Does Portland Still Care about Transit?

I’m in Portland’s Oregonian today on the topic of the budget crisis affecting TriMet, the region’s transit agency. If you’ve arrived from the link on that article, welcome! This blog’s resources to help you understand transit issues are organized here.) If you haven’t read the article, please read it first, and then let me expand on a few points. TriMet’s overall budget hole is over 30% of its 2025 service level. The cuts made today are dramatic, but they close only about a 5% gap, so there is a long road ahead to bring the transit budget into balance. This is not a small problem. It is also not TriMet’s fault. In our work we stay in touch with transit agencies all over the US, and they are all having the same problem, escalating costs of offering each vehicle-hour of service, due to (a) competition for qualified staff, (b) higher spending on security to satisfy demands for a greater perception of safety. Let me expand on each of these because they are both inflamed by a lot of crazy…