Furthermore: Where the Headlines Take You

Buses and Streetcars

There are many changes afoot in our local public transportation system. Citing revenue problems, TriMet is planning cuts to bus service on many neighborhood routes. But, at the same time, plans are shaping up for the new pedestrian/bicycle/transit bridge, and TriMet has decided to use $1 million in federal stimulus money to create new bicycle parking. The newly re-designed downtown Portland bus mall is nearly done and is open to car traffic, but drivers are having trouble understanding and following the new traffic rules on SW 5th and 6th streets. And, what about the rest of the country? The American Association for Public Transportation released a survey this week reporting that transit ridership saw a 4% increase between 2007 and 2008.

I ride the bus every day (I've never owned a car) and people sometimes ask me what it's like to use the bus as my primary mode of transport. Well, you have to be prepared for some inconveniences – buses can be a little slow, sometimes they're too warm or too hot or kinda stinky, and occasionally I have to stand in the aisle instead of getting a seat – but on the whole, I love being a bus rider. I never have to parallel park. I am familiar with people in my neighborhood who I'd never meet if I didn't ride the bus. There are lots of advantages! Portlander Kate Lopresti is another avid bus rider, and her zine The Constant Rider chronicles her experiences commuting by bus, and her travels using other forms of public transit. Lopresti's observations are astute, her instructions for fellow riders are sound, and her wit is very dry indeed. The Constant Rider Omnibus collects numbers 1-7, and covers subjects as diverse as fellow passengers who are drunk, “celebrity” sightings of bus drivers going about their lives, and “I saw you” personal ads from folks who spotted someone hot on the bus. Issue number 8 is also worth reading; it is billed as an “Industry Insider” and presents the public transit employee's perspective on things. Lopresti read from her work at the library last year; if you missed it be sure to listen to the podcast!

Before the bus was the urban public transportation workhorse, streetcars were the stars of the show. Portland's first streetcars were horse-drawn, and they went into service on SW 1st Ave. in 1872. The first electric streetcars arrived in 1889, and they were a major element of the city's transportation system until the Great Depression in the 1930s. If you're ready to read about the whole saga, I can heartily recommend Fares Please!: Those Portland Trolley Years. Author John T. Labbe provides a truly comprehensive history of the companies that built and ran the streetcar lines and the impact the streetcars had on life in the city. The book is richly illustrated with historic photographs, and maps of the different trolley lines.

And if it's street car pictures you're really after, don't miss Portland's Streetcars by Richard Thompson. This slim volume is all pictures all the time – from the Rose City's first streetcars in the 1870s to today's MAX light rail.  Each photograph is accompanied by a brief caption, but essentially Portland's Streetcars is a visual history. It's actually part of a series of books of historic photographs of trains called Images of Rail – one of the other volumes in the series focuses on railroads in the Columbia River Gorge.