Category: Transportation Funding

  • In Support of a Street Improvement Fee

    On Thursday, I’ll be joining what I hope will be a large group of transportation enthusiasts and activists in attending PBOT’s Our Streets Town Hall. Motivated by a series of missed opportunities that have made our 2030 bicycle plan look more like a naïve aspiration than a realistic, achievable goal, and appalled by a recent…

  • City Schedules Transportation Funding Option Town Halls

    From the Portland Bureau of Transportation: Mayor Charlie Hales, Commissioner Novick and Transportation Director Leah Treat will welcome the public and discuss transportation needs and funding options at the Our Streets PDX town hall events:  Wednesday, April 16: 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization, 10301 NE Glisan St. Thursday, April 17: 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Kaiser Permanente’s…

  • Your Questions For Neil, “Round 5″, Part 2 – Ridership / Operations / Budget

    Yesterday, we posted the first in a series of videos featuring Portland Transport’s interview with TriMet’s Neil McFarlane, based on your questions. Today, here’s Part 2… Today’s topics are Ridership, Operations and Budget: Recent press about transit at historically high levels, but TriMet’s has not fully recovered to pre-2009. Some service has recently been restored,…

  • Life After the CRC, What Now?

    The Columbia River Crossing in its current form is dead (maybe). What happens now? The 2015 Legislative Session has been touted to be the next opportunity for a big transportation package. What might that look like absent the CRC? Here are a few possibilities: An urban transportation agenda. Mayor Hales has suggested that perhaps now…

  • Here We Go Again

    Back in 2008, I was part of the stakeholder committee for “Safe, Sound and Green” – an attempt to generate additional revenue for PBOT. It was partially successful, helping push a statewide gas tax increase forward. But that slug of revenue turned out to be less than expected due to countervailing trends. And Portland dedicated…