Portland has a streetcar.
You can walk as fast as the streetcar. So if the streetcar isn’t there to pick you up exactly when you arrive at the stop, you might as well walk; the streetcar will never catch up with you.
But I always believed that, should the miracle occur that the streetcar is there waiting for you, you should get on. I discovered I was very wrong.
One day while riding the streetcar, we got stuck because of an illegally parked car outside a hotel. The car was slightly blocking the tracks. From talking with the streetcar driver, apparently this happens very frequently outside this hotel!
It turns out that, even though we were stopped, right next to a sidewalk, with no immediate hope of moving, the streetcar driver is not allowed to let us off (since we weren’t at an “official stop”). But neither is she allowed to call the cops to have the car ticketed or towed. (Did I mention she said this happens frequently !!!)
She did what she said she always does: called her Tri-Met boss who called the hotel to ask that they try to get the car moved. And 15 minutes later someone moved the car.
Now think about this for a moment.
I suspect the hotel will never do anything to prevent future abuse. Why should they? They get a nice phone call from Tri-Met when it happens, and the hotel patron apparently finishes their checkin before moving the car. Very convenient for the hotel.
But what about the 20 people held hostage inside a parked Streetcar?!?!?
Instead of being forbidden to call the police, why isn’t the Streetcar driver required to call the police? Why isn’t the car impounded and, in addition to the car owner, the hotel fined or rebuked? I bet that would ensure the hotel clearly marks the parking spots and that, when a new guest enters the hotel, the staff rush to them to ensure they haven’t illegally parked their car.
Oh, and Portland is going to extend and add additional streetcar lines because it’s such a success.
RSS Feed of this blog
