Category Archives: TriMet

“Destination Swan Island”: You’re Invited!

The Swan Island TMA invites you to the “Destination Swan Island”  launch party, this coming Wednesday, May 9, 10 am to 2 pm. Help us celebrate the $5 million in bike/pedestrian/transit access improvements coming to Swan Island this year!

Learn about the Waud Bluff Trail and the Going to the River sidewalk/trail improvements. Guided rides and walks at noon.

Bring your bike for complementary bike tune-ups (courtesy of the Green Garage), bike seat covers (courtesy of the TMA) and more!

Get the latest on Active Transportation options for employees from city bureaus, regional agencies and non-profits, hear prominent speakers from Cycle Oregon, Alta Planning and the BTA and check out your carshare options: car2go, Zipcar and GetAround.

Walk, bike, grab an 85 Swan Island bus or drive on over to N. Anchor & Channel (easy parking across the street at the former Office Max location) to Daimler Trucks North America, Corp 1, 4747 N. Channel next Wednesday, May 9th…You can’t miss the tents! *Directions attached.

Enjoy fine music, food (Lunch will start at Noon), and the chance win a $50 REI gift card!

Hope to see you there–come early!

For more information regarding the infrastructure improvements along Going Street and on Swan Island as part of the City of Portland “Going to the River” project, click HERE.

 

Who’s smarter: you or your phone? Here are some (transit) apps to get you there

Content courtesy of ITegrity Solutions

Hopped on the smart phone bandwagon yet? If so, smart phone apps have been popping up right and left that can make your daily life much much simpler (or complicated, depending on whether you really need 13 apps to help you figure out your dinner).

When it comes to demystifying  how to get to work or anywhere, for that matter, smart phones have changed the commuting landscape.

Lucky for you, our friends at Portland Afoot have done their homework and reviewed 5 prominent TriMet apps for smart phones, demonstrating parity in their nod to apps for both the ubiquitous iPhone as well as its brethren. Check it out HERE

Time to shed some light on winter commuting

Photo courtesy of TriMet

Bussing it after hours? Biking in the driving rain? We wintertime commuters in the northern latitudes can finally herald the passing of the shortest day of the year (December 21st) and the calendar’s slow inch toward daylight.  But we’re not there yet.  This is the Pacific Northwest after all.  We fear there could be more rain…and more darkness.

But don’t despair!  We gathered a number of helpful tips to cheer up your commute.   Check out the following links to ensure your trip is not only safe but comfortable.  And remember, leave that car behind and you’ll head into the New Year healthier, richer, and, well, more relaxed!

TRANSIT TIPS 

WINTER BIKE COMMUTING TIPS

TriMet’s multi-modal trip planner: Bike+Bus+Walking = cool

You may have caught the buzz already but if not, check this out– TriMet has trotted out the latest tool to make your commute easier: an open-source multi-modal trip planner, making itself ahead of the game as the first of its kind developed by any U.S. transit agency. This trip planner allows you to specify your preference for a bike ride and even indicate whether you want the safest route or the flattest route.  Combine bike and bus for the fastest and most efficient trip.

Other features include:

  • Allows for future inclusion of other transit systems, such as C-TRAN and SMART
  • Uses OpenStreetMap, a Wikipedia-like map, so bike routes and walking paths are up-to-date and reflect closure and construction information
  • Offers bike routing based on suitability, a highly requested feature not offered by other mapping tools
  • Includes car-share locations, so you can plan transit or bike trips to ZipCars.

Try the new tool and use it to plan your next adventure or just a better route to work:  Test the new regional trip planner  Continue reading

Swan Island Transit: the quick report from TriMet

Relax, Swan Island transit riders– breathing into a paper bag this Fall won’t be necessary for a reputable source informs us that neither the TriMet 72 or 85 schedule will face the chopping block this September. For those of you who’ve found your bus riding groove, this is happy news.

And for those of you who haven’t found your transit groove, we can help. Did you know that the Swan Island TMA will customize a transit trip plan just for you? Did you know that the map collection in our office would make Lewis and Clark blush? And while we’re on the subject, did you know you could read all about Lewis and Clark’s remarkable cartography skills if your hands were free to hold a book on the bus and not the steering wheel of your car?

Oh, and another thing: the PDX Bus iPhone App. It’s life changing.  (Next post forthcoming)…