As expected, the budget cuts TriMet's Board formally announced today are a doozy. A $17 million doozy.

Here's the basic rundown of the proposed major cuts and new revenue plans:

Two questions: Why is this all happening? And what are the details of the cuts, exactly? Both answers below the cut.

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Nine Portland transportation and public health groups are sponsoring tonight's transpo-focused debate between the top three mayoral candidates, Jefferson Smith, Eileen Brady, and Charlie Hales. I'll be moderating the debate along with PSU Dean Larry Wallack and I can assure you that there will be a half an hour at the end of the night for "mingling" so anyone who shows up will have ample time to grill the candidates face-to-face.

The debate starts at 7pm in PSU's Lincoln Hall. See you there!

If a fare inspector were to catch you trying to skip out on your fare he or she could either: give you a warning, give you a citation, or exclude you from TriMet for up to 90 days.

In December 2011, TriMet issued 10 times as many citations as it did in December of 2010.

Basically the city has decided to replace warning riders who try to skip out on fares to citing them. The figures from TriMet show this trend—note how warnings and citations have been flipped from 2010 to 2011:

• TriMet Figures

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Hot tipster Erik Henriksen sent along this link in light of the news about TriMet budget cuts.

As a new Stanford study makes clear, public transit cuts don't affect everyone equally: In fact, they hurt women more than men, because women are way more likely to rely on public transit than dudes. Here's the relevant, hideous graph:

Why do women ride public transit more than men? The Stanford study says:
• Women spend more of their time taking care of children, which involves more trips taking kids to and from places.
• Women are also more likely to run a bunch of small errands, taking multiple transit trips to do a series of things in a row, like going to the grocery store and picking up kids from school on the way home from work.
• Old women are more likely to take transit than old men, who continue driving into their elderly years.

Interesting!

• Greg Bigoni

Those changes would bump the base TriMet fare to $2.50 and only let them be used one way. I find the idea of one-way fares confusing, but TriMet spokesperson Mary Fetsch explains: "The idea is to make fares more streamlined and simple. On the MAX, it prints where you bought your ticket. So let's say you bought your ticket at the Yellow Line Interstate station and then head toward the airport. With a one-way fare, you can transfer, but the operator could see that you're heading away from where you bought your ticket."

TriMet is still uncertain how a one-way transfer system would work on the bus—it would likely involve getting rid of the current ripped-paper-scrap transfer and spending on new transfer technology for buses.

To add some honey to the bitter changes, TriMet's budget committee is recommending that while one-ticket fares increase, the cost of a $5 all-day ticket stay the same, so people who take multiple trips a day (like, to work, then to the gym, then home, then to the grocery store) could potentially buy daily tickets and be hit with less of a fare increase.

These are just some of the options TriMet is weighing to fill its $17 million budget hole. According to the incredibly depressing "Fix TriMet's Budget!" game, a move to eliminate transfers would save $3 million a year. However, it would also be terrible. Ugh.

Not on the table to cut are the some of the biggest expenses driving TriMet's budget deficit, like employee healthcare benefits and investment in light rail expansion projects. Anyway, we'll know the cuts soon enough: The budget recommendations are due out on February 8th.

• Plaid Pantry Prez Chris Girard pans the CRC, along with (from left) State Rep Lew Frederick, economist Joe Cortright, accountant Tiffany Couch, Cascade Policy Institute's John Charles, Rep Mitch Greenlick, and Metro Councilor Carl Hosticka

The Oregon legislature's oversight committee begins meeting next week and people ranging from Metro Councilor Carl Hosticka to State Representative Lew Frederick to free-market think tank Cascade Policy Institute's John Charles all say the committee should not authorize spending more money on the bridge plan until more alternatives are examined and a solid funding plan is secured.

"Please stop the bleeding," said Councilor Hosticka. "At a time when the state highway department is laying people off, it's a bad idea to keep spending over a million dollars a month on a project that may never get built. After six years of trying, there is not yet any assured funding from any source."

"The current finance plan is a disaster waiting to happen for the taxpayers of Oregon," said Plaid Pantry President Chris Girard.

Feds have given the green light to bridge funding, but the money is not yet in the bag. Locally, Vancouver residents rejected a tax that was supposed to pay for light rail and this week, Washington governor Christine Gregoire said the CRC is her top priority—but didn't propose a way to pay for it.

The project critics disagree on potential fixes for the I-5 corridor—a representative for "Third Bridge Now" wants a new freeway bypass for freight, Jim Howell of AORTA wants upgrades to the nearby railroad bridge that could make it fit for high speed rail—but the mutual desire to take a step back and examine alternatives was clear. "Let's not spend money we don't have on a project that will tie our hands for a generation," said Metro candidate Bob Stacey. State Rep Mitch Greenlick was more blunt: "This is a bridge project to nowhere, a steamroller headed off a cliff."

• Portland's New Year's resolution? BUILD MORE FREEWAYS!

Look, no one's against jobs—especially the 1,900 new ones that the CRC vows to create each year. But it's not like the environmentalists who oppose the project want to drown jobs like sackfuls of kittens. Critics believe that the desperate full-steam-ahead mentality toward the bridge will actually wind up being worse for Oregon's economy down the road. As it is, the CRC's pricetag will eat up an enormous chunk of our federal transportation funding. If the CRC winds up with major cost overruns or toll proceeds are less than expected, the project could cripple the state budget. Even if funding all comes together at the last minute, environmental critics say the increased traffic caused by the freeway expansion will lead to worse air quality and health impacts on North Portland residents.

Critics of all political stripes want state leaders to reevaluate whether the project is spending its billions on the right project—or a boondoggle. So: Jobs. Yes. But jobs at any cost? Not a good way to start the new year.

• TriMet
• Ain't no thang

TriMet has seen better times. Facing up to $17 million in budget cuts in the upcoming year, it has yet to find a viable solution to keep afloat. But! In a crafty move, TriMet has decided to pass its financial woes onto YOU, dear reader. And the rest of Portland.

Not a far cry from the New York Times' "Budget Puzzle" — in which readers take the nation's budget issues into their own hands — TriMet created a site where the public can slash and burn any TriMet program (or create cruel fare and parking price increases) to their heart's content. From the public's response, TriMet will try to create the most mutually agreed upon answer to their looming problem.

It's like one of those horrible "real life" problems from an Econ final. But, alas, this is real life. Take a swing!

• Michelle Mitchell

Statements from the bureau have so far pinned the blame for cuts on declining gas tax revenue—which is partly true. Because people are driving less these days, gas tax revenues will fall short of initial projections by an average of $4.83 million per year for the next five years.

But PBOT's budget shortfall is $16 million. Where's that $11 million difference coming from?

Much of it comes from large, expensive transportation projects Mayor Sam Adams has committed to—but which don't generate any revenue.

Last year, for example, Adams decided to set aside $8 million from new state gas tax revenue every year for 20 years, starting in 2013, to help fund the Sellwood Bridge rehab. Over the next two years, Adams chose to put $16 million of that new gas tax revenue into building new sidewalks. In addition to those plans, the other biggest new, non-revenue projects on PBOT's plate are the Eastside Streetcar ($1.3 million a year) and debt service on the Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail line ($3.5 million a year, starting in 2013).

"The cuts we face today are of a magnitude we haven't seen in forever, in my knowledge," says PBOT Director Tom Miller.

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Actual good news, you guys!

• WASTE.

Yesterday, the City of Portland, TriMet, and the Portland Public School District threw the equivalent of a Hail Mary pass, shifting funding to save the YouthPass, a program many feared dead due to budget cuts.

Instead of running a yellow bus fleet to schools, since 2009, Portland Public Schools has worked with TriMet to offer free bus passes to all students. The passes were funded with $2.55 million a year that came indirectly from the state's Business Energy Tax Credit (BETC). The BETC ran into some scandal over subsidies to wind farms and when the legislature reworked the tax, the money for the YouthPass was lost. The funding was slated to expire at the end of December, leaving many students without a reliable way to get to school. If the free TriMet passes had died, the cost of getting kids to school would have shifted more onto the shoulders of families.

In a plan announced yesterday, the YouthPass funding gap will be covered by $375,000 from TriMet, $75,000 from Portland Public Schools and $225,000 from the City of Portland.

Any way you slice it, putting students on TriMet buses instead of running a separate school fleet of buses is a long-term cost savings. Portland Afoot editor Michael Andersen crunched the numbers on the costs of providing free TriMet bus passes to students versus funding a yellow bus fleet:

•From the state's perspective, the universal YouthPass costs $3.5 million, 20 percent less than limited yellow-bus service: a $700,000 savings.
• From the school district's perspective, the BETC-funded universal YouthPass costs $800,000, 56 percent less than limited yellow-bus service: a $1 million savings.
• From a Portland taxpayer's perspective, the combined cost of the BETC-funded YouthPass program is $4.3 million, 28 percent less than limited yellow-bus service: a $1.7 million savings.

A short, sad news brief from Vancouver, Washington: A woman was killed this afternoon when a C-Tran bus turning a corner struck her as she crossed the street.

It's unclear so far whether the woman had the walk signal, or whether the bus driver was under the influence of any drugs or alcohol.

In 2010, a similar TriMet crash that killed two pedestrians led to a safety overhaul at TriMet.

For all the things we can rightfully gripe at TriMet about (cutting bus service, hating babies), one thing Portland's public transit agency is stellar at is advancing trip planning technology. I take the online route-planning and phone-in Transit Tracker services for granted, until I visit other major cities (coughcoughLA) and get frustrated by their 20th century technology.

Behind every transit stop is a mountain of data and since 2005, TriMet has opened the door to that data to any tech-savvy person who wants to develop applications for transit riders. The result has put Portland at the forefront of user-friendly transit technology, including having over 30 privately developed TriMet mobile apps that the agency didn't pay a dime to create.

Over the weekend, TriMet launched a major new trip planning service—this one developed in-house with grants from Metro. The Regional Trip Planner is still in Beta (and definitely still a little buggy), but the idea is great: Instead of making you choose a route just by transit, the software lets riders plan trips the way they actually do—multi-modally. You can choose a bike plus transit option for the route, then arrange this funny triangle of of settings to your preference of quickest vs. safest vs. flattest.

Let's say I have my bike and I want to get from Casa Diablo vegan strip club in NW to Fubonn on SE 82nd Avenue.

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Remember how we dared to dream that TriMet would actually build a bike path that played Simon and Garfunkel's "Feelin' Groovy" as you pedaled over it?

Well, apparently some sort of common sense kicked in, because BikePortland reports that the dream is dead.

Plans for a the "sonic bike path" on the new light rail bike-ped bridge over the Willamette were scrapped when the pricetag for the public art installation came in at over $200,000.

Can we have a moment of silence to remember the surprising number of months where a bicycle bridge blasting "Feelin' Groovy" was actually a legitimate plan? ... ... thank you.

According to a recent Sightline study, Northwesterners' gas consumption has remained relatively constant since 1999, despite population growth. It seems that Oregon and Washington drivers were unfazed by the rocky economy over the 12-year time frame, at least when it came to filling up a tank. It's also interesting to compare this steady information with the volatile spike in gas prices (gas was around $1.50 a gallon in 1999) over the years. It looks like it takes a lot for a driver to stop gas guzzling (at a constant rate, that is).

That being said, the study also reveals that vehicle travel has been on the decline since 2002. Also, a 2009 Sightline study shows that in Portland (as opposed to the entire NW region) gas consumption has been on the decline.

The study bases this constant data on a variety of factors including the introduction of more fuel-efficient vehicles and the fact that Baby Boomers are retiring from "peak driving ages". One slightly depressing reason: "Many young Americans prefer to drive less, choosing instead to navigate their social interactions online rather than by driving." I was hoping they would throw in some more upbeat young American statistic based on bicycle use, but no dice.

While declining or constant gas consumption is essentially good for our neck of the woods, the report's press release illustrates the potential downfalls:

The trend has big implications for transportation finance. Oregon and Washington are both considering major bridge, tunnel, and highway megaprojects, and are counting on robust gas tax revenue to help pay for them. Falling gasoline sales and fewer miles traveled could lead to revenue shortfalls, placing transportation finance in jeopardy.

Why does being above average have to lead to less support? A pat on the back doesn't always suffice. Bunk.

Get your free rides on the Portland Streetcar while you can — come next year, the MAX may be the only free transportation downtown.

In a Wednesday meeting with their citizen's advisory committee, Portland Streetcar Inc. recommended to eliminate streetcars from the once Fareless Square — now Free Rail Zone — in tandem with a monthly pass price boost. The change must be passed by Portland Streetcar's board in early November, followed by Portland City Council's stamp of approval, to go into effect by September 2012.

• Sarah Mirk
• An enraged protester at a 2009 rally

After the TriMet bus system backed out of Fareless Square in 2009, resuming regular bus fares in all zones, the downtown area was renamed the Free Rail Zone. Now, another name change may be in store, leaving MAX as the only free public transportation in the zone.

Amid a debated push towards costly expansion, the streetcar has set its sights high when it comes to fares. If the request passes, the base streetcar fare would be $2.10 across the system. In addition, the monthly pass would spike from the current $8.33 per month to "hopefully" less than $45 per month, according to Streetcar Director Rick Gustafson.

This change would also bank on faithful ridership — specifically within the penny-pinching Portland State University crowd and South Waterfront residents. At the Wednesday meeting, Gustafson based this change on fairness by asking for across-the-board pay from all riders in all zones. The Streetcar staff plans to conduct a public outreach process over the next seven weeks to fully examine the possible impact of the November decision.

It's Graph Friday! A day I just invented. Let's look at this graph of Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) by age:

It shows that people under 40 (and also people age 50-54) are driving way less than they did a decade ago. What's going on here? I'd like to say that young people are more environmentally aware and looking for alternatives to driving. But there's also the fact that young people are pretty seriously hit by the recession, maybe we are just less able to afford cars these days. Anyway, it's nice to know that if you're carless, you're becoming less of a crazy minority.