« Election News from Washington State | Main | Freight Perspectives from Amsterdam »
November 10, 2005
Freight Plan Grinds into Gear
Yesterday the Portland Planning Commission formally recommended the Freight Master Plan to City Council.
But the recommendation did not come without qualification. Some of the issues the Planning Commission discussed:
- What's the impact of peak oil on this plan? (no answer other than that the issue is not covered by the City Transportation System Plan)
- Could Transportation Demand Management be better integrated into the plan (answer - the City has a separate TDM plan)
- Higher reliance on trucks over rail due to underinvestment in rail infrastructure (answer - rail right-of-way is owned by private companies, not under control of public sector)
- The Portland Freight Committee that oversaw the plan development lacks representation from other stakeholders (answer - a number of open houses were held to gather broad input)
- Once again the status of the Central Eastside Industrial District was debated. Should it remain a broadly defined freight district, or is more nuance appropriate? (answer - work on this during the Central City Transportation Management Plan update)
The final motion recommending the plan says it all - Commissioner Larry Hilderbrand moved that the plan be forwarded as the "Portland Truck Freight Master Plan."
Tell it like it is, Larry.
Posted by Chris Smith at 6:21 AM
Comments
November 10, 2005 9:13 AM
Lenny Anderson Says:
The good news in the City's Freight Master plan is that things aren't too bad...the key arterials serving the freight districts in N/NE Porltand (Columbia Blvd and Going Street) are fine and will continue to be fine into the future.
The Freight (they forgot to say Advisory) Committee has functioned as a publicly funded advocacy group for a particular solution (capacity) for a not very pressing problem, rather than as an advisory group to help identify problems and data based solutions.
Open houses don't cut it...direction is determined long before the story boards go up. A Freight Advisory Committee need to be re-formed with members from adjacent neighborhoods as well as those with a different perspective on freight issues.
The City may have a TDM Policy...I have never heard of it...but certainly "Management" must be the center piece of any freight strategy worth the paper its written on. Its hardly mentioned in this plan.
