Portland Transport: November 2006 Archives

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November 30, 2006

In the Local Blogosphere

Two items of note elsewhere today:

On the BTA Blog they're talking about how to request bike parking on-street (NOT on the sidewalk) in front of your business. An added benefit is that if you do this at a corner you improve intersection safety with better visibility.

And at Blue Oregon they're discussing a payment smart card for all things transportation.

Posted by Chris Smith at 10:50 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink

More Biodiesel Applications

Willamette Week is reporting ("Day Tripper") that "Shared Route" is now operating a slightly hippy-looking biodiesel shuttle from Portland to Seattle.

At the same time, the Daily Journal of Commerce reports that contractors are ~~slowing~~ slowly switching to biodiesel for their heavy equipment.

Posted by Chris Smith at 11:00 AM | Comments (2) | Permalink

County Does the Right (Ramp) Thing

Reported in yesterday's O, Multnomah County will reconfigure a ramp from the Hawthorne Bridge to create a parcel on which to build a new courthouse.

The ugly alternative was to grab the parcel being planned for a new office building.

Posted by Chris Smith at 8:31 AM | Comments (23) | Permalink

Coming Up on the KBOO Bike Show: See + Be Seen

The KBOO Bike show will discuss the City of Portland's new See + Be Seen program to promote cyclist visibility at night. The program will also feature some of the songs submitted to the KBOO Bike Show theme song contest.

9-10AM, Wednesday, December 6th
KBOO FM 90.7
Streamed live at KBOO.fm
Podcast here later that day

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:58 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

November 29, 2006

High Drama on Burnside Plan

Commissioner Sam Adams has scheduled a press conference for 8:30am on Tuesday morning (12/5) to announce his recommendation for Burnside/Couch.

The press conference will be across the street (Burnside) from Powells Books, by the sculpture affectionately known as "the brush".

I'm still betting on the couplet, but we'll see...

Posted by Chris Smith at 8:52 PM | Comments (8) | Permalink

Probation's Over

Yesterday I attended Sam Adams' second Transportation Operations Steering group meeting. A long, involved discussion of the nitty gritty of snow and ice response. Not particularly newsworthy, except it's good to see our public officials focused on serving the customer well.

The news of the meeting is that Sam announced that Sue Kiel, who for 18 months has been the interim Director of PDOT, is now permanent.

For the last 18 months I've found Sue to be quietly but solidly competent in leading the Office of Transportation. It's good to know that she'll be sticking around.

Congratulations, Sue.

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:42 AM | Comments (4) | Permalink

Kudos to the Trib

Yesterday's Tribute was pretty much a special issue on Transportation, including a cover story, editorial and "ReThinking Portland" section on the Regional Transportation Plan update.

Overall I think they did a good job of framing the issues, and I'm in agreement with the editorial about needing leadership across all sectors of the community to deal with the challenge. While the articles don't frame it this way what I think they add up to is the choice between investing in land use (e.g., the Centers in the 2040 Plan) to provide access versus investing in roads, transit and other transportation infrastructure to provide mobility (and of course the debate about which modes of transportation to fund).

In the self-promotion category, Portland Transport was mentioned in three different articles and two of our regular readers, Frank Dufay and Matt Collier, show up in a photo on the Streetcar (Nick Budnick, author of a number of the articles checks in on this blog regularly). Contributors Jim Howell and Bob Richardson were described as offering pragmatic solutions. And of course Rex Burkholder was prominent in the whole section.

Yours truly got quoted twice, once about Streetcar and once about the Columbia Crossing. I want an apology from Jim Redden, who described me as a local "consultant and transportation activist." The second part is dead on, but I don't know where he got the idea that I'm a consultant. Jim, I work for a living :-)

Even Ray Polani got an op-ed about the need for subway.

I'm sure I'll get several posts out of the content from this issue, but for the moment here's the set of links to the articles:

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:11 AM | Comments (14) | Permalink

House Miles

That's a new term, coined by the Urban Land Institute (as reported in the Daily Journal of Commerce), to describe the amount of driving associated with a house you're thinking about purchasing.

How much do you have to drive to get to work, to the grocery store, to day care, to the other regular needs in your life? Apparently, home buyers are beginning to think about those miles, and their cost as compared to the cost of a home in a more efficient location.

A 2005 ULI survey of consumers found that homeowners were willing to use mass transit to cut down on fuel consumption. Transportation spending, according to Robert Dunphy, a senior fellow with ULI, was the second-largest component of consumer expenses, taking up an average of 19 percent of monthly income. Mortgage payments made up about 33 percent of a homeowner’s monthly income.

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:00 AM | Comments (7) | Permalink

November 28, 2006

Gordon Price Speaking Tomorrow

Always entertaining and informative:

The City of Portland Office of Transportation and Portland State University welcome
GORDON PRICE

Mr. Price is Director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University, a former five-term Vancouver, BC City Councillor and an entertaining speaker on land use and transportation.

He will speak on Wednesday, November 29, from 6:40 - 8:40 p.m. at the Portland Building Auditorium, 2nd floor, 1120 SW 5th Avenue, Portland.

Attendance is free, but arrive early, as his presentation is popular.

For more information call Peter Hurley, City of Portland Transportation Options, at 503.823.5345.

Posted by Chris Smith at 9:55 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Getting to Know You: Reader Survey

-- The survey is now closed. Thanks! --

Blogging has been described as a 90-9-1 medium.

One person blogs, 9 comment, 90 just read. While we have multiple contributors here at Portland Transport, the 10:1 ratio of readers to commenters is about right. So we'd like to understand the 350-400 people who read every day but don't leave any discernable traces.

We've cobbled together a reader survey at Survey Monkey, and would be greatful if you would take a few minutes to fill it out. It's only 3 pages, so it won't take you long.

Of course, even if you comment, we'd like to have you take the survey.

Thanks!

Posted by Chris Smith at 9:13 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink

What's in a Headline?

Monday's O had a piece by Jim Mayer on the Regional Transportation Plan. It did a good job of pointing out the resource disparity and contrasted the "we have to do more with less" point of view (Rex Burkholder) with the "we need to think big and find new funding sources" perspective (Clackamas County Commissioner Bill Kennemer).

What's interesting is the headline for the article: "Transit projects running on empty". Curious - it could just as easily have said "Roads running on empty" or "Transportation running on empty." I wonder why transit was the lead word? The general practice is that headlines are written by editors, not the reporter. Maybe Jim will jump in and share some insight into where the headline came from?

Posted by Chris Smith at 8:24 AM | Comments (14) | Permalink

Mark Your Calendars - But We Still Need a Place

We have a time and date for the first ever Portland Transport real-world gathering: 6pm on Thursday, December 14th.

It was the first choice in the survey, and the Columbia Crossing folks have confirmed their availability.

But we don't have a venue yet. The Lucky Lab in SE was the number one choice, but it's booked that night. It's also $100 for the room.

The other brewpub locations are even pricier. Who's got suggestions for low cost venues?

Thanks!

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:00 AM | Comments (11) | Permalink

November 27, 2006

Wonders of Walking

A brown bag presentation tomorrow and Wednesday

Join Judy Heller and Experience "The Wonders of Walking"
Judy Heller knows walking! As one of the region's foremost experts on walking Heller has trained and motivated people from all walks of life to participate in events, relays, and even marathons. Heller was chosen as the national coach for "Team Diabetes" and for "Joints in Motion", a running and walking team for the National Arthritis foundation.

Join Judy Heller as she inspires and teaches us the skills needed to access our higher power of intention and reach our own fitness goals.

Tuesday, November 28
1900 Building
12:00 to 1:00 pm
Second Floor, Room 2500A

Wednesday, November 29
Portland Building
12:00 to 1:00 pm
Second Floor, Room C

Posted by Chris Smith at 3:07 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Rubber Sidewalks Follow-up

I did make it out to Gresham last Tuesday to catch the presentation on Rubber Sidewalks.

In the small world department, it turns out that the VP of the company giving the presentation is the brother of one of my fellow neighborhood activists in NW (which I didn't discover until several days after the presentation).

I was fairly impressed. It seems like an environmental win-win in situations where tree roots would have you replacing concrete every few years. We went through this in front our house last year, where we have some Sweet Gum trees in the planting strip.

The basic idea is that you can maintain tree roots by removing the sidewalk panels, trimming the roots, then replacing the panel. You can also notch the panels or go to a thinner panel if you don't want to modify the root.

A side benefit, this system is semi-water permeable (through the seams between panels) which has the dual benefit of reducing stormwater runoff and also apparently promoting less agressive root growth, since the tree does not have to work so hard to find water.

And the rubber surface has pretty good traction.

I did ask the rubber allergy question, and got the same answer discussed in the comments in the previous post, that the tire rubber recycled into these panels does not contain the rubber molecule that causes most alergies. Also, the resin that binds the rubber provides some encapsulation. I don't know if this covers 100% of those sensitive to rubber, but there is also the fact that similar technology has been used in playground tiles for some time.

There were folks in attendance from both PDOT and Portland's Urban Forestry office. I fired off a note to Sam Adams suggesting that Portland should do a pilot and he replied that he was aware of the product, having read about it in the Wall Street Journal.

So perhaps we'll have a rubber sidewalk somewhere in Portland soon...

On the downside, the distribution network is still relatively immature, so a homeowner wanting to use this stuff is probably not going to find a contractor who has access to it. There may also need to be some modifications to building codes before it's legal (don't know for sure).

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:54 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink

Transportation on the Real Estate Page

The O doesn't put their real estate section online, so I don't have a link, but the cover of the section on Sunday was about people buying homes based on their access to transportation - alternative transportation.

It included both homes on transit lines AND with bicycle access. Apparently the Springwater has become quite the real estate amenity!

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:23 AM | Comments (10) | Permalink

Dilapidated?

That's what Friday's Trib called Union Station.

Apparently our "Go By Train" landmark is in need of $40-50M of work.

PDC owns the station, and apparently there is some discussion of getting it into an urban renewal district when the downtown districts are reconfigured in a few years. The assumed eventual replacement of the Post Office next door could be the catalyst to make something happen. It's not mentioned in the article, but I've also heard murmurs that the Public Market effort, having failed to secure the space in the Skidmore Fountain area (because the Fire Station relocation got called off), may be looking at Union Station.

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:00 AM | Comments (29) | Permalink

November 23, 2006

Thankful!

Let me take today's holiday as an opportunity to express my appreciation and thanks for the community (even the skeptics) that has formed around this site in the last year and a half.

A happy holiday to you and yours. We'll be back with new posts on Monday. Until then, enjoy.

Chris

Posted by Chris Smith at 9:35 AM | Comments (5) | Permalink

November 22, 2006

Updated: Staff Says Tear Them Down

Update: 11/22/06

DOT officials continue pushing the message in today's O.

Original Post: 9/29/06

The recommendation from the project staff for the Columbia River Crossing is to remove the existing bridge spans because of seismic issues and challenges with river traffic.

But the older span is on the National Register of Historic Places. And a number of task force members have expressed reservations.

Read Jim Mayer's report from yesterday's Oregonian.

The article does not indicate when the task force may act on the recommendation.

Posted by Chris Smith at 8:29 AM | Comments (93) | Permalink

Congestion Pricing to Hop Atlantic?

According to Streetsblog, NYC is considering emulating London's example with congestion pricing.

Posted by Chris Smith at 8:01 AM | Comments (4) | Permalink

From Traffic Cams to BobbieCams?

Via Slashdot. Too bizzare to pass over. Apparently the London police are so happy with the ability to use the ANPR (Automatic Plate Number Recongition) technology from London's cordon pricing system, they're taking the next step: cameras on the helmets of bobbies.

Should we check on where ODOT's traffic cams are being fed to?

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:26 AM | Comments (3) | Permalink

November 21, 2006

$57M Park and Ride?

Frank Dufay is a neighborhood activist in SE Portland and a regular rider of the TriMet #14.

Pave Paradise?

Maybe not paradise, exactly, but a healthy chunk of South Waterfront will be disappearing under surface parking lots.

You would think this new neighborhood, pedestrian-friendly, urban, dense, served by the Streetcar, buses and the Tram...well, how many parking lots DO they need?

OHSU has won approval to add THREE new SURFACE parking lots. This despite:

"The adopted South Waterfront Plan encourages parking to be underground." Well, OHSU WILL have 634 below-grade parking spaces. But now they've asked for an additional 812 surface ones.

That's 1446 parking spaces for OHSU. Just OHSU. It doesn't include new parking for all those condos going in.

The "cap" for surface parking is 200,000 sq ft for the whole South waterfront sub-district. OHSU is adding 309,000. And that's just OHSU.

Oh, it's "temporary." They have to have a plan in place to move SOME of it by 2012. But 2012 is a long way's away, the auto traffic infrastructure in place is already inadequate, and, well, how is this going to work?

What are people thinking? And why hasn't there been any public discussion of this?

Guest Column at 7:59 AM | Comments (32) | Permalink

Lucky Fred

In an interview in the Daily Journal of Commerce, TriMet General Manager Fred Hansen describes himself as:

... one of the lucky ones because ... I can take the (bus) without changing downtown.

Fred talks about everything from Commuter Rail to The I-205 line to efficiency efforts at the agency.

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:19 AM | Comments (3) | Permalink

Third Edition of Portland Bridge Book

“Parents” Sharon Wood Wortman and Ed Wortman, after several years gestation, announce the third edition of The Portland Bridge Book printed by Bridgetown Printers.

Published by Urban Adventure Press, Portland, Oregon
November 20, 2006

Prominent features:

100 contemporary photographs,
50 historic photographs, 26 illustrations,
New chapter on the Sauvie Island Bridge
New chapter How and Why Bridges are Built
198-word glossary of localized and easy to understand engineering terms
New poems and lyrics

Publication Events:

Oregon Historical Society Annual Authors Party
Free and open to the public
Miller Pavilion, 1200 SW Park Ave.
Sunday, Noon-4 p.m.
December 3, 2006

St. Johns Booksellers
Official Publication Party
with Stephen Cohen on guitar
8622 North Lombard (east end St. Johns Bridge)
Saturday, 5 p.m.
December 9, 2006

Looking Glass Bookstore
with Stephen Cohen on guitar
318 S.W. Taylor Street
Thursday, 7:00 p.m.
December 14, 2006

Powell’s Bookstore on Burnside
with Stephen Cohen on guitar
Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.
January 3, 2007

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

November 20, 2006

Bikes Cut Through Construction Congestion

This morning's O features a cover story ("Navigating the maze") on coping strategies for commuters facing downtown construction projects. Who fared best: the two-wheeled set.

Posted by Chris Smith at 8:10 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink

T6 Gets Better Rail Connections

According to the Daily Journal of Commerce, the Port of Portland is adding a 7500 foot spur at it's T6 container terminal at a price of about $2M. This is in addition to the $6M investment from Connect Oregon in the Ramsey rail yard.

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:33 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Mondermania

Update: It made Slashdot this morning...

For some time, Hans Monderman has been advocated that the best way to make streets safer is to remove all the traffic control devices - lane marking, signs, singals, etc.

The idea is to make everyone slow down and figure out what's going on around them. This has been piloted in the Dutch town of Drachten.

Yesterday two readers flagged an article in der Spiegel for me about more cities in Europe trying this out.

Apparently the der Spiegel piece hit the Drudge Report under the caption "Controlled Chaos" :-)

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:00 AM | Comments (15) | Permalink

November 17, 2006

Three Smart "Smart City" Pieces

This week's Smart City podcast features three different stories that grabbed my attention:

The show leads off with a discussion of the interplay between housing costs and transportation costs, and how some consumers seeking lower housing costs may actually wind up pay more overall when commuting costs are factored in.
About 22 minutes into the show, a piece about a beltway park in Atlanta makes the point that buses are transportation, but rail is an amenity (a point absolutely overlooked by the transit agency).
29 minutes in, another interesting piece on the characteristics of successful rail stations.

Posted by Chris Smith at 6:54 AM | Comments (10) | Permalink

The Fleet Replacement Problem

Jim Mayer has an interesting piece in yesterday's O about particulate emissions from diesel, especially off-road equipment.

The interesting part to me is how long it takes to replace the installed base of equipment:

...thanks to slow turnover, the health benefits from the new standards won't be realized until 2030.

This is referencing rules that will take effect in 2015. So even if we put the rules in effect tomorrow, it would take 15 years to get the main benefit, because it will take that long for a majority of equipment to be replaced.

We have exactly the same problem with fuel efficiency, which is why to get ready for Peak Oil, we need new vehicles to be radically more fuel efficient NOW. The gas (or diesel) guzzlers already on the road are still going to be with us for a while.

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:30 AM | Comments (2) | Permalink

Riverfront for People Discovers the Blogosphere

Interestingly, yesterday posts appeared on both Blue Oregon and BikePortland discussing putting the Eastbank Freeway into a tunnel.

Of course, we had it first :-)

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:00 AM | Comments (4) | Permalink

November 16, 2006

Drilling for Safety

I ran across the scene yesterday. I was pretty sure they were drilling a hole to anchor a center-line sign, as part of the pedestrian safety pilot program.

Then this morning, there it was, a thing of beauty!

[Location is the Streetcar platform at NW 23rd and Marshall.]

Posted by Chris Smith at 8:28 AM | Comments (8) | Permalink

Latest from London

After successfully introducing barrier pricing, London Mayor Ken Livingston now wants to adjust that charge based on a variable scale for emissions, in order to reduce greenhouse gases in the city.

The most expensive category for SUVs would run almost $50 per day!

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:33 AM | Comments (4) | Permalink

Travel Smart becomes SmartTrips

The Transportation Options folks at PDOT are rebranding their education and outreach effort (which has been successful in neighborhoods from Hillsdale to NE Portland).

The program, currently known as Travel Smart, will be rebranded as SmartTrips as it moves to its next target area in SE Portland.

Full details over at BikePortland.org.

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

November 15, 2006

More Election Coverage

Update: Willamette Week also has an article about the rising clout of cycling in Congress today.

Jeff Mapes has a nice piece in the O this morning looking at how the bicycle lobby will likely have increased clout in DC come January.

And in the Clackamas County Commission race, which looks a lot closer now than it did on election night, Lynn Peterson continues to hold a lead of just over 1,100 votes with a few thousand ballots left to count.

Posted by Chris Smith at 8:55 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Updated: Purposefully Approaching Sellwood

Update: 11/15/06

The Daily Journal of Commerce weighs in with coverage today.

Original Post: 11/14/06

Whenever a project is going to have a Federal funding component, there is typically a two-tier governance structure for the project. A citizen/stakeholder committee will work through the details, making recommendations to a steering committee, which is composed of elected officials (or agency heads) from all the governments that will eventually have to sign off on the Federal application. The steering committee makes sure that the project proposal doesn't stray from political reality.

So while it's interesting to follow the stakeholder/CAC discussions, the rubber meets the road at the steering committee, as it did on Thursday when the "Policy Advisory Group" for the Sellwood Bridge met to approve the Purpose and Need Statement for the project.

The Purpose and Need statement is critical because it defines the parameters of the problem you're trying to solve. If you get it wrong, you may restrict yourself from what you later determine to be the best solutions. For example, in the Columbia Crossing projects, the purpose and need is pretty much defined as building a bridge in the exact location of the current bridges, which rules out the western arterial approach we've discussed here lately.

Our elected officials, particularly at Metro, understand the importantance of the Purpose and Need and there was a lot of pointed discussion at the meeting about what the statement might force or eliminate.

Metro Councilor Robert Liberty went so far as to ask if we could define the Purpose and Need based on the kinds of communities we want to create on either side of the bridge, rather than solely the transportation function of the bridge. An official from the Federal Highway Administration quickly threw cold water on that idea.

There was agreement to follow the advice of the 1999 study, which recommended a bridge in roughly the current location (as opposed to say further upstream towards Oregon City).

But the group was careful to make sure that the statement did not:

Force replacement of the bridge versus a rehabilitation option.
Require 4 lanes rather than two.

Both of those questions will be decided later in the study.

There was an interesting question raised by a Clackamas County official about whether the Purpose and Need should include a statement about freight (it does). I presume this was motivated by a desire to preserve commuter capacity on the bridge, but hearing an elected official question the importance of freight on any facility is a rare occasion!

Here's what the finally arrived at:

Project Purpose
The purpose of the proposed action is to rehabilitate or replace the Sellwood Bridge within its existing east-west corridor to provide a structurally safe bridge and connections that accommodate multi-modal mobility needs.

Project Need

The proposed action would serve the following needs:

Provide structural capacity to accommodate safely various vehicle types, including transit vehicles, trucks, and emergency vehicles; and to withstand moderate seismic events;

Provide a geometrically functional and safe roadway design;

Provide for existing and future travel demands between origins and destinations served by the Sellwood Bridge;

Provide for connectivity, reliability, and operations of existing and future public transit;

Provide for improved freight mobility to and across the bridge; and

Provide for improved pedestrian and bicycle connectivity, mobility and safety to and across the river in the corridor.

Posted by Chris Smith at 8:21 AM | Comments (8) | Permalink

Rubber Sidewalks

This one has captured my curiousity. I don't know if I'll be able to get to the presentation, but I'm going to try:

Rubbersidewalks™ Presentation Tuesday, November 21, 2006 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Hosted by: City of Gresham Transportation Department
Gresham City Hall
1333 NW Eastman Parkway
Gresham Oregon
Barlow/Oregon Rooms

In person: The creators of Rubbersidewalks™, the modular recycled tire rubber paving system that saves trees, eliminates trip hazard and is already installed in over 60 cities nationwide.

Presentation will cover:

• How Rubbersidewalks™ is solving the conflict between invasive tree roots and concrete sidewalks.
• How Rubbersidewalks™ help preserve the urban forest.
• How Rubbersidewalks™ can eliminate trip-and-fall hazards and lawsuits.
• How Rubbersidewalks™ will save your city money by providing a low cost, low maintenance solution.

Feel free to forward this invitation to other departments or anyone who would be interested in learning about this revolutionary new way to maintain sidewalks and manage tree root growth.

RSVP to Jonathon David @ Jonathan.David@ci.gresham.or.us or by calling at 503-618-2321.

Lindsay Smith, President & CEO, Rubbersidewalks™, Inc.
Dan Joyce, VP Marketing, Rubbersidewalks™, Inc.

2622 West 157th Street, Gardena, CA 90249
310 515 5814 ph./310 515 5314 fax.
www.rubbersidewalks.com

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:47 AM | Comments (5) | Permalink

BTA Pushes Boulevard Agenda

You'll recall that earlier this year the BTA announced a shift in strategy to emphasing bike boulevards rather than bike lanes.

This strategy has now moved to the tactical level with a strong push for boulevard projects in this years MTIP and TE (Transportation Enhancements) processes.

From a recent e-mail alert:

1. Metro MTIP Funding Every two years Metro allocates a small pot of flexible transportation funds known as “MTIP” funds. You can help increase the number and quality of bike projects that receive funding.
Preferred Portland Projects
• 50’s Bicycle Boulevard
• 70’S Bicycle Boulevard
• East Burnside: Third to 14th avenues
• Sullivan’s Gulch Trail Study: Esplanade to 122nd Avenue

2. ODOT TE Funding
Every two years the Oregon Department of Transportation allocates federal transportation dollars. This year ODOT has $11 million in flexible Transportation Enhancement (TE) funds.

Portland Projects
• 20’s Bicycle Boulevard
• Springwater Trail – final piece
• Rose Quarter Transit Center – bike lanes
• Columbia Slough Trail – N Portland Rd. to N. Marine Dr.

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:00 AM | Comments (2) | Permalink

November 14, 2006

Hanging Our Heads in Shame Over the State of Rail

It's all about expectations.

A great perspective from Adron over at Transit Sleuth.

Posted by Chris Smith at 2:59 PM | Comments (51) | Permalink

Transportation Does Well at the Ballot Box

According to the Daily Journal of Commerce, last Tuesday voters across the nation approved some 23 ballot measures for transportation projects (PDF, 108K), generating about $40B in revenue.

Looking over the list, it seems to be a mix of roads and transit.

Perhaps we should have paired up Greenspaces with a transportation package here in the region last week. Maybe next time...

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:55 AM | Comments (5) | Permalink

Quantifying Walkability

Portland State University
Center for Transportation Studies
Fall 2006 Transportation Seminar Series

Speaker: Jamie Parks, Kittelson Associates, Inc.
Topic: Quantifying Walkability - Toward an Objective and Reliable Measure of the Pedestrian Environment.
When: Friday, November 17, 2006, 12:00-1:30 pm
Where: 204 Urban Center (www.pdx.edu/map.html)

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

November 13, 2006

Planning Our Meeting

Thanks for everyone who responded to the idea for a face-to-face meeting. I've gotten several potential dates from the Columbia River Crossing folks.

Please take a quick survey about your preferences for a time and location, and we'll get the ball rolling!

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:45 AM | Comments (12) | Permalink

SDC Remix

I received a note that the City of Portland has established a CAC and review process for their Transportation-related System Development Charges (SDCs). I also had a chance to sit in on a presentation about the topic at my neighborhood association.

The fact sheet (PDF, 93K) indicates that the process will review both the project list that SDCs are spent on, and the fee schedule.

SDCs are in theory the way that we get growth to pay for the cost of growth.

However, after the It's a Beautiful Pizza incident (they were charged $36K in SDCs to move across the street), some might wonder if the fee schedule couldn't use a little tweaking. This system is complex, and I think it could benefit from a lot of public input.

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:10 AM | Comments (3) | Permalink

An Artistic Take on Streetcar

I got a note a few weeks ago suggesting I visit Friendly House (NW 26th and Thurman, TriMet lines 15, 17 and 77) to take a look at some art hanging there in November.

I had a chance to drop by and was delighted to find some very whimsical and fun images of infrastructure around the city by a neighbor, Bill Badrick. Bill was kind enough to pass along a couple of electronic versions of two pieces depicting Streetcar bridges across the Willamette for me to share with Portland Transport readers. As Bill says:

With a more inclusive set of parameters such as pedestrian / bike access and green energy generation , we can broaden the perspective of the community and the decision makers.

Drop by Friendly House yourself when you have a chance and broaden your perspective!

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:00 AM | Comments (4) | Permalink

November 10, 2006

Kate Brown on CO2

That's "Connect Oregon 2", apparently the next state transportation funding package will go by the handle "CO2".

The Daily Journal of Commerce has an interview today with Oregon Senate Majority Leader Kate Brown talking about CO2, the Pollution Control tax credit, and shovel-ready industrial sites.

Posted by Chris Smith at 8:10 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Questioning the Logic of Red Light Cameras

Here's an excerpt from a note I received from Doug Mandell, a reader:

Today I read your article about Sam Adams looking at how to spend surplus funds and I noticed that he was looking to install red light cameras. The issue of red light cameras and their effectiveness is not something you've commented on previously on Portland Transport, I think a lot of communities are waking up to the fact that they don't do a very good job of reducing accidents, not nearly as good as lengthening the yellow light time by about a second or so.
I took the following paragraph from a Wikipedia page and posted it in the feedback section on Sam's blog:

In May 2001 Dick Armey, then Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, issued a report suggesting that a more effective alternative to red light cameras would be to increase the yellow traffic light warning times. He suggested red light cameras exploited intersections where signal timing was shorter than necessary for some motorists to come to a complete stop (July 2001 U.S. House testimony). A
2004 Texas Department of Transportation study found, "crashes decrease with an increase in yellow interval duration and a reduction in speed limit." After 1.0 second was added to the yellow signal timing at test intersections, accidents dropped by 35 to 40%. This compares with a 6.4% reduction for "area-wide officer enforcement of intersection traffic control devices... during the time of the enforcement activity"

I also asked him to take a look at the conclusions in this study:

http://tti.tamu.edu/documents/0-4196-2.pdf

This isn't something that I'm particularly passionate about, I've noticed a few studies that have indicated that increased yellow light times drastically reduce the running of red lights, and think that if it were indeed the case the city could make the appropriate changes at these intersections without spending any of that money at all.

Doug also passed on a link to this article from Popular Mechanics that suggests our red light cameras may have increased rear-end collisions.

What do folks think?

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:05 AM | Comments (15) | Permalink

November 9, 2006

Neighborhood Businesses Miss the Point on Parking

We've already heard that the Hawthorne district will reject Sam Adams call for metered parking.

But now the Business Journal is reporting that some neighborhood businesses are thinking that what they need is MORE parking, in the form of parking structures.

Do they really think that their customers will pay to park in a structure while on-street parking is free? We're about to see that mistake get made on NW 23rd, where we already have several off-street lots that are usually less than half full because on-street parking is free.

Posted by Chris Smith at 8:45 AM | Comments (25) | Permalink

Winding Down the RTP Exercise

I promised the Metro folks I would have our results in by the end of the week. So I've closed comments on the 6 original 'outcomes' posts so I can starting gathering them up.

I'll close the 6 'scenario' posts tonight, so get any last thoughts added in today.

Thanks everyone for participating in this experiment. It will be interesting to hear what the Metro citizen involvement staff think about the value of the approach. Anyone with thoughts on the process is welcome to comment here.

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:16 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

I'll Take Cars with my Plaza, Please

I attended the Design Concept Open House for the "3 Downtown Parks" project yesterday. The project is about designing the new park on top of the parking structure being built next to the Fox Tower (aka Park Block 5), updating O'Bryant Square and thinking about what to do with Ankeny Park on Burnside (no funds to build anything at Ankeny yet, we're just visioning - there is some budget, probably not enough, to build the other two next year).

While the whole process was fun (including a lecture on the history of public spaces in Europe and the U.S. last night), one aspect particularly drew my attention. In Europe, public plazas often go right up to the building faces, in fact the buildings open out onto the plaza as part of their design. We don't see that much in the U.S. For example, with Pioneer Court House Square, that simply wasn't possible because the square was bordered by 3 major transit streets plus Broadway.

But it's very possible with these parks. The idea would be to include both Park and 9th (for Park Block 5 and O'Bryant) within the park, by creating curbless streets. Cars would still be able to use the streets, and park, but the feeling would be very different than having a street separated from the park. This should change the way the buildings relate to the park as they redevelop over time.

So I strongly supported this notion on my comment card, and encourage others to do so!

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:00 AM | Comments (12) | Permalink

November 8, 2006

Reading the Tea Leaves

So what do the election results mean for transportation here in the region? Here are a few guesses/questions:

Nationally, Oregon will now have two strong majority voices on the House Transporation Committee (with DeFazio probably the vice-chair), which should be a great position for earmarks. Will a Democratic House mean more emphasis on alternative modes? The Republican House was already at odds with the White House on transportation issues, the new House won't feel the same need to exercise restraint in their disagreement with the President.

At the state level, does Democratic control mean more programs like Connect Oregon? Hard to say.

Locally, will the strong positive response to Measure 26-80 and the election of Kathryn Harrington, who is reasonably in alignment with the current Council (compared to her opponent who essentially ran against Metro), give the Metro Council some confidence to keep moving a progressive transportation agenda forward? It's also likely that at the JPACT table Clackamas County's voice will change an octave or so as the County Commission will have a majority of two progressive women.

Interesting times. What do you think?

Posted by Chris Smith at 8:49 AM | Comments (20) | Permalink

Health Care Done Right

There's been more heat than light lately over the discussion the Metro Council is having about whether they should have some role in planning health care facilities in the region. Metro hasn't made a decision yet, and if they get involved, I suspect it will be a fairly light touch, but a lot of people are getting worked up about the idea.

So I was struck by the article in the O last week about the new Portland Clinic at Gateway. This is exactly what Metro should be trying to promote: a health care facility in a regional center, well served by transit and other modes of transportation. Reinforcing centers instead of competing with them!

Contrast that with a new hospital in Happy Valley that one local health system wants to build. Can anyone tell me how they would get to Happy Valley (either by transit or road)? I'd have to pull out a map...

Posted by Chris Smith at 6:56 AM | Comments (11) | Permalink

MTIP Public Comment Opportunities

It's time for the bienniel food fight over the region's flexible transportation funds, otherwise known as MTIP.

Don't miss your opportunity to testify on the priorities:

Listening posts
5 p.m. Thursday, November 9
East Multnomah County, Gresham City Hall Building, Springwater Trail Room, 133 NW Eastman Parkway, Gresham (MAX)

5 p.m. Monday, November 13
Beaverton Community Center, 12350 SW Fifth St., Beaverton (TriMet buses 57 and 76)

5 p.m. Tuesday, November 14
Pioneer Community Center, 615 Fifth St., Oregon City (TriMet bus 33)

5 p.m. Thursday, November 16
Metro Regional Center, 600 NE Grand Ave., Portland (TriMet bus 6 and MAX)

Comments may also be submitted by:
E-mail: trans@metro.dst.or.us
Fax: (503) 797-1949
Phone: (503) 797-1900
Mail: Ted Leybold, Metro Planning Dept., 600 NE Grand Ave., Portland, OR 97232

More details on the Metro web site.

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

November 7, 2006

Portland Transport Face to Face?

I occassionally run into members of the Portland Transport community (those of you who read and comment) out in the real world at events like the recent Streetcar extension openning ceremonies. I enjoy these opportunities to put a face with an e-mail address or screen name.

Which makes me wonder if it wouldn't be fun to get the community together occassionally in the real world, not just in the virtual world. This could be part social, part policy.

For example, the Columbia River Crossing project is doing community meetings on request. We could get together, maybe at a brewpub or coffee house, having a CRC session, and hang out afterwards, perhaps talking about future directions for Portland Transport?

What do you think? Drop a comment if you're interested, and if we appear to have critical mass, I'll work on logistics. Feel free to suggest venues.

Posted by Chris Smith at 10:59 AM | Comments (16) | Permalink

Bike Paramedics

An interesting piece yesterday on NPR's "Day to Day" about deploying EMTs on bikes. The biggest obstacle? Insurance reimbursement practices.

Posted by Chris Smith at 8:34 AM | Comments (6) | Permalink

Earl on Smart City

Our own cycling congressman, Earl Blumenaur, was a guest on the Smart City radio program/podcast this week, giving his livability stump speech in the run-up to Rail-Volution. Check it out.

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

November 6, 2006

TIF to TRID?

Over at CommissionerSam.com, Sam is enthusing over a new financing tool he heard about at RailVolution, Transit Revitalization Investment Districts. The idea is to capture the value created by transportation improvements, and use that to fund the improvements. Similar in concept to Tax Increment Financing, but in operation more like beefed up versions of the Local Improvement Districts we've used already on Streetcar. Interestingly, the Local Improvement Districts (which are semi-voluntary, elected by a majority of the property owners) have been increasing in value, from about 17% on the first Streetcar project to about 50% of the capital costs on the Lowell extension that is now under construction.

Hmmm...

Posted by Chris Smith at 10:06 AM | Comments (16) | Permalink

Help Sam Spend Your Money

Commissioner Sam is going to ask his Portland City Council Colleagues to put some of Portland's one-time surplus funds into the backlog of road paving and other transportation improvements (with a safety focus).

Sam is looking for suggestions on projects to include in the request. Sam's missive is below. Head over to CommissionerSam.com to add your suggestions for the request list.

Dear Fellow Safety-Concerned Portlander,
I'd like to thank you for being a participant in some combination of Portland's 2005 Traffic Safety Summit, our Community and Schools Traffic Safety Partnership, or the Traffic Safety Coordination Council. I deeply appreciate your hard work to make Portland safer for everyone. My number one goal as transportation commissioner is to make Portland's streets safer for every user.

The work you are doing in partnership with PDOT is making a big difference in helping us identify the most effective changes we can make to the existing transportation system. With our limited transportation budget, we must clearly prioritize our projects to ensure that we can get the most we can from your tax dollars.

We have been working not only to move the best ideas from the summit and our Traffic Safety Coordinating Council forward, but also to find the resources to actually implement them. The City Council of Portland will soon be considering a number of proposals to allocate General Fund dollars to one-time expenditures. I will be bringing forward a number of traffic safety initiatives, which I will briefly list for you here:

* Vehicle Safety Improvements at High Crash Intersections - PDOT will identify and implement the most cost effective actions for the locations that are most dangerous and have the highest rates of auto crashes
* Pedestrian Safety Improvements - this will provide focused improvements on corridors and intersections where we know pedestrian safety is a problem with cost effective solutions that have been identified through the CSTSP and in consultation with neighborhoods and Portland's Pedestrian Advisory Committee

* Bicycle Safety Improvements - this will provide focused improvements on corridors and locations where we know bike safety is a problem, with cost effective solutions that have been identified through the CSTSP and in consultation with neighborhoods and Portland's Bicycle Advisory Committee

* Safe Routes to Schools Improvements - this will fund the extension of SR2S services (engineering, education, and enforcement) to more schools, as well as address identified deficiencies in existing and needed school beacons

* New Red Light Cameras at Six High Crash Intersections -this will fund the installation of six new red light cameras at locations that have the highest frequency of red light running crashes.

* New Traffic Signal at SW 2nd & Clay - this will fund a new traffic signal at the intersection and complete the downtown grid improving safety and operations

* Crosswalks for six Main Street Corridors - this will implement proposed new standards of pedestrian safety facilities for districts with the highest amounts of both pedestrian and automobile traffic (includes NW 23rd, SE Belmont, etc.)

* Traffic Signal Upgrades and other SE 122nd Avenue Safety Improvements - SE 122nd is one of the most deadly/dangerous corridors in the city for pedestrians. This improvement would replace the signals at Stark and Division, reducing auto crashes and better protecting pedestrians by extending the "Flashing Don't Walk" time for slower pedestrians.

I want to be clear, however, that while I am seeking so-called "one-time" money for these important transportation-public safety projects, it is not assured that I will succeed in getting funding for all of the requests.

PDOT staff have long worked with you, our partners in traffic safety improvements, to take advantage of opportunities to fund improvements, from ODOT grants to new federal dollars, as well as to make the best use of our local funds.

I am reaching out to you now to ask for both your feelings on this funding strategy, and for any suggestions on other projects that we may have left out and you feel are important. Please visit my blog and post your thoughts, suggestions, and any comments of support at:

http://www.commissionersam.com/node/1238

I will be using comments you post on this site for two things. They will help me with additional fine-tuning of my proposals, and just as importantly, also let me share your sentiments with my fellow commissioners when these requests are considered by council in the near future. If you prefer, you can also email me any suggestions, comments, or statements of support you have at: samadams@ci.portland.or.us

Thank you again for your invaluable help in keeping Portland's streets safe for all its citizens. Community involvement like yours is an integral part in making sure government operates effectively and in the best interests of the public. I appreciate all you are doing for the city and look forward to working with you further in the future.

Thanks,

Sam

City Commissioner Sam Adams
City of Portland
1221 SW 4th Ave., Rm 220
Portland, OR 97204-1900
(503) 823-3008 phone
(503) 823-3017 fax
samadams@ci.portland.or.us
www.portlandonline.com/adams/

Posted by Chris Smith at 9:15 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

RTP Exercise - Solutions - Free Market

In the final question for our Free Market scenario, what are some of the solutions to achieve these outcomes:

Organizational Leadership is increased for business and related transit oriented development.
Overall subsidization of the transit systems (including roadways) decreases by at least 50% at the state levels and users provide more representative costs.
Companies locate downtown in greater number.
Sprawl is minimalized and density is increased around transit oriented developments.
Transportation costs begin to reflect true usage that create a decrease in vehicular person trips (auto & transit oriented) in the region.
More liberty and individual rights are considered in transportation planning with minimal usage of Emminent Domain, preferrably Emminent Domain is NOT used at all while existing right of ways are utilized better and highway mileage is mixed with light rail (ala I-205 expansion).
DMV & Operational Licensing of Motor Vehicles increases efficiency, providing better market statistics and relevancy, quicker consumer response to demand, decreased complaints and eliminating all associated tax burdens while focusing costs on users.
Primary thoroughfares are allowed collection of electronic tolls, shadow tolls, and other funding sources to alleviate taxpayers of cost without use.
A quicker response time and standardized approaches to accident removal/clearing from primary thoroughfares and light rail.
Public/Mass Transit provides real services based on increasing transportation speed via express sevices on light rail, valid commuter rail options, and other faster commute options.
Increase available rail options that provide more comfortable and commuter related services.
Increased reliability during cold weather seasons and increase reliability in general to a significantly higher level than what automobile users receive.

The question for this phase: What are some solutions to achieving the outcomes?

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:53 AM | Comments (10) | Permalink

Updated: The End of Commuting

Updated: 11/6/06

The video stream for this presentation is up at http://www.cts.pdx.edu/seminars.htm. The Oregonian also had an interview with Pisarski, who is the author of the Commuting in America III report. He has some interesting perspectives, particularly on the fact that commuting is a lower share of our total transportation each year. He also makes interesting points on how immigration and affluence affect commuting behavior. Worth watching.

Original Post: 10/24/06

Portland State University
Center for Transportation Studies
Fall 2006 Transportation Seminar Series

Speaker: Alan E. Pisarski
Topic: The End of Commuting
When: Friday, October 27, 2006, 12:00-1:30 pm
Where: 204 Urban Center (www.pdx.edu/map.html)

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:09 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

November 3, 2006

I-5 to 99W Connector open houses

From Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder's monthly newsletter.

By the way, I think this project gets an award for abuse of a blogging platform. The project web site is based on Word Press (kudos) and features an RSS feed. But... the most recent item in the RSS feed is from Sep 2005 (lame).

The I-5 to 99W Connector Project is a study to address the possibility of connecting these two busy roadways, which has been recognized as a need for more than a decade.
Traffic demand in the southwestern portion of the region has grown substantially, leading to increasingly congested conditions. Growth comes from more people living and working in Tigard, Tualatin, Sherwood and Wilsonville; moving freight into and out of the area; growth throughout the region; and statewide traffic.

Metro's Regional Transportation Plan, the Oregon Highway Plan and transportation plans for Washington County, Sherwood and Tualatin identify the need for a transportation solution in this area to address the growing travel demand. The Oregon Transportation Commission designated this as a project of statewide significance, further confirming its importance.

To help identify potential solutions, the project team is hosting three open houses to gather input from the public.

Areas to be discussed include:
* potential corridors where new transportation facilities could be located, and where these corridors should connect to I-5 and Highway 99W
* potential upgrades to existing roadways or intersections that could improve regional and intrastate travel
* constraints or areas that should be avoided as corridors are developed.

Open house dates:

5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 29
Tualatin High School
22300 SW Boones Ferry Road, Tualatin

5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 30
Middleton Elementary School
23505 SW Old Highway 99W, Sherwood

5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 6
Wilsonville City Hall
29799 SW Town Center Loop E, Wilsonville

The same information will be available at all meetings.

For more information, call (503) 595-9915, send e-mail to info@i5to99w.org, or visit www.i5to99w.org.

Posted by Chris Smith at 11:17 AM | Comments (6) | Permalink

Breakdown in Communications?

Yesterday's O has lengthy piece on the divide between PDOT management and the road paving crews in the Bureau of Maintenance. The argument boils down to the central office folks saying (and the Auditor agreeing) that best practices (and in some cases State law) are not being followed, while the crews say they know best what's happening on the ground.

Now normally, I'm in favor of empowering the front line folks, they generally do have the best knowledge of the details of the job. However, for that to work, there has to be alignment on goals from top to bottom in the organization. It's not clear at all that such alignment exists here.

In fact, there's an indicator of a significant difference in values. Earlier this year, during the PDOT Budget Advisory Process there was a survey of both the public and PDOT employees. The survey results for the Maintenance Bureau employees showed much less enthusiasm for bikes and transit than the rest of PDOT, or indeed, than the general public.

Time to create a consistent vision from top to bottom in the organization. I think Commissioner Sam and Director Sue Kiel are up to it.

Posted by Chris Smith at 8:35 AM | Comments (6) | Permalink

More Sellwood Meetings

Aaron has a nice piece on his blog, Transportation Innovations, about the current state of the Sellwood Bridge process.

Which is a nice segue into the next two meetings in the process:

On Monday, November 6 the project's Community Task Force will meet from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm at Sellwood Baptist Church, 1104 SE Spokane St. The task force includes 20 citizens representing various groups interested in the project. The meeting agenda includes a report on the results of a recent open house and public survey, recommendation of a purpose and need statement for the project, and discussion of the criteria that will be used to evaluate different bridge alternatives in 2007.
On Thursday, November 9 the project's Policy Advisory Group will meet from noon until 2:00 pm in Room 635 of the Multnomah Building, 501 SE Hawthorne Blvd. The group includes elected and appointed officials from jurisdictions impacted by the project. The agenda includes a presentation on development of the project's purpose and need statement, a review of public input and possible adoption of the statement. The purpose and need statement is a federal requirement for the project.

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:47 AM | Comments (2) | Permalink

RTP Exercise - Challenges - Free Market

What are some of the challenges to achieving these outcomes:

Organizational Leadership is increased for business and related transit oriented development.
Overall subsidization of the transit systems (including roadways) decreases by at least 50% at the state levels and users provide more representative costs.
Companies locate downtown in greater number.
Sprawl is minimalized and density is increased around transit oriented developments.
Transportation costs begin to reflect true usage that create a decrease in vehicular person trips (auto & transit oriented) in the region.
More liberty and individual rights are considered in transportation planning with minimal usage of Emminent Domain, preferrably Emminent Domain is NOT used at all while existing right of ways are utilized better and highway mileage is mixed with light rail (ala I-205 expansion).
DMV & Operational Licensing of Motor Vehicles increases efficiency, providing better market statistics and relevancy, quicker consumer response to demand, decreased complaints and eliminating all associated tax burdens while focusing costs on users.
Primary thoroughfares are allowed collection of electronic tolls, shadow tolls, and other funding sources to alleviate taxpayers of cost without use.
A quicker response time and standardized approaches to accident removal/clearing from primary thoroughfares and light rail.
Public/Mass Transit provides real services based on increasing transportation speed via express sevices on light rail, valid commuter rail options, and other faster commute options.
Increase available rail options that provide more comfortable and commuter related services.
Increased reliability during cold weather seasons and increase reliability in general to a significantly higher level than what automobile users receive.

Again, the question for this phase: What are some challenges to achieving the outcomes?

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:00 AM | Comments (9) | Permalink

November 2, 2006

More Wisdom from Vancouver

Via both the SW Trails list and Metro:

Noted Canadian planning author and Vancouver BC planners to speak in Portland on "Neighbourhood Centres: The Vancouver, BC Planning Experience" Wednesday, November 8th 7:00 PM Multnomah Arts Center 7688 SW Capitol Highway, Room 34
Noted Canadian author and planner, Lance Berelowitz, will speak in Portland on Wednesday, November 8th with two other Vancouver, BC planners, Anthony Pearl and David Ramslie. Their free and public presentation will be on "Neighbourhood Centres: The Vancouver, BC Planning Experience" exploring the efforts in Vancouver to develop compact housing, public transit, and commercial development around defined neighborhood nodes or centers. Their talk is relevant to Portland's efforts to develop similarly compact Town Centers throughout the metro region. Neighborhood leaders interested in how the Vancouver experience can be a lesson for developing compact neighborhood business districts and town centers in Portland are encouraged to attend.

Speakers:
Lance Berlowitz, Principal at Urban Forum Associates in Vancouver, BC, is author of "Dream City: Vancouver and the Global Imagination." Berlowitz will speak about his work redeveloping a transit station and the surrounding area in one of Greater Vancouver's regional town centres. He will address what some of the effective strategies have been achieved, where more work needs to be done and some notions about what the future holds.

http://www.douglas-mcintyre.com/book_details.asp?b=951

Anthony Pearl, Director and Professor of planning and geography with the Urban Studies Program at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC will speak about the challenges and benefits of linking our network of regional town centres with rapid public transport. Pearl will discuss the success that has been achieved, where more work needs to be done and what the future holds.

http://www.sfu.ca/urban/
http://www.sfu.ca/polysci/contact/perl.html

Dave Ramslie, an urban designer and planner working for the Green Buildings Planner, City of Vancouver, BC, will speak about Vancouver's Neighbourhood Centres program mentioned above. Ramslie will explore how these endeavors offer greater housing choice, improved retail
options, and public realm treatments as well as limited community development support.

http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/commsvcs/southeast/greenbuildings/

Sponsored by:
Southwest Hills Residential League (SWHRL), Southwest Neighborhoods, Inc. (SWNI) and the City of Portland, Office of Neighborhood Involvement. Their visit to Portland has been organized by the
Canadian Consulate General in Seattle, WA as part of Canada Week, an outreach effort in Oregon to raise awareness about the connections between Vancouver and the Pacific Northwest states.

Accessibility:
Trimet bus: Capitol Hwy, #44
The event is wheelchair accessible.

For more information on this event contact:
Jim Thayer, President, SW Hills Residential League, 503-823-3309
Don Baack, President, Hillsdale Neighborhood Association, 503-246-2088
Brian Hoop, Office of Neighborhood Involvement, 503-823-3075,
bhoop@ci.portland.or.us

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:07 PM | Comments (8) | Permalink

Transit Mall Plans: A new pain in the S?

Frequently in comments on this blog, I've stressed the importance of actually going to meetings. It appears I should have heeded my own advice: Although I've attended the vast majority of meetings regarding the Transit Mall light rail project, my work and travel schedules have largely required me to take a break since September.

I was just going over the minutes of the September CAC (Citizens Advisory Committee) meeting, and discovered something interesting: The MAX Green Line alignment into Old Town is being rerouted.

[Updated: Added map images for clarity]

(More after the flip)

Due to concerns about traffic flow, property condemnation, and the preservation of a historic structure, the alignment of MAX as it would enter the Union Station area from the Steel Bridge has been changed. Instead of a direct ramp, it is now planned that MAX will go down from the Steel Bridge on Glisan, and make a tight right turn onto 3rd, and then a tight left turn back on to its original planned alignment.

This new "S" curve (subsequently approved by the CAC) would mitigate a number of issues, but for transit riders it will add two very tight turns in a row and an estimated 16 seconds of travel time each way.

Sixteen seconds may not sound like a lot, but this is in an area where MAX is already encumbered my multiple interlocks (the Rose Quarter area) and very low operating speeds. If you've ever been frustrated riding MAX as it proceeds slowly from Rose Quarter to Old Town, close your eyes and count to 16. That's how much MORE delay you will experience on the new Green Line.

Although I support the Mall project, I have always expressed concerns about the bottleneck of the Steel Bridge and related interlocks. It now appears that we could spend millions and wind up with something which further degrades performance in that critical area.

Map of Original Route (approx.):

Map of New Route (approx.):

(The curve indicated by a question mark may not exist, it was difficult to tell from reading the minutes.)

I do not know if this new route is set in stone, and unfortunately much of this ignorance is my own fault for not keeping on top of issues raised at the public meetings. I strongly encourage anyone here with an opinion on the matter, especially regular riders who cross the Steel Bridge, to contact TriMet with your thoughts.

Here's a link to the CAC meeting minutes page:
http://www.portlandmall.org/meetings/cac/index.htm

Here's a link to the Transit Mall project feedback/comment form:
http://www.portlandmall.org/contact/feedback.htm

Posted by Bob Richardson at 8:09 AM | Comments (36) | Permalink

RTP Exercise - What's Working - Free Market Scenario

Adron has compiled his list of outcomes in a less government-interventionist scenario, so we'll run this set of outcomes through the same three questions, starting with what's working?

Organizational Leadership is increased for business and related transit oriented development.
Overall subsidization of the transit systems (including roadways) decreases by at least 50% at the state levels and users provide more representative costs.
Companies locate downtown in greater number.
Sprawl is minimalized and density is increased around transit oriented developments.
Transportation costs begin to reflect true usage that create a decrease in vehicular person trips (auto & transit oriented) in the region.
More liberty and individual rights are considered in transportation planning with minimal usage of Emminent Domain, preferrably Emminent Domain is NOT used at all while existing right of ways are utilized better and highway mileage is mixed with light rail (ala I-205 expansion).
DMV & Operational Licensing of Motor Vehicles increases efficiency, providing better market statistics and relevancy, quicker consumer response to demand, decreased complaints and eliminating all associated tax burdens while focusing costs on users.
Primary thoroughfares are allowed collection of electronic tolls, shadow tolls, and other funding sources to alleviate taxpayers of cost without use.
A quicker response time and standardized approaches to accident removal/clearing from primary thoroughfares and light rail.
Public/Mass Transit provides real services based on increasing transportation speed via express sevices on light rail, valid commuter rail options, and other faster commute options.
Increase available rail options that provide more comfortable and commuter related services.
Increased reliability during cold weather seasons and increase reliability in general to a significantly higher level than what automobile users receive.

Again, the question for this phase: What is working well to achieve the outcomes?

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:46 AM | Comments (4) | Permalink

An Open Letter to City Council

Update: 11/2/06

Council held the public hearing yesterday and passed the TOD abatement program update to second reading next week. Commissioner Saltzman actually moved my suggestion for unbundled parking (adding it to the public benefit list) as an amendment, and it will be part of the package voted on next week.

Here are the other highlights of the update:

Beyond meeting the affordability requirements, developers will need to provide three of the public benefits listed, not just one.
There is an annual limit of $20M on the amount of property that can have this abatement (to limit the hit on the general fund).
Council expanded the areas eligible for the program, adding areas in Hillsdale and a site between South Waterfront and RiverPlace (beyond the new areas included in the recommendation from Planning Commission).

The last two points would seem to be in conflict. There will be a lot of folks working to get their projects included in that $20M in value. Commissioner Sten remarked that there are individual projects that could consume the whole thing.

Update: 10/29/06

The credit is on the council agenda for Wednesday at 10:30am. The comments on this post wandered all over the place, so I won't submit them, but I do hope to be there to testify.

Original Post: 10/5/06

I'm late to the game.

On October 18th (tentatively 9:30am) City Council will be considering changes to the Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Tax Credit. The Planning Commission has recommended a set of changes (PDF, 78K) as part of their review of the credit program.

I missed this as it went through Planning Commission. But I have an idea I'd still like to put into the mix.

The TOD credit program includes a menu of "public benefits". A developer has to provide sufficient benefits to justify the tax credit. I'd like to add a public benefit to the list: Unbundling Parking.

This is an idea that was first brought to my attention by a fellow neighborhood activist, and which is now being tried in Vancouver, B.C.

Here's the logic: you're buying a condo, moving into a dense urban environment. You may or may not need a car. But the lenders for the developer have pretty much decreed that every unit has to having a parking space, or they might not sell (the last outcome the lender wants). So you plunk down $300K for your condo, AND your parking space.

Now imagine if instead, your condo was $270K, and you had the option of buying that parking space for another $30K. Wouldn't you think twice about whether you wanted to buy a car (if you didn't have one)? Even if you had a car, wouldn't $30K make you wonder whether you wanted to keep it?

But today, you don't think about it. You don't have a choice to make, you get the parking space whether you want it or not! It's just one more way that the actual cost of owning a car is hidden.

So in the name of choice, and more affordable housing, let's unbundle the purchase of parking spaces from condos.

What's the downside? Developers could get left with unsold parking spaces. The market should adjust over time, but until that time, developers could be allowed to rent out unsold spaces for 'shared parking' uses, e.g., monthly rental to nearby employees or valet parking.

Indeed, there's evidence the market is already figuring this out. A number of units at the new Civic condos on Burnside were built and sold without parking spaces. And Gerding/Edlen has indicated that their new condo development near PSU will have unbundled parking.

So adding a little incentive via the TOD tax credit should just accelerate a good thing for developers who haven't seen the light yet.

Tell me what you think about this, and I'll bundle up this post and the comments and send them off to Council before the 18th.

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:00 AM | Comments (96) | Permalink

November 1, 2006

KBOO Bike Show: The Metal Cowboy

Listen to the show (mp3, 12.6M)

Featuring Joe Kurmaskie, also known as the Metal Cowboy, on how touring across the country with his kids brought him to a new point in his life. Jerden Freeauf talks about a solo cross country trip.

And ... the new THEME SONG.

Posted by Chris Smith at 1:07 PM | Comments (3) | Permalink

RTP Exercise - Solutions - Compact Development

We've discussed what's working, we've discussed the challenges, now the final question for the exercise is how do we get there?

What are the solutions that will get us to our outcomes?

"Compact Development" scenario outcomes:

A seven-year-old on a bike should be able to safely and comfortably travel from his/her home to an elementary school, a park and a grocery store. (Chris)
When moving about from place to place, citizens have the opportunity to make eye contact and communicate with each other in normal speaking voices. (Clay)
90% of households and 100% of businesses with employees in Metro area are a 10 minute walk from frequent, reliable, useful public transportation. (djk)
Most qualified graduates from local colleges and universities will be able to find sustainable employment in their field within 6 months of graduation, and are able to live within walking, biking, or a 15 minutes or less single-seat transit ride of their employment. (Garlynn, Chris)
Increasingly efficient use of existing roadway capacity through expanded transportation options will allow the region to continue to shift public resources away from transportation and toward education in order to "grow" and attact talent essential to a 21st century economcy based on adding value and innovation as opposed to the movement of cheap commodities. (Lenny)
Outside of peak commute times, freight flows freely past areas of SOV congestion through tools like queue-jump lanes, differential pricing or truck-only lanes. (Chris)
Run-off from transportation facilities is eliminated (that is, fully absorbed) through "green street" techniques. (djk)
Air pollution from transportation facilities is at or below the absorbtion capacity of vegetation in the Metro area. (djk)
90% of Oregon children regularly travel self-powered to and from school safely without parental assistance. (mykle)
The quarter of the region's residents who cannot drive have a substantially similar quality of transportation choices as those who can. (Evan)
Traffic deaths are no longer the leading cause of death among ages 1-34 years old. (Evan)
Roads and other infrastructure receive the regular maintenance that will prolong their life in the most cost-effective manner. (Ross)

The question for this phase: What are some solutions to achieving the outcomes?

Posted by Chris Smith at 6:34 AM | Comments (14) | Permalink

Anatomy of a Crash

Sam Adams apparently has some concept of the limitations of his power as Transportation Commissioner. Last week he convened what he's calling an "operator's steering group" of all the agencies that have something to with operating transportation in the City of Portland. I scored an invitation, I'm not sure whether it was for my Streetcar connections, or to provide some leavening as a citizen activist (there was one other neighborhood activist invited as well).

It was interesting just how many different folks have their hand in transportation in the city, as illustrated by one of the items on the agenda.

We spent so much time on one agenda item that we had to push out several items to a future meeting. The featured agenda item was the "anatomy of a crash". We got a detailed analysis of a fender bender on I-5 (northbound) during a recent morning rush hour.

The non-injury accident (75% of accidents in the city are property-damage-only) closed 2 lanes on the freeway, and took 1 hour and 8 minutes to clear. The estimate of the dollar value of the delay for drivers and freight is $150K.

So how can we do this better? Clearing the accident 10 minutes faster would save $25,000 in productivity, shaving 20 minutes off would be worth $50,000. Given that this happens many times per year, it seemed to Commissioner Adams that we might do something about this, and this was the major topic of conversation at the meeting.

The first reaction was to say that ODOT should get tow vehicles out sooner. But surprise, towing on the Portland stretches of the freeway system is governed by a contract managed by the Portland Bureau of Revenue (which regulates tow operators). Did the Bureau of Revenue include performance metrics for clearing freeway accidents in its contract? Why would they if they don't see themselves having a transportation mission. Now they do!

Some of the other barriers identified:

Tow is not requested until an assessment is done on whether there are injuries - rolling a tow truck on a contingency basis my cost money in some cases, but save a lot of economic value in other cases.
Evaluating tow contracts for the dispatch location might provide better geographic coverage.
The vehicle owner can request a specific tow company (some states don't allow this) potentially slowing the process.

Another idea was to equip ODOT's Comet quick response vehicles with limited tow capability to at least get vehicles off the freeway.

Hats off to Commissioner Adams for getting all the involved parties to think together. I hope future meetings of this group are equally productive.

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:00 AM | Comments (14) | Permalink