Saturday, July 28, 2007

Portland Blogging

Hey all. Sorry it's been a few days since my last post but I've been in Portland Oregon for a streetcar workshop. Below are some of the highlights. The best is what happens when you tear down a freeway, create a park, and then throw a huge brewfest party in the post below this one...

Aerial Tram

Streetcars from OHSU Building

Firetruck Streetcar

Here is a picture of a firetruck and a streetcar. It was pretty cool and they stayed there for a sec while I took a picture. I'm not sure if it was for me, but if it was, thanks!

Crush Load Streetcar

As with the F-Line, it was a crush load on a lot of the cars I saw. In fact it's so full during the afternoon that it's hard for some folks to get on. They need more operating funding so cars can run more often, because every 12 minutes doesn't quite cut it.

Aerial Tram Mt. Hood

We went on the tram and got a testimonial from a doctor that was a skeptic before she started riding it. She said she wondered why they were spending so much money on it, but now she gets it. Instead of 30 minutes during rush hour to get between patient visits in the South Waterfront and OHSU campus, it now takes her 7. It's no surprise that its won her over. It's apparently won over folks who wanted to bike, but didn't like the hill.

South Waterfront Redevelopment

Traffic on Freeway Portland Tram

Here is traffic to Lake Oswego, better get that rapid streetcar sooner than later.

Streetcar in the Park

And here is a streetcar in the park for good measure. I'll update later as I upload more photos. Enjoy!!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi -

I was at the streetcar conference as well, not sure if I got to meet you but I suspect you heard me ask one of the panels about operating funds and 12-minute headways. :-)

It was quite interesting to me to see so many people from around the country flocking to Portland ... Portland has a tradition of modesty (which is perhaps in slight decline) from being a relatively unnoticed, mid-sized city, and isn't used to the idea of being a "national leader" on some issues.

I found out about your blog from a post over on PortlandTransport.com -- I hope you got to meet Chris while you were at the conference.

Best wishes,
Bob Richardson

Pantograph Trolleypole said...

Hi Bob, I recognize that name from reading Portland Transport fairly often :) I did get to say hi to Chris but didn't get to talk extensively. At some point i'd like to try and put together a national blog transit activists page with everyone's posts.

You probably saw me at the conference, i was hopping up to change powerpoints between speakers.