Author Archive | EngineerScotty

It’s now October, and for some reason, there seems to be a run on tortilla chips down at the convenience store.  :)

• The Metro Council has voted to advance the Powell/Division project, and in a separate matter, has passed out some early Halloween candy.
• Portland’s affordable housing shortage has suddenly become a big story.
• TriMet is seeking comment on its 2015 and 2016 federal funding plans.  More important to those who aren’t inclined to be wonks, the agency is developing its first bike plan.
• Neil McFarlane still would like to see the Columbia River Crossing (in some form) built.

Tomorrow the Orange Line opens.  TriMet will be free for the day, and to tell you the truth, I don’t remember this much pomp and circumstance for the Green or Yellow lines.  (The Red Line opening festivities, of course, were cancelled by 9/11).

But since TriMet is throwing a party, it only makes sense to compare and contrast the Orange Line with Bridgeport’s Orange Line IPA:

On a more serious note….

• Our good friends over at Bike Portland are celebrating their tenth birthday.
• The Metro Policy Advisory Committee (MPAC) is supporting the proposal to not expand the UGB in 2015, albeit in a split decision.
• In somewhat related news (I say somewhat as new suburban single-family home construction is not a substitute for urban apartment buildings), the Portland Mercury reports that mass no-cause evictions (wherein a landlord evicts all the tenants in a lower-income building; does some remodeling, and then remarkets the premises to a higher-income clientele) are on the rise.
• And The Oregonian notes that Ballot Measure 47/50, which reset property tax assessments back to 1996 levels (including for new developments) has a disparate impact on the poor–as residential real estate in gentrified areas is effectively taxed well below its market value.
• While Portland continues to ponder bike share, The Transport Politic takes a look at the system being built in LA, which has several novel and important attributes:  It is run by the transit agency (Metro), not by a municipal public works department; and it focuses on the job of last-mile service–many bikeshares are located at transit centers, and your transit ticket lets you “transfer” to bike and vice versa.

Not the thread, the weather.

• Bike Portland reports on a new parking proposal from the City of Portland, on how to deal with the issue of tenants in no-parking-provided apartments consuming on-street parking in single-family neighborhoods:  Neighborhoods could vote to create parking districts (encompassing the single-family-zoned areas); if established, then parking permits would be required to park overnight.  Homeowners in the neighborhood would get first crack at the parking permits; apartment dwellers would be able to purchase anything left over.
• Only six weeks left until the opening of the Orange Line, and many Southeast bus lines change.
• Car2Go is shrinking its service area in Portland.  And it appears that the cuts may disproportionately affect minorities.
• Metro is starting public outreach for the 2018 Regional Transportation Plan update.
• Portland-based transportation planner Jarrett Walker is once again offering his transportation planning course this fall.
• King County Metro (in Seattle), which presently runs numerous electric trolleybus lines (useful on the steep slopes of Seattle) is testing battery-powered electric buses.

Team USA will be playing in the women’s World Cup final this weekend, including a few members of the Portland Thorns.  A few local notes:

• TriMet is banning vaping and therapy dogs, with a few exceptions.  Vaping and e-cigs are to be treated like tobacco, and only licensed and trained assistance dogs (seeing-eye dogs and such) will be allowed on TriMet vehicles, unless in a pet carrier.  Animals whose only purpose is companionship will be no longer allowed without being secured.
• More photo-radar may be coming to Portland, as an Oregon House bill authorizing an expansion of the program (and allowing unmanned vehicles–under current law, photo radar vans must have an officer present) has made it out of committee.
• Jarrett Walker notes that many transit agencies have greatly reduced bus service in the past decade or so, not all of it attributable to the Great Recession, despite an increase in demand.  On the other hand, TriMet is considering an increase in the payroll tax (which the Legislature has authorized) to help pay for new bus service, as outlined in the various service enhancement plans.
• TriMet explains how the Orange Line will operate, and why it’s not being called the Yellow Line even though most Orange and Yellow trains convert to the other color upon reaching the Transit Mall, and provide through north-south service.
• Oregon today launched a pilot project for a pay-per-mileage vehicle tax as an alternate to the gas tax.