As reported by the Oregonian yesterday, the online US News put Portland in first place as the best transit system in the country.

The magazine's criteria included ridership per capita, safety incidents per million trips, and public spending per capita.

Here's US News' top ten:

1. Portland, OR

2. Salt Lake City

3. New York

4. Boston

5. Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN

6. San Francisco

7. Los Angeles

8. Honolulu

9 (tie). Denver

9 (tie). Austin

Have you ridden public transit in these other cities? What was your experience?

As we posted about yesterday, TriMet held a Valentine's contest that solicited stories from riders who met their sweethearts on public transit.

TriMet selected their winners at Pioneer Square yesterday. The finalists' stories are all great, but the winning story, Danette Burchill and Matt Haynes is so wonderfully Portland:

Matt and I met while waiting for the #20 on December 23, during the snowstorm of 2008.  Buses were understandably delayed and a group of 10 people had accumulated at the bus shelter on 28th and East Burnside.  “Well,” Matt said to the crowd “would anyone like to play an alphabet game while we wait? How ‘bout ‘vegetables: A-Z?’”  “Hmmm. I don’t know...” I replied. “Could we include fruits as well?” “Uh, all right, I guess.” he said and got us going.

The whole crowd enthusiastically played “Fruits and Vegetables” and had started “Rock Bands from the 70s and 80s,” when the #20 arrived. I was impressed by Matt’s boldness, playful spirit and how he brought a group of strangers together into a community, if only for a moment. Once on the bus, I thought to myself: ‘Now that’s the kind of guy I’d like to be with. Too bad I’ll never see him again.” I was wrong.  It turned out we were next door neighbors. Three weeks later, we were taking the #20 again, and Matt asked me out on our first date. We are getting married on July 9, 2011. Thanks, TriMet!

Last fall the folks at NYC's Transportation Alternatives produced a lovely video revisiting the seminal study by UC Berkeley professor Donald Appleyard on the connection between automobile traffic and a neighborhood's social health.

In his groundbreaking book, Livable Streets, Appleyard studied three San Francisco residental streets of similar dimensions. The main difference was their level of traffic. Appleyard surveyed residents to understand their sense of their neighborhood and their connection with others.

Revisiting Donald Appleyard's Livable Streets from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

Between the low traffic and high traffic street, neighbors' perceptions were strikingly different. On the low traffic street, residents identified three friends on the street compared to .9 per street on the highly trafficked one. Why? In part, people on low traffic streets tended to spend more time on the sidewalk and street, creating more time for interactions with neighbors.

Portland began implementing traffic calming nearly twenty years ago to calm neighborhood traffic and create more healthy neighborhoods. PBOT is building Neighborhood Greenways that create streets that are pleasant to walk, talk to neighbors, jog and bicycle. Streetfilms produced a video about Portland's Neighborhood Greenways.

This Saturday at Jefferson High in North Portland, families and students can get their bikes tuned up for free!  Plus, exhibits on home weatherization, water and energy savings, and yard and garden care.

If you haven't been to a Fix-It Fair, you owe it to yourself and your pocketbook to go.  This is great opportunity to speak with many great community resources all in one place.

Here's the Fix-It Fair home page.  Click the flyer below for more info on the free bike tune-ups.