MAX and bus ridership has reached a record high this month with more than two million individual trips taken each week during April-marking the first time TriMet has reached that weekly ridership number in its history.
In short
Oregon fuel pains make for TriMet rider gains
MAX and bus ridership has reached a record high this month with more than two million individual trips taken each week during April-marking the first time TriMet has reached that weekly ridership number in its history.
According to a press release from the Portland Transportation company, the increased number of riders is related to rising gas costs.
“These record ridership increases show that riders are choosing transit to help offset high fuel prices,” TriMet General Manager Fred Hansen said in the release. “Our transit system provides an alternative to getting around without always having to drive.”
Other statistics reported from TriMet: nearly 69,000 more trips were taken weekly during April 2008 compared to statistics from April 2007, and daily trips during morning rush hour rose by an additional 5,400 compared to last April.
TriMet raised its fares September 2007 after approving its 2008 budget last summer. A two-hour all-zone pass currently costs $2.05 for adult passengers.
–Melinda Bardon
Softball players make all-conference team
After concluding their season last week, several Portland State players earned recognition for their performance in the Pacific Coast Softball Conference.
Senior pitcher Mandy Hill and junior first baseman Jana Rae Slayton were both selected to the All-Conference First Team.
Slayton led the team with a .341 batting average and team-high five home runs, while Hill remained the dominant pitching and hitting force that Portland State fans have come to know over her four-year career.
In her third consecutive season as a first-team selection, Hill was 8-4 in conference games, with a 2.42 earned run average. Hill also earned All-Conference Second Team accolades as a utility player, batting .279 and hitting four home runs on the season.
Joining Slayton and Hill as All-Conference performers are junior outfielder Jackie Heide and sophomore outfielder Brandi Scoggins. Shortstop Arielle Wiser was also named to the second team, in addition to gathering the award as the conference’s Freshman of the Year.
Junior Jenna Wilson and freshman pitcher Nichole Latham rounded out the awards for the Vikings, both claiming honorable mention All-Conference honors.
–Skyler Archibald
Obama rides wave of superdelegate support
Barack Obama’s wave of superdelegate endorsements puts him within reach of the Democratic presidential nomination by the end of the primary season on June 3-even if he loses half of the remaining six contests.
The Illinois senator has picked up 26 superdelegates in the past week. At that pace, he will reach the number of delegates needed to clinch the nomination-2,025-in the next three weeks, when delegates from the remaining primaries are included.
Sen. Hillary Clinton’s best chance to slow Obama is to move the goal posts. She will get that chance May 31 when the Democratic National Committee’s rules panel considers proposals to seat the delegates that had been stripped from Florida and Michigan. Those two states violated national party rules by holding their primaries in January and lost their delegates.
Obama has 1,871.5 delegates, including endorsements from party and elected officials known as superdelegates. Clinton has 1,697, according to the latest tally by The Associated Press. That leaves Obama just 153.5 delegates short of the number needed to win the nomination at the party’s national convention this August in Denver.
–Associated Press
