Month: July 2014

  • Vaporettos for Portland?

    One of my fondest memories of childhood was a much-planned, much-saved-for family vacation to Europe in my early teen years. One of the seven-countries-in-21-days destinations was Venice and I can’t forget the Vaporettos (water taxi/buses) that plied the canal system. Correspondent Bill Badrick fills us in on a vision for Vaporettos in Portland. – Chris…

  • Actually, let’s not bother to fix federal transportation funding

    We probably need higher gas taxes in the United States. We desperately need a federal carbon tax. But do we really need higher federal gas taxes? No, we don’t. As Congress debates highway-funding stopgaps and Oregon’s most influential transportation experts get ready for an Aug. 4 forum about the future of U.S. transportation funding, maybe it’s…

  • An Integrated Vision for Car-Lite Life

    Helsinki is on a campaign to reduce auto reliance. One of their strategies is integrating a trip-planning tool with a single-payment system for a variety of forms of mobility, as outlined in this Citylab piece.

  • Midsummer Night’s Open Thread

    Been out of town, and been watching a little sporting event down in Brazil.  Now that that’s over, ’tis time for another open thread. The Powell/Division project is starting to heat up.  A series of outreach meeting will occur in the next couple of weeks, and a few new documents are available. Was in Seattle…

  • Transportation Summit to Focus on Safety

    The 6th Annual Oregon Transportation Summit (September 15th) will focus on safety as the key topic. My sometimes debating opponent (stop spacing, value of streetcars) Jarrett Walker of Human Transit fame will be the keynote speaker. From the descriptive materials: The 2014 Summit will have a considerable focus on safety and its relevance to creating livable communities.…