Introducing our low-car voter guide
Blog coverage sponsored by Drive Less Connect, ODOT’s sweet new rideshare matching site.
I’m pleased to announce that this week we’re rolling out a big new feature on our wiki: a voter’s guide for transit-riding Portlanders in the 2012 local elections.
Ballots, in case you’ve been wondering, are due May 15.
It’s a project of Aaron Brown, a blisteringly thoughtful local transportation wonk who was inspired in part by the Bike Walk Vote launch party we attended in December. If only transit-riding voters had a place to track candidates’ positions on issues like YouthPass or TriMet fare hikes, he said.
So we made one.
We collaborated on the questions, and Aaron conducted interviews with all major candidates for City Council and Metro Council (roughly defined as the ones who’d raised enough money to at least throw a party for supporters on election night). I finished things off with brief summaries of each candidate’s position, with excerpts from Aaron’s interviews. We’ve also included relevant endorsements (Bike Walk Vote’s among them) and, for the mayoral race, links to interviews with BikePortland and Bike Walk Vote.
Aaron’s an up-and-coming transportationist because he combines deep earnestness with voracious intelligence. We’re lucky to have worked with him on this, and I hope you’ll enjoy this week’s series of blog posts exploring each race he profiled … which will begin immediately.
Below the jump: a list of the questions we asked. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Michael at 12:51 pm April 23rd, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
New podcast episode: The European report
Blog coverage sponsored by Drive Less Connect, ODOT’s sweet new carpool matching site.
Portland has had a crush on Europe for years. Team Portland Afoot is not immune.
In the latest episode of our monthly commuting podcast, producer Lillian Karabaic (who’s based in Berlin until next month) gushes thoughtfully about her visit to the world’s most famous car-free city. (Can you guess?)
Also on our concise 23-minute docket:
- how strippers will save TriMet’s budget (not really)
- the vast economic importance of being allowed to drink beer outside (yes, really)
- two commuting tips of the month: mine for walking, Lily’s for biking
- the story of the night a local clown seized control of the 19 … from the perspective of the clown
- our favorite #TriMet tweets of the month
- and Lily’s inimitable touch for finding bus-related theme music.
Subscribe in iTunes here, sign up to get an email with link when we post a new episode, or or just grab the audio here. Enjoy.
Creative Commons laundry day photo by O Palsson.
Posted by Michael at 5:34 pm April 10th, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
Two great local conferences for transpo wonks
In Oregon, even the professional conferences are available at happy-hour prices.
There are two terrific regional events next week that current or aspiring politicos and transportationists should consider attending: the Oregon Active Transportation Summit in Salem (April 16-17) and the Bus Project’s Rebooting Democracy Festival (April 16-22).
I’m biased. I’ll be moderating panels at both.
Posted by Michael at 11:05 am April 8th, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
Money. All of it.
Blog coverage sponsored by Drive Less Connect, ODOT’s sweet new carpool matching service.
I’m not going to lie: this infographic, long in the planning, turned out to be far more difficult to produce than I dreamed.
I think it’s worth the wait. It’s a 2-D visualization of all the money sloshing around Portland’s transportation system.
The inspiration was this even bigger project by the webcomic xkcd.
It’s not about setting priorities or dictating solutions. It’s about helping you to make those decisions for yourself.
Three things I learned while making it:
- Even after fares go up, it will still be cheaper to ride the Green Line to Lents than to buy enough beef jerky to pedal there.
- Despite all the chatter, TriMet bus operator compensation is only 6 percent above average among similarly sized agencies. (However, this doesn’t include health benefits in retirement, something TriMet has promised its employees up the wazoo.)
- TriMet’s 2012 budget, including rail construction, would theoretically be enough to rent every transit commuter in the City of Portland a personal stretch limo to drive to work every weekday all year, plus a free Stumptown coffee for the morning ride. (Though not enough to build the extra highway lanes this would require.)
It’s best viewed in Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer 9 or on a tablet. Enjoy.
If you really enjoy it, you can check out the sources here – and order a limited-run 11×17 print of the poster (the lower half of this infographic) for your wall here. Guaranteed to prove the geek credentials of any Portland room for just $8.
Creative Commons money photo in the infographic by Andrew Magill.
Posted by Michael at 12:33 am April 3rd, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
How to get better at your job: Walk to it
Blog coverage sponsored by Drive Less Connect, ODOT’s sweet new ridesharing service.
I don’t think there’s a more pleasant way to commute than afoot.
Maybe that’s why folks who do it tend to be less stressed and more productive.
I’ve been able to do it regularly a few times in my life. It was worth every extra dime I paid for housing, only in part because I’m certain it improved my professional effectiveness.
This Friday morning, April 6, the Willamette Pedestrian Coalition is organizing Portland’s first Walk to Work Day to bring some local attention to the advantages of ambulatory commuting. People are meeting at four locations around town between 7 and 7:15 and converging at City Hall for some coffee and light breakfast. Looks like it’ll be over by 8:30 or so.
Sounds like a good time – if you can make it to one of the locations, RSVP here.
Creative Commons walking reader photo by Todd Mecklem.
Posted by Michael at 9:25 am April 2nd, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
Vegetable carts, beer carts and the future of urban retail
Blog coverage sponsored by Drive Less Connect, ODOT’s sweet new ridesharing service.
Food carts are an indicator species: they’re the signs of a city whose retail industry is starting a long-term shift away from automobiles.
That’s the big idea of my latest guest post for the Willamette Pedestrian Coalition. I’ve been writing for them about how Portland’s citywide plan to reduce auto use is going to transform the local retail business.
I also repeat a question I first heard from one of Portland Afoot’s board members, Chris Smith:
"How many of the essential services for a neighborhood could be delivered via a cart?"
Good question, eh? Check it out.
Creative Commons food cart photo by Flickr user Johnjoh.
Posted by Michael at 12:17 pm March 29th, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
How corporate execs joined bus activists to create PDX’s sexy new campaign to save bus service
Blog coverage sponsored by Drive Less Connect, ODOT’s sweet new ridesharing service.
A new activism effort launching Tuesday will bring a new face and vocal corporate support to OPAL‘s campaign to preserve TriMet service.
At the core of the message: Good bus service is essential to Portland’s economy.
The driving force: Gunderson, a Northwest Portland manufacturer that’s hoping to scale up its recruitment this year but was dismayed to find its local bus line, the 16, on TriMet’s chopping block.
The rail and marine barge manufacturer, which currently employs about 900 workers in two shifts and assembles 15 to 20 rail cars at its waterfront site every day, had been planning to ask TriMet for better service when it learned that the 16 was due to be be rerouted to the other side of a freight rail yard, a half-hour walk away.
Posted by Michael at 2:43 pm March 27th, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
Live tonight: Oregon’s "rock ‘n’ roll historians" tell crazy TriMet stories
Blog posts sponsored by Drive Less Connect, ODOT’s sweet new carpool-matching site.
If you, too, are a fan of the wonderful transit storytelling website TriMet Diaries, this shouldn’t be news to you.
But TriMet riders really shouldn’t miss tonight’s 7:30 show at the Jack London Bar, 529 SW 4th Ave. near Pioneer Place Mall. TriMet Diaries and the podcast Kick Ass Oregon History are teaming up to host "Humanity on Wheels," a night of public transit storytelling, featuring TMD contributors Dr. Jeff and Bill Reagan and others. Including, um, me.
And maybe you. There’ll be an open mike segment.
Anything could happen.
Posted by Michael at 7:11 am March 20th, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
OPAL, preparing to meet with union, declares a victory on keeping round trips cheap
Blog coverage sponsored by Drive Less Connect, ODOT’s sweet new ridesharing site.
Portland’s leading transit advocacy group claimed a win Wednesday after TriMet suspended a plan to forbid round trips on a single fare purchase.
"We scored a victory on the round-trip transfers issue," OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon Director Jon Ostar said in an interview.
TriMet says requiring riders to buy a transfer for both legs of a short trip would raise $3 million annually. Though it reversed course Wednesday, the agency warned that a labor ruling in favor of its union later this year could force the agency to reopen the idea.
In a written statement, Ostar added that OPAL’s activist membership "is relieved that TriMet heard our demand to maintain the ability to take round-trip transfers, as this is the lifeblood for many transit-dependent riders who use the bus and MAX for everyday basic needs."
Posted by Michael at 8:14 pm March 14th, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
Comment of the month: How TriMet accidentally wrecked its budget
Last month, a Governing Magazine piece about TriMet’s troubles quoted me as saying TriMet "promised themselves into a catastrophe, and riders are going to pay for it unless there’s a healthy fight."
With some short-term good budget news on the way this morning – the Oregonian and Portland Transport have details – I want to put things in context with an extremely impressive reader comment that came in two weeks ago.
It’s the best explanation I’ve seen of the long-term budget crisis that TriMet will continue to face no matter what happens this year. It doesn’t rely on scapegoats or ideology or false choices – just simple logic. It’s distressing, but very illuminating – and I hope that’s the first step to solving this problem and preventing this catastrophe.
I’m quoting it in full below the jump. It’s six paragraphs long. Do yourself a favor today and read them.
Posted by Michael at 8:25 am March 14th, 2012. Like what you see? Get future posts by email.
