Portland Transport

Author: Chris Smith

  • Conservative Reappraisal

    Hat tip to Roland who posted this report over at CommissionerSam.com. I’ve just finished reading the report (“Does Transit Work? A Conservative Reappraisal”). The main idea is to assess the success of transit in not in terms of total trips, but rather in terms of those categories of trips for which it is competitive (the…

  • Lloyd Meter Rates to Rise

    I recently received a press release from PDOT indicating that in September, the long-term rate for parking on-street in the Lloyd District will go from 50 cents to 75 cents per hour (the short-term spaces are already 75 cents). I imagine this is intended to get more employees into TMA programs (not to mention more…

  • Everyone, Please Take A Breath

    Some of the comments here have gotten downright nasty in the last little bit. I have edited out a few of the most extreme, but I can’t keep up. Since the recent newspaper coverage, we’ve gotten some new readers (yeah!), so it might be a good time to review the rules: All contributions and comments…

  • Gas Tax and Ballot Measures

    Rob Zako sends word that a new ballot measure being proposed for the 2008 election would dedicate 1% of gas tax revenues to the State Police and County patrols. Today the state gas tax is dedicated (by constitutional amendment) to exclusive use on roads. There seem to be several schools of thought around this kind…

  • Walking the (Freight) Talk

    Sam Adams and Rex Burkholder seem to have gotten into a little dust up in the Friday’s Tribune (Freight mobility matters … at least in Portland). We’re at the beginning of the semi-annual MTIP process, which allocates about $60M in flexible transportation funds. This is only about 4% of the total funds spent in the…