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The Electric Trolleybus: a Sustainable Choice for Portland
One thing I noticed my years living in Seattle was how much that city loves to copy Portland’s innovations. Government officials were constantly taking tours of Portland and bringing back ideas, many of which have borne fruit. Seattle now has a streetcar line, for example, and has just recently decided to start working on Neighborhood…
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Monomodal Fixation Disorder
All of us who have an interest in promoting transportation alternatives have encountered people afflicted with what I like to call “Monomodal Fixation Disorder.” Let’s just call it MFD for short. These poor souls not only prefer to use a single mode for all travel, but more importantly seek to impose their preferences on everyone…
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Governance Reform at TriMet: A Path to Democracy and Accountability
As a recent transplant from Seattle, I have been fascinated by all the subtle and not-so-subtle differences between the Portland and Seattle regions’ transit agencies. Most of these differences have their pros and cons. One agency vs several agencies, tickets vs smartcards, payroll tax vs sales tax, these are all issues that can be vigorously…
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The Case for Stop Consolidation
Zef Wagner is recently relocated from Seattle to Portland and will be contributing occasionally and sharing his fresh-eyed perspective of Portland – Chris The Problem Most people take it as a given that local bus service is slow and often unreliable, while light rail is fast and very reliable. This is great news for those…