A recipe for more rapid change would include the hiring of managers in leadership positions that will direct staff to consider all modes, finding ways to make the rank and file more cognizant of people on bicycles. Change is hard and paradigm shifts like Achterman is seeking at ODOT are more difficult and we're fortunate to have her leadership guiding the state in this regard.

Perhaps but a transportation department that thinks that it is a good idea to place concrete barriers in the middle of a pedestrian transfer area to mass transit with the only distinguishing excuse (every other reason applies to neatly ANY intersection) being "well ... it's a highway that's why" needs oversight. Oversight that can look at every project that benefits autos and points out how it affects pedestrians and cycles.
In a way that matters and actually has an affect.
Fund these people, not the projects, and we might get somewhere.

But freight does need to get from here to there.

Jonathan, doesn't ODOT Region 1 (Portland Metro) have a person (Basil Christopher) devoted to bike/ped. concerns?

I just edited and added to that sentence. She made a point to tell me she won't ask for new F/T employees... it will be a matter of transferring existing ODOT staff over to non-highway positions. the ODOT Director's office is aware of the request and is studying whether or not it is feasible and if/how to carry it out.

(Gives me a lot of hope for her as a communicator, and, since communication is at the very heart of what she's trying to do, it gives me a lot of hope for the future of biking in Oregon.)

As more and more people cram into our cities, an effective way to basically get more "highway and car" space without building more streets is to get more people onto bikes, or using mass transit.

It just seems (to me, someone who has never worked in transportation) that dollar for dollar, it would be easier to get more people biking by providing tax incentives, safe routes, etc. But the political will needs to be there to do it.

Good luck with that, considering the state's gaping budget hole. Heck, even some Republicans are trying to shield schools from the full impact of the cuts (which I can't say I disagree with), so everything else may be really pinched.