Replies

Lane Transit District's board, like all transit boards in Oregon, is unelected, appointed by the governor.

LTD gets a chunk of the payroll of every employer in the district, including self employed individuals such as family farmers who happen to be within the geogaphic boundaries of the district, which encompasses most of Lane County including it's rural areas.

LTD has too much influence in the area's planning and development process, the board loves high density urban development and hates privately owned automobiles.

LTD and Portland's TRI-MET persuaded Oregon's RINO legislature to pass a law requiring parallel traffic to yield to buses merging into traffic from stops, at great inconvenience to me and the other owners of the road.

The huge smoke belching buses don't really have a lot of ridership - a typical passenger load is six to ten riders at a time, yet somehow they can justify this system that takes right of way from the owners of the roadway for these private lanes and "guideways", then make their special transit mode seem faster than car travel by shortening the green light time in the parallel traffic lanes.

Fact is, the initial route discussed in the article takes 10-15 minutes by car right now, and the obvoius aim of LTD is to make it take longer, because they hate private automobiles and their owners.

In recent years, Portland's TRI-MET has built light rail lines at such cost that it was pointed out by critics that the price of construction and operation would easily have paid for a new car every five years plus operating costs for every rider on the system, because they also hate private automobiles and their owners.

I wish those people that want to live like they do in Paris or Amsterdam would just go to Paris or Amsterdam.

Dave in Eugene

Got the same stupidity in dade County Florida. These ass wipes go to college and get degrees as urban planners, and they all obviously missed the class on how to leave things that work well alone.

In order to justify their salaries and existence, these SOB's are creating havoc and wasting billions of dollars all over the nation.

The only way to put a stake through their goddamned hearts is to vote GOP and vote often.

Mass transit does not work in large spread out areas.

They either have absolutely no common sense or they are deliberately perpetrating a scam in order to save their jobs.

Good summary of the light-rail nightmare. The proponents want to increase the government "share" of transportation revenues by building infrastructure and work forces they control. And, as you point out, they have a paternal vision of high density urban living which they believe will maintain socialist control over people's lives. The fact that the people have voted with their economic choices for automobiles and low density living doesn't matter to these "urbanists" (read: social fascists).

>LTD and Portland's TRI-MET persuaded Oregon's RINO legislature to pass a law requiring parallel traffic to yield to buses merging into traffic from stops, at great inconvenience to me and the other owners of the road.

You are right. But I would call it much more than an inconvenience. I have had dangerous near accidents with LTD buses when the driver tried to merge into my lane when I was driving parallel to the parked bus. I don't think the drivers even bother to check to see if the lane is occupied before they try to merge. That was before the new law went into effect. The bus drivers are much worse now. They don't understand the law. You had better hope you aren't next to one of them when they decide they want to merge. Where do they get these drivers, anyway?