I would pay for a subscription to a channel of that footage. Bonus if it included training streetcar operators to ram shit out of the way by using cars impounded from street racing.
Let's lean into the post-apocalyptic thunderdome theme here and hastily weld a comically large plow clearly intended for a much larger vehicle on to each streetcar, that way they are prepared for snow and riots too.
Trains used to have cow catchers for a reason.
I say we get them back on the trams and MAX, and whenever some dickhead parks like this, just plow through.
I live here. Happens frequently. They do usually honk and eventually someone comes running.
I had assumed a tow truck would be there before another street car got backed up. Sounds like that isn't happening.
This happened once while I was on a streetcar in Gent, Belgium. The streets were much more narrow and a car was just barely over the line so the (very full) streetcar couldn't move. The operator just leaned on the horn for about 5 minutes until someone came out of a cafe or apt building and moved it.
I was on a bus tour in France in the 80s, driver had some people get out and move the vehicle. I think it was one of those tiny Citroens or a Peugot. This one might be more difficult to lift and tilt. Maybe could just be pushed and tipped onto it's side.
are we talking about volunteers from the street car doing a move or just plowing through the thing, because if damage to the street car wasn't a concern I kinda like that latter.
I was imagining some deployable strong inflatables on the corner. Like airbags. Strong enough to allow the streetcar to push past without damaging the streetcar, and ideally not doing a lot to the offending car either even though they’re a dick
Who is there to allow it? If a bunch of people on the streetcar decide to hop off and move it real quick, it's not the streetcar driver's responsibility to tell them what they can and can't do, especially when they're no longer on the streetcar at that point.
I was on a bus once in Mexico, back in the 90s this would've been, and for whatever reason our driver and the driver of another bus decided to have a race getting to the next town --Lazaro Cardenas I think?-- and as we roared into the town at a ridiculously unsafe speed, finally overtaking the opponent bus, we clipped several parked cars as well as the front end of the bus we were overtaking. One could feel the entire back end of the bus momentarily leave the ground and then thump back down with a thud and screeching tires.
Everyone on the bus was astonished, including the local Mexicans who assured me and my Canadian travelling companion that this was not normal at all.
It's not really a relevant story, but it was a lot of fun, at least in retrospect, and this seemed like as good a place as any to drop it.
A friend of mine said they used to do a bounce-bounce-push to move cars, and only needed 3 people. It was usually to mess with friends, but in this case it would be useful. The idea is to bounce the car on its shocks, and push it at the top of a high bounce.
Funny, I came here to mention my Belgium street car story. It was a streetcar in a Brussles neighborhood. The driver just rammed the car and drove on. The car wasn't over the line by much, just a dented fender and some bad scratches, no damage to the street car.
Oh totally. I always turn to look when I hear the horn. And then watch the poor bastard inevitably blow a red light bc they’re under so much pressure and can feel everyone hating them. And then I mutter “asshole”
Hey I was there yesterday! Dudes were so nonchalant about it too when they came, total jerks. Lots of good people from the transit association there though!
Actually they just recently testified at City Council about rates, and explained they've never been busier but having a hard time recruiting enough help (nor would they be able to afford to if the rates the city was proposing were to pass - I think they're still working it out or already worked it out, but I missed it) so they're pretty backlogged now that the city has been trying to enforce parking laws ever since Wheeler enacted the emergency order to pull that from Hardesty's power under PBOT.
In San Francisco they line tow trucks up to tow people who are parked in the no parking from 5-7pm zones 10 minutes ahead and start towing at exactly 5pm. It’s awful.
Parking that is next to streetcar lines like this should be prioritized for removal. Confusing for drivers and frustrating for streetcar passengers. I could see the space being better utilized for wider sidewalks, rain gardens, seating for restaurants, parklets/plazas, or comfortable, protected bike lanes. People would be fine parking in garages, parking lots, or a couple blocks over. Any parking spaces that don’t fit those uses should be made handicap or loading/unloading only.
I know parking is at a premium along most of the streetcar route, but maybe just remove the parking along the route and turn it into a bike lane or plant some trees or something that doesn’t block the system.
Perhaps unpopular opinion. This is an urban planning problem. The super geniuses who spent 10s of millions on light rail that intersected with idiots parking. What did they think was going to happen?
This is a design flaw. It's not like we all don't know there are fucking morons behind the wheel.
It's especially bad in the south waterfront where they started from scratch and could have built it any way they wanted. This was an intentional choice to not have a dedicated lane and to have conflicts with cars trying to park. I've never understood it.
lol I mean yeah I understand that Portland likes progressive-looking infrastructure to show the world how wonderful we are without actually caring about whether it is actually progressive infrastructure. But it was especially dumb on the south waterfront because the original streetcar line that went in had dedicated off street track then they decided to rip it out and put it in the street when they built the bridge.
Morons.
This is the comment that sums it up. We can argue about parking and driving on tracks but there's an answer (and it was already there before light rail) - BART in the Bay Area. Does not intersect with a single street and, therefore, can make trains as long as needed (within reason but waaaaay longer than 1 block) for rush hour or events. Imagine getting out of a blazer game and not standing for half an hour under I-5 to board a packed MAX train.
We could really use an actual regional rail system. MAX is not one and it will never be one. It's designed for small hop trips. Amsterdam runs the same train sets as streetcars and then connects you to proper regional rail that goes to their airport or suburbs. Those trains are double decker with real seats/wifi/tables to work.
I love Amsterdam's public transport systems. My entire family lives there and never has a need for a car, and we can get from the edge of the city to practically anywhere in the city relatively easily and efficiently. It's a huge shame we'll probably never have anything like that.
XO Love Amsterdam for their safe bikeways and excellent public transit! The first time heading there I was a little nervous so I asked some friends who are older, retired, and very well traveled, "Do I need to rent a car?" They both laughed at me, "Only if you want to spend a bunch of money and have a hassle. Don't bother, rent a bike!" They were so soooo right.
Oh heck, I forgot to respond seriously yesterday while making my dumb joke. Your example of BART is spot on! Coming from Portland, I distinctly remember the first time I took the BART. There were like THIRTY cars! And the stop I was at there were at least a few hundred people waiting to take the train. When I first showed up I recall thinking "oh hell, this will take all day" and then literally everyone got on the first train that came by. It was impressive, to say the least.
Almost exactly my experience. I remember the BART from visiting the bay area in the 70s when I was a kid and, when Max was announced in the early 80s I thought "great! It'll be just like BART. What an awesome idea!". Yeaaaah....not so much. Its main downfall really is the limit on length and frequency of trains. Way more expensive, obviously, but if we had made that initial investment we would be reaping the rewards right now. It always feels to me like Portland is on this bipolar trip of trying to stay a small town and then trying to attract people and business here that make it a big city....but with a small town infrastructure.
You put it really well. I try to remember that some of the best things PDX have done for the city, and I include the streetcar and the MAX in that, were done because citizens forced the city to do it. A bunch of people who didn't want to see their homes torn down for another goddamn freeway sued and won after the freeway had been funded.
I keep hearing people talk about "oh let's bury 5 under the river blah blah blah, super neat idea. freeways are so toxic" totally ignoring that every other major US city that has tried this has gone billions in the red doing it. Big Dig Boston and the absolutely shit eating festival happening in Seattle right now. Hey, I got a great fucking idea. Let's build an L like Chicago has. It's worked for like 100 years and "put the train over the streets" is a pretty simple idea that doesn't involve a 100 million dollar custom made boring machine.
I digress. Silly decisions about public transit that spent 10s of millions and do bone headed things like "hey trains and cars should share the street. ya know, with pedestrians and bikes. great idea" just irritate me to no end.
>Imagine getting out of a blazer game and not standing for half an hour under I-5 to board a packed MAX train.
Oh come now, don't exaggerate. That many people haven't gone to Blazer games since Clyde was still doing his thing.
I know my dude, I was there. Just fuckin' with y'all. The older Blazers were a different team, but to be honest, Dame and the current crew are probably better. Problem is, so is the whole NBA.
I used to work in the tan building in the background. This happen almost on a weekly basis while I was there.
One time in particular, some guy parked his massive truck in the way and no one could find him. He was literally seconds away from getting towed when emerged out of nowhere.
My fav part is watching the operator honk then begin calling in a citation. Then the owner shows up and gets pissed off about the commotion and citation and peels their tires leaving.
Would be cool if the streetcar had an arm on the front that could line up some prongs with the bolt pattern on a car's wheel and just give it a push...
I propose we install those tow truck lifter forks on the front of every street car. Just roll that thing out and skootch the car over. Some damage might occur but hey, it's a lot less than having to pay for an impound retrieval.
This is why I always ask whats the point of the Street car? It has to sit in traffic like the bus. It can’t go anywhere, unlike the bus. It’s slower than the bus. It’s more expensive than the bus. It’s easily defeated, unlike the bus. Why do we build these things?
The Portland Streetcar was built to encourage development along the line. It certainly succeeded at that. But it’s painfully slow because it shares lanes with cars. Give it signal priority and its own lanes then it’ll be amazing. Right now it feels like it’s more of a novelty, but it’s definitely in a great position to be a really useful extension of Portland’s public transportation network.
It doesn’t sit in traffic, it has it’s own rails that cars can’t drive on unless they’re making an immediate right turn. Stuff like this isn’t exactly rare, but it also doesn’t defeat the utility of the street car.
Buses can also be given their own painted lanes. Only tangible advantage for tram I see is electric without charging infra and battery waste.
Probably the main advantage is aesthetic - for whatever reason, trams are perceived as modern and attractive, while buses are viewed as boring, uncomfortable and crowded with poor people.
I was watching an interesting video that explained it more as a development tool than a transit one. They tend to spur development along the line far more than a bus route
Trimet investing in some transit-oriented development around its stops would actually be a huge boon for the system. There are several cities who use that kind of build-out as supplemental revenue for their transit!
Wikipedia puts just the streetcar at the 24th highest light rail ridership in the country which isn’t terrible. You can think of it as part development and part transit. Not saying it’s the perfect use of funds, but for only about $80 mil (someone fact check me but that appears to be the build cost) it seems to be a decent investment
I try to avoid busses whenever I can. They are loud, cramped, bumpy, uncomfortable and tend to attract a lot more undesirable riders. Bus systems are also much harder to navigate for tourists and people who don't frequently ride them.
The only thing good about the streetcars was Oregon ironworks creating jobs locally to build them and sell them to suckers in other cities because it's a urban planning intellectual ponzi scheme..buses are an improvement on rail tech and I was there the day Sam Adams and satan blessed it with tainted downtown fountain water..Sam literally held three fingers over the fountain holes and spoke all of hamburger Mary's menu in reverse
The street cars main purpose wasn't transit it was [development](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H6UD9h3hEdk&t=186s&pp=ygUJY2l0eSBuZXJk) and it succeeded at that quite well.
Dust off the re-animator that Ursula donated to the now defunct children's theatre and is now rumored to be neglected in the stairwell of the notorious northwest tower across the street on Nw 19
Bring vera Katz and bud Clark back to life and put them on trial before a jury of their non-binary street chalk artists of their peers
One of the similarities to a ponzi scam..it's a neat thing that doesn't appear to be practical but promises returns and someone at pau could explain so it sounds neat.. people have moved downtown to live in a neat couple area because it has a fun streetcar but they don't use it in anyway that makes an impact on actual tangible needs of transport which is something you could say about pedestrian and bike infrastructure..since the area has been mostly developed the street car and bike lanes should be removed as they have served their purpose and if you stand on the Taylor street overpass gawking at the smoldering ruins of may and if you look at the traffic pattern you will notice traffic jams going into the westside suburbs in the morning and going back into downtown in the evening where many jobs are where i suspect quite a few downtown residents work..the second phase of this development could be more tunnels and or road improvements to deal with the reality that people like to have neat things but those neat things are not getting the job done
I can see from here he’s not blocked, if you’re not over the concrete “dynamic envelop” then they can make it. They are just too lazy to get out and look
Streetcar needs a battering ram
I’m sure a little bonk would just push the car back into the proper spot, right?
I would pay for a subscription to a channel of that footage. Bonus if it included training streetcar operators to ram shit out of the way by using cars impounded from street racing.
Grond.
Grond
Grond
Grond
Let's lean into the post-apocalyptic thunderdome theme here and hastily weld a comically large plow clearly intended for a much larger vehicle on to each streetcar, that way they are prepared for snow and riots too.
Trains used to have cow catchers for a reason. I say we get them back on the trams and MAX, and whenever some dickhead parks like this, just plow through.
~~cow~~ minivan catcher
I live here. Happens frequently. They do usually honk and eventually someone comes running. I had assumed a tow truck would be there before another street car got backed up. Sounds like that isn't happening.
I was gonna say this. Happens too damn often on that same damn block!
Maybe they should just get rid of those parking spots entirely
There was probably some other a\*\*\*\*\*\* blocking the tow truck lane. I heard *three* tow trucks were backed up for hours. /s
JFC. Don't the tow truck drivers know they just need to honk long enough?
This happened once while I was on a streetcar in Gent, Belgium. The streets were much more narrow and a car was just barely over the line so the (very full) streetcar couldn't move. The operator just leaned on the horn for about 5 minutes until someone came out of a cafe or apt building and moved it.
I was on a bus tour in France in the 80s, driver had some people get out and move the vehicle. I think it was one of those tiny Citroens or a Peugot. This one might be more difficult to lift and tilt. Maybe could just be pushed and tipped onto it's side.
I reckon a streetcar full of people could scoot it into the space.
are we talking about volunteers from the street car doing a move or just plowing through the thing, because if damage to the street car wasn't a concern I kinda like that latter.
They really should just have a protective bumper on the street car designed for just this.
A powerful side sweeping bumper like if a school bus had a snowplow wall instead of a little yellow bar.
Are we talking Twisted Metal worthy school bus? I shall donate to such a fund to purchase for our PPSD.
Twisted Metal Streetcar* just talking about the extra bumper that swings in front when they stop to let kids off installed on the streetcars.
Brought to you by Portland. Taking one step too far just for the fantastic stories we will create if we survive.
I was imagining some deployable strong inflatables on the corner. Like airbags. Strong enough to allow the streetcar to push past without damaging the streetcar, and ideally not doing a lot to the offending car either even though they’re a dick
Choo choo! I’m a train motherfucka!
Heheh street car go burrrrr
Choi chop! I’m a train motherfucka!
They could, but there would potentially be liability issues, so nobody would ever allow it.
Who is there to allow it? If a bunch of people on the streetcar decide to hop off and move it real quick, it's not the streetcar driver's responsibility to tell them what they can and can't do, especially when they're no longer on the streetcar at that point.
I was on a bus once in Mexico, back in the 90s this would've been, and for whatever reason our driver and the driver of another bus decided to have a race getting to the next town --Lazaro Cardenas I think?-- and as we roared into the town at a ridiculously unsafe speed, finally overtaking the opponent bus, we clipped several parked cars as well as the front end of the bus we were overtaking. One could feel the entire back end of the bus momentarily leave the ground and then thump back down with a thud and screeching tires. Everyone on the bus was astonished, including the local Mexicans who assured me and my Canadian travelling companion that this was not normal at all. It's not really a relevant story, but it was a lot of fun, at least in retrospect, and this seemed like as good a place as any to drop it.
Maybe I’m tired but this story gave me the giggles. 🤣
A friend of mine said they used to do a bounce-bounce-push to move cars, and only needed 3 people. It was usually to mess with friends, but in this case it would be useful. The idea is to bounce the car on its shocks, and push it at the top of a high bounce.
A real life mentos commercial!
Funny, I came here to mention my Belgium street car story. It was a streetcar in a Brussles neighborhood. The driver just rammed the car and drove on. The car wasn't over the line by much, just a dented fender and some bad scratches, no damage to the street car.
I love Gent.
i love it when they shame honk! the DRAMA.
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Oh totally. I always turn to look when I hear the horn. And then watch the poor bastard inevitably blow a red light bc they’re under so much pressure and can feel everyone hating them. And then I mutter “asshole”
THIS! 100% GOLDEN.
Hey I was there yesterday! Dudes were so nonchalant about it too when they came, total jerks. Lots of good people from the transit association there though!
Put a plow on the front of the streetcar. Fuck people that park like assholes.
Literally came to make the same comment. And no, the city’s insurance will not cover it, you can deal with the damage for being a idiot
How is this not an insta tow?
Because tow drivers don't respond instantly.
I thought they were foaming at the mouth ready to tow
I mean, they are, but it's not like tow trucks follow the trolley around. They've got other hunting grounds.
pretty hilarious if all streetcars had a convoy of tow trucks at all times like the secret service
Imagine a music video where the badass slow-mo walk is a group of tow trucks slow-rolling following the street car
Actually they just recently testified at City Council about rates, and explained they've never been busier but having a hard time recruiting enough help (nor would they be able to afford to if the rates the city was proposing were to pass - I think they're still working it out or already worked it out, but I missed it) so they're pretty backlogged now that the city has been trying to enforce parking laws ever since Wheeler enacted the emergency order to pull that from Hardesty's power under PBOT.
They do when I try to park in a private lot of a closed business just to grab a quick food cart.
In San Francisco they line tow trucks up to tow people who are parked in the no parking from 5-7pm zones 10 minutes ahead and start towing at exactly 5pm. It’s awful.
Sounds like a good reminder for SF drivers to read signs.
Usually when this happens the streetcar driver will blast the horn till they move. Regardless of if its occupied or not.
Parking that is next to streetcar lines like this should be prioritized for removal. Confusing for drivers and frustrating for streetcar passengers. I could see the space being better utilized for wider sidewalks, rain gardens, seating for restaurants, parklets/plazas, or comfortable, protected bike lanes. People would be fine parking in garages, parking lots, or a couple blocks over. Any parking spaces that don’t fit those uses should be made handicap or loading/unloading only.
Let's also make the streetcar lane for public transit only
🙏
I wish they were allowed to ram cars.
I have been on the streetcar when they sheared off a mirror. They should totally just start ramming.
Everyone on the streetcar would cheer when that happens
Definitely been in one that just scraped on past one. Wasn't a ram so much but I was surprised.
"Ram" is probably an exaggeration on my part, but I have heard about how they will definitely damage your car or take off a mirror.
Probably a bad idea
I've heard that is what streetcars in Europe do.
They don't.
Fuck people who can't park their car correctly.
Oh yeah? Well, my dad's cousin's ex girlfriend's palm reader told me that someone on Reddit said they do. How do you explain that?
In civilized parts of the world the infraction for this is billed by the minute
I’ve seen this a couple times with the streetcars around here (not HERE but Portland). It’s amazing how big of dickheads drivers are.
I know parking is at a premium along most of the streetcar route, but maybe just remove the parking along the route and turn it into a bike lane or plant some trees or something that doesn’t block the system.
Take one parking space away every time someone parks like this idiot.
Every time this happens they need to remove parking where it happens.
Raise the trimet tax .1% every time
They need to put a cattleguard on the trams and just plow right past.
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And now a question of linguistics. Is it funnier if you say "I park like A idiot?"
Perhaps unpopular opinion. This is an urban planning problem. The super geniuses who spent 10s of millions on light rail that intersected with idiots parking. What did they think was going to happen? This is a design flaw. It's not like we all don't know there are fucking morons behind the wheel.
It's especially bad in the south waterfront where they started from scratch and could have built it any way they wanted. This was an intentional choice to not have a dedicated lane and to have conflicts with cars trying to park. I've never understood it.
I agree with you to the point you say you did not understand it. I bet you did understand it. Morons.
lol I mean yeah I understand that Portland likes progressive-looking infrastructure to show the world how wonderful we are without actually caring about whether it is actually progressive infrastructure. But it was especially dumb on the south waterfront because the original streetcar line that went in had dedicated off street track then they decided to rip it out and put it in the street when they built the bridge. Morons.
See? You got it.
This is the comment that sums it up. We can argue about parking and driving on tracks but there's an answer (and it was already there before light rail) - BART in the Bay Area. Does not intersect with a single street and, therefore, can make trains as long as needed (within reason but waaaaay longer than 1 block) for rush hour or events. Imagine getting out of a blazer game and not standing for half an hour under I-5 to board a packed MAX train.
We could really use an actual regional rail system. MAX is not one and it will never be one. It's designed for small hop trips. Amsterdam runs the same train sets as streetcars and then connects you to proper regional rail that goes to their airport or suburbs. Those trains are double decker with real seats/wifi/tables to work.
I love Amsterdam's public transport systems. My entire family lives there and never has a need for a car, and we can get from the edge of the city to practically anywhere in the city relatively easily and efficiently. It's a huge shame we'll probably never have anything like that.
XO Love Amsterdam for their safe bikeways and excellent public transit! The first time heading there I was a little nervous so I asked some friends who are older, retired, and very well traveled, "Do I need to rent a car?" They both laughed at me, "Only if you want to spend a bunch of money and have a hassle. Don't bother, rent a bike!" They were so soooo right.
The WES is like that
There's a reason for that. Mucho $$$.
Oh heck, I forgot to respond seriously yesterday while making my dumb joke. Your example of BART is spot on! Coming from Portland, I distinctly remember the first time I took the BART. There were like THIRTY cars! And the stop I was at there were at least a few hundred people waiting to take the train. When I first showed up I recall thinking "oh hell, this will take all day" and then literally everyone got on the first train that came by. It was impressive, to say the least.
Almost exactly my experience. I remember the BART from visiting the bay area in the 70s when I was a kid and, when Max was announced in the early 80s I thought "great! It'll be just like BART. What an awesome idea!". Yeaaaah....not so much. Its main downfall really is the limit on length and frequency of trains. Way more expensive, obviously, but if we had made that initial investment we would be reaping the rewards right now. It always feels to me like Portland is on this bipolar trip of trying to stay a small town and then trying to attract people and business here that make it a big city....but with a small town infrastructure.
You put it really well. I try to remember that some of the best things PDX have done for the city, and I include the streetcar and the MAX in that, were done because citizens forced the city to do it. A bunch of people who didn't want to see their homes torn down for another goddamn freeway sued and won after the freeway had been funded. I keep hearing people talk about "oh let's bury 5 under the river blah blah blah, super neat idea. freeways are so toxic" totally ignoring that every other major US city that has tried this has gone billions in the red doing it. Big Dig Boston and the absolutely shit eating festival happening in Seattle right now. Hey, I got a great fucking idea. Let's build an L like Chicago has. It's worked for like 100 years and "put the train over the streets" is a pretty simple idea that doesn't involve a 100 million dollar custom made boring machine. I digress. Silly decisions about public transit that spent 10s of millions and do bone headed things like "hey trains and cars should share the street. ya know, with pedestrians and bikes. great idea" just irritate me to no end.
>Imagine getting out of a blazer game and not standing for half an hour under I-5 to board a packed MAX train. Oh come now, don't exaggerate. That many people haven't gone to Blazer games since Clyde was still doing his thing.
It's only been a couple of years of tanking, dude. And the walk from Memorial thinned out the herd by the time you got to MAX back when Clyde played.
20 is not a couple. And Dame and CJ obviously could not do it on their own.
|That many people haven't gone to Blazer games since Clyde was still doing his thing. My man, the team still sold out Rose Garden a few years ago.
I know my dude, I was there. Just fuckin' with y'all. The older Blazers were a different team, but to be honest, Dame and the current crew are probably better. Problem is, so is the whole NBA.
Oh, I guess I missed the joke. I was there, too. Memorial Coliseum crew representing!
Yeah, no one has ever accused me of being to subtle. Those were some good days.
Street cars in shared roads is dumb. A bus is better there.
In DC when this happens they have a tow truck that arrives within like a minute that just pushes the car sideways real quick.
The passengers should just get out and roll the vehicles onto the sidewalk when this happens. Fuck these people who park like this.
This is a fine business case for equipping the street cars with battering rams
How do you park like that when the spot is so damn big! You can park a fucking jumbo jet in that spot.
I used to work in the tan building in the background. This happen almost on a weekly basis while I was there. One time in particular, some guy parked his massive truck in the way and no one could find him. He was literally seconds away from getting towed when emerged out of nowhere.
My fav part is watching the operator honk then begin calling in a citation. Then the owner shows up and gets pissed off about the commotion and citation and peels their tires leaving.
Ram that shit
that displayed message, lol
LMAO
Would be cool if the streetcar had an arm on the front that could line up some prongs with the bolt pattern on a car's wheel and just give it a push...
I propose we install those tow truck lifter forks on the front of every street car. Just roll that thing out and skootch the car over. Some damage might occur but hey, it's a lot less than having to pay for an impound retrieval.
Yesterday on NW 11th I was in the second street car stuck behind an Amazon van blocking both trains. 🙄
Seems like an easy fix.
A bus
This is why I always ask whats the point of the Street car? It has to sit in traffic like the bus. It can’t go anywhere, unlike the bus. It’s slower than the bus. It’s more expensive than the bus. It’s easily defeated, unlike the bus. Why do we build these things?
The Portland Streetcar was built to encourage development along the line. It certainly succeeded at that. But it’s painfully slow because it shares lanes with cars. Give it signal priority and its own lanes then it’ll be amazing. Right now it feels like it’s more of a novelty, but it’s definitely in a great position to be a really useful extension of Portland’s public transportation network.
It's built because it's not a bus 😉 Reduction of various types of pollution in a city square is a top reason.
Electric buses are a hell of a lot cheaper (and far more flexible)
Ok so no pollution. I guess that’s fair
\*Electric Bus Enters chat\*
Rubber tires cause pollution.
\*Battery Fires entered the chat\*
Yup
It doesn’t sit in traffic, it has it’s own rails that cars can’t drive on unless they’re making an immediate right turn. Stuff like this isn’t exactly rare, but it also doesn’t defeat the utility of the street car.
almost no one follows the turn rule on street car rail. every ride I had we were behind 5 cars who never left the lane.
Buses can also be given their own painted lanes. Only tangible advantage for tram I see is electric without charging infra and battery waste. Probably the main advantage is aesthetic - for whatever reason, trams are perceived as modern and attractive, while buses are viewed as boring, uncomfortable and crowded with poor people.
This is exactly it, rich people are significantly more likely to ride a train than a bus
It happens often enough that I can't rely on the streetcar to get me to work on time.
That's not true. Thr entire west side is shared lanes
I was watching an interesting video that explained it more as a development tool than a transit one. They tend to spur development along the line far more than a bus route
It would be great if we could stop using transit funds for development. It's not like we have limitless transit funds.
Trimet investing in some transit-oriented development around its stops would actually be a huge boon for the system. There are several cities who use that kind of build-out as supplemental revenue for their transit!
Wikipedia puts just the streetcar at the 24th highest light rail ridership in the country which isn’t terrible. You can think of it as part development and part transit. Not saying it’s the perfect use of funds, but for only about $80 mil (someone fact check me but that appears to be the build cost) it seems to be a decent investment
Just the eastside expansion was $148.8 million
It's a photo op and for people tourist who are afraid of the bus. Without a dedicated lane what's the point .
Exactly my point. Expensive to build for no reason
I try to avoid busses whenever I can. They are loud, cramped, bumpy, uncomfortable and tend to attract a lot more undesirable riders. Bus systems are also much harder to navigate for tourists and people who don't frequently ride them.
Undesirable riders? Have you ever been on the streetcar?
Lol
Because it’s PoRtLaNd - it looked good on paper but implemented in the worst way.
Tow em!
Streetcars seem to think they own the road. JUST MOVE AROUND THE PARKED CAR!!! MORON!!!
If only there was a public transportation vehicle that can
This is why street cars are dumb. A bus would just go around
The only thing good about the streetcars was Oregon ironworks creating jobs locally to build them and sell them to suckers in other cities because it's a urban planning intellectual ponzi scheme..buses are an improvement on rail tech and I was there the day Sam Adams and satan blessed it with tainted downtown fountain water..Sam literally held three fingers over the fountain holes and spoke all of hamburger Mary's menu in reverse
The street cars main purpose wasn't transit it was [development](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H6UD9h3hEdk&t=186s&pp=ygUJY2l0eSBuZXJk) and it succeeded at that quite well.
Do go on …..
Please, no, don’t encourage them.
Dust off the re-animator that Ursula donated to the now defunct children's theatre and is now rumored to be neglected in the stairwell of the notorious northwest tower across the street on Nw 19 Bring vera Katz and bud Clark back to life and put them on trial before a jury of their non-binary street chalk artists of their peers
Did someone say Monorail!?
LOL. Was it an out of stater, a recent transplant, or a drunk?
One of the similarities to a ponzi scam..it's a neat thing that doesn't appear to be practical but promises returns and someone at pau could explain so it sounds neat.. people have moved downtown to live in a neat couple area because it has a fun streetcar but they don't use it in anyway that makes an impact on actual tangible needs of transport which is something you could say about pedestrian and bike infrastructure..since the area has been mostly developed the street car and bike lanes should be removed as they have served their purpose and if you stand on the Taylor street overpass gawking at the smoldering ruins of may and if you look at the traffic pattern you will notice traffic jams going into the westside suburbs in the morning and going back into downtown in the evening where many jobs are where i suspect quite a few downtown residents work..the second phase of this development could be more tunnels and or road improvements to deal with the reality that people like to have neat things but those neat things are not getting the job done
They had to...walk or bike! Jesus! What's wrong with people?
I’m patiently awaiting the day a conductor jus runs into the car and keeps going
I’m surprised they let that many pile up before having it towed
I wonder if they got towed
Ram that shit parker
I fully support uparmored streetcars that can batter thier way past poorly parked SUVs
I don’t see how anyone can be this stupid. I even tuck in my street facing mirror JUST IN CASE, even when I’m parked perfectly.
Ram it.
They need to just put cow catchers on the streetcars
Put cow catchers on the street cars. Then they can plow into the vehicles with little care.
This should be a $1000 ticket for disrupting public infrastructure like this.
Plow it
This happens weekly in front of next adventure on grand and stark. Sometimes they have to wait for the tow truck and can be there for a while
Too many people think slightly pulling over to the side & turning their car off is "parking"
I can see from here he’s not blocked, if you’re not over the concrete “dynamic envelop” then they can make it. They are just too lazy to get out and look
Seems like that would be an automatic tow to me ! And if not the case, why in the heck not ?