Guest Article: We must unite and organize to solve our transportation problems

— This article is by Jacob Apenes, an organizer with Sunrise PDX.

My bus commute to work is very long. Two buses – forty minutes each – with a ten-minute wait in between and a ten-minute walk to work. It’s not ideal, especially given that my second bus is a commuter bus which only arrives three times per day. However, it’s much cheaper than owning a car. This is a personal case where our region’s transportation system fails to provide good options for its users.

Here’s another personal case. Growing up in southwest Portland, it wasn’t uncommon for me to walk on streets with no sidewalks or to prefer ditches instead of walking next to high-speed SUVs. Being surrounded by low-density housing also meant infrequent or non-existent transit service. And I think my mom would have killed me before a car did if I ever decided to bike on Barbur Boulevard. Unsafe streets. Poor transit. No sidewalks.

Let’s do a systemic case where our transportation system is failing. Given the increase in vehicle weight and size and the poor design of our major arterials, Portland is experiencing an epidemic in traffic fatalities. One death is too many, but this issue continues to get worse and worse each year. We also have crumbling roads and bridges due to a lack of funding, a climate crisis that cannot handle the number of cars on our streets, and potential transit cuts… also due to a lack of funding.

Portland’s transportation system needs a serious overhaul. Portlanders deserve safe, affordable, and useful options for traveling our city and state. We need to be reducing the amount of cars on our roads by offering alternatives that are comparable to driving. We should be taxing car driving for the damage they do to our roads, our air, our climate, and our lives. We should be using that new income to build the alternatives that are comparable to driving, not for more freeway megaprojects.

With so much wrong with our region’s transportation system, we have a lot of work ahead in making the changes that benefit us all. I know that I began organizing with Sunrise PDX two years ago because I felt called to help change the city for the better. You might be reading this and are already part of a group like BikeLoud or Families for Safe Streets or Depave. Or maybe you’re reading this and are fighting for change in your own way. However you’re showing up to fight, we need all hands on deck if we want to transform a transportation system and provide equitable options for all. And we need to fight now.

Portlanders (and Oregonians as a whole) are hungry for change. The Urbanist Happy Hour, which started last week by Strong Towns, joins the choir of transportation and urban planning themed community events. Move Oregon Forward, the statewide coalition fighting for a people-centered transportation package, brought OVER 100 PEOPLE from across the state to Salem and held more than 45 constituent meetings demanding better streets, better transit, and sustainable funding. So many Portland-based organizations—including Verde, BikeLoud, Portland DSA, and 350PDX—are actively collaborating for statewide reform. Could you imagine what could get done in Portland if we were unified and fighting as one? Could you imagine what we could get done if there were more of us?

At Sunrise PDX, our transportation team is working to build a Portland where all can travel through our city quickly and safely without a car. We want a city where our bike network is complete and protected, where transit arrives every 5 minutes instead of every 15, and where we’ve achieved Vision Zero. Most importantly, we need our city to be taking immediate action to improve the state of our streets: our elected leaders should be the ones paving the way, not pulling us in the wrong direction.

Our upcoming Transit Town Hall, hosted by Sunrise PDX and Portland DSA, is one step of many for Portlanders and our elected leaders to become aligned and return to the forefront of transportation justice. Scheduled this Saturday at 2pm, the town hall is a chance for people to share issues and offer solutions on our current transportation system. With the first hour of the town hall set for public testimony, Sunrise and Portland DSA encourage all to share their ideas, large and small, and to be constructive when building off the ideas of others.

The last 30 minutes of the town hall is reserved for a panel Q&A with elected officials from multiple levels of government. There will be a representative from the City of Portland, Metro, and the Oregon State Legislature each ready to answer questions about our region’s transportation system. The goal is to have the collaborative energy from public testimony translate into an energizing discussion from electeds. We are fortunate to have over 12 elected officials planning on attending! We hope the public testimony offers them tangible ideas they can bring back to their offices.

On behalf of fixing my work commute and building sidewalks where I grew up, I’ll be there on Saturday. I hope to see you too.