Author: Chris Smith

  • Social Justice and Transportation

    Last week I received an announcement for the Cascade Policy Institute’s Wheels to Wealth conference, subtitled “the role of auto ownership in reducing poverty”. My immediate reaction was that owning a car might be more of a financial burden than a benefit for a low income person, but I also thought about my own situation.…

  • Centers and Corridors

    Strip malls are a dying breed. That was the starting point for a discussion of corridor planning at yesterday’s Metro “Get Centered” brown-bag event. The market for retail is now reorganizing to favor interchanges and crossroads. Long corridors of strip malls are out. The prototypical example held out from our region is Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway. The…

  • KBOO Bike Show: BTA Director Evan Manvel and the Ghost Bike Project

    Listen to the show (mp3, 11.6M) BTA Executive Director Evan Manvel discusses bicycle advocacy, safety and “sharrows”. Forrest Burris talks about the Ghost Bike project, memorializing cyclists killed by autos by erecting white bicycles at the crash sites. The Walk + Bike to School program is also discussed.

  • Bicycles Outselling Cars!

    I’m a subscriber to the ‘carfree network’ listserv. These folks are a little out there, even for this alternative mode activist. But every once in a while there’s a real gem, like this link to an article suggesting that last year more bikes than cars were sold in the U.S. The article attributes this to…

  • An Opportunity to Discuss the Transportation Impacts of Big Box Retail

    The City Club’s Growth Management and Environment Issue Committee meets this Thursday, October 6th from 12- 1:30pm at the City Club Commons (901 SW Washington). The free program will feature Metro Councilor Robert Liberty who will address “big box” store issues facing our region. The discussion will explore impacts of these developments on our region’s…