The Portland region is blessed with a host of local elected officials who are striving to rethink how we do transportation. We’ve grabbed a few excerpts from their recent speeches and newsletters, and wanted to share with you what they’re saying.
Portland City Commissioner Sam Adams oversees the Portland Department of Transportation. Sam served as our keynote speaker at our Alice B. Toeclips awards dinner this year, and has been working to get Portland to Platinum status. His blog has a rotating banner photo, and the photo of him used on the banner is Sam wearing a bike helmet (above).
His speech from Alice talked about the economic benefits of biking – about new businesses in Oregon who have come in part because we’re
“We are striving to get 15 percent of trips in Oregon taken by bicycle and I am committed to making that happen… Portland is now home to over 200 bicycle shops both large and small. King Cycle Group, home of Chris King Precision Components and employer of approximately 75 people has relocated to Oregon, Portland Woolen Mills manufactures bicycle clothing using natural fibers in place of petroleum based fabrics, Rolf Wheels are made in Eugene, Yakima Racks are headquartered in Beaverton, and Burley handcrafts bicycle products in Eugene…. This thriving bicycle economy is good for all Oregonians and it wouldn’t be possible without the Bicycle Transportation Alliance.�
Robert Liberty, Rex Burkholder, and David Bragdon of the Metro Council are working on big-picture rethinking of the Metro Regional Transportation Plan.
Metro Councilor Robert Liberty’s September newsletter had this gem:
Last month the Metro Council considered the following draft statement of purpose for a transportation study: “The purpose of the project is to address the problem of an inadequate state highway connection between I-5 and [Oregon Highway] 99W�… Here is the same kind of “purpose statement� for a study of a “problem� I might have: “The purpose of this project is to address the problem caused by the absence of a swimming pool in my backyard.�… It is time to stop and admit that the way we define and study transportation problems in our region is broken.
Metro Councilor (and BTA co-founder) Rex Burkholder wrote this in his July newsletter:
Back in the mid-1950s, in response to concerns about global competitiveness and national defense, this country took the big step of building the Interstate Highway System. This effort monumentally and dramatically changed the face of this country, its cities, and rural lands. This system supported incredible economic growth, but it had its consequences. Before the interstate highways were built there was no such thing as metropolitan areas, large-scale traffic jams, or sprawl. There was city and there was country…
… two key trends are triggering a reconsideration of the practices of the past 50 years:
1. Declining federal and state dollars for transportation.
Since 1960, national spending on roads, sewers and other infrastructure has declined by 50 percent as a proportion of the GNP. The federal highway trust fund is heading to bankruptcy because the federal gas tax hasn’t been increased since 1993. In Oregon, cities and counties are talking about what roads to abandon or ignore because our gas tax hasn’t gone up since 1993, and inflation has reduced its buying power by 50 percent since then.
2. Energy supply and uncertainty.
Who would have guessed two years ago that gas prices would be above $3 a gallon today? Prices are bound to keep right on increasing, pushed by growing global demand, as well as political turmoil in countries where most oil supplies are located: Nigeria, Venezuela, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and of course, Iraq. This could have profound effects on our business climate including freight movement, the ability of local businesses to move goods, and could hit our middle and low-income pocket books disproportionably hard.
Metro President David Bragdon also invokes history in these remarks he made at the Regional Transportation Workshop April 20. Reviewing land grants and canals, railways to highways, Bragdon makes two strong arguments.
Until this morning, every Regional Transportation Plan has been implicitly conditioned by the fundamental assumptions of 50 years ago.
And in reviewing the cancellation of the Mt. Hood Freeway, Bragdon notes:
That was a wise choice: cancel huge, disastrous projects and instead do hundreds of better, smaller (and not so small) ones that made more sense for our region.
Those words have interesting implications as Metro is reviewing multi-hundred-million and multi-billion dollar road proposals. Bragdon concludes by noting:
If we adapt to new fiscal and social and economic realities – and develop a new approach to transportation that is consistent with the tools and aspirations of the 21st Century – then our region is positioned to prosper.
We’ve got some smart leaders in the region. Let’s make sure we listen in, and keep them thinking.
