The meet will go down at Chad’s Meeting Space in the South Waterfront.  So jump on the #35 or Streetcar and head down!

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UPDATE:  Just wanted to add to this entry a few specifics.  Just go to the front concierge desk of the Ardea and ask where the upstairs room is with the transit meetup.  He/she will point you in the right direction.  We'll be just in front of and upstairs where the concierge desk is. 

This Saturday at 5:00pm the transit meetup is going to happen, as previously mentioned.  The only question left is where we’ll meet.  I’m voting for Chad’s Place near South Waterfront.  Are you still open for that Chad?

Is everyone good with that?  Please leave a comment or three, even just to say you’re coming.

See everybody there!  (Remember, #35 & the Streetcar connect to the location, of course pending all is still ok with that space).

Well, finally we are moved from SE 21st & Powell on the east side of the river to the south west side of the river, immediately downtown.  Just slightly east of the PSU campus, right back where Jo & I originally moved to when we left the wretched city of Jacksonville.

We now have access to almost every line TriMet operates.  In addition we’re smack right in the center of everything so we actually have decreased our need of transport and increased our access to transport.  Kind of like a win, win, and WIN.  We’re both stoked on many levels, the only thing that may bother us is the blatant obliviousness of college students wondering aimlessly about in disregard for daily life at PSU – but that’s also one of the MOST entertaining parts of the entire area!  : )

All in all, it has been an INSANELY busy last few weeks, or wait…  forget that…  last few MONTHS!

With that said the transit meetup is coming up on the 5th, so anyone reading this make sure to navigate to the blog entry and comment on where we should meet at.

So here’s the lowdown.  We’ll all meet at 5:00pm, and discuss transit topics from then until whenever.  I figure we’ll probably go until at least 8:00pm, so if you want to swing by a little after 5:00pm please do.

Here’s some of the topics that have been brought up for discussion so far.  Of course, anyone can talk about anything they want to, these are just kick starts.

• The New Light Rail Efforts – i.e. The Orange Line (Milwaukee)
• The West Side Express, or WES – i.e. The money bleeder (or maybe someone can convince us it isn’t?)
• The future of TriMet in general – Should it be altered?  Broken apart?
• Advocacy – Groups, plans, ideas, organizing, etc.
• Random topics – generally, we can always just bring up things.

The last topic of debate – where shall the location of the meetup be?  Please weigh in with your thoughts and ideas on location.  Preferably someplace that has some food, and is all ages.

Chad mentioned an area that is available near south waterfront and we could BBQ, BYO Beverages, or do a potluck style.  Chad’s space is available via streetcar & Bus #35.  So that’s one option.

Food, Grub, Tasties, Eatin’s, Discussion, Conversation.  Flanged wheels, rubber on road, combustion based, electric induction, forced induction, passenger count, throughput, ROW/right of way, and more, we’ll discuss it all and get to the bottom of mysteries and ask all the right questions.  First point of business, I’m gonna change the name of the Transit Beer meets to merely Transit Meetup.  So newcomers will have the appropriate connotation that we discuss transit, eat some food, and then maybe drink a few beers.  It’s all up to the attendees!

For anyone that wants to swing in, we have this meetup and there is no official meeting minutes, no beauracratic organization, this is just a get together and ramble on about transportation topics.  So don’t be intimidated just come and meet some of your fellow transit riders & add your 2 cents to the conversation.

So make a note and put it on your schedule;  July 18th is Transit Beer #5 (is that right, are we on #5?)

We’ll plan on a meetup at about the same time we usually do, kicking off around 7:00pm, and I’ll probably arrive at the destination an hour early.

Now for the BIG BIG question.  Where should we hold this Transit Meetup?  We’ve been to downtown south west, downtown north west, and just on the east side in the north east.  We’ve also hit the south east along Powell.  So the options are wide open.  Throw some suggestions in!

Sound Transit Link Light Rail opens:  July 18

MAX Yellow Line Changes to the downtown Mall Alignment:  August 30

MAX Green Line Starts downtown and along I-205:  September 12

I'll have my Transit Sleuth reporting, photos, and possibly video if everything unfolds appropriately.

In other Transit Sleuth news I will have Phoenix photos & hopefully videos up in October of this year.  More on all this soon.

In my last bit o' news, anyone up for another Transit Beer/Food/Dinner/Chillin' get together?

OurPDX Reports Borking

Leave it to Aaron Hockley of www.dogcaught.com and other tech fame in PDX to take a great shot and notify people of the upcoming delays for wiring the new Green Line into the MAX System.  :)  Check it out on OurPDX in “TriMet Warning: Gateway Area to be Borked Starting Tuesday”.

Transit Beer Rocking

Transit beer rocked.  Conversation ranged from transit (shock!) to subsidies for sports teams.  The community of people interested in transit (at least at Transit Beer) tends to be a rather intelligent group.  Thus the topics are wide ranging, with the normal focus on transit.

Other Bits

Amtrak isn’t actually spending any of the money they received from the stimulus on anything that will actually create economically, environmental, or otherwise sustainable work.  Most will be done within 1-8 months and the money will be gone in short order.  Most of it is probably going to be used on things that are ill prepared for purchase.  Also there isn’t a penny so far allocated to new service.  Every penny seems to be going for security or maintenance systems.  Don’t get me wrong, it is cool that they’re getting sustainment funds, but because of the “hurry up and spend it to save the country” clause it isn’t getting spent as intelligently as it should.

Transit Beer Decisions

We decided as a group the most intelligent next steps for TriMet would be to bump up the primary routes to BRT (or at least articulated buses for christ’s sake!).  On the west side the heavy rider lines need to be bounced up to AT LEAST frequent service.  I personally think shit should be done even at the cost of cutting some other low ridership lines.  Anyone else got any ideas on that?

That WES Shot

I published a photo from the WES free ride over at Dog Caught, go check it out.  :)

So if you're going to come out and about tongith and want to chat transit for a bit, we're meeting for grub, and maybe a beer, for the 4th Transit Beer at Pho Thanh Long.  It's at 635 SW College St in Portland.  The #12 stops right out front and the streetcar stops about 3 blocks away at PSU.  Check out the Google Map.

Click on the map to get a closer up image, and if you're taking transit make sure to click on it and enable transit.

View Larger Map

Buses that stop nearby within 1-3 blocks:  #8, #9, #19, #68, #1, #12, #44, #94, and the #17.  The streetcar stops approximately 3-4 blocks away also, depending on if you're coming from the north west or south east.

So come join us.  We'll be there at around 7:30pm, maybe a few minutes after, pending delays.  ;)

So were are we meeting at?  We narrowed it down to the #12, south west area, Saturday about 7:00(ish) and we'll hang out & talk until we're done or last bus!

Everyone throw in an idea and I'll finalize and post location this afternoon or early tomorrow.

How's does March 28th work for everyone?  I'll have just finished up my WES Commuter Week & am sure I'll have a ton to ramble on about.  I also hear that WES has been having steady ridership increase since opening, which might even add a few more conversation topics.  :)

If March 28th is good for everyone, the next step is to finalize the place.  As always, I like to make sure it is transit friendly, for the very obvious point that it is a "transit" meetup.  Also, there are several people that don't really partake upon beer type beverages and such, so the place having food is a good priority too.

 :)

Any ideas, shoot em' into the comments.