JK: You have to be kidding - right? Do you really expect people in such poor shape to walk 1/4 mile to the toy train?

Fact: the fastest growing program in TriMet is the popular LIFT program, which picks up elderly and handicapped people AT THEIR DOOR and drops them off at the DOOR OF THEIR DESTINATION. And while I want to double check on this, I believe that when cabs are cheaper and more feasible than the TriMet LIFT van for specific citizens, cab vouchers are or can be used instead of the LIFT van.

JK: My, how touchy-feely of you. Now why don’t you look for transpiration options to make their life easier instead of using the handicapped as an excuse to feed billions to politically connected developers. (Streetcar = development oriented transit)

Fact: Hmmmm... really dodged the question on that one. Good job! Transit seems to me to be the most sensible option for blind people... what type of car (or other "transpiration" options) would you "develop" for the blind, Jim?

After you fully ducked the issue, you then spewed out some good examples of the ad hominem attacks you say you deplore SOOOO much! Strange, but I'm not surprised by the fact that you have different standards for how you carry yourself vs. your expections of others. ("Ad hominem attacks on the other guys feel good, but against me they feel bad" - right Jim?)

But that is a standard conservative quality, right? (a la- Senators Vitter and Larry "naughty boy" Craig)

And again, you don't take into account whether or not people have incomes high enough to be able to own and maintain a car.

It's really great in theory to say that we should buy everyone who would benefit from one a fully outfitted handicap lift van (and then help pay for operations and maintenance, I suppose), but do you think that it is at all realistic?

We can't even get a fifth of our population adequate health care coverage! I don't know what world you are living in, but I don't see taxpayers being very supportive of the idea of paying for others' personal vehicles in the near future. Giving you the beneft of the doubt, though, something tells me that the normally obstructionist conservatives who love oil and cars and all things privatized might be more willing to throw money at this idea than others. (They and their cronies would stand to make a buck off such a policy, of course.)

That said, when push comes to shove, I doubt that conservatives would actually be willing to take anything out of their pocket to actually pay for the program. Big on grand theories, when it comes to actually governing responsibly, conservatives are quite inept and their ever-present stinginess keeps them from getting anything done (unless they can drive up huge deficits, of course).

Also, I don't understand- why do all you anti-transit folks love jitneys? Please explain.