Portland Transport

Author: Chris Smith

  • A Painful Conflict

    Over at BikePortland.org, Jonathan reports on a conflict brewing between streetcars and bikes in the new South Waterfront development. As a multimodal alternative transportation advocate, it pains me greatly to see two modes that I love in conflict with each other. I serve as chair of the Portland Streetcar Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) and as…

  • Freight Perspectives from Amsterdam

    While in the Netherlands we had two different conversations about freight. The first was with Amsterdam city planners and is the focus of this post. The second was with a freight forwarder and a representative of the Holland International Distribution Council (a trade association) and will be covered in a later post. In the dense…

  • Freight Plan Grinds into Gear

    Yesterday the Portland Planning Commission formally recommended the Freight Master Plan to City Council. But the recommendation did not come without qualification. Some of the issues the Planning Commission discussed: – What’s the impact of peak oil on this plan? (no answer other than that the issue is not covered by the City Transportation System…

  • Election News from Washington State

    From the Seattle PI: Voters reject shortened monorail line Initiative 912: Urban strongholds successfully keep gas tax The latter is signficant for our region as $50M of the gas tax in jeopardy goes to fund design work on the Columbia Crossing project.

  • 9% Reduction in Auto Trips!

    Today the results for the Interstate TravelSmart program were announced, including a 9% reduction in auto trips among the targeted households. Most efforts to change people’s transportation choices involve infrastructure – building rail lines, adding buses, striping bike lanes. TravelSmart is different – it’s all about education and personal touch.