This post is somewhat the result of a challenge by Drew M. on Facebook and somewhat the result of the fact I have something to say about light rail…..
Last night I had the pleasure of attending a Portland Trailblazers game with some friends. The good news is the Blazers won but it wasn’t pretty. They, and fortunately the Warriors, started slow but picked it up to eventually lead by 13 and subsequently win by 1.
Portland’s Rose Garden has several transportation options for getting to and from it. Of course you can drive your car and park in the Rose Quarter garage or one of the surrounding lots. Transit wise you can take a bus, or take ANY of the four major Max light rail lines. For this game Tammy and I felt like riding Max would take a bit of the work out of getting in and out.
The trip to the Rose Quarter for dinner and the game was uneventful. We hopped on the Yellow line at the Vanport station and arrived 20 minutes later at the Rose Quarter transit center. Easy. After the game we expected a crowd at the Rose Quarter station and we weren’t disappointed.
In typical transit fashion though this crowd was easily digested by the next arriving train and we were on our way north to Vanport. Along the way we continued to pass strings of cars stopped in queue as they were departing the various parking venues around the arena. There’s a bit of thrill whipping past stopped cars at 30 mph knowing that I don’t have to be stuck in the jam.
The transit expenses for the day were $9.50 vs. $15+fuel+vehicle wear and tear. Best of all Tammy and I didn’t have to drive in post game traffic! Access to the Rose Garden was quick and simple and the experience of this ride was wonderful except for one thing…
The title of this post includes mention of a shower cap. As our type III max car pulled into the Rose Quarter station I noticed it had a shower cap over the front coupler. Wow, really? Yep, really. Ever since the type I cars were delivered in the 80s the couplers have been finicky when wet or covered with snow and ice. This is probably no surprise as the coupler not only contains the mechanical connection between the cars of a train but also a method for transmitting power, braking, and communications between the cars. It also sticks out in the front of the vehicle where it can collect all the elements. Apparently the shower cap is enough to keep things dry enough and functioning normally. Seemingly this is a simple (read cost effective) solution to a complex (and likely expensive) problem.
So what was wrong with our Max experience? It’s pretty simple actually, Max doesn’t go all the way to Vancouver and so we had to get off a mile and a half south of the border. The proposal for the new Columbia River crossing includes a light rail component but there is opposition to it. The opposition claims the increased crime and tax burden are something they don’t want in Vancouver and Clark County. I think that viewpoint is short sighted. There are so many advantages (which would form a whole host of posts) of high capacity transit like light rail that I think we need it to move into Clark County…shower cap and all.
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