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Time for More Diverse Vehicles
Biking to work this morning I passed a golf-cart like vehicle that was chugging down the street. I was reminded about how uncreative we are with our choices of vehicles. Most households have a couple of cars — and those cars are overbuilt for what they’re actually used for 95% of the time. They’re set…
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The Breaking Point for the Supply of Oil?
A recent story in the New York Times provides a fascinating and fairly balanced look at worldwide oil supply and demand. In brief, the story is that we don’t know for sure, but the long-term prospects are cause for concern. The issue is whether new reserves can be discovered and exploited fast enough to keep…
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Welcoming Visitors to Hollywood – By Any Mode
Guest contributor Patrick Donaldson is a member of the Hollywood Boosters. As one of Portland’s oldest organized business districts the Hollywood District continues to identify new methods of attracting and keeping customers for the various goods and services available in our Northeast Portland community. During the expansion of bicycle lanes throughout the city it became…
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Moving Freight
There is a lot of hand-wringing going on in some quarters of the business and transportation policy communities about the “freight problem.” How do we keep trucks moving on what appear to be congested roadways. Curiously, until recently there was only scattered data on this issue; the I-5 Task Force – aka “Trade Partnership” –…
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Transportation and Economic Development
In today’s tight fiscal environment, governments are seeking ways to generate “economic development” through transportation projects. Many of the flexible funding and state-generated transportation finance programs now focus on economics. This is a shift. Transportation used to be measured in capacity and funding went to increase movement of cars. In the 1990’s, Portlander’s talked about…