http://portlandafoot.org/2012/06/why-trimet-board-members-dont-ride-trimet/

I'm sure you have noticed, Trimet is run on the corporate model.
And the board of directors is stacked like any corporate board is stacked, with people from business interests.

As far as I am concerned, the mission of this transit agency took a violent U-Turn when Fred Hansen arrived. Providing transit became second fiddle to providing business opportunities,  specifically, TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT.
It's my understanding that the board is picked by the governor to do the bidding of the general manager, who is the man in charge of all of Trimet business.
We have multiple examples from recent and past history where board members bucked the general manager of the period and were promptly bounced from the board.

Trimet is a money maker, for everyone involved with building it to working in it. Executives make six figures salaries and employees make upper middle class livings with excellent benefits. The last people considered are the riders.

The entire model is defective. It's completely unsustainable in the long term.
How to revamp the model is the problem.
Institutions have a life of their own and it is almost impossible to change them.

Facts don't matter, the public doesn't matter, the board doesn't even matter.
How do we change it?

OPAL IS TRYING TO FIGURE THAT OUT RIGHT NOW!