[stevenbedrick]

I have zero disagreement with you, there- I would personally much rather see a dramatically-expanded bus service than another light rail expansion, or at the very least increased service on the existing lines. In its current state, you are correct in that there are large parts of the metro area where it's just not a practical choice, and that's something that needs to change. I am lucky enough to live and work along one of the transit corridors where TriMet's bus service _does_ make sense, but it's definitely not viable in much of the metro area.

And yeah, "dysfunctional" only begins to describe the Columbia bridge debacle. But I will say, in defense of the project and its staff: that was a spectacularly challenging problem to solve. One of those fractal problems, where the more closely you look at it, the more complex it gets. The physical challenges were already going to be hard enough, and then the twelve-dimensional politics of the situation made it even more so. I don't pretend to know what the best solution would even be, but like everybody else in town I was disappointed to see it blow up after so much had been invested in it.