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December 31, 2007

Very Articulate CRC Dissent

Occasional Portland Transport contributor (and frequent commenter) Lenny Anderson had an excellent op-ed piece in Friday's Tribune: "For change, reduce trips"

Posted by Lenny Anderson at 10:10 AM | Comments (65) | Permalink

Coming Up on the KBOO Bike Show: Bikey New Year

We celebrate the new year with the Trash Mountain Boys live in the studio. We'll also be asking for your new year bikey resolutions and hopes for a great bike town.

9-10AM, Wednesday, January 2nd
KBOO FM 90.7
Streamed live at KBOO.fm
Podcast here later that day

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

December 28, 2007

A Look Back: The Highway of the Future

Solar- and atomic-powered cars that don't need to be refueled. Lanes on the highway color coded for destination. Atomic tunnel boring machines that melt rock away and prefabricated bridges allow for infrastructure to be constructed in mere minutes. Cars with television screens that show maps of your present location as you drive. Decentralized cities linked by networks of highways that allow the commuter a longer reach. The view of the future through the visionary eyes of the Walt Disney Corporation (circa 1958) is uncannily accurate in many ways, although a few things do seem really out there. Here we link to a nearly nine minute video that is certainly entertaining no matter your opinion about the role of highways in our society.

I noticed several concepts that have made their way to reality in one form or another in the years since they were envisioned by the writers of this video:

• Electronic highway information boards
• GPS navigation systems w/realtime traffic conditions
• Heads-up display on windshield
• Rear-view cameras with in-dash monitor
• Decentralized cities
• Underwater tunnels
• Viaducts carrying highways through sensitive or scenic areas

What did I miss?

Watch Magic Highway USA

Posted by Joseph Edge at 12:00 AM | Comments (3) | Permalink

December 27, 2007

Federal rules prefer buses over streetcar expansion

An article in Thursday's Oregonian explains how the Bush administration's rules attempt to prevent streetcar lines from competing with bus rapid transit for federal funds. To quote Peter DeFazio: "It's set up to make streetcar never pencil out."

Here's how:

At stake is about $200 million in federal money that could provide the first national program for streetcars in cities across the nation. More than 60 cities nationwide have ideas for emulating the Portland Streetcar and the dense mix of housing and commercial development that accompanies its downtown route.

[snip]

The transit administration has published rules that would make cost-effectiveness the key test of whether a project should be funded. Zoning for high density and saving miles driven in cars would be combined with congestion relief under an effectiveness test. Together those would count for half the benefits allowed.

[snip]

"If you build 5,000 units of housing along that line and people walked from those units of housing and get on the streetcar, they would not count under their criteria," DeFazio said.

The only riders that count are the ones that transfer from a bus or other transit to get to the streetcar line, he said.

Continue reading Federal rules prefer buses over streetcar expansion

Posted by Joseph Edge at 12:30 PM | Comments (154) | Permalink

December 26, 2007

PSU Transportation Courses - Winter 2008

We are pleased to announce the transportation courses listed below for Winter 2008 (January 7 through March 21, 2008). You are welcome to enroll in these courses even if you are not a PSU student--use the quick entry program: http://www.pdx.edu/admissions/ugrad_qkentry_apply.html.

We offer master's degree programs in urban & regional planning and civil & environmental engineering, and a graduate certificate in transportation (see http://www.cts.pdx.edu/grad_cert.htm).

In addition, these courses can provide important continuing education credits for your professional licensure or certification.

Winter 2008 courses are:

Transportation Seminar
USP 407/507 or CE 407/507, 1 cr
CRNs 44184/44199 (USP) or 40468/40480 (CE)
Fridays, 12:00-1:30 p.m., Instructors: Dill/Bertini/Monsere/Figliozzi/Gliebe
http://www.cts.pdx.edu/seminars.htm

Urban Studies and Planning

Economics of Urban Transportation
USP 537, 3 cr, CRN 44210
Tuesdays 4:00-6:30 p.m., Instructor: Rufolo

Travel Demand Modeling
USP 587, 3 cr, CRN 44226
Thursdays 4:00-6:304 p.m., Instructor: Gliebe

Civil & Environmental Engineering

Freight Transportation & Logistics
CE 553, 4 cr, CRN 45710
Tues/Thurs 12:00-1:30 p.m., Instructor: Figliozzi

Transportation Operations
CE 559, 4 cr, CRN 45713
MW 2:00-3:50 p.m., Instructor: Bertini

Further details are available in the PSU schedule of classes here: https://sa.pdx.edu/soc/. We look forward to seeing you in class! Please don't hesitate to contact us if we can provide any additional information. Best wishes for a wonderful winter!

Robert L. Bertini, Ph.D., P.E.
Portland State University
503.725.4249 www.bertini.org

Posted by Joseph Edge at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink

December 24, 2007

Another Rail Line Bites the Dust?

An article in the Oregonian suggests that public sector leaders my decide that after damage from recent storms the cost of repairing the Port of Tillamook Bay Railroad is simply too high.

Posted by Chris Smith at 11:13 AM | Comments (18) | Permalink

December 21, 2007

Rob Zako for OTC!

Occasional Portland Transport contributor and state-wide transportation advocate (Rob is the organizer of the Otran e-mail list) Rob Zako has applied for one of the two open positions on the Oregon Transportation Commission.

I will be writing to Governor Kulongoski to recommend Rob, and I would urge other Portland Transport readers to do the same. Here's the contact point:

Executive Appointments
Office of the Governor
900 Court Street NE, Room 160
Salem, OR 97301-4047
Fax: (503) 378-6827

For more information about executive appointments, contact:

Assistant: Pamela Estes
Phone: (503) 378-3123
Email: pamela.j.estes@state.or.us

Main Person: Nancy Goss-Duran
Phone: (503) 378-8471
Email: nancy.goss-duran@das.state.or.us

Web: http://governor.oregon.gov/Gov/boards.shtml

Some of the points I will be making in my letter and that you may wish to reinforce:

• Rob understands the connection between transportation and land use
• Rob is committed to addressing climate change
• Rob has a state-wide point of view (he is based out of Eugene)

Here is some additional info from Rob:

I suggest you do two related things:

1) Communicate NOW with Governor Kulongoski that you expect his efforts around transportation package to be integrated with efforts around land use and especialliy climate change, and that we need The New Direction for Oregon.

2) Indicate what candidate(s) for the OTC understand these issues and their interconnections and can help guide Oregon into a changing and uncertain future.

Thanks,
Rob

P.S. Someone else suggested the following descriptions could be helpful:
• Good listener
• Critical thinker
• Excellent strategist
• Commitment to consensus
• Awareness of pressing problems
• Understands the linkages between issues
• Ability to bridge traditional political boundaries
• Excellent at identifying creative solutions to vexing problems

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:00 AM | Comments (3) | Permalink

December 20, 2007

Double Decking

A guest post from regular commenter Garlynn Woodsong:

Recently, we have discussed the testing in San Francisco of a double-decker bus, which will then move on to Las Vegas, NV to go into full service as a part of the fleet serving their Deuce line. Tri-Met is currently running its fleet on B5 biodiesel, and plans to ramp up the percentage of biodiesel in the mix as more supplies become available from local production. Tri-Met is also currently testing/running some hybrid-electric buses on some of its lines.

What I'd like to cover in this post is the possibility of introducing hybrid, double-decked buses to Tri-Met's fleet. Apparently, London has already ordered them, and they will enter revenue service there in a couple of years.

Not only would they provide additional capacity per driver, they would have lower emissions -- hybrid buses generally tend to post about 30% lower emissions (or 30% better fuel economy, if you prefer), resulting in a 15% decrease in operating cost. Combining this with the lower operating cost per rider of a double-decker bus, and some real money-saving could be possible! Running such a bus on biodiesel would further reduce its emissions.

There could also be more room for bikes, using hooks inside the bus. Some new low-floor, double-decker buses (such as this one) have as many as 78 seats on the two-door model, with 31 downstairs and 47 upstairs. It might be possible to not only put a 2-bike rack on the front of such a bus, but also include MAX-style vertical bicycle hooks on the inside of the vehicle for a few more bicycles by removing seats/taking multiple advantage of the wheelchair area (making it into a more flex-space zone to accommodate either wheelchairs, bicycles, luggage or standees, depending on conditions -- with of course wheelchairs always having the option to pre-empt any other use).

Clearance, however, would be an issue. Not every route would be eligible for a double-decker bus. A hybrid double-decker bus is likely to be between 13.5 and 14.5 feet in height. With a vertical clearance of only 13 feet, the Broadway Bridge would thus be off-limits to such buses. With a vertical clearance of 15.7 feet, however, the Hawthorne Bridge would be fair game!!

Introducing such buses on the 14-Hawthorne might therefore be feasible -- though, of course, we would only want to see this as an interim step on the way to a streetcar line on that particular route -- right Bob R? Similarly, double-decker buses would likely be feasible for routes such as the 20 and the 12 that cross the Burnside and other bridges with no vertical clearance issues. Some vertical clearance issues might present themselves due to low overhanging trees on some routes, especially near bus stops that don't have curb extensions, but these would need to be evaluated on a route-by-route basis.

Certainly, Vancouver, B.C. is another West Coast city that is running double-decker buses successfully, as a way to cost-efficiently add capacity on their trunkline routes running radially out from their downtown.

Some drivers from Hong Kong have reported hauling crush loads of over 200 people on double-decker buses in service in that city. I remember riding the 19-Woodstock, years ago when it was served by the 200-series buses, and the driver declared that our run regularly had over 100 people at the height of its crush load. This suggests that it is possible to almost double the capacity of the bus by adding a second level and going double-decker -- which is amazing, when you account for the space lost by the stairwell! (Granted, folks in Hong Kong are likely to be slightly smaller than folks in Portland, so we might never see 200 people actually fitting into a crush load on a bus here, unless it was on a bus serving an after-school run...)

As Tri-Met searches for ways to squeeze more capacity out of its limited operational budget, I suggest that running double-decker buses might be a way to achieve the goal of more passengers per driver. Articulated buses are not likely to make a re-appearance in Portland, and not every bus route that has capacity issues can be converted to a streetcar line. For those lines that don't have vertical clearance issues, going double-decker would seem to be a worthwhile proposition. And as the technology becomes more widely available to do so, it would make sense for these double-decker buses, like all new buses that Tri-Met orders, to also be hybrid-electric (like the 800 new series-hybrid buses that New York City has ordered, featured in this article).

Photos:

Wright Eclipse Gemini Double-decker bus

Wright Bus most similar to an Electrocity, the hybrid-electric double-decker bus currently being tested in London

Guest Column at 12:00 AM | Comments (28) | Permalink

December 19, 2007

Sellwood Transportation Projects

The Sellwood neighborhood has been in the news several times recently with regards to transportation issues. The bridge committee recently recommended four bridge designs and four alignments for further study. Theresa Pucik, the vice chairwoman of the Sellwood-Moreland Improvement League, was quoted in the Clackamas Review recently decrying the planned location of the Bybee Blvd MAX station, citing safety concerns due to the lack of visibility and accessibility from nearby streets and likening it to the NE 82nd Avenue stop. Now Sellwood is in the news again, and although there has been no formal proposal, this time in a piece titled "Transit plans take long road," the Portland Tribune reports that the possibility of a streetcar may be complicating two other projects in the area with regional implications.

The idea of extending the Portland streetcar to Sellwood is complicating two significant transportation projects - dealing with the aging Sellwood Bridge and creating a transit line between Portland and Lake Oswego.

No one has formally proposed building a new Sellwood streetcar line.

But city transportation Commissioner Sam Adams is interested in extending the streetcar service throughout Portland and believes the Southeast Portland neighborhood of Sellwood might be a good candidate, along with such east-side areas as Hollywood and Hawthorne.

However, in spite of stating that there are "complications," it goes on to say:

This is not yet much of a concern for the Sellwood Project Advisory Group, a panel of regional elected and transportation officials working on the project to repair or replace the bridge.

[snip]

Despite the large number of remaining options, a streetcar line could theoretically be included on all of the designs under study, said Mike Pullen, a spokesman for Multnomah County, which owns the bridge.

Pullen said that because a streetcar weighs only as much as a large truck, the rehabilitated or replacement bridge would not have to be strengthened beyond current thinking. And because no stops would be required on the bridge, the line could be run within the existing two-lane width.

“We’re not actually planning for it, but there’s nothing we’ve done yet that would prevent it,” Pullen said.

Complications, indeed. The article goes on to mention that the streetcar/enhanced bus options for Highway 43 were recommended for further study, but makes no mention of specifically how the not-yet-proposed Sellwood streetcar is complicating that project beyond a vague "those working on the Sellwood Bridge and the Portland-to-Lake Oswego transit project are trying to avoid making any decisions that would preclude a new Sellwood streetcar line."

Additionally:

The committee also agreed to study two designs for a separate bridge for pedestrians and bicyclists: cable-stayed and stress ribbon. No cost estimates are yet available for such a bridge.

There has been quite a lot of talk going on lately about Sellwood. What suggestions do you have for Sellwood's transportation future? Should we be considering an east-west one-way couplet between 99E and the infamous bridge? Should the bridge alignment remain on Tacoma Street? What type of streetcar route would really help Sellwood businesses and residents? Should said streetcar cross the river to tie in to the proposed Portland-Lake Oswego line to the future Portland-Milwaukie MAX? Or perhaps along Bybee out to the Reed College area? How do we best address perceived safety concerns for the Bybee Blvd or even the Tacoma Street MAX station?

Continue reading Transit plans take long road

Posted by Joseph Edge at 8:22 AM | Comments (20) | Permalink

December 18, 2007

New Outreach Specialist at TriMet

From the Business Journal: Martin Gonzalez will focus on outreach to riders with limited English proficiency. I wonder what he has to say about fare machines?

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:00 AM | Comments (22) | Permalink

December 17, 2007

That Time of Year

As we approach the holidays, thoughts of all non-profit leaders turn to year-end contributions.

While I am happy to report that Portland Transport is in sound (and sustainable) financial shape, the long-term viability of our 501(c)(3) non-profit status depends in part on having a sizable and diverse set of contributors.

So as you make your choices for year-end giving, I'd ask you to think about a small gift, even just $5 or $10, to Portland Transport.

You can find directions to contribute online or off here.

Best wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season.

Posted by Chris Smith at 7:39 AM | Comments (2) | Permalink

Bus and streetcar options studied for Lake Oswego to South Waterfront route

A streetcar route or enhanced bus service from downtown to Lake Oswego were the options selected for further study and the BRT option was officially eliminated. The Oregonian reports:

Though years away, a streetcar linking South Waterfront to Lake Oswego took another step closer to reality this afternoon when Metro councilors approved an environmental impact study.

The study will examine the effects of two transportation options: a streetcar ending at Johns Landing or Lake Oswego or enhanced bus service along Southwest Macadam Avenue and Oregon 43.

Continue reading Bus and streetcar options studied for Lake Oswego to South Waterfront route

Posted by Joseph Edge at 12:00 AM | Comments (66) | Permalink

December 14, 2007

Amtrak: Maybe Now?

In stark contrast to the Bush administration's efforts to pull the plug on Amtrak funding, a post on Planetizen links to a Washington Post column encouraging investment in the nation's rail systems.

"America's train advocates are mildly optimistic. And for some good reasons. Amtrak is reporting impressive ridership gains. Oil is pushing $100 a barrel, throwing a long shadow over affordability of travel on already congested highways. Airport delays hit an all-time high last summer. Global climate concerns are mounting."

"Rail freight demands, meanwhile, are rising fast, suggesting joint improvements with passenger rail. Worries are rising about mobility gaps hindering the ability of America's 'megaregions' -- the Northeast, Great Lakes, California and others – to match the performance of competitive regions worldwide."

"Also positive for Amtrak: signs of a much friendlier reception in Congress. Add to that an array of states anxious to expand rail service, especially if they can get a federal "match" comparable to the 80 percent-20 percent federal-to-state match for highways."

Long-distance passenger rail improvement has been a popular topic here in the Cascadia region, and there has been no shortage of ideas by those commenting to this very blog. It is very well known that the "Portland Triangle" is a substantial bottleneck for freight- and passenger-rail traffic on the west coast. A dual-pronged effort to improve both the freight- and passenger-rail networks within the region and state with the feds picking up 80% of the tab could very well provide the improvements that will be needed to eliminate the bottleneck and take intercity rail transportation to the next level.

Additionally there has been news recently of the Coos-Siskiyou Shippers Coalition that was formed in response to the closed freight rail line between Eugene and Coquille and the Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad has also suggested they may shut down the line between Medford and Weed, California. Given the importance of these lines to commerce in that region of our state and our own desire for improved freight and intercity (and high-speed) passenger rail here in Portland, what do you think are our greatest priorities for rail improvements? Is it possible to reduce the scope of the CRC - something many Portlanders aren't very fond of anyway - and divert some of those funds as our local 20% match for rail improvements across the Columbia? Perhaps upgrade the rail crossing west of I-5 to allow for improved passenger rail service as well as dedicated truck lanes to move that traffic away from I-5, thus reducing the need for the CRC to be as substantial as WSDOT is pushing for?

Continue reading Amtrak: Maybe Now?

Posted by Joseph Edge at 12:00 AM | Comments (59) | Permalink

December 13, 2007

Sorting Out Fareless Square

We've had plenty of opinion about fareless square, and/or it's curtailment.

I'd like to try to back up a little bit and take this out of the realm of opinion, and get into a more structured analysis. So I'm going to pose this question:

If you were asked to conduct an objective analysis of costs/benefits for fareless square, what data would you want to gather.

Please, DON'T express opinions about outcomes. If you really have a bias, feel free to ask for the data set that you think would support the bias, but let's try to keep the discussion limited to the data that would help inform a decision.

Feel free to explain why you think the data you're calling for would be useful.

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:02 AM | Comments (81) | Permalink

December 12, 2007

Deeper Dive on Nextbus

Following up on our initial questions about cases in which the Nextbus arrival information system used by Portland Streetcar might be not entirely accurate, two PSU class project teams took their own look.

I had a chance to sit in on the team project presentations, which are now posted online.

The headline is that while one team was a little harsher than the other, they essentially found that Nextbus is generally accurate but that there are exception cases.

Both teams were limited to manually collected data. I think the next logical step is some kind of automated data collection process that can produce a very large data set which can be mined to help sort out the specific situations in which the system doesn't provide good customer information so we can address it with the vendor.

It might also be interesting to compare the accuracy of Nextbus' system with that of TriMet's Transit Tracker, since replacing Nextbus with TriMet's technology is probably an option in the future.

Big thank yous to both student teams!

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:00 AM | Comments (19) | Permalink

December 11, 2007

The Greening of the Suburbs

A post on Planetizen today offers a link to a Newsday article discussing the future of suburbs in America. Triggered by recent efforts in Nassau County, New York, Scott Carlin, an associate professor of geography at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, offers suggestions for reversing the trends of individualism and consumerism and discusses sustainability and interdependence as the future philosophy for American suburbs. Indeed, the discussion also turns to development patterns and adjustments in the transportation networks that link suburbs to their neighbors.

Greening the suburbs is about recalibrating philosophy, technology and public policy so we champion interdependence rather than individualism. The suburbs were born out of an ideology of separation from the city, but the 21st century requires new regional and global partnerships.

Green suburbs will need a new generation of regional plans that are far more visionary than current offerings. The challenge is to reduce total energy consumption dramatically, yet create more enjoyable and healthier communities that reconnect us to nature. Green suburbs will be high-density, mixed use, walkable communities built close to public transportation. In a greener future, cars will be used sparingly - maybe even shared among neighbors instead of being privately owned. Food and energy will be produced locally. The green suburb won't be an assemblage of individual homesteaders; it will be a mixed-income, ecologically integrated community that promotes natural and cultural diversity.

In this era of severe resistance to new taxes, what are some ways we could promote these concepts in the Portland area? Given that roughly two-thirds of the metro-area population resides outside of the urban core, how could we tackle the challenge of transforming existing suburbs into walkable neighborhoods with easy access to reliable public transportation? A frequent topic of discussion on this board relates to the challenge of adequately funding public transportation in the low-density suburbs. In a future that requires taking serious and tangible measures toward reducing energy consumption, what specific steps could we take here in the Portland area to address the challenge of making transit an attractive and practical alternative to driving in the suburbs? How do we address the inevitable mobility challenges for the baby-boomers that are now reaching retirement age? How could we promote local production of goods that will rely less on fossil fuels and an increasingly constrained freight system for delivering food to the local grocer?

Continue reading The Greening of the Suburbs

Posted by Joseph Edge at 6:22 AM | Comments (38) | Permalink

Who Says MAX Doesn't Drive Development

From the Portland Business Journal: "Good news for MAX for a change".

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:00 AM | Comments (108) | Permalink

December 10, 2007

Easier To Love A Streetcar Than A Light Rail

What's in a name?

Well, maybe not much in Shakespeare's time, but in our present-day society of perception-beats-reality, word association means quite a bit. This article, relayed via Planetizen, discusses this concept with respect to rail-based transportation: Streetcar vs. Light Rail

"It bugs me that such an awkward, engineering-specific term - light rail - has become the common one for the trains that run on fixed rails with overhead electric wires that have been built in dozens of cities across the United States. (The term comes from the fact that light rail is an alternative to "heavy rail" systems - subways or inter-city trains that weigh more and can carry more people.) I support the mass transit systems, but who could love something as soulless as 'light rail'?

Maybe that's why dozens of cities are building new streetcar lines. Charlotte, Little Rock, Memphis and Tampa, to name a few, are putting either vintage or antique cars on their streetcar lines or even brand-new cars with the sharp, clean angles that resemble those you see on light-rail lines. They join cities such as New Orleans that never got rid of their old streetcar lines in the first place."

Continue reading Easier To Love A Streetcar Than A Light Rail

The same author (Alex Marshall) contributed to Streetsblog, writing an essay touching on the history and potential future of streetcars, providing some reasoning for why he believes streetcars are better than light rail and buses.

If you're interested, that post can be found here

Posted by Joseph Edge at 9:19 AM | Comments (19) | Permalink

Where to go with Bus Technology

A number of things have been happening with the development of bus transit technology available in the United States in the past decade.

We've seen:

• Widespread deployment of Diesel-electric hybrid buses in cities such as New York and Seattle
• British-style double-decker buses on the Las Vegas Strip and now being evaluated in San Francisco
• Special Bus Rapid Transit buses with many of the features of streetcars: Multiple boarding doors on both sides of the vehicle, wheelchair ramps, and articulated sections, with a very recent installation in Eugene and their EmX Green Line.

Also, not yet seen in the USA but frequently discussed are double-articulated high-capacity BRT buses like those in Curitiba, Brazil.

And, of course, transit buses come in several flavors which have been available for a long time but are not currently seen here in Portland, including 60' articulated models and electric trolleybuses powered by overhead wires. Both types have been used in Portland in the past.

Consider this thread a good place to discuss various transit bus technologies, pros and cons, and how they might be applied here in Portland to improve transit service.

(Thanks to Al and Jason for the San Francisco and Las Vegas links, respectively.)

Posted by Bob Richardson at 12:51 AM | Comments (97) | Permalink

December 9, 2007

Columbia River Crossing: Transit in a Box

Today's Columbian features an article on how CRC engineers may place the transit component inside the bridge structure, reducing materials costs by not requiring wider spans or an additional span for transit.

If a Box Girder construction method is used, there could be sufficient room for transit lanes (and emergency evacuation for pedestrians) within the interior structure of the bridge itself, without creating clearance issues for ship traffic:

Excerpts:

Placing mass transit in one of the main spans would reduce the number of bridges to two and reduce the number of pillars to 17 from 21. That, in turn, might save 60 to 100 feet of riverfront for other uses.

No examples can be found in North America, but the design has been used in Asia and Europe, including the Reichsbrucke bridge in Vienna, the Nuselsky Bridge in Prague, and the approach to the Tsing Ma bridge in Hong Kong.

Its place under the roadbed would bring transit closer to the ground and allow a stop as close to the Columbia River as Fifth Street instead of Sixth or Seventh under other options.

One downside to the design would be the limited view for mass transit passengers. It would be essentially a tunnel. The design could be open at the sides, but the view for passengers looking east, generally a grand sweep of the river and Mount Hood, would be obscured at least partially by the adjacent northbound span.

The article indicates that this engineering work is very preliminary. It remains to be seen how much money this might save, and whether the pros and cons of the idea will be acceptable to the various stakeholder groups.

Read the full article: Bridge planners think inside the box.

A little Googling around found this site with a couple of good diagrams showing a cross-section of the Tsing Ma Bridge with transit inside. (Scroll to the bottom.) It illustrates how vehicle lanes and transit can fit together in one span without significantly increasing the size of a box girder bridge.

Posted by Bob Richardson at 1:11 PM | Comments (24) | Permalink

December 7, 2007

Mercury Blog: Fred Hansen Announces Proposals for Increased Security

The Mercury's Blogtown PDX has a post about Fred Hansen's appearance at the City Club, speaking about MAX security.

Check out the entire post for all the details. Based on that article, Fred's proposals appear to boil down to:

• Increasing the Transit Police Division staff by 10 percent.
• Increasing fare inspections by giving Wackenhut staff the authority to write tickets and exclude unruly people, and increasing their staff from 15 to 36.
• Fixing or replacing ticket vending machines. (It's unclear if this is beyond the new machines already in the current budget.)
• Partnering with Victory Outreach Community Services Inc. which seeks to prevent Latino youth from joining gangs.
• Streamlining exclusion policies and making the code of conduct more enforceable.
• Brighter lighting for existing stations and more security cameras.
• Cut Fareless Square's operating hours to 7AM through 7PM.

It appears that the Fareless Square hours limitation is something he seeks to have handled very soon with the TriMet board. Further changes to the square, if any, would be made as part of a larger public process.

UPDATE:
TriMet has posted two documents on their web site with more details:
http://trimet.org/news/releases/dec7security.htm
http://trimet.org/promotions/security.htm

Posted by Bob Richardson at 5:00 PM | Comments (108) | Permalink

Surplus helps bicyclists, addicts, more

The city of Portland is expecting a budget surplus this year, and in stark contrast to the recent Interstate Avenue debacle, the city council unanimously approved how the additional funds would be divided. Some of the money has even been earmarked for certain improvements to the transportation infrastructure:

Another big winner was Portland's cycling community. Commissioner Sam Adams won funding for a $200,000 project to reduce conflicts between bikes and trucks at 14 dangerous intersections. Adams didn't get money for other projects, however, including $350,000 for repairs to the east side of the Steel Bridge.

No mention was made in the Oregonian article about the specific intersections that are being targeted by Adams for improvements.

There was more give-and-take with this vote than usual because the council expects to have more funding in the future, thus allowing some of the projects that weren't approved this time to be revisited:

The $5.7 million "fall bump" is an updating of the current budget, but city officials expect next year's budget to be higher than previously thought, as well.

To find out what other projects will benefit as a result of the surplus, continue reading Surplus helps bicyclists, addicts, more

Posted by Joseph Edge at 9:18 AM | Comments (3) | Permalink

Framework Part 1: The New Direction for Oregon

Updated 12/7/07

Rob asked me to add the graphic below on Greenhouse Gas emissions for Oregon. Click on the chart for a larger version.

Original Post 12/6/07

Well, I promised a report from the Oregon Business Plan Leadership Conference, but Rob Zako beat me to it, with an excellent summary published on the OTRAN list (you can subscribe here). - Chris

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

THE NEW DIRECTION FOR OREGON: All proposed, laws, rules, plans, policies and other actions must be judged in terms of how effectively they keep Oregon on track reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Proposed efforts taking us in the wrong direction must be rejected. Efforts that don’t go far enough must be strengthened to keep us on track. Every year and at every level, Oregon must assess how well it is doing compared to the House Bill 3543 targets, and make adjustments as necessary.

INTRODUCTION

At the recent Oregon Leadership Summit, it became clear what direction some want to take Oregon’s transportation system:

Keynote Address to the Oregon Leadership Summit, Governor Ted Kulongoski

Policy Playbook and Initiative Guide: Moving Forward, Oregon Business Plan (see especially pp. 45-57)

The Cost of Highway Limitations and Traffic Delay to Oregon's Economy, Oregon Business Council and Portland Business Alliance

The Keep On Truckin' direction emphasizes moving freight, expanding the highway system, and raising taxes -- albeit with a tip of the hat to climate change, peak oil and other sustainability issues. Despite the label "moving forward," it is a direction back to the last century. In the 1920s, President Calvin Coolidge often said, "The business of America is business"... just before the Great Depression changed the business of America. We need a New Direction for Oregon, one suited to the 21st Century, not merely a continuation of outdated practices from the 20th Century.

The Keep On Truckin' direction is the wrong direction for Oregon for many reasons explained below, but it is the wrong direction even for BUSINESS in Oregon. For one thing, the Keep On Truckin' direction is out of touch with the average Oregonians, who will reject the proposal to raise the gas tax 7 cents by the year 2011 (see Policy Playbook, p. 57). For another, the Keep On Truckin' direction ignores the twin threats of climate change and peak oil, which will change the nature of the global economy in the coming years and decades.

Nonetheless, it would serve no good purpose to simply argue against the Keep On Truckin' direction, as doing so would likely result in a stalemate on transportation issues in the 2009 Legislative session. Rather as we move in the right direction, it is critical to understand the concerns of the business community, to build connections with them, and to help them get on board moving in the right direction for Oregon.

Many other organizations and individuals have already contributed great ideas for the New Direction for Oregon. These include:

Blueprint for Oregon’s Future, 1000 Friends of Oregon

2007 Legislative Handbook, OLCV Education Fund (see especially Chap. 12)

Goodbye Gridlock: Improving the Way Oregon Funds Transportation, Oregon Environmental Council

Oregon Strategy for Greenhouse Gas Reductions, Governor's Advisory Group of Global Warming

Mitigation of Climate Change, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

In this and following posts, I hope to build on these and other good ideas by fitting them into a larger framework. George Lakoff in Don’t Think of an Elephant! taught us that progressives too often talk about issues while conservatives talk about values. In order for us to be successful, it won’t be enough to merely say what policies should be adopted. We will need to talk from our hearts and souls as much from our minds, to offer a better world view, and to explain why the ideas we are advocating for respond to concerns held by average citizens.

I hope others will take up these ideas, improve them, and make them OUR ideas. Working separately in different directions, we can do nothing. Working together in the same direction, we can change Oregon and set an example for the world. Let's get started...

THE NEW DIRECTION FOR OREGON

If a picture is worth a thousand words, the following graph, adapted from the Oregon Strategy for Greenhouse Gas Reductions, tells most the story:

Total greenhouse gas emissions in Oregon are generally rising year after year. (See the upper Historic and “Business-As-Usual Forecast” lines.) But to avoid catastrophic climate change, the scientific consensus is that Oregon and the rest of the world need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions well below recent levels. Indeed, the Governor and Legislature recently adopted House Bill 3543, making it the policy of the State of Oregon to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 75% below 1990 emissions by the year 2050. (See the lower HB 3543 Targets line.)

In brief, Oregon is heading in the wrong direction towards rising greenhouse gas emissions. Oregon needs to make a sharp turn and head in a new direction towards significantly reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

The targets in HB 3543 aren’t suggestions or aspirational goals. Oregon can’t merely try halfheartedly to achieve the targets and then pat itself on the back if we fall short. These targets reflect the scientific consensus of what we actually need to achieve simply to avoid catastrophic climate change. Oregon -- and the rest of the world -- must achieve these targets, we must commit NOW to doing so, and we must demand our leaders focus their efforts in this direction.

Bottom line:

THE NEW DIRECTION FOR OREGON: All proposed, laws, rules, plans, policies and other actions must be judged in terms of how effectively they keep Oregon on track reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Proposed efforts taking us in the wrong direction must be rejected. Efforts that don’t go far enough must be strengthened to keep us on track. Every year and at every level, Oregon must assess how well it is doing compared to the House Bill 3543 targets, and make adjustments as necessary.

In particular, insofar as the transportation sector accounts for roughly 38% of all greenhouse gas emissions in Oregon, transportation policies and funding must head in the New Direction for Oregon.

Generally speaking, this is really all we need to do: Assert the New Direction for Oregon over and over again. Demand leadership, commitment and accountability. Expect real, measurable change. If you read no further, keep the graph above in mind whenever you think about transportation issues, or indeed about any issues. Keep in mind that we must stay on track along the New Direction for Oregon.

In more detail, to have a fleshed-out proposal for transportation (and other) reform in Oregon, we need to do more than simply demand measurable outcomes. We need to offer specific proposals for how to get there. But before it even makes sense to talk about specific policies, it is essential to frame the discussion and to make sure others are on board heading in the New Direction for Oregon.

Coming up...

Framework Part 2: Leadership, Commitment and Accountability

Posted by Rob Zako at 12:00 AM | Comments (75) | Permalink

December 6, 2007

Ciclovía: A Moving Experience in Bogotá, Colombia

Via Planetizen:

Every Sunday from 7am to 2pm, up to 2 million residents of Bogotá, Colombia enjoy over 70 miles of car-free streets. The event is called Ciclovía. StreetFilms brings you along for the ride.

In September, StreetFilms videographer Clarence Eckerson traveled to Bogotá, Colombia to document that city's remarkable Livable Streets movement. Accompanied by former Bogotá Parks Commissioner Gil Peñalosa, Eckerson and his New York City Streets Renaissance colleagues spent an entire Sunday riding the Ciclovía, a weekly event in which over 70 miles of city streets are closed to traffic and opened to walking, biking, running, skating, aerobics classes, vendors, and socializing among family members, neighbors and strangers. Ciclovía, Eckerson says, "was simply one of the most moving experiences I have had in my entire life."

In this 9 minute StreetFilm, translated and hosted by Transportation Alternatives' Karla Quintero, Eckerson takes you along for the ride.

Other cities in the Americas have similar events; how would such an event fare in Portland?

Watch the video

Posted by Joseph Edge at 12:00 AM | Comments (8) | Permalink

December 5, 2007

KBOO Bike Show: Women for Bikes

Listen to the show (mp3, 22.5M)

The KBOO studios just might catch fire with all the powerhouses on air for this month's KBOO Bike Show featuring the Women for Bikes program.

Guests include Alison Hill-Graves from the Community Cycling Center, Janis McDonald from the City of Portland and Barb Grover from the Bike Gallery.

Posted by Bike Show at 12:10 PM | Comments (4) | Permalink

Vote for PAYD

That's Pay-As-You-Drive auto insurance.

Here's a request from the Oregon Environmental Council:

MileMeter (http://www.milemeter.com), a startup company that plans to offer pay-as-you-drive insurance, is one of 7 finalists (out of 900+ companies) in a national investment competition sponsored by Amazon. You can view a video of MileMeter and vote for which startup business will receive an investment from Amazon at http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/amazon_startupchallenge.jsp. Voting ends at midnight this Wednesday, the 5th of December.

Learn more about pay-as-you-drive insurance at http://www.oeconline.org/climate/payd/.

This is a huge chance to jumpstart PAYD insurance in the U.S. Please join me in casting a vote at Amazon.com.

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:00 AM | Comments (6) | Permalink

December 4, 2007

Achterman to Head Transportation Commission

I'll have a more detailed reflection on yesterday's Oregon Business Plan Summit later, after I've digested all the documents.

But one nice piece of news is that the Governor announced that he was appointing Gail Achterman as chair of the Oregon Transportation Commission. Achterman has been the most progressive voice on the Commission for some time, regularly talking about Climate Change and the need to prioritize maintenance.

It's not a silver bullet, but it's a step in the right direction!

Posted by Chris Smith at 8:42 AM | Comments (17) | Permalink

Fixing Traffic Without Help From Uncle Sam

An article on Planetizen discusses efforts by governments across the country to address congestion and transportation funding problems without federal assistance. In addition to the usual suspects (HOT lanes, queue-jumper lanes, privately-owned toll roads), one idea caught my eye more than the rest:

Finally, in a gambit straight out of the Jetsons, the Swedish government is working with Santa Cruz, Calif., to plan a "personal rapid transit" (PRT) system – individual cars connected by cables to a rail system.

For more information, including a map with a proposed alignment, here is a Citizens for Personal Rapid Transit - Santa Cruz web site:
http://www.umunum.org/

In addition, following the link (from the Planetizen article) to the full article on the Christian Science Monitor, on page 2 brief mention is made of the ODOT Road User Fee Task Force project:

Inspired by efforts in Europe and Asia, Oregon is testing on-board GPS systems that could one day allow mile-by-mile pricing for all car travel in the state. Flexible plans could give discounts to drivers traveling in off-peak hours.

They don't elaborate on the true function of the "GPS system" that is proposed by ODOT and used in the pilot project (which concluded in March 2007), instead using a painfully brief description that conjures images of "big brother" monitoring it's constituents' every move. For those who are unfamiliar with the project, the proposed system merely detects whether the vehicle is within one of three zones and logs mileage within each zone into separate categories for billing purposes. The zones are out-of-state (no charge), in-state (nominal charge), and within the Portland metro area (nominal charge with option for congestion pricing). With the present design, I do believe the GPS systems would not be adequate for charging per-facility tolls (such as bridge or highway tolls). The mileage fee would be collected at the fuel pump in lieu of a gas tax (for those who have the proper equipment to communicate with the fuel pump), while out-of-state drivers (or those otherwise without the proper equipment) would be charged the fuel tax in lieu of a mileage fee.

Continue reading Fixing Traffic Without Help From Uncle Sam

Posted by Joseph Edge at 12:00 AM | Comments (4) | Permalink

December 3, 2007

Mileage Tax Potholes?

A few weeks ago, ODOT released the final report on their "Road User Fee Pilot Program" (a test of a mileage tax as a replacement for the gax tax). They declared it "feasible."

But the most recent issue of Willamette Week ("Miles from Nowhere") predicts that it won't happen.

Posted by Chris Smith at 12:19 AM | Comments (37) | Permalink