Author: Chris Smith

  • The “Portland Bicycle”

    One of the pieces of news this week from the Federal Transportation Bill was funding to prototype local manufacture of streetcars, so that we might have a true “Portland Streetcar”. Well, Portland Transport doesn’t have $4M for a project, but we do have a very creative audience. On several threads it has been remarked that…

  • We’re Not Alone!

    Speaking of bikes… When we launched this site, we were under the impression that we were starting the first transportation-related blog in the region. But we find that someone got there first, at least for one mode. Jonathan Maus has been running Bike Portland for a while now, moving it from Oregon Live to its…

  • Our Own Little Think Tank

    Rob Bertini at PSU passes on this press release about funding for the Center for Transportation Studies at PSU (in cooperation with U of O, OSU and OIT – how’s that for alphabet soup). What research questions would Portland Transport readers want CTS to study? This is only the beginning of news coming out the…

  • My Commute: Ride Connection

    When we think about commuting, we tend to think about trips from home to work. Or maybe home to school. But last week, I got exposed to another kind of commuting when I had the opportunity to do a ride-along with Ride Connection. Ride Connection is a unique organization that coordinates a network of over…

  • Be Safe Out There

    Today’s Portland Tribune features an article titled Walk, ride at your peril reporting about the nine pedestrian and cyclist fatalities this year so far. So today’s question is: are these just a statistical blip, or are there systematic issues going on involving the transportation system, or behavioral changes by drivers, pedestrians or cyclists?