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There are a lot of transportation proposals on the table in Portland: a widened freeway, a new MAX line to Tualatin, a funicular.
Linda Palmer has another one, and it's way more basic: Toilets at transit centers.
In a YouTube clip titled "A Plea For Transit Relief," Palmer, a Portland resident, makes a case for transit-station bathrooms using a sad Raggedy Ann doll child as an example. (The doll-child misses a MAX train to the mall because it has to pee at a nearby coffee shop.)
Palmer, who says she rode the bus to work every day for 20 years before retiring, tells WW she wants to "bring to the public's attention an inconvenience that plagues TriMet's customers."
She says the lack of bathrooms at transit centers causes disabled, elderly and pregnant riders, or riders with young children, to miss connections. But she has a plan: She says TriMet should build Hop Fastpass-accessible bathrooms
"The pass is registered to the card holder and TriMet would know who is in that stall at all times," she says. "If the pass is stolen, the card holder would cancel it right away to protect the funds on the card, so a stolen card wouldn't do a thief much good."
TriMet spokeswoman Roberta Aldstadt says the agency has decided against installing restrooms because trips are often short—"so the extra convenience may only benefit a small number of riders"—and bathrooms are expensive to maintain.
"Given that we don't receive a lot of requests for restrooms from riders," she says, "we've determined that it really wouldn't be a smart investment."
Watch Palmer's plea to TriMet below.