Posted on: Monday, July 5, 2004

ISLAND VOICES
Slater's Portland claims are unfounded

As a lifelong resident of Portland, Ore., and now one of its two representatives in Congress, I feel compelled to respond to Cliff Slater's June 7 column, "An Odyssey to the Land of TOD."

Mr. Slater grumbled about having to wait a long time for "nearly empty" trains. I'd attribute this to bad timing on the part of his hosts, the Cascade Policy Institute, since MAX (our light-rail system) runs at least every seven to 10 minutes for over 22 hours each weekday and over 19 hours on weekends, when ridership is almost as high as during the week. Most trains are full. Ridership on both bus and rail has steadily increased in our region for 15 consecutive years; TriMet, our region's transit agency, carries more people than any other U.S. transit system of its size.

Mr. Slater insists that MAX is unsuccessful because it carries only a small fraction of all trips. Certainly he is aware that this comparison is misleading. We have thousands of miles of road in our region, but only 44 miles of rail; obviously, rail doesn't provide the same access, so people cannot use it for every trip. Here are a few other, more meaningful statistics that Mr. Slater failed to mention:

• Forty-two percent of adults in the Portland region use public transit at least twice a month.
• Between 1990 and 2000, transit ridership grew faster than either population growth or vehicle miles traveled in the Portland region.
• Without our transit system, the Portland region would experience 30 percent more congestion on our freeway system.

Congressman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., represents Oregon's Third Congressional District, which includes Portland.