BusTalk

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Curtail Free Rides, TriMet Says
by Scott Learn
The Oregonian, 12/8/07

TriMet's iconic Fareless Square between downtown and the Lloyd Center has helped put Portland on the national transit map. It also provides a free ride for panhandlers, drug dealers, rowdy gangs, homeless people and drunks, the transit agency's general manager said Friday.

To improve safety, Fred Hansen wants to limit free rides on MAX trains and buses in Fareless Square to between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. and begin a public discussion that could lead to eliminating the square.

In a speech before the City Club of Portland, Hansen also said he plans to hire more transit police, fix faulty ticket vending machines, increase fare inspections, institute "zero tolerance" policies for fare evasion and try to make it easier to kick rowdy people out of the system.

After the speech, Hansen said he had agreed with Gresham Mayor Shane Bemis to test a gated entry at one Gresham station that would help keep out freeloaders.

"This is a warning to the fare evaders and cheats," Hansen told the City Club. "Your free ride on TriMet is about to end."

The moves come after several highly publicized crimes on the rail line and public complaints from police and politicians such as Bemis about inadequate security on MAX. Last month, a 19-year-old was stabbed at one Gresham MAX station weeks after a 71-year-old man was beaten at another.

Bemis was out of town Friday but said in a statement that he thinks the "tangible long-term solution" is a gated system that allows only paying customers to board. The mayor called Hansen's measures "giant leaps in the right direction" but added that "security on TriMet has been an issue for a long time."

"We were in the same position in the late 80s when the governor put state police on the trains," Bemis said. "Now we're here again."

Fareless Square began in 1975 on buses, in part to improve air quality, which was violating federal standards. It's a money-loser for TriMet but has been popular with Portland politicians, who have pushed to expand it three times. The last extension came in 2001, when it was expanded to the Lloyd Center shopping mall.

Most riders are paying and acting appropriately, Hansen said. But the round-the-clock free zone appears to be contributing to safety problems. Police say asking for proof of fare is the fastest way for officers to start a conversation with riders who raise suspicions, and they can't do that in Fareless Square.

"Fareless Square provides a free ride for panhandlers, who go back and forth between downtown and the Lloyd Center, and drug dealers and rowdy gangs of young people, homeless people and drunks who are using the train as a shelter and a place to do their business," Hansen told the City Club.

Hansen said he would submit his proposal to cut free rides at night to TriMet's board of directors in January, with any money from additional fares going to increased security. He said after the speech that he doesn't expect significant opposition.

Hansen also said he wants public comment on other Fareless Square changes, including potentially eliminating it.

The Fareless Square change wouldn't affect stations in much of the system, including the sites of the Gresham stabbing and beating. Hansen said the agency is adding cameras and lights systemwide, and he proposed other changes Friday to improve safety on trains and buses. Among them:

Increase police presence. TriMet will increase the number of sworn transit officers by 10 percent and restructure officer deployment to put them on trains and buses more often.

Increase fare inspections. Hansen said he would negotiate with TriMet's union to allow Wackenhut contract security officers to write tickets and exclude "unruly people" from the system. Last month, the agency added 15 contracted officers, for a total of 36.

Increase gang prevention. Victory Outreach Community Services will ride the system and work with Latino youths in gangs or influenced by gangs.

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Fare and Square? Maybe not
The Oregonian, 12/11/07

Travel writers rave about Portland's warm welcome, also known as its "iconic Fareless Square." Perhaps nothing makes tourists feel more at home than their ability to jump aboard a bus or train and lollygag, hopping off here and there to explore downtown without ever opening their wallets to buy a ticket.

Many cities have shuttles, of course. But they don't have zero-fare transit zones covering the entirety of their downtowns 24 hours a day. Seattle does have a fareless zone, but it's smaller and time-limited.

Conventioneers rely on Fareless Square to get from their downtown hotels to the Oregon Convention Center. Shoppers appreciate zipping around farelessly. And downtown workers and residents love the system because it enables them to bypass TriMet's blinkety-blinkety ticket machines that so often seem to be on the blink.

The fare-free zone was established more than three decades ago before MAX was even running. It was a market incentive, to dislodge people from their cars and put them in buses. And it worked so well the zone was eventually expanded to entice shoppers to Lloyd Center.

Today the air pollution problem that prompted the incentive is no longer a huge concern, but Fareless Square still subtracts cars from the road and adds to Portland's walkability. It also strengthens the downtown.

But does it weaken TriMet's ability to police the transit system? Police believe it does. A question about a fare can be a valuable lever for police to use in confronting marginal behavior onboard MAX.

In the winter, Fareless Square turns into a mobile home for the homeless, mentally ill and drug-addicted, who ought to have better places to go, but don't. It also serves as a mobile headquarters for an assorted crew of panhandlers, thugs and bullies. They intimidate elderly people, in particular, so much that these passengers say a zero-fare ride is, increasingly, worth exactly that -- zero. They're too scared to ride.

Last week, TriMet's general manager, Fred Hansen, proposed to end the reign of the thugs and bullies.

Hansen has laid out an impressive program for regaining control of the light-rail system by boosting lighting, security and fare enforcement. All of these changes are long overdue. But one change involves a painful adjustment to Portland's identity. Beginning early next year, Hansen hopes to trim back Fareless Square.

In effect, it will become Half-Fareless Square, with tickets required to ride between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. This nighttime experiment is well worth trying, and Hansen is right to ask larger questions about the future of Fareless Square, too, namely: How can we make it fairer? Why should lower-income people who ride in from far-flung suburbs subsidize free rides for higher-income people lucky enough to live downtown?

But Portland should be very wary about eliminating Fareless Square. Anybody who's ever ridden a subway knows there's no magic in clutching a subway token, even if you clutch it very, very tightly. It doesn't ward off evil spirits or rid a system of rough -- but paying -- customers.

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TriMet general manager rolls out security vision
The Oregonian, 12/11/07

With more TriMet expansions coming, General Manager Fred Hansen Friday laid out an enhanced safety and security plan for the system, including increasing the number of police officers and implementing a zero tolerance program on fare evasion.

In a speech to the City Club of Portland Friday, Hansen said he would increase the transit police force by 10 percent in 2008, and another 10 percent in 2009.

Hansen also announced he would petition the Amalgamated Transit Union to give contracted security guards the authority to write tickets and exclude unruly riders.

Faulty ticket vending machines will be replaced with working models at every platform by February 2008.

TriMet has also entered into a partnership with Victory Outreach Community Services, a nonprofit group that works with Latino youth to prevent gang activity. This will complement work already being done by Rider Advocates, who have worked toward the same goals since 1994, Hansen said.

The code of conduct will be expanded to help make responding to disruptive behavior more effective, streamlining the process of excluding problem riders, he said.

Lighting will be increased and landscaping will be trimmed. By the end of the year, 30 of 64 MAX platforms will have closed-circuit television cameras.

Portland's Fareless Square program will be re-evaluated to see if it encourages fare evasion and bad behavior. Hansen said he will propose an ordinance to the board of directors to limit free Fareless Square ridership to between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.

TriMet will also solicit input from the public, riders, business partners downtown and in the Lloyd District on potential future changes.

"I will be monitoring these changes to ensure these steps truly target the problems on the system," Hansen said. "As we implement these changes, I believe our riders and the public will see a difference."

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MAX safety long ago left on a siding
by S. Renee Mitchell
The Oregonian, 12/12/07

I'm not buying TriMet's smoke and mirrors. We've just been here too many times before.

Sure, we've all got some horrific story we've seen unfold or heard happen during a MAX train ride. Just pick one. Any one will do.

How about drug dealers peddling their illegal wares? Gang bangers flashing signs and colors? Rude passengers spewing profanity?

Smelly panhandlers begging for money? Lovers having not-so-discreet hormonal encounters? Or even cell phone users sharing intimate details best left secret.

A few weeks ago, a retired teacher from Gresham, says she, her husband and two other elderly couples encountered a group of six to eight belligerent teenagers during their free train ride from Lloyd Center mall to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

"They were drunk. They were angry. They were screaming and mean and using absolutely terrible language. I couldn't even sleep that night because I was so upset," says the woman, who wanted to be identified only by her first name, Gloria, because she says those "horrible people might come after me."

For years, TriMet officials casually dismissed our safety concerns by pretending to recognize what we seemed to forgot: "We're part of society," noted TriMet spokeswoman Mary Fetsch in 2003, "and anything that happens in society can make its way onto the trains."

Occasionally, though, to appease critics, every few years, TriMet test-ballooned the same idea: It's time to end or curtail Fareless Square.

This Portland perk, which has its own encyclopedia reference on Wikipedia.com, is a tourist favorite and a convenience for commuters, shoppers and downtown workers.

But in 1986 and 1988, a proposal to get rid of Fareless Square was viewed as necessary to cut down on fare evaders. In the early '90s, ending Fareless Square was suggested to curtail the blatant drug dealing on the light-rail trains. In 2001, it was blamed for a rash of car prowls and purse snatchings near the Lloyd Center.

In 2005, TriMet said it needed to end Fareless Square to reduce a perceived threat from terrorists. Now, in 2007, the issue has come up again.

Last week, TriMet's general manager, Fred Hansen, says he plans to first propose cutting the hours down to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Later, he might try to rally community support to get rid of Fareless Square all together.

The incident that kicked off this latest campaign was a severe baseball-bat beating of 71-year-old Laurie Lee Chilcote, a regular transit rider. Yet, the attack happened at a MAX station in Gresham, the same location where a 19-year-old was fatally stabbed last year over a jacket.

Hillsboro also has a number of prime light-rail trouble spots. So do some TriMet bus lines in the region, especially at certain times of night. None of these issues, though, is directly related to Fareless Square.

TriMet admits it has a systemwide problem with safety but emphasizes the wrong solution. First, let's see how the idea works to have more armed officers ride the trains. TriMet needs to follow through on fixing its ancient ticket machines, upgrading its floodlights and installing closed circuit security cameras. It also needs to follow through on making sure that getting caught without your fare actually means something.

In short, before it considers ending the popular Fareless Square, TriMet needs to catch up on all the safety measures it should have put in place 20 years or more ago. Unless those more relevant improvements are solidly in place, troublemakers will not just stop terrorizing our transit system for want of a $2.05 fare.

The Fareless Square proposal is smoke and mirrors when it comes to safety. And TriMet has gotten a free ride on that for far too long.