Silver buckshotTriMet, the Portland regionÔÇÖs transit district, uses a variety of strategies to keep people moving around the city economically and efficiently, Gary Toushek learns. The early years of public transit in the Portland, Oregon, area were precarious to say the least. About 35 different entitiesÔÇöpublic, private, or combinationsÔÇötried over the course of a century to create a workable transit system, but none was successful. With Rose City Transit facing bankruptcy, the state legislature stepped in and created TriMet in the late 1960s.