Buses and drivers
Green monster buses, and a driver's act of generosity
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New scents
Spring and impending summer bring new smells as I am out and about. Blossoming shrubs and trees, of course. But now I am breathing the scent of new-mown grass as lawns are clipped for the first time since fall. The musty, crusty smell of fertilizer rises from front yards where flower beds are dug and readied.
Dogwoods are in full flower. Camellias, too. Next up, azaleas and rhodies.
Dogwood blossoms have five simple, distinct petals. I wrote about fives in nature in October 2023.
Glimmer
It’s Saturday morning, and I’m feeling a twinge, a slight tug to do something I haven’t done for years, actually decades. I’m feeling like I want to go out and buy the first edition of The Sunday Oregonian. I’d be able to read the real estate ads, find garage and estate sales, check out the gardening advice in Northwest Magazine, and get a jump on the big news stories from the front page.
But no, wait, I can’t do that. Not since the mid-90s.
In those good old days, The Oregonian published four editions a day, the first one on the late afternoon of the previous day. That edition was known as the street final.
At about 2 p.m. Saturday, huge stacks of newspapers would be delivered to my local supermarket, overstuffed with advertising inserts and several sections of classified ads.
That was then
All that bounty is history. There are still ad inserts, just not as many. You can find them all online. The fat Sunday newspaper is skinny now, the classifieds reduced to a few pages. Craig’s List and similar websites took care of that. Listing an item for free is a lot cheaper than the stiff rates the paper charged.
So on Saturday, no more perusing the Sunday paper a day early. Instead, I pull up a book—or go for a ride on the bus.
On the road
On driver appreciation day at Trimet a few weeks ago I wrote some valentines to my favorite drivers. Today I want to highlight three of the drivers on the 14 Hawthorne line, which is the one I most commonly take. The bus stops just two blocks from my home.
In one direction, I travel down Southeast Hawthorne, 50th Avenue and Foster Road to Lents, where I visit my gym and have coffee at Refuge, one of my favorite coffee houses. In the other direction, I travel west to downtown, transferring to other bus lines and going on adventures.
Laverne always greets me by name and wants to know where I’m going. Outspoken and friendly, she likes to belt out the blues. Often on a Friday, she’ll get on the intercom and sing:
“I’ve got the blues! Blues down to my shoes . . .”
I’ve got blues of my own:
Bus-riding blues
I’ve got the bus-riding blues, No room for my wheelchair today. Someone’s spilled coffee And there’s another big dog. I’ve got the bus-riding blues No shelter from the rain I just missed a bus, but you know? Another one always comes.
Carrie is another driver who always greets me. She’s an enthusiastic reader of Becoming and often comments on what I have just written. That reminds me: “umami” was a new word for her, as it is for many folks, and I forgot to define it last week when I wrote that days had flavors, like sweet, sour, bitter or salty. Umami is the fifth flavor. It’s a word from the Japanese denoting the dark, savory flavor of foods like mushrooms, tomatoes, anchovies, soy sauce. It is the quality monosodium glutamate adds to foods.
Sean has been most friendly to me ever since I moved back home from assisted living—a year ago, now—and started riding the 14. An all-around good guy, he was recently the subject of a Trimet video. He has a frequent passenger, Bill, who struggled with a manual wheelchair, and when Sean’s uncle passed away, leaving a power wheelchair, Sean gave it to Bill.
A few days ago, I boarded a 14 bus to find Sean was driving—and Bill was there too, in his new power chair. It was good to meet him.
Mixed bag
Trimet drivers are as varied as any pool of humans. Some can’t be bothered to get out of the driver’s seat to raise the bench seats to accommodate my chair, but that’s okay because I can do it myself. Others are friendly and solicitous.
Jonathan, who used to drive the 35 line and is now assigned to No. 12 Barbur/Sandy, makes it his business to recognize and greet the regulars on his route. Fist bumps and banter are common occurrences on Jonathan’s route. “See you later!” he calls as folks he remembers—and he remembers everyone— leave the bus. Like nearly every passenger on every bus, they call out “Thank you!” as they exit.
What the FX?
Trimet has this oddball bus line called FX2 (for frequent express). It used to be the No. 4 Division before it got fancied up with mod stations that include concrete wheelchair ramps. These have live read-outs that show when the next two buses are due (they’re scheduled every 12 minutes).
The buses are big and green, double-sized and articulated. They resemble giant insects. Occasionally a regular bus is seen on the route, when there’s no green monster to be had.
Trimet has put together a nifty aerial view of the entire route:
Thing to like about the FX2
Buses run often, every 12 minutes.
Stations are protected from wind and rain.
Real-time readouts show when the next two buses are due.
Wide doors and ramps make it easy for wheelchairs to access the buses.
Passengers can enter at back doors, speeding loading. Bikes go on the bus, not on a rack on the front as with ordinary buses.
Traffic accommodations allow the bus to bypass stalled traffic using dedicated lanes and signals. So the bus is a faster commute.
Things not to like
A big black securement station for rear-facing wheelchairs obscures the view through the buses’ front windows. I’ve only seen this object used once in all my many rides on FX. Unused, it rises out of the floor like a big black lollipop, ruining the feng shui.
Big black wheelchair securement station messes with the line of sight on the FX2 Division bus. Fran Gardner photo Stations are far apart, six blocks and more. (On many other bus routes, there’s a stop every two blocks.) The farthest you’ll have to walk may be about three blocks, but if you are a slow walker or use a walker, three blocks is a slog.
Let’s face it, those green buses are ungainly and not too pretty.
It’s hard from the wheelchair area to see out the windows. The view is not as immediate as it is on other buses. So for me it’s not as much fun to ride.
Coming up
Trimet expects to add FX service to its 82nd Avenue route on the east side of town, replacing the 72 bus. Trimet reports that the 72 has the highest ridership of any route, 10,000 trips daily. I find this hard to believe; when I’ve ridden the 72, it hasn’t been very full. It runs between Clackamas Town Center and Northeast Portland’s Cully neighborhood.
Hydrogen buses
Trimet reports that the buses on the new FX line will be fuel-cell electric buses powered by hydrogen. Service is scheduled to begin in 2029.
Poetry break
Middle of the night sonnet
I write because I cannot sleep for vapor. Why choose slumber when it will not stay? My hand slides easily along paper. A thought, then two, then three, they come away. New visions tumble, tickling my mind. Memories and intimations of the new. I know that I’ll forget, but I can’t find That prospect sad, for this is what I do. I try, I rise, I tumble amid my thoughts, Contorted like a gymnast on the floor. So write thoughts down—of course, I know I ought. Still, all I have to do is wait for more. This bounty of impression never ceases. And so, each time I write, my might increases.
Check out
Writing elsewhere
Another one of my poetic essays has been posted at Juke.
Skeleton update
When I was gathering photos of public skeletons a few week ago, I missed one languishing in a tree just two blocks from my house.
The women who planted this skeleton in the tree, Amelia and Hannah, told me they had another skeleton in their apartment. I gave Hannah my phone so she could go back inside and take this photo for me.
Housekeeping
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You are such a gem. I love your poetry and photos. I'm going to start writing them in a book..Poetry by Fran ;-)
I enjoyed reading about those bus drivers. And the new -- for me -- thought that bus interiors can have good or bad feng shui. By the way, I write ideas down in the middle of the night too, because however vivid at the time, they'll have evaporated by morning.