How It All Started

It all began with the great snow storm of December 2008. Often called the storm of the century, Portland Oregon saw more snow and worse, ice, then it had experienced in decades. 30” of snow in a city that would be lucky to see 2” a year. The hilly streets of Portland, over stretched city services and storm after storm crippled the city.

At this time I had just been a bus driver for two years. The challenge was on. I like many other bus driver slept at the garage, began driving early in the morning at 5:00 AM and drove all day until it was dark, then curled up on the floor, only to do it again. I was lucky, I packed a winter duffle bag with everything I would need. Extra food, Extra blankets for others, pillows, toiletries, music, a heater. There I was curled up under the desk of my trainer (Mike Achong) heater blazing, all comfy and tired, only to snap away five hours later and hit the streets again.

It’s was an incredible effort all around the Transit agency I worked for. Some busses were stuck for 24 hours, Stranding drivers all over town. Mechanics worked without pause. crews were out helping drivers all over the metro area and the ice and snow kept falling.

Then the media started in. Expectations of what transit could do in such a storm was way too high. Few wanted to talk about the truth of driving in such terrible conditions, so the public became outraged and the media road this wave like a surfer in three meter curlers.

This is when I took to the internet. I was fed up with poor expectations, assumptions that no one was even trying, and that bud drivers were indifferent to the plight of riders across the Portland metro area. The public perception was 100% different then the dedication and work I saw going on.

So with the use of Twitter and starting a blog called “Trimet Confidential” Trimet was the transit company I started to tell my story. To tell the story of transit. What we were seeing and what we felt. I was not there to ride the media outrage narrative or say that everything was going great! I just wanted people to hear a little of the truth.

This was at the start of social media and blogs and things took off quickly. It wasn’t long before media people started to ask me questions. Until my employer began to insinuate that I had to tell their story. I stuck to my guns and just told my story and the story of the drivers around me.

I blogged off and on until life carried me in a new direction. Over the years I came back again and again. Changing the blog name to “Roll Easy” my tag line. Rising up in the list of what I call. Class D local celebrity.

exactly 5 minutes after I stopped blogging all sorts of revenue generating software hit the internet. What was a time consuming hobby, could now make a few dollars but I had already moved on.

Well now I’m back. Blogs are all but dead but I’m turning my talents to video and audio. My goal is to leave a lasting story of what it’s like to be in transit right here, right now and around the world. My dream is that sometime in the future some researcher will say “What was it like back then…” These productions will be a perfect tool. A loving note, about one of the last great blue collar jobs, sent from the past by those who lived it.

So after 16 years of transit work I’m asking you to come along. The story of transit is a human story. It’s a workers story, it’s the story of us. I will do my best not to just tell my story, but to tell the story of transit. Transit moves the world, The Story of Transit will move you.

- - Dan Christensen