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January 31, 2006

Drive Less/Save More

We've featured pieces on efforts in the center of the region to reduce auto reliance. Now there's a program aimed more towards the edges.

A new public information campaign sponsored by Metro, TriMet and others is about to launch. It's called "Drive Less/Save More". This will be a sustained media effort to get out the word that even if you can only make some small adjustments, say shifting one trip per week from the car to another mode, you can be part of a huge collective impact on our transportation system. It will also focus on the benefits to the individual making the choices.

The kick-off event is tomorrow (Wednesday the 1st) at Washington Square. I'm told we'll gather near the Williams Sonoma. I'll report back after the event.

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:21 AM | Comments (3) | Permalink

January 30, 2006

Taking the Scalpel to PDOT

The 3rd meeting of PDOT's budget advisory committee was held last Friday. The task is to take $8.3M out of PDOT's budget due to declining buying power of the gas tax and re-distributions of population.

It feels like we're pretty close to getting there, without huge impacts on services.

The largest single item is $4.3M from positions that are temporarily unfilled. This occurs when employees (particularly in the Bureau of Maintenance) turn over. Naturally, finding a replacement takes a little time, and during that time, no paycheck is going out. This budget adjustment just recognizes that reality. I'm a little surprised this one has not been captured in prior budget cycles, as it should show up clearly as a surplus at the end of each budget year.

There are about another $1.5M in 'efficiencies', reductions from doing things smarter, in ways that don't reduce service levels. For example, there is a savings of about $700K from changing wireless carriers for the 'SmartMeter' parking meters and switching to a different credit card processing system with lower fees (my understanding is this is in part enabled by the UnWire Portland initiative).

There are another 23 items that cut program expenses that DO reduce services, but not those that are felt to be 'core' services based on community input. For example, reducing speed bump construction by a third and cutting maintenance on the transit mall (doesn't make a lot of sense to maintain concrete that we're about to tear up to put in light rail). No question that we'll miss those speed bumps, but it's not in the same league as letting streets fall apart from neglect. A few of these items were questioned by the advisory committee (cutting back some preventative maintenance of signals and relying on user complaints to find those that fail) and I expect we'll see some swapping in and out of a few items.

But on the whole the exercise did not involve as many painful choices as I had expected, and I'm glad the Commissioner drove the bureau through this exercise before seeking new revenue sources. If and when we do seek new revenues - for things citizens value highly - we'll have more credibility for having done this.

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:10 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

January 29, 2006

Now I've Heard Everything

As many of you know, I'm a big supporter of the idea of taking West Burnside from I-405 to NW 23rd down to 10-foot lanes (currently at 11 feet) to let the sidewalks expand to 10 feet from their current eight.

The latest argument advanced by the opponents of this idea, mentioned at a recent PDOT budget meeting, is that it would hamstring Burnside as an evacuation route in a disaster.

If this is their best argument it seems like they're scraping the bottom of the barrel...

Posted by Chris Smith at 5:06 PM | Comments (5) | Permalink

January 26, 2006

Portland Outlasts Davis in One Category

We were all a bit stung when Davis, CA became the first Platinum cycling city in the U.S. I'm happy to say we've bested them in one category.

I remarked a few months ago about the fact that Davis' bike radio program, Bike Talk, was available via podcast while our own estimable KBOO Bike Show was not. Happily that led to a partnership to podcast the Bike Show on Portland Transport.

Well, I just downloaded the most recent episode from Davis, and it is their last. The host/producer has pulled the plug on the show, while our own Ayleen and Sara keep rolling along.

Portland is in this competition for the long run...

Posted by Chris Smith at 10:01 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink

Advocacy/Input Opportunities

Here are a couple of ways you can have impact on the transportation system:

1. Over at the BTA blog, they are noting that the Metro Green Spaces bond measure may include funds for trails that could be used by bikes and peds. The hearings are this evening and Saturday. Get the details.
2. ODOT is soliciting input on their '08-'11 capital plan (the 'STIP'). The hearing schedule and candidate project list are available at the ODOT web site. Hey, it's only $75M or so... Mostly roads and bridges but a few token transit and bike/ped dollars are sprinkled in.

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:08 AM | Comments (3) | Permalink

January 25, 2006

Re-thinking Social Justice

Some time ago I blogged about the "Wheels to Wealth" conference, which postulated that auto ownership is a key rung on the ladder out of poverty.

I've been mulling that one ever since, and I've come to a tentative conclusion:

Car-free by choice is great thing, because it means that you've managed to organize your life in a way that keeps the essentials (including employment) in walking, bike or transit range.

Car-free by necessity is an injustice, and probably means you don't have a lot of choices.

I'm not necessarily going as far as to say we should help folks buy cars (I'll keep thinking about it). But I'm thinking we should spend more time worrying about making places where all the essentials are closer together, including better job-housing balance in different parts of the region.

So I'm a bit less skeptical about the thesis of the conference.

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:40 AM | Comments (8) | Permalink

January 24, 2006

I-5 Delta Park Open House and Hearing Today

This afternoon from 3:30 to 6, there is an open house on the I-5 Delta Park widening project, followed by a public hearing at 6:30. Both are being held at:

Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs
4134 N. Vancouver Ave, Portland

more details...

We're at the tail end of the public input process on this project. If you have an opinion, now is the time to voice it.

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:58 AM | Comments (6) | Permalink

Introducing Transit Board

We're rolling out a new transit tool today, called Transit Board.

Contrasted with Transit Surfer, which is designed to be used on portable devices by people on the move, Transit Board is designed to serve fixed locations. It provides arrival times for buses and trains on a selected set of lines at a selected set of stops. The first instance we have deployed is for the Swan Island TMA. The Swan Island example is shown below.

We're looking to deploy this where ever it can be useful. Our initial outreach efforts are focused on Transportation Management Associations, but we're open to other locations. Want one on your corporate intranet? Or your coffee shop home page? Just let us know, we can tailor one for you. Right now we need to do the setup, but down the road we may offer the ability for users to define their own personal (or company) Transit Board.

Please share your ideas for where Transit Board can be useful!

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:57 AM | Comments (17) | Permalink

January 23, 2006

Urban Renewal For Transportation Advocates

I've raved here before about the PSU/PDOT Traffic and Transportation Class. It's a great way for citizens to learn how the transportation system and bureaucracy work.

Last year, I had the chance to take the inaugural version of a similar class that explains the inner workings of urban renewal. And it's about to run again.

So why am I writing about this on this blog? Because of late, urban renewal has become a regular component of funding big transportation projects (think Interstate MAX and the Streetcar). So I would encourage all transportation advocates to consider learning about how it works.

And the facilitator, Carl Talton, knows almost as much about Urban Renewal as Rick Gustafson does about Transportation.

Details follow...

Urban Renewal and Redevelopment Class Spring Term 2006

What: A 10-week course sponsored by the Portland Development Commission and PSU's Urban Studies Program
When: April 4 to June 13
Tuesdays, 6:40-9:00 PM
Where: PSU Campus
Classroom to be determined
Who: This course is designed for the community activist, new or experienced, who wants to learn about and be involved in urban renewal activities in their community.

How is urban renewal performed in Portland? How is it continuing to create new community facilities, open spaces and transportation options, as well as stimulate new jobs and housing opportunities in the City? How is it funded? And how can citizens impact urban renewal policies and projects in their neighborhoods and business districts?

Explore the history of urban renewal in Oregon and Portland, and talk to the real policy-makers to discuss the basics of how it works and why it is the preferred tool for revitalizing some areas. They will talk about the costs, benefits and trade-offs of urban renewal, and PDC’s continuing role in investing in the projects and programs that help shape our city.

The class brings together people to ask the tough questions with those who have to make the tough decisions about spending and project priorities and the trade offs involved.

Speakers include elected officials, PDC Commissioners and directors, neighborhood activists, housing advocates, business owners and land and building developers. The class is facilitated by Carl Talton, a former chairman of the Portland Development Commission, the City’s urban renewal agency.

Limited space is available for the ten-week class during the Spring Term. Full scholarships are available to qualified City of Portland residents for the non-credit course. To be eligible for a scholarship, applicants must live in the City of Portland and not be a PDC employee. Deadline for scholarship application is March 17, 2006.

PSU Tuition is $147 for non-credit or one credit and $293 for graduate credit.
To register or get more course information go to www.pdc.us/uraclass, or contact Kim McFarland at (503) 823-3289 or mcfarlandk@pdc.us

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:45 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

January 20, 2006

Third Time the Charm?

After being rained out two weeks in a row, Multnomah County is going to try one more time this weekend to close the Burnside Bridge to set up for the upcoming maintence project. Good luck...

The Burnside Bridge will be closed to road and sidewalk traffic from 8:00 pm on Friday, January 20 until as late as 6:00 am on Monday, January 23 to allow a contractor to set up traffic control and a work zone for a two-year construction project that begins this month. The bridge will be closed to motor vehicles, bicyclists and pedestrians but will still open for river traffic. TriMet bus routes 12, 19 and 20 will use the Morrison Bridge during the closure. The bridge will reopen before Monday if work is completed early.

The start of field work has been postponed twice this month due to inclement weather. The contractor has made arrangements to set up the work zone and place new lane stripes in the rain if necessary, so this weekend’s closure will not be postponed.

When the bridge reopens there will be a single lane of traffic in each direction and a path for pedestrians and bicyclists on each side of the bridge. Several traffic lanes will be closed so that the contractor can begin to replace the worn concrete deck on the lift span. The $9 million project will also repair or replace parts that allow the 79-year-old bridge to open. Both repairs are critical to the drawbridge’s operation.

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:24 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

January 19, 2006

Help Local Blogger Get to D.C.

Over at Bike Portland, Jonathan Maus is appealing for help in funding his trip to this year's National Bike Summit.

Having had the wonderful opportunity to go to Prague and Amsterdam this fall, I can testify how valuable these kinds of field trips are for a blogger. Not only does it expand the consciousness of the blogger, but it provides lots of interesting material for the audience back at home.

I just hit the donate button and encourage you to do the same. Or at least buy a T-shirt.

Posted by Chris Smith at 11:12 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink

BTA Blog Added to Bike Channel

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance's new web site is now live, including their new blog. And it's now part of the Portland Bike Channel.

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:19 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Another Perspective on Bus Rapid Transit

The post on buses in toll lanes has generated a lot of discussion.

Michael Wilson forwarded this article from Sierra magazine, containing an interview with Jamie Lerner, the former Mayor of Curitiba, Brazil.

He argues that Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) on dedicated lanes is much easier to implement than a subway, or even surface rail.

Would this map to the United States? Over on the earlier post, Dan argues that higher labor costs and easier sources of capital than operating funding break down the paradigm.

What do other people think?

Posted by Chris Smith at 6:23 AM | Comments (8) | Permalink

January 18, 2006

Toll Road Moving Forward in Newberg

OPB is reporting that today the Oregon Transportation Commission approved a $20M pre-development agreement with Australian based Macquarie to investigate three potential toll road projects, starting with the Newberg-Dundee bypass.

Discuss!

Posted by Chris Smith at 9:39 PM | Comments (11) | Permalink

Buses, Trains and Automobiles

Last night, the Downtown Neighborhood Association invited TriMet to a meeting to discuss issues around the Transit Mall Light Rail project. Last Friday's Tribune sensationalized this to a degree.

Looking over the written questions the association submited to TriMet, I was reminded of a challenge in working with neighborhood associations on large capital projects: the leadership can turn over completely during the time it takes to get a project from planning to construction. The TriMet team did a good job of reviewing the history of the project, AND its outreach.

The main reason I attended was to understand how buses will be re-routed during construction. I had understood that 10th and 11th were under consideration and wanted to hear the plan for how they would operate with the Streetcar.

But it appears that the main detour routes will be 3rd and 4th, with some on Columbia and Jefferson. The staff recommendation will be released in early February and the public comment period will begin then.

As to the questions of how cars, buses and trains will interact on the mall, I think TriMet has made its case well.

Posted by Chris Smith at 6:04 AM | Comments (24) | Permalink

January 17, 2006

Aging Out of your Car, Gracefully

This is the second gem Dave Brook has passed along this week.

Here's a program in the other Portland where older drivers trade in their cars for credits towards rides.

Dave wants to know if anyone locally is working to set up something like this? Sounds like a natural for Ride Connection.

Posted by Chris Smith at 9:39 PM | Comments (2) | Permalink

The Regional Business Plan on Transportation

Last week I attended the Oregon Business Plan Summit. The Summit was also the occasion of the release of the first ever Regional Business Plan.

Just as I found many things to like in the state plan, there is much to like about the regional plan. I could hardly have written a better set of bullet points for the vision:

• Sustainability
• Innovation
• Openness
• Individualism

In analyzing the current state of affairs, our excellent multi-modal connections are celebrated. The plan recognizes our superior transit system and (relatively) lower congestion than other major metro areas. But increasing congestion is noted, with bottlenecks impacting business productivity.

In evaluating a variety of business factors, "Urban Mobility" is rated just over 3.1 (on a scale where 5.0 is the max). Interestingly pretty much all the different regional business groups' rankings fell right around the average, except for "Identity Vancouver" which came in about 2.6.

In a section on public leader perspectives there is a bullet suggesting that "the JPACT model for transportation planning should be reexamined" without saying what is deficient about the process. I can't help wondering what that's about.

The bottom line for any business plan of course is the set of recommended actions. This plan has initiative sections for both land use and transportation. The land use section calls for more shovel-ready industrial sites, and talks about speeding infrastructure development in UGB expansion areas, but does not make any explicit statements about making sure new industrial areas are specifically sited to match planned transportation facilities (they do talk about the converse, extending transportation facilities to industrial lands - not quite the same thing).

Points for encouraging redevelopment of brownfields and other sites within the UGB.

The transportation section (actually labeled "Freight Mobility") has three bullets, which I would summarize as:

• Better private sector advocacy for freight priorities
• Develop transportation policy that supports business needs and economic development strategy
• Make sure transportation planning decisions are evaluated against economic development criteria

I can't argue with any of those, but there's no mention of promoting alternative modes as a way to offset increases in congestion, or development of transportation improvements that facilitate movement of goods and services without adding capacity for SOVs that creates induced demand.

I fear that until the freight community learns to distinguish between raw lane capacity and moving goods that we're not going to make much progress toward their goals.

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:56 AM | Comments (7) | Permalink

January 16, 2006

KBOO Bike Show needs bike songs

Ayleen passes along the following call for help:

Hey Folks,

We're in need of bike songs. We always end the show with a bike song, but the ones we have are getting a little stale after so many years.

We've got the Ken Southerland mix from Bikesummer we know all those.

If you have songs, please send them our way. We can take MP3s e-mailed or CDs dropped in our box at KBOO (ask receptionist to show you how to find our box, listed as KBOO Bike Show).

There's this one song "Riding my bicycle, eating a popsicle, listening to an MP3" and another "I'm riding bicycles in the rain" and I'm SO sick of them.

Thanks,
Ayleen

Posted by Chris Smith at 10:04 PM | Comments (2) | Permalink

Advising PDOT

As I've mentioned before, this year I'm sitting on PDOT's budget advisory committee. We met last week to digest the results of the outreach and to review staff's preliminary recommendations on cuts.

The meeting opened with a review of the public outreach. There was a lot of discussion about whether there was a bias from an over concentration of alternative mode users and advocates among the respondents. Nonetheless, three conclusions unified the entire group of respondents:

• Roads should be maintained to minimize long-term costs (6.22 out of 7)
• Public transit is just as import as cars (6.15)
• Maintaining existing facilities is more important than building new ones (5.61)

A more interesting piece of data was the contrast between outreach and inreach. PDOT and Bureau of Maintenance employees were also surveyed. The employee responses showed some marked differences from the public: employees showed much less support for alternative modes and favored shifting resources to roads.

I would be very curious to see how this split between PDOT and Bureau of Maintenance employees. That split was not available to us, but the data does show that the number of Maintenance employees participating in the survey was about double that of PDOT.

The proposals to cover the $8M budget gap included better accounting and management of labor services, cuts in services that do not appear to be highly valued, seeking funding from other budgets for services that are not truly transportation related, and raising fees in some cases (e.g., parking tickets).

One very interesting idea was to let surface quality of low traffic residential streets deteriorate a little bit more than we do now (but not to the point that long-term life is impacted). There was support in the task force for this. It was felt that this actually had a traffic calming benefit and having these streets too smooth encourages faster traffic and cut-through traffic.

My sense is that the $8M will get covered without major disruption to PDOT's mission, but we'll know more after the next meeting of the task force as more analysis on the potential gap fillers is available.

On a separate but related note, over at Commissioner Sam, they have a map (PDF, 1.7M) showing how PDOT capital projects (not the operating budget discussed above) are distributed around the city.

Posted by Chris Smith at 8:41 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Virtual Busways on Toll Lanes?

Dave Brook forwarded this interesting piece from the San Fancisco Chronicle on merging tolls with bus rapid transit. While the idea is up for consideration in the Bay Area, it apparently is going to be tried in Houston.

The basic idea is to put toll lanes alongside regular lanes, and control usage of the toll lanes, reserving capacity for buses.

The question that occurs to me is what happens if the toll lanes congest? The Houston project says it will adjust pricing to prevent this. That makes me wonder if we could explore the idea of dynamically priced toll lanes? Traffic cameras would figure out the level of usage and prices at the toll both would dynamically go up the closer to the congestion point the usage got.

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:11 AM | Comments (7) | Permalink

January 13, 2006

PortlandCycling.net Added to Bike Channel

Carlo has just posted some news items to his site, so it's a good time to announce that the RSS feed from his PortlandCycling.net site has been added to Portland Transport's Portland Bike Channel site and mega-RSS feed

Posted by Chris Smith at 10:02 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Bridge Work Rained Out... Again

The weekend closure of the Burnside Bridge to change lane marking for the upcoming maintence work is rained out for the second weekend in a row. The plan is now for next weekend...

Posted by Chris Smith at 9:59 AM | Comments (3) | Permalink

What I Learned About Portland Transport from Michael Porter

As I mentioned, on Monday I attended the Oregon Business Plan summit, and the featured speaker was Harvard's Michael Porter.

Porter is THE guru on competitive strategy (I even read some of his stuff in business school, back in the middle ages). He was chartered to advise us on how to tighten up our plan, and the crowd clearly enjoyed his remarks (delivered by satellite from a classroom at Harvard).

But he also said a few things that I think we can apply to Portland Transport:

1) High technology is not an industry, rather there are only companies and clusters that have adopted technology and those that haven't - the latter are on their way out...

Portland Transport is our way of bringing Internet communications technology to the public discussion of transportation policy in our region.

2) One of the dimensions of competition is ease of logistics, lowering transaction costs.

Portland Transport applies this concept to transit with our Transit Surfer tool. Our goal is to make it easier to use transit and lower the costs (in time) of using it.

Finally, Porter said that Oregon's natural resources and ethic of sustainability were advantages we needed to continue to leverage!

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:05 AM | Comments (2) | Permalink

Blogger on Film

Portland Transport blogger (and Metro Councilor) Rex Burkholder is interviewed in the new documentary, Mama Earth. There are two showings coming up in Portland. Here's the flyer (PDF, 83K) or you can get more info at http://www.earthwalkmedia.com/current.htm.

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:45 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

January 12, 2006

Talking About the Tram

The Tram is being talked about everywhere today. There is a Steve Duin column as well as a long piece by Ryan Frank on the history of the project in the Oregonian.

And of course Jack Bog is blasting the project, while Portland Architecture is (at least partially) rising to its defense.

About the only place where you're not hearing about the Tram is here at Portland Transport. I've written no specific pieces on our latest mode of transportation.

Why not? I'm deeply conflicted about this project. While I believe it's going to become a signature transportation tool for our city, and part of an overall transportation system I'm very proud of, I have a lot of reservations about how it was done.

I was not impressed with the way neighborhood concerns were handled, and clearly the budget development process, and the way it was presented to the community, were - to be charitable - inadequate.

So I'm on the back benches on this one, gritting my teeth waiting for the pain to be over, but hoping for a good long-term outcome.

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:18 PM | Comments (17) | Permalink

Audio: Bicycle Highways in the Sky

From last week's Smart City radio program:

Imagine this: Bicycles traveling at speeds up to 50 miles per hour in enclosed tubes hanging above the streets. That's the vision of Chris Hardwicke, a Toronto architect who is promoting his idea as Velo-City.

It's worth a listen (it's the first segment in the show's audio file [mp3, 14M]). But I find a flaw in the logic. The idea is that we'll build grade-separated bikeways because we can't remove auto lanes to fit in bike lanes. But the only way I can see us making that level of investment in bicycle infrastructure is in a world of very expensive gasoline. Of course, if gasoline is that expense, we should have plenty of auto lanes to turn into bikes lanes. I think I'll plan to stay on the ground for now. Not that it's not a cool idea.

Posted by Chris Smith at 6:10 AM | Comments (2) | Permalink

Forum Links Health and Urban Design

The Oregon Environmental Council is hosting a forum: Healthier by Design: Urban Lifestyles and the Built Environment on January 26th. This is part of their Healthy Environment series.

The amount of time we spend in traffic, background noise, water, air and food quality, access to open spaces or sidewalks— all of these factors affect our health. Lawrence Frank, Ph.D., is the J. Armand Bombardier Chair in Sustainable Transportation at the University of British Columbia and author of Health and Community Design: The Impacts of the Built Environment on Physical Activity, and most recently, co-author of Urban Sprawl and Public Health: Designing, Planning, Building for Healthy Communities. His articles on health, community design and transportation have appeared in Time magazine, CNN, ABC News and other media outlets. Dr. Frank has also had a long-standing regional presence, working with King County and the Puget Sound Clear Air Agency to conduct research and initiate public health programs. He will focus on urban sprawl and public health, with information about his current research.

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:21 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

January 11, 2006

Updated: Crosswalk Enforcement Action Tomorrow

Update 11 January 2006:

Over at Commissioner Sam they're reporting that 25 citations were issued, 10 of them to bikes and peds.

The Commissioner reportedly survived the exercise.

---

Commissioner Sam Adams will be the decoy tomorrow for a pedestrian crossing enforcement action at the downtown YWCA (1111 SW 10th). The location was selected because of the number of seniors that use the crossing.

The press event is at 9:30am and the ticketing begins in earnest at 10am.

I wonder what the fine is for running over a City Council member? Let's hope Sam is nimble.

We'll post the ticket stats here as an update when they're out.

Posted by Chris Smith at 8:50 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink

Tolling Technology Advances

Technology adoption follows a predictable curve. One of the signs that a technology is going mainstream is that some providers start simplifying it and providing alternative approaches.

I believe further evidence that tolling is likely to be in our future can be found in an article in yesterday's New York Times about advances in tolling technology and use.

Some of the indicators:

• Regional 'transponder' systems like E-ZPass, SunPass and FasTrak are trying to cross-connect their systems so your transponder works anywhere.
• Budget Rent a Car is offering transponder rentals with their cars and promoting it as a competitive advantage.
• Another provider is touting a transponder-less system, you just give them your plate number and credit card number and their cameras will get your plate number as you drive through the toll gate and bill you.

I wonder if those cameras can track my 17-year-old and tell me where he's taking the car?

Posted by Chris Smith at 11:36 AM | Comments (30) | Permalink

January 10, 2006

Peak Oil Speaker Coming to Portland

By way of News for Neighbors, we learned that Richard Heinberg will be speaking in Portland on January 20th. Richard is author of Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World.

Details can be found at Living Earth.

Posted by Chris Smith at 2:08 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Setting Course for the 22nd Century

Metro is just beginning an update of the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP).

Every four years, Metro is required to update our transportation plan to comply with state and federal planning requirements. I'm excited to announce that this update will be done in a different way than past updates, and, hopefully, give us some direction out of a future increasingly congested, consumptive of time, energy and dollars

Instead of providing a long (and unfunded) list of the transportation projects based on traffic projections, which past updates have done without regard for whether we can pay for them, this RTP update will ask you what your transportation priorities are and what are you willing to pay for. What is more frustrating than a long shopping list and an empty wallet?

You may have read stories in the newspapers about a new report that found congestion in the region negatively affects businesses and residents in the region and statewide. This report, entitled "The Cost of Congestion to the Economy of the Portland Region," found that the congestion will only get worse as more people move to the region unless we either raise significant new revenues for more highways or adopt new strategies such as congestion pricing or beefing up non-auto choices.

Because it will start with the fact of limited resources, this RTP update will force us, as a region, to determine how much we are willing to invest in improving our regional transportation systems or open the conversation on trying new approaches that achieve our goals.

What are some of these promising new approaches? Some are familiar, like using land use to ensure that there are employment, stores and schools located closely to homes and others are more adventurous, like tolling the freeway system to manage traffic and using cell phones and PDA's to set up "smart" carpooling. As a short feature in Sunday's NY Times Magazine lays out, "controlling" congestion finally being recognized as impossible. Indeed, the places with the most congestion in the country have spent the most on highways (the top 5: Los Angeles area, San Francisco, DC area, Atlanta and Houston).

Other new trends that the new RTP will have to address in addition to funding constraints are rising oil prices, continued high population growth and implementing an updated 50 year land use plan. In addition, it will also be a good time to examine and update regional decision making and governance (e.g., why does Multnomah County have responsibility for 5 of the 12 bridges across the Willamette River? (the rest are ODOT but one. Can you guess which?)

Over the next few months,we will be ironing out the details of this update, including a public involvement plan. This update will be closely coordinated with the work that we are doing with the 2040 New Look and by 2008 we will have a new 2035 RTP incorporating new policy direction stemming from the 2040 New Look. But I expect there to be lots of interesting output during the coming year, as well. I urge you to stay tuned for next steps by checking out the RTP web page or by calling call Regional Transportation Planning at (503) 797-1839 or send e-mail to trans@metro-region.org. The hearing impaired can call (503) 797-1804.

Posted by Rex Burkholder at 6:55 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink

The Oregon Business Plan and Transportation

Yesterday was the big Oregon Business Plan Summit. Besides a fun session in which Harvard's Michael Porter analyzed the plan (more on his presentation in another post), of course I immediately went to the transportation section of the plan. Beyond the predictable priorities like the Columbia Crossing, there were some encouragingly progressive ideas:

• Celebration of the "Connect Oregon" package of non-road multi-modal projects passed by the last legislative session.
  
  
• A call for accelerated implementation of congestion management tools, including ITS (Intelligent Transportation System) tools.
  
  
• A call for examination of a combination of mileage taxes and congestion pricing as an alternative revenue system:

  "Oregon was the first state to adopt the gas tax. We should set a goal to be the first state to replace it with a modern system for revenue collection."

I like the attitude!

Thoughts on the Regional Business Plan, released at the summit, tomorrow.

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:20 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

January 9, 2006

Congestion = Prosperity?

Rex passes along the following link from yesterday's NY Times Magazine: The Way We Live Now: Speed Bump

While talking about tolling as the increasing preferred approach to deal with congestion, it suggests this newly emerging perspective:

The overarching new credo is that gridlock shouldn't be conceived of as a problem or a mark of social failure. According to authorities like Anthony Downs at the Brookings Institution, the author of "Stuck in Traffic" and "Still Stuck in Traffic," a bumper-to-bumper crop of cars is a byproduct of the very prosperity, mobility and individual flexibility modern citizens value: where traffic is at a standstill, it generally means business is humming. The best we can do is try to keep the traffic jams from growing exponentially worse, and give those who are in a real hurry the chance to buy out of them.

Posted by Rex Burkholder at 7:31 AM | Comments (4) | Permalink

My Commute: A New Year's Resolution

Hi, I'm Willow, and I write a blog for Urban Honking called perfect heart. Jessica asked if I would do an entry here about one of my New Years resolutions.

This is actually a resolution I set for 2005, and didn't even come close to accomplishing, so I put it at the top of my 2006 list and went real public with it, in hopes that I'll do a better job this year.

My goal is to have one drive-free day a week. I know that seems really little and manageable, but it's actually a lot tougher than I anticipated. I live in North Portland, and I work as a teacher in Beaverton and go to graduate school at Lewis & Clark in SW. I'm not a strong biker, especially when it's raining, and I always have lots and lots of stuff to cart between work, home and school. I do carpool every day, but the people I carpool with live in NW, so I have to drive over there every morning no matter which one of us does the main drive.

I could take the Max or the bus, but the stops are a little too far to walk with all of my supplies, and then we're back to the me-not-being-a-strong-biker issue. So basically weekdays are out, for now. Once grad school is over I'll look for a new job, and hopefully I can find one that is more convenient for alternative transportation.
I'm willing to change neighborhoods too, next year, if it means I can drive less.

So, yeah. All of that stuff means that if I want to do a drive free day, it has to be on a weekend. I know I can do it if I get more organized. If I plan to do my grocery shopping and banking and other errands on Saturday, for instance, I can keep my motor off on Sunday.

I tried this last year, as I mentioned, and I completely failed. In the winter the weather made me lazy, so I put off my goal until the summer. And I definitely drove a lot less in the summer, but there were very few days when I didn't drive at all, and those days were incidental, not intentional. Then Fall came, and Winter, and I put my bike in the basement, and now I'm driving more again. But I want to be better!

I'm hoping that going public with this goal will help me be more motivated. Last year I didn't really tell anyone that I had made this plan, because I didn't want to seem wimpy. This year all of my friends know that I've set this goal, and they are being very supportive and helpful. Jessica and I were talking the other night about asking people to hold you accountable for things, and how awesome that can be. I've been driving a lot less since I told my friends about my goal. But today marks the end of the first week of 2006, and I am sad to report that I have driven at least once every day.

Today it was suggested to me that I change the wording of my goal. I could say that I want to drive 20% less in 2006 than I did in 2005. I could keep a log of where I drove and why, and also record the times I chose not to drive, and what I did instead. Even though that's a lot of work, I think it might be more attainable. There are definitely ways I could trim off a little bit of driving each day, and making charts is fun.

Ultimately, I just want to feel like I'm moving toward a more sustainable lifestyle, even if I'm moving awfully slow. For the environment, for foreign relations, and for my pocketbook I want to lessen my reliance on the ol' Volvo wagon. I like the idea of one drive free day, because then next year my goal could be 2 drive free days, and then 3 and 4 and 5 and 6, and who knows? maybe one of these days I'll get rid of Volvo the Volcano altogether. That would make me pretty happy.

In the meantime, if you see me at the Fresh Pot on a Sunday morning, ask me how I got there. And feel free to scold me if I tell you I drove. Because really, I know better.

Guest Column at 3:04 AM | Comments (7) | Permalink

January 6, 2006

Updated: A Pain the Bridge

Update:

This weekend's closure has been postponded due to the weather, and tentatively rescheduled to next weekend

For those of us who just finally got that sense of relief that two years of maintenance on the Broadway Bridge are over (or who suffered through the projects on the Hawthorne or Ross Island bridges before), here we go again. The press release for several years of work on the Burnside Bridge follows.

This raises a couple of questions in my mind:

1) Is the stretched out process of doing the work while keeping some travel lanes open really worth it? I know the County has done good community outreach on this question, but I still have to wonder...

2) The drain on Multnomah County to keep the Willamette bridges in good condition is enormous. Isn't it time to recognize that these are really regional resources (how many folks from Washington, Clackamas and Clark countries travel them every day) and figure out a way to share the load? Maybe that would let us actually get to replace the Sellwood...

What do people think?

Two years of Burnside Bridge lift span repairs begin with weekend bridge closure

The Burnside Bridge will be closed to road traffic from 8:00 pm on Friday, January 6 until as late as 6:00 am on Monday, January 9 to allow a contractor to set up traffic control and a work zone for a two-year construction project that begins this month. Pedestrians and bicyclists can cross the bridge but may experience brief delays this weekend. TriMet bus routes 12, 19 and 20 will use the Morrison Bridge during the closure. The bridge will reopen before Monday if work is completed early.

The $9 million project will complete two technically challenging repairs to the lift span. The concrete deck of the lift span is worn from 79 years of use and will be completely rebuilt. The Burnside Bridge has one of the largest concrete decks of any bascule drawbridge in the world. At less than five inches thick the deck is also extremely thin for a concrete deck that is stressed and flexed by regular openings.

Rebuilding the deck while keeping the bridge open to road and river traffic is one reason the project will last two years. The contractor, Advanced American Diving Service, will need to keep one leaf of the lift span operable so the bridge can open for river vessels. In order to keep the bridge open to road and river traffic, the new deck will be built in four stages (two per lift span leaf). Each stage will require one month of curing time before the new concrete is hard enough to handle the stress of traffic and bridge openings.

Multnomah County and the City of Portland studied the option of closing the bridge to traffic to shorten the construction schedule. A traffic study determined that other bridges could not absorb the 45,000 vehicles that use the Burnside Bridge each day without creating an unacceptable level of gridlock across a wide area.

The project’s most difficult stage will be the replacement and repair of mechanical parts that help open the bridge. One eighty-year old hinge that attaches the 3.5 million pound counterweight to the lift span has broken and cannot turn freely. Stress from the frozen hinge is causing the eastern leaf of the bridge to open slower than the western leaf. If the hinge were to fail, the leaf would not be able to open and the counterweight could become detached from the lift span.

Replacing the hinge assembly will require the contractor to detach the counterweight without letting the lift span deck tumble into the Willamette River. A complex rigging system will be needed to support the counterweight when it is disconnected from its hinge. Because the bridge was not designed to be repaired, the repair will require the contractor to cut away sections of the concrete counterweight and bridge walls. The repair may be the first of its kind, due to the Burnside’s rare design.

The project will also update electrical wiring, replace lift span motors, install storm water collection and treatment facilities, and replace or repaint corroded steel.

While the project will create inconvenience for bridge users, it will extend the life of the historic bridge. Replacing the Burnside Bridge would cost at least $170 million today.

Federal funds are paying for approximately 70 percent of the project, while Multnomah County is contributing the rest. Construction is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2007.

During most of the project, the bridge will be reduced from five to two traffic lanes, with a single lane in each direction. TriMet bus routes 12, 19 and 20 will continue to use the bridge and both sides of the bridge will be open to pedestrians and bicyclists. The project will require several weekend bridge closures to road traffic, each lasting three to five days, for concrete deck pours.

There will be brief closures to river traffic at off-peak times. During most of the project only one bridge leaf will be operable for bridge openings. A tugboat will be provided for river vessels that need assistance passing the bridge during a single leaf opening. Both lift span leafs will be operable if needed by the Rose Festival fleet. The Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade will also be able to cross the bridge in 2006 and 2007.

OBEC Consulting Engineers of Oregon designed the repairs, with assistance from mechanical engineering consultants Hardesty & Hanover. Multnomah County maintains the Burnside Bridge and more than 300 miles of roads and bridges. For project updates call 503-988-4884.

Posted by Chris Smith at 2:01 PM | Comments (10) | Permalink

Bike Show Now on iTunes

Our KBOO Bike Show podcast is now available on iTunes. To find it, type "KBOO Bike" into the search box in iTunes.

Eventually we should show up in the podcast directory listing under Transportation, sub-category Bicycles. However, updating of these categories is notoriously slow, so we don't know when we'll show up.

Posted by Chris Smith at 8:47 AM | Comments (4) | Permalink

January 5, 2006

Burnside Watershed?

Sam Adams listens to small business owners on Couch and Burnside.

Last night I attended a forum that Commissioner Adams held for small business owners on Burnside and Couch to discuss the (west side) couplet proposal. Given the recent planning bureau critique of the plan, I was concerned that this would be another opportunity to dump on the couplet plan (which I support).

I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome:

• When polled at the end of the forum, all but one of the business owners said they preferred the couplet.
• Representatives of the group developing the office tower planned next to Jake's said that after going over the options, they're supporting the couplet.
• A retailer in the Brewery Blocks characterized the current situation on Couch not as "pedestrian paradise", but as "chaos" and favored the couplet.

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:10 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

January 4, 2006

KBOO Bike Show: Safer Streets

Commander Bill Sinnot and Greg Raisman take calls

Listen to the show (mp3, 12.8M)

Special guests, Bill Sinnot, Commander of the Portland Police traffic divison and Greg Raisman, PDOT`s traffic safety specialist discuss projects, programs and enforcement actions they are working on to make the streets safer for cyclists.

Posted by Chris Smith at 11:08 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

January 3, 2006

Making Sausage ... and Budgets

I no longer sit on TPAC, but I still get the agenda packet notices (anyone can request them). I want to call attention to a process that gets started at this Friday's meeting that perhaps does not get the public attention that it should.

One of the things our region does very well is speak with one voice on transportation funding priorities for federal dollars. The four members of our House delegation (3 Oregon reps and Brian Baird from the Washington State side of the river) hear the same message. This gives us a big leg up on other less disciplined regions where different counties and cities may lobby for conflicting projects.

How do we manage to get everyone on the same page when they talk to their representatives? The consensus gets worked out at JPACT, where the jurisdictions work out their differences and seek equity and hopefully sound regional policy. Sometimes that looks like saving up your chits for a multi-year appropriation (like I-205 light rail, or the Washington County commuter rail). Sometimes it look like convincing a number of jurisdictions that a facility (like the Sellwood Bridge) really does impact all of them. And sometimes is looks like very canny understanding of which federal pots of money can be used for what purposes and how to swap funds back and forth (legally) to achieve goals.

But JPACT is where the action is, and TPAC works the draft on its way to JPACT. Here's the draft that TPAC will review (PDF, 31K) on Friday. It totals some $157M in requests, so it's not chump change. But this is a process that while conducted in public meetings, gets very little public attention. I'm not saying I don't think these are worthy projects - after all they all come from the Regional Transportation Plan, which does have an involved public process. But maybe more people should pay attention to what's going on...

Posted by Chris Smith at 6:55 AM | Comments (3) | Permalink

January 2, 2006

Portland Transport Now Hosting KBOO Bike Show Podcast and Archive

A few weeks ago I posted a bit of rant about the fact that our competitor for Platinum biking status - Davis, CA - podcasted their bike talk show, while the Portland equivalent, on KBOO, disappeared into the ether after the monthly broadcast.

Well, no more! KBOO Bike Show hosts Ayleen Crotty and Sara Stout agreed to enter into a collaboration with Portland Transport and I'm delighted to announce that we are now hosting their archive site and podcast. The archive site is at

http://bikeshow.portlandtransport.com/

and the podcast RSS feed is at

http://feeds.portlandtransport.com/BikeShowPodcast.

We hope to have Wednesday's show up on the site a few hours after airtime. Set up your favorite podcatcher application now! The podcast has also been submitted to a number of directories, including iTunes.

The three most recent shows are already up on the archive, along with some older favorites. We'll be filling out the archive over the next few months, and plan to ultimately have the entire catalog of shows available, perhaps supplemented by some material that has never made it onto the air.

Thank you Ayleen and Sara!

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:33 AM | Comments (5) | Permalink