“Transportation for the 21st Century”
Forum explores the future of transportation in Oregon
Rex Burkholder & Gail Achterman
http://www.pdxcityclub.org/forums-events/friday-forums.php
When:
This Friday, June 29
Doors open at 11:30, Program begins at 12 PM and concludes at 1:15 PM.
Where:
The Governor Hotel
614 SW 11th Ave.
Make your reservation now!
http://www.pdxcityclub.org/cgi/res_new.pl
The 20th century was the century of the interstate highway, the shopping mall and the automobile. What will the 21st century bring? Join Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder and Gail Achterman, a member of the Oregon Transportation Commission, for City Club’s June 29 Friday Forum, where we’ll explore the future of transportation in Oregon — at the federal, state and regional levels.
Now, the way we move people, goods and services relies heavily on highways. Yet, oil prices continue to rise and over 60 percent of American-consumed oil is imported from far-away sources in Russia, Nigeria and Venezuela. Congestion is increasing, and nearly 40 percent of the state’s greenhouse gases are a result of transportation-related pollution. In the future, what will be required of Oregonians to change the way we travel, and how will we need to transform our delivery systems in order to adapt to the needs of the 21st Century?
Burkholder was a founder of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance and served as its policy director. He has taught high school science and served as faculty at Portland State University’s Office of Student Development. He is also a founding trustee of the Coalition for a Livable Future, which unites more than 50 citizen groups on the issue of sustainability.
Achterman, a member of the Oregon Transportation Commission, is a natural resource and environmental expert with policy-making experience at the state, local and federal levels. She currently serves as director of the Institute for Natural Resources and is a member of the boards of the Oregon Garden and Northwest Environment Watch. She also served as executive director of the Deschutes Resources Conservancy, and practiced law for 18 years with Stoel Rives LLP.
Join us as we discuss the future of transportation in Oregon.
4 responses to “Transportation Leaders at City Club on Friday”
“In the future, what will be required of Oregonians to change the way we travel”
This sounds like more proposed socialist engineering to me.
“Is this is socialist engineering, what was the drive to build the interstate system? What was the drive to build the suburbs?”
Demand.
“We’ve been changing the way we travel ever since the discovery of the wheel. What’s wrong with continued change?”
Nothing wrong with change if people want it, though I doubt someone would want to give up the freedom of their own personal vehicle and revert back into the 1900’s. There is absolutely no logic in that.
Well, Salem-Keizer transport planners have convinced themselves that what the world really needs here at the cusp of peak oil is to spend $200+ million on a third bridge over the Willamette ($300+ when you include interest — though those costs are heading up, along with the price of asphalt and all other energy-dependent materials).
I don’t have any problem with people living in West Salem and points west wanting not to give up their “freedom of their own personal vehicle” so they can drive to jobs in Salem or PDX … but freedom ain’t free.
I think it’s not going to happen–Oregon just doesn’t have the scratch to blow this kind of money on a monument to carburbia in these waning days of the cheap oil party. Thank god, because otherwise we’d certainly be destroying more of the Willamette valley in order to serve up more sprawl.
The future of transportation in Oregon is a lot less of it.
Future of transportation in Oregon? Well I know it does not include investments in High Speed Rail in the Willamette River Valley. We can’t even get Oregon and Washington to agree on the fastest and best way to get through Vancouver and Portland.
Ideally for Oregon during Peak Oil and Global Warming, High Speed Rail is taken seriously with dual tracks for 100 miles in the valley. We will not be able to pave every road in the future and some rural/urban roads will not be supported by the counties. People will have to move (maybe with tax incentives?) to the cities or along corridors that have multiple modes (bus,train,car,bike,boat) of transportation. Supporting the “auto” habit will become secondary to having choices. (Social Engineering? No we are not the domestic auto manufacturers. Change Happens.)
Hopefully HSR could become a service that allows someone in the McKensie River Valley being able to use transit to Downtown Portland in two hours (175mph HSR plus local LRT/BRT/Buses/Biking/Auto).
Ray