Portland Transport

Author: Chris Smith

  • Columbia Crossing Attitudes – Quantitative

    Last week we explored the focus group results from the Columbia Crossing task force. At the end of the week, the quantitative results from the task force polling came out. The Oregonian covered these, focusing on the fact that the results from Clark County are more favorably disposed to Light Rail than in the past.…

  • Access versus Mobility

    I’ve been harping on the theme of access vs. mobility lately. There’s a nice blog post out of Houston that puts this idea in stark relief, using London as an example. Part of the equation is that if you have good access via proximity, the speed of your mobility is less important. That’s why the…

  • TriMet Kudos from the City on the Bay

    SPUR, a civic/planning organization in San Franciso has recently recognized TriMet’s Productivity Improvement Program (PIP), and urged their local transit agency to undertake a similar program. Hat tip to reader Garlynn Woodsong for the link.

  • Freight and the Environment

    Metro has recently produced an interesting little document by the title “Profile of the Regional Freight Transportation System.” The Daily Journal of Commerce has a brief piece today on the trends this report discusses. Unfortunately it’s still in draft form and therefore not on Metro’s web site. I’ll be sure to post a link when…

  • Rolling the Streetcar Dice

    There’s been a sea change at the Federal Transit Administration. After the FTA created a preliminary set of rules for the Small Starts program (the program that Earl Blumenaur and other congressional leaders designed for Streetcars) that strongly favor bus projects, the new FTA Administrator, James Simpson, was just shocked to learn that no Streetcar…