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Why would anyone take a Waymo when you can ride the Trimet MAX for $2.50?
by darquomiahw 5mo ago
Why would anyone take a Waymo when you can ride the Trimet MAX for $2.50?
- Jblx2 5mo agoBeing slow and inconvenient would be the main reasons. Less exposure to communicable diseases and other unpleasantness are secondary reasons.
- jeffbee 5mo agoBecause MAX is on rails it can and does come to a complete halt for indefinite periods of time whenever some jackass in an Escalade parks it on the track. I know this firsthand and I only lived in Portland for one month.
- QuercusMax 5mo agoAre you sure you're not thinking of the Portland streetcar? Max does not have nearly the same issues.
- persona_reuse 5mo agoMAX has dedicated right-of-way outside the city centers, but in the cities it shares city streets. Tourists drive / stop-at-lights in the dedicated lanes a lot. Streetcar is more susceptible to being stopped because someone parked over the white line, but with 20 minute headways it takes longer to cause a problem.
- RoddaWallPro 5mo agoI rode the MAX when living there for a few years. I vividly recall screaming drugged out homeless riders being a regular feature. The last time I rode, a year ago, there was someone in the throes of the fent-bends in my section, who smelled like he was dying (he well may have been). These incidents haven't made me fear, because I am a relatively big and tall male, but they _definitely_ will for others. And even then, they aren't pleasant. You simply don't run into those things often on trains/subways in Europe (I lived in Spain for a year and traveled extensively in Europe during that time, and on other europe trips prior). So fix those issues, and then I am sure people will want to ride the rails.
- QuercusMax 5mo agoThe solution is to get MORE people onto the trains, not fewer.
- Noumenon72 5mo agoHas it been shown that screaming drugged out homeless riders avoid the presence of crowds? Is there any physical mechanism where having more people on the trains leads to Daniel-Penny-like suppression of drugged out homeless riders? Or does "getting more people onto the trains" just mean removing their options until they are forced to ignore the drugged out homeless riders? As a solution, "get MORE people onto the trains" seems less optimal than "get fewer drugged out homeless riders onto the trains".
- QuercusMax 5mo agoSafety in numbers. There's a reason there's not an issue during the day and during heavy commute hours.
- RoddaWallPro 5mo agoI'm saying it _is_ and _was_ an issue during the day and heavy commute hours, those were the only hours I rode it! Other places in the world with nice train systems do not burden their riders with "safety in numbers", the places are just plain safer, period. And a great place to start is Don't let people smoke fentanyl on the train :) (And make sure everyone has affordable housing and healthcare, ofc)
- QuercusMax 5mo agoCorrection: it's $2.80, capped at $5.60 for a day-pass. (Still $100 for a monthly pass, though.)
- jdlshore 5mo agoThe MAX is nice, and cheap. But it doesn’t run everywhere. I would take the MAX over Waymo, but Waymo over the bus.