[philopdx]

So whatever happened to the plans to redevelop those bathrooms into kiosks anyway?

Of course, failing that, I'd like to see them modded into sizable flamethrowers pointed at the obnoxious street kids with their dogs a few feet away.

I jest, people. Chill out in advance. :D

[tworivers]

I got stuck under one of Tri-met's new-fangled transit mall "shelters" today during a downpour and it was really disturbing...a dozen or more people huddled together while rain blew through us from every direction, miserable and wet. It made me a believer in the good ol' American practice of waterboarding. You know, in the sense that I would *personally* like to subject the designers in the employ of our fabled transit agency to a punishment involving copious amounts of water. <<deep breath>> Do they live here? Do they know that it rains 8 months out of the year and is frequently chilly and/or windy?

FAIL.

[bvpcvm]

TriMet seems to under-engineer everything, for cost reasons, I assume. The shelters look nice, but you're right, they provide zero protection from the elements. I imagine it's much worse out on the green line along 205, where, with just a pair of their signature hokey shelters, riders - on a line where headways are as much as 35 minutes! - are completely open to the wind (I'm thinking especially of the Lents station).

[2oh1]

I assumed the new design was to discourage homeless people from using them as shelter, especially overnight. I assumed the design was intentional, in other words. Ever notice how newer buildings downtown don't have decent sidewalk-overhangs anymore (what the heck is the word I'm looking for there! My coffee hasn't kicked in yet!)? The downtown Safeway is a good example. It has strips of shade over the sidewalk, which means on a rainy day you're going to get wet. I am absolutely certain the poor protection from rain is by design.

[tworivers]

Oh yeah, it is definitely intentional design. That was used as the reason for removing the old shelters -- they invited crime, supposedly, and also sometimes were used as actual shelters by the homeless.

Environmental Design at its finest, not under-engineering for cost reasons. Remember the $367 bike staples designed by ZGF that scratch your bike? Then again, they also couldn't afford to paint sharrows in the "multi-use" lane as the project was winding down...

This town is driving me crazy.