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My commute entails changing MAX trains at the Rose Quarter. Nearly every time, I arrive just in time to see the connecting train leaving. Why can't TriMet use Transit Tracker data to adjust the trains' speeds on the fly and prevent these near misses?
—Almost There
This is the type of complaint I like to call the "failure of they." "They" are the folks who maintain our civilization as it coddles your nacho-eating ass from cradle to grave, and no one is even slightly grateful. "They" can never succeed—they're either invisible or they've failed you.
They're the "they" in, "If they can put a man on the moon, why can't they invent bacon that makes me taller?" Nobody ever says, "If they can put a man on the moon, maybe we should throw them a party, because that was actually pretty impressive."
That said, Almost, I initially had the same reaction as you about the MAX.
I accept that the bus system isn't going to be perfect, with its sprawling 79 lines and 6,670 stops. You think you can make a better schedule, here's 12,000 sheets of graph paper and an Adderall; knock yourself out.
The MAX, though, has only four lines and four main transfer points. What's the big deal?
For starters, 607 trains representing all four MAX lines come through the Rose Quarter every day. During rush hour, one train from every line comes by every 15 minutes, in both directions. That's about one train every two minutes.
Your northbound train is coming from a section of track where all four lines share a single track in each direction. The trains have to stay a safe distance apart—if one gets stopped by an emergency, the others can't just go around it.
You can see how this quickly starts to get a little hairy. If you wanna try to improve on it, I've got plenty of graph paper left. (The Adderall, sadly, seems to have gone missing.)
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