Car Free Happy Hour


Here’s a great idea that came over transom this week via the SHIFT list. I’m going to try to get there:

What’s your vision of sustainable transportation and how to make it happen for Portland and the greater world? How do you get around in Portland in and in the greater world? What are you working on? Please join Portland’s first Car-free happy hour to discuss, mingle, and eat and drink.

When: 2nd Thursday of each month (First is March 12), 5-7pm

Where: Roots Organic Brewing Company, 1520 SE 7th Ave, Portland, OR

Who’s invited: Bicyclists, transit riders, pedestrians, motorists looking for other options, carpoolers, activists, consultants, nerds, journalists, public agency employees, politicians, neighbors, and friends

What: Car-free happy hour is an informal venue to mingle participate in a social exchange of information, ideas, and connections. Let’s put the ingredients together and see what happens.

For monthly reminders and discussion: http://groups.google.com/group/pdx-carfree


12 responses to “Car Free Happy Hour”

  1. Why would anyone want to give up using the best, fastest, moist convenient form of transportation?

    Giving up cars will lower our standard of living as a car lets you get to a wider range of jobs in a give amount of time.

    Thanks
    JK

  2. Because its also the most inefficient, most polluting and most costly form of transportation (when external costs are included and it’s assumed that a transit vehicle would still run even if a person doesn’t ride it).

  3. Jim, I think this is fundamental to the debate we’re having here. I can imagine and understand why you want a car. The fact that you apparently can’t imagine why some of us wouldn’t suggests that you’re missing an important point of view. I suppose you can label us all insane, but then you miss an important segment of the body politic.

  4. “moist convenient”

    My 19-year-old utility mini-van (seldom used) with moisture penetration issues is indeed moist and convenient.

    The Prius, thankfully, is not moist, but still convenient.

    Walking is even more convenient and low-cost for me… I can step right out my front door and be walking without even having to get into my car. And I can get moist while walking whenever I want. :-p

  5. Jason McHuff Says: Because its also the most inefficient, most polluting and most costly form of transportation
    JK: Of course, this is NOT correct. A SMALL car uses less energy per passenger-mile than either a bus or toy train. Less energy = less pollution.

    A car is cheaper than the actual cost of either a bus or toy train. It is only because the taxpayers pick up 80% of the transit tab, that transit looks cheap.

    Jason McHuff Says: (when external costs are included and it’s assumed that a transit vehicle would still run even if a person doesn’t ride it).
    JK: Transit also has externalities. To assume a transit vehicle would run anyway, is simply NOT REAL WORLD. If all transit users saved energy by going to small cars, do you really expect they would run empty buses just for the fun of it?

    THanks
    JK

  6. “If all transit users saved energy by going to small cars”

    Which is, of course, impossible. Not all transit users can drive, and if you got them all into taxis there would be hundreds of thousands of additional auto trips (and return cab trips) each day, resulting in even more external negatives caused by excess auto use, and a huge expenses expanding road network capacity, knocking down neighborhoods to make room for those cars, etc.

    JK, you’ve managed to turn a simple invitation to a happy hour into yet another pointless anti-ped/bike/transit/carpool debate.

  7. If all transit users saved energy by going to small cars

    But we’re not talking about all transit users. We’re talking about individual people who decide to take transit. And besides, not all transit users have the ability to use a small car. Forgetting about money, some are disabled or too young and can’t get a driver’s license.

    But, if all small car users switched to transit, the small cars certainly wouldn’t run just for the fun of it.

    In addition, well-used buses (those that don’t just run as a social service mainly for those who don’t have the choice of driving) take up a lot less space than if every rider was in their own vehicle.

  8. jim karlock Says: Why would anyone want to give up using the best, fastest, moist convenient form of transportation?

    Because commuting & shopping without a car is considerably healthier? People who walk, who rides bicycles, or even walk to a bus stop are getting far more exercise than someone who climbs into a car in the garage. Riding a bus or a bicycle is considerably less expensive than buying gas every month, especially for someone working downtown who also has to deal with parking. Riding a bus gives me a great opportunity to read.

    Seriously, this is elementary material.

    Yes, yes, we know that transit is subsidized, but obviously, our society has decided it’s worth it.

  9. Yes, yes, we know that transit is subsidized, but obviously, our society has decided it’s worth it.
    I don’t recall that vote of the people. When was it?

    Did they vote for tax money paying 80% of the transportation bill for downtown lawyers and bureaucrats?

    Thanks
    JK

  10. JK –

    We live in a representative democracy. We vote for people who then enact policies. If a majority get upset enough over a particular set of policy viewpoints, we elect someone else. Another branch of government, called the Judicial Branch, has the job of making sure the representative branch doesn’t get out of line, constitutionally speaking.

    I seem to recall that you ran for office on your party’s ticket in the most recent election. If you weren’t intending to legislate policy, if elected, what do you think the legislature is for?

    Every candidate I voted for explicitly campaigned with a pro-transit position. In the case of the one who lost, the winner in that race _also_ ran with a pro-transit position.

    When did we vote directly on building I-5 and knocking down N. Portland neighborhoods? When did we vote on the design of the Marquam bridge? The eastbank freeway?

    When do we get to vote on whether to build the CRC, and how many lanes it will have?

    When do we vote to choose the head of ODOT?

    Come to think of it, I’ve voted on more sewer projects and soil & water commissioners in my life than I have for specific roads.

    Incidentally, the State of Washington had a big Roads & Transit vote awhile back. It lost. Government agencies came back with a proposal which was primarily transit (with a big rail funding component). It won.

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