stuff

A couple weeks ago I harped on mass transit in the northwest. Well, It turns out, I was stupidly mistaken. In my previous post, I referenced a video that profiled Bogota's mass transit system and how awesomely cool it was. It was like a light rail, only there were no tracks, just roads where only the buses drove. So, I ran into this blip.tv video done by 'YERT' and basically I feel now, like I should delete the post I made a couple of weeks ago because in fact, Portlands system does kick ass, and low and behold, there is a wonderful example of bogota's system RIGHT HERE in the northwest, just about 70 minute drive from Portland, in 'weirder than portland' Eugene. Surprisingly, since moving to Oregon in 2004, I have only been through Eugene a few times, and a couple years ago, when I was doing the Tour of Willamette bike race, I noticed this odd construction, looked like some sort of train route next to the road, but they were not building train tracks. I couldn't really figure it out, so I sorta just chalked it up to part of the weird-ness that is Eugene. So you have to go to about 1/2 way through this video to get to the Eugene stuff. I obviously hadn't done my homework, when it comes to trash talking the mass transit systems around here.



In addition to that sweet video... there's a guy in Idaho, who thinks the world can be powered by solar roads. I have some doubts, and one of them is studded tires. And the other is big trucks. I mean if you're going to use that many panels, why not just put them on the roofs of buildings. Or in the median.

Some thoughts on transit.

I'm all about mass transportation. It's awesome. And you could say Portland has a pretty darn good system, with busses, and streetcars, and light rail. It even has an aerial tram for goodness sakes. If you take the tram out of the equation, I've ridden on portland's mass transit exactly zero times since we moved here. And for the first 6+ months that we lived here we only had one rally car, so you'd think (with all my trips to and from work and school) that at least once I'd have taken the bus. Nope. I rode my bike. So this isn't true for everyone (fitness wise), but I think I can get anywhere in this city, except for perhaps beaverton (there's a big hill) if I'm on my bike vs riding the bus or trains. It's slow!!! and the streetcar is even slower. I think the average speed is like 10mph. It's almost a joke. And the mass transit in this city has cost portland millions and millions. Wait no, billions. You'd think, since America is supposedly the smartest, richest, educated and most technically advanced civilization in the world that we'd think of the best way to get people from point a to point b, in an efficient, fast and low cost method. NOPE. but they are in Bogota, Columbia. Bogo-freaking-ta. You know in south america. Check it, it's 7 minutes.


While I'm at it... here's another you tube. Gotta love LOST.