Increases in TriMet fares take effect September first—that’s Monday. Details are available on TriMet’s website, but to sum it up: All-Zone fare is up 25 cents for adults and 10 cents for youth, while monthly passes are up $10 for adults and $2 for youth. They have added a new 14-day pass to the fare options. 14-day passes cost almost exactly half what monthly passes cost, and are good for—you guessed it—14 days.
A TriMet press release explains that fare increases are due to record high diesel prices. TriMet will nearly double it’s fuel budget for fiscal year 2009, expecting to spend $28.5 million on fuel. TriMet is taking a number of approaches to offsetting rising fuel prices, including many that have made it’s fleet one of the most efficient in the nation, but fare increases are still needed. General inflation has also contributed to the fare increase.

The boyfriend and I attended the adults’-only night at OMSI this week and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves – even moreso than I had hoped. This is a truly fantastic idea – the request came for those 21 & over (though I did spy some teenage-looking peoples) to enjoy OMSI without the presence of the younguns. The tickets were $10 per person (free for members), which is cheaper than the normal fare of $11, and local businesses offered free samples of wine, liquor, beer (duh), chocolate, and other misc. foodstuffs, plus there was a snacky buffet with cheese, crackers, fruit, and veg. Though I am fond of children, it was incredibly awesome to walk about without tiny-people shrieks and having to keep an eye out for knee-level heads. Plus, we were able to play with a lot of the stuff the kids normally monopolize, like the ball room (we spent a good 20 minutes in there). This is supposed to be a monthly gig, so we’ll definitely be going back when the next exhibit opens. I found out about this happening via the OMSI email list (which is actually quite informative and useful). I don’t see a site up for this specific event just yet, but hopefully there will be one soon.

One downside – being One Without A Motor Vehicle, I took TriMet to OMSI, a first for me. As OMSI is one of the big draws in the city, it seems strange to me that there isn’t a bus line or stop closer to the museum. There are stops on the Hawthorne bridge itself which are about 5 blocks from OMSI’s main entrance, but they put one who may not be at ease with the traffic and use of the Eastbank Esplanade in a precarious place. From what I understand, this will eventually be resolved with the planned pedestrian/streetcar crossing over the Willamette, but that’s not going to be started until lord knows when. Walking isn’t a big deal to me, but I can see how it would be a deterrent for someone with less mobility and/or children.

Moving to Portland was partially to get out of a town I really really really despise, and partially to get to live in a place with an extensive public transportation system. I grew up in California, between the south SF bay area and a town north of Sacramento. As the time I spent there was all pre-driver’s license, I relied heavily on the public transportation there, which in the bay area (at least at the time) was awesome, but was severely lacking 100mi north. VTA (Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority) hours were long, the waiting time was little, and I felt safe on the bus and lightrail (in San Jose). One thing about the busses down there was that they were dirty – kids were always putting gum on the backs of seats and most of the windows had become translucent due to the myriad of scratches that had built up over years of wee taggers satiating their need to mark yet another solid with his/her scribble, as well as any other surface.

TriMet vehicles tend to be really clean and comfortable to ride. Sure, there have been a couple of late-night puking sessions on the MAX (not me, thankyouverymuch), those who don’t shower, and once in a while the bus and even the MAX get to capacity, but for the most part, our public transportation is great. The only big problem I have with TriMet currently is the sometimes missing busses (walked a full 2 miles along my path before the 71 went zooming by one day), and the damned machines that never work (but I have a monthly pass, so that’s moot to me for the most part). What do you love/hate about TriMet? Do you actually send requests into their “comment” lines? I might be notorious for letting them know at least once a week that the machine they’ve never fixed at the 60th Ave MAX stop is indeed still broken…

This is slightly old news, for those of you who read the same Portland-centric transportation blogs that I do, but TriMet is giving the buses voices! You read that right – not only will the buses announce their eventual destinations to riders at the stop on an external speaker, but they’re equipping the buses to do the same for major stops inside the buses, much like the MAX and Streetcar do per stop already. The lines taking on the system (powered mostly by GPS) are few for now, but so far I’ve heard the announcements on the 20 and the 75 (per the major stops). As I took my first ride on the 75 yesterday, and as I was preoccupied by my cat being freaked out (it was her first bus ride, full stop, and to the vet, no less), the announcement for the Powell stop, so clearly stated, was incredibly helpful. I know that some drivers speak the stops into their wee microphones as they are approaching, but in my near-year of bus riding here, I’ve only been able to actually hear one of these drivers – and I have excellent hearing. Thanks, TriMet, for improving upon our awesome public transit system! They’re not always on time, but at least I now know where we’re going on the bus.