TriMet's pitch for the bond (pdf) includes a lot of alarming statistics about Portland's aging population and decrepit bus fleet: The elderly and people with disabilities take 10 million trips a year on TriMet and their population is expected to increase 150 percent by 2025. On top of that, 250 of TriMet's buses are "high floor" buses that aren't good for people with disabilities.
Okay, I've argued before in favor of more ample and stable funding for TriMet, but it's clear that the way TriMet is framing this bond measure is just using the elderly/disabled argument to get people behind backing public transit. They could make just as solid an argument for needing $125 million to invest in improving the bus routes for teenagers or office workers or the city in general, but frankly, it's hard to vote down your grandma at the ballot box.
It's kind of like Mayor Sam Adams using the excuse of helping the disabled to get people to support his controversial sidewalk management plan. TriMet needs this money to do all sorts of long-delayed improvements, funding for public transit is divisive, the best way to get voters to approve the $125 million is to message it as, "Vote for this or you're a heartless bastard who hates old people."