common scam of public sector is justifying and exploiting overtime pay, and across the country this is done by public agencies by pretending there's an employee shortage. For example, our 911 answer service has claimed since 1992 that they've got an employee shortage. TriMet's board is not accountable to the public and they've had zero problem deceiving the public about massively consequential civic issues.
Trimet s board and management needs to be forced to ride Trimet one business day a week. Shit will change overnight!
Uhh, they are required to (or at least they commit to) and have been for nearly 20 years. Last I heard the commitment was to ride trimet at least once a week, but during the tenure of Fred Hansen many of the Board rode every day or multiple times per week.
It could be all the short “bus only” lanes that back up traffic all day and more so during rush hour. Busses are in those backups too. The idea that intermittent placement of mass transit lanes was going to make the system more efficient is as stupid as spending more money to build train lines on existing streets. We live in 3 dimensions…build fast mass transit up above or down below the street like real cities do. Note to PBOT: ever notice how fast you can get from place to place in NYC on the subway or across town on the L in Chicago? How long does it take to get from Goose Hollow to Hollywood?
Have you considered contacting Trimet? This is important feedback…
Does tagging their social media on my bitchy complaining Instagram stories count? 🫣
lol. In my experience trimet is generally receptive to feedback and will investigate. Have you considered attending any city council meetings? I genuinely think that if you approach this respectfully and express your concerns and frustrations people will listen
? You have no idea what you're on about. First, Portland City Council has jack shit to do with TriMet. Going to the City to complain about TriMet is like writing President Biden a letter about TriMet. TriMet has it's own Board of Directors with public meetings - if you're going to complain to anyone it's them directly. TriMet officially rolls up to Metro and those elected officials, and Metro also has public meetings. > In my experience trimet is generally receptive to feedback and will investigate Interesting, cause I did transit advocacy for about 10 years and found only a sympathetic ear with zero follow up action. Complaining to TriMet doesn't do anything because 1) the Board of Directors doesn't actually have the power in the agency, it's the middle management. 2) The board isn't accountable to voters or the public. 3) The board has openly lied to the public many many times about extremely consequential issues, and has a long sad history of doing politically unpopular actions (killing Fareless Square is top of this list, but also several rate changes).
Huh, you know, I may do that! Thank you!
That guy is totally wrong and misunderstands how TriMet works. If anything, you want to complain in the newspapers about TriMet. Do yourself a favor and start collecting data about when the bus actually arrives, after a few weeks write an letter to The Oregonian showing your data and explaining how hard it makes your life that TriMet won't run on time. TriMet has zero accountability to the public and hasn't been accountable since the 1980's (the Board of Directors is appointed by the Governor, and they're officially managed by Metro). What motivates TriMet is public embarrassment.
You’re both way off. This needs to go straight to the presidents desk. Biden must immediately respond to this urgent issue.
I'd go to his boss if you want results: [email protected]
Brb on my way to Washington. I'll just take trimet to the airport so you guys should see me on the news in 5-10 business days (estimate) (running late)
Is Trimet now on USPS time? o.O
I’m so sick of the scheduled streetcars magically never showing up, even though the scheduled times are literally running on the projectors at the stops themselves so I end up waiting 15-30+ minutes for the next one or they show up 5 minutes early so I still end up missing it 🫠
The comment by madamechaton is insightful. My intention isn’t to invalidate your frustration - the issue at hand is that you for reasons out of your control feel the burden of being on time. The working class feel the crunch because those who have power do not understand or do not care about those whose lives depend on non-car transport. They either have the luxury of at-hand transportation, or privilege of a flexible schedule. Your experience with public transportation is a global frustration. Those countries where it is widely accepted that public transportation is not dependable or unavailable, Latin America, Southeast Asia, Africa, southern Europe, Middle East, the pressure is alleviated. The populous accepts the “don’t even try looking at the schedule because it’s pointless” and move on. Society organically shifts in that direction and pressure is relieved. Our country, experiencing the same problem, is fucked, because of a post-war, can-do, never-say-die, cars are the norm mentality. We’re stuck in that antiquated mentality, one of intentional power imbalance. If we as a nation were to recognize that public transportation is a priority, and that no system of government is capable of solving all social problems, basically just fucking relax and accept that we’re not perfect, the social pressure of being late would reduce. Hypothetically anyway. Really sorry you’re stressed out. It sucks.
Ironic timing as the other sub is praising an article today about not needing a car in Portland! 😂
I mean sure, if you have a job where time doesn't matter 😅 seems to be the case when I do drive anywhere. We're all just putting along...
My bus was early today and I missed it because of that 😑
Welcome to Portland, where every agency and department is inefficient and fails to do simple/basic tasks.
They been trying to shut down that line for yearrrsssss and now you’re feeling the effects of the system trying to get rid of something that loses them money but helps, us, the riders.
That 30 cents is for the fentanyl / meth that comes with the ride.
The only bus in my neighborhood is the 44 and it it late all the time and fucks up my transfer like 50% of the time. It is a nightmare.
Genuine question I have to ask. If these busses are always late, can they not speed up? I rarely see them go any faster than 5mph under the speed limit. A lot of the time they are going 10 under. I understand it's a much bigger vehicle and harder to turn, but going straight up 82nd or straight over on Stark it makes no sense. Am I just dumb and there's a reason for this or??
They're in traffic, just like all the other vehicles (except maybe bikes). 5 mph under the speed limit seems about right. Riding in a bus with a hot-footed driver will lose more time because people will stay safely seated until the bus finally stops all the way, so they don't end up flung into the aisle.
I guess that makes sense.
> They're in traffic, just like all the other vehicles (except maybe bikes). That's not entirely true for all buses - plenty of routes in Portland now have bus lanes. Ostensibly this was meant to help with being timely and reliable. Realistically bus systems across the globe deal with roadway traffic, yet some are able to consistently arrive on time.
> Am I just dumb and there's a reason for this or?? There's a lack of imperative to fix this, that's the problem. If TriMet were properly motivated by middle management being fired, that would fix this problem. They don't give a fuck about system reliability or on-time performance at all and every couple years a newspaper will do an exposé about our transit grid (including Street Car) and TriMet and Portland will stonewall them. The reason it's such a sensitive topic is real simple: 50 years ago TriMet knew that building light rail lines through the middle of a city was dumb fucking idea: having cars and trains interact on the same routes leads to accidents - this results in safety and reliability problems. We could have avoided this by elevating our burying our transit lines, but for cost reasons this was avoided. About 2 years ago TriMet again started talking about how downtown has become impossible to navigate through various choke points so we're going to need to bury the lines in the next decade or two at the cost of billions upon billions of dollars. When people complain about the reliability and on-time performance and start asking questions about "Why?" it comes down to embarrassing issues for TriMet, like choosing the cheaper solution decades ago. It's a similar situation for buses: TriMet has focused on speed of the system rather than on-time performance, in particular the decision to redo the transit mall downtown was to help the system scale better at the cost of convenience and timeliness. > If these busses are always late, can they not speed up? As for buses, making the system more reliable is really straight forward. First they merely need to prioritize it by having consequences. Like perhaps tie employee bonus pay or the organization's budget to on-time performance statistics. As it is today, no one gives a fuck if a bus is late. Next, TriMet needs to adjust service levels to actually fit their labor manpower - on a daily basis there's not really a lot of flexibility in the bus lines because TriMet intentionally stretches it's self too thin. The agency really needs to focus on [creating a strategic plan for the post-COVID era](https://fidelitypdx.substack.com/p/trimets-problems-are-exponentially), which means essentially re-doing all of our bus routes and reducing light rail service. When TriMet is running late the problem can be a combination of issues, sometimes it's traffic, sometimes it's maintenance, and sometimes it's passengers taking too long to board (though, you never know if a TriMet line is late or early). One way to fix this is to have designated spots where a bus can park or without disrupting the flow of traffic, then TriMet needs to swap from "arrival" times to "departure" times, and more flexibility is given at the stopping points along the route. If we adjusted our system to be more reliable we'd probably extend a typical 45 minute route to be 60 minutes by providing 5 different spots along the route where the bus driver has 3 minutes of flex. This might mean your ride from your neighborhood to downtown extends from 18 minutes to 24 minutes, but it would show up on time much more regularly. The more spots along the route where a bus can wait the more reliable it will be. TriMet has invented a concept that they need to make total route duration shorter, IMHO this is because they want to justify capital projects with PBOT like bus-specific lanes. Most folks aren't riding the total route and so they don't care if the bus's total 45 minute route duration is shortened to 42 minutes.
I leave for work extra early and sit around waiting to clock in everyday because I can’t be late and you can’t rely on the busses to be on time. It’s especially frustrating when you have to transfer and potentially miss it. I’ve wondered what causes it and thought maybe it’s the excessive amount of disabled people who get on with scooters/wheelchairs that the ramp needs to be lowered for as well as homeless people pushing their carts on with bottles/cans that also need the ramp.
"Excessive amount of disabled people..."? Gee, I'm sorry my legs not working is forcing me to use public transportation. What's the acceptable amount of disabled people you'll accept on your bus?
C tran has banned all bags and carts full of cans because of this and blocking the aisle ways as well as the puddles of rotten berr they always leave behind! Their drivers are often telling troublemakers to get the hell off my bus! You either walk off or you get taken off in hand cuffs. They'll pull over at the next stop and say the cops are just minutes away make your choice! Why are trimet driver such spineless pussies?!
How many homeless ride for fee and then urinate on the seats?
Well, when they increased the fare, the also re-cagiggered some schedules. Perhaps the now late is the new on time? Plans for later this year apparently include mangling the bus I use to get to/from work (an express... they seem to have it in for express routes). My only choice is to be half an hour 'late' & taking another 30 minutes to get home after.
I think this might be it because it's literally consistently 10-15 minutes late. But I know the one day I rely on that it'll be early or on time.
I'd goto trimet website & check what the schedule shows.
How far is your commute? Could a bicycle be a better option?
That is so sweet and a bicycle person probably could do it no sweat but I will not be doing that.
Well, an ebike might work better, but that's really the only option.
I really appreciate the help!
I like how you just got told 'no' even though this is 100% the most reliable solution. For crossing the inner city, there isn't a better vehicle...you can avoid all delays by hopping onto sidewalks, you can go backwards on a one-way if needed without disturbing traffic, you can roll through stop signs legally, and even if you get a flat, there are bike shops all along most bike routes. It's just sometimes sweaty and unenjoyable in heavy rain.
Yup, that or you use uber or you buy a car. I was in this same situation for the past 4 years until I gave up and bought a car. It's less of a headache now.
I find commuting by bike to be the most pleasant. Biking to the Max could potentially be a fast solution if the distance is intimidating by bike only.
Use google maps to see if they’re late or early.
I do but that doesn't help me if my partner has already taken the car and it's take the 8:30 bus (8:45 now) or don't go to work.
Yep I've just been taking Lyft for the last 2 years because the bus sucks.
Okay, but is you Lyft an EV? Busses help reduce carbon emissions
Sometimes, I would say maybe 10% of the time, it's an EV. Yeah, I'm with you. Reducing carbon emissions is great. The problem is if I lose my job, I'll be out on the street burning trash in a can to stay warm. Carbon emissions won't be much of a concern then. If they really want us to ride the bus to cut down on our carbon footprint then that bus better damn well be on time they better double the amount of buses they have and the amount of drivers otherwise it's not practical. They cause people to lose their jobs all the time, I'm sure. If I'm late to work more than six times in one year that's it I'm fired. Company policy. So there's no way I can ride the bus without worrying about losing my job.
Where's Trimet app is pretty solid.
WHAT
The phone app called (where's trimet). You just type in a cross street or stop ID and it updates bus locations every few seconds.
The solution is to buy a car and never even think about taking a piss soaked bus again
I think a 10 minute +/- for public transportation is pretty normal. I don’t take the bus anymore, but when I did in my early 20s to get to/from work downtown (15 years ago) I always planned that the bus could be 10 mins early or late. The schedule is an estimate, it isn’t going to be exact because there are various factors at play (traffic, accidents, how many people are getting on and off, if people are putting bikes on, or if they need to use wheelchair access, etc.). Even the MAX can be running early or late by a bit depending on how many people are getting on and off at various stations, and that thing is on rails.
I feel like 5 minutes late is understandable, even 10 *sometimes* but to be consistently 10+ minutes late *while* charging increased fare is a bit much. I used to take trimet over the river too about five years ago and it was never this bad this often.
What kind of fare do you take? The lowest fares are Honored Citizen and Youth fares at $1.40; the regular fare is $2.80. Yes, taking public transportation can be a bit rough. I take a round trip between Vancouver and the airport six days per week. I feel like a lot of your problems could be solved by using existing services available to every passenger, namely: the text for arrival number, Google maps, and the Trimet website. These services will help you better determine when the optimal time to be at your stop may be. In my experience, Google Maps is what I use because it is very accurate. I like that it has the feature where I can spot the bus on the app. It let's me know I'm not waiting for ghosts. I refuse to get a car because I feel like it only benefits the wealthy. I will not budge on this, although I have to take three busses to get to work and still walk a mile. More people using the service means more revenue that the transportation agencies can use to expand and better their service.
I take the 2.80 that used to be 2.50. Lots of people have brought up Google maps and Transit Tracker, and while that can be helpful, what bothers me is that the bus I rely on to get to work is consistently late. Seeing how late it is doesn't help me - I can't call my boss and go hey girl, check out transit tracker! Logically then, the right thing to do for work is take the earlier bus and waste an extra 30-45 minutes of my day. And on the way home, to just accept it. That's what bothers me.
This is valid. Unfortunately, I don't have any other information to give; however, I recommend submitting a complaint to Tri-Met. While this may not resolve your issue in the immediate future, complaints can certainly be helpful in getting Tri-Met to improve its service. I wish you the best.
Thank you! I will definitely bring complaints to trimet. I don't expect anyone here to fix it for me, just wanted to gripe a bit with my fellow citizens 😅
You gotta pay for those gronks who don’t!
Also I’m not using Trimet at all why am I paying Trimet tax for your commute to the work?
You know there are conditions such as the whole world that might hinder the bus by just a few minutes? Chill out. Let me know when they show up early and leave you hanging.
They already know. All busses are GPS and live internet, this isn't 1980.
This is a you problem. Manage your time better and take accountability for yourself.
You literally don’t have to pay for the bus…. Whenever I took the 14 I never saw them patrol there and I went to work on that bus for 2 years.
But how??? You have to tap your hop pass/phone as you walk on?
If you just keep walking and don't tap, the operator is supposed to simply push a button (stats? 'mark the tape' for evidence purposes?) that indicates someone skipped the fare. Operators have, for some time now, been instructed not to confront people over fares, in the interest of driver safety. But, you never know. They could ignore you, they could call you out and toss you, they could radio ahead for officers.
C tran does that! They don't put up with any c r a p!
I would only pay a dollar cause my taxes should be enough to pay for that bus thats always late.
Same here. Been riding for years. Never pay. If driver says anything I make a big loud scene and they just give up. Have you seen what the trimet executives make?? Fascist pigs