“Let’s end socialism for the car.”
– Earl Blumenauer, U.S. Congressman
The 2023 Oregon Active Transportation Summit, hosted by Portland transportation advocacy non-profit The Street Trust, is officially a go. People from all across Oregon’s transportation industry — from advocates to transit agency officials — have convened in the Lloyd Center for three days of panel discussions and networking events about all things related to getting around.
The event officially kicked off yesterday with a multimodal scavenger hunt and opening reception. This morning, the Summit got down to business with its first plenaries and panels. First, the Street Trust’s Executive Director Sarah Iannarone introduced the Summit’s theme — “Move Into Action” — and welcomed a surprise guest, U.S. Representative Earl Blumenauer, to the stage.
Blumenauer said he’d prepared a written speech for the morning but decided to wing it instead and “speak from the heart.” He praised The Street Trust for hosting an event like this one and emphasized the importance of transportation reform in Oregon and across the country.
“You’re on a holy mission here. Really, you’re going to help our communities save us from ourselves,” Blumenauer said. “This is literally a matter of life and death.”
Blumenauer covered a range of topics in his introduction speech, from getting rid of minimum car parking mandates to making active transportation options more affordable for everyone. Though he said he is not in favor of “declaring war on the automobile,” he was very direct about the problems our society faces as a result of car-centric planning.
“We have to recognize that how the automobile is so intrinsic with how people think and how they live. And we have to find ways to unwind that in a thoughtful fashion,” Blumenauer said. “There’s a lot of talk these days about socialism. Let’s end socialism for the car.”
This morning’s panel discussions were focused on public transit. First, we heard from a panel of transit agency leaders from around the state: Sam Desue, Jr., who leads TriMet, Jameson T. Auten from the Lane Transit District in the Eugene-Springfield area and Andrea Breault from Cascades East Transit in central Oregon. Then, several advocates provided a “community response” to this conversation, offering different perspectives on the issues the transit agency leaders discussed. (Look out for a full recap of these panel discussions soon.)
In between these panel discussions, I talked to several attendees to find out what they were looking forward to in the days ahead.
Jack Blashchishen, the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) coordinator for the Springfield School District (and one-time BikePortland contributor!) said he was eager to meet statewide colleagues from the SRTS program. School transportation has become a key issue for many advocates recently, and there is quite a large SRTS showing here at the Summit.
“I’m just looking forward to seeing everyone who’s part of the statewide transportation community,” Blashchishen said.
Rob Zako and Claire Roth, both from southern Willamette Valley transportation advocacy group Better Eugene-Springfield Transportation (BEST), said they see the Summit as an opportunity to cultivate relationships with people from across the state so they can work together to influence transportation legislation in the future.
“My personal mission is to break down siloes as much as possible and encourage people talk to each other across disciplines,” Roth said. “The pandemic hit advocacy like a ton of bricks, and it took a toll on transportation. This is the spring of transportation, we’re blooming again.”
Mary Lee Turner, a disability and pedestrian advocate (and current member of the Portland Pedestrian Advisory Committee) told me she wants to make sure there’s a presence of people with disabilities who rely on walking to get around at events like these.
“People with disabilities are everywhere, and if we aren’t, that’s because we can’t get there,” Turner said.
Stay tuned for more BikePortland dispatches from the Summit in the days ahead.