Warning: The following contains a lot of my opinions that might be uncomfortable for some readers. For a city with a rich legacy of cycling with aspirations to be even more cycling-centric, the lack of care and capacity that the Portland Bureau of Transportation spends on keeping cycling paths, shoulders, and lanes clean is unacceptable … Read more
“Induced demand only matters if you’re creating an induced demand for carbon-based vehicles that pollute.” – Ted Wheeler, mayor of Portland Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has some interesting ideas about induced demand. In fact, if you care about building healthy and vibrant cities, his ideas are downright troubling. For the uninitiated, induced demand is a … Read more
E-bikes are to transportation what Steph Curry is to basketball*. They have changed the game. And there’s no going back. The e-bike revolution has been building for years, but it feels like the scales have tipped even more lately due to better and cheaper products on the market, high gas prices, climate change concerns, a … Read more
Street racing, drifting and “takeovers” are revving up for summer. Last Sunday night hundreds of people and cars took over sections of streets throughout the city to show off their drifting and street racing skills. According to the Portland Police Bureau, groups took over seven different locations between 8:00 pm Sunday night and 1:00 am … Read more
Note: This piece was submitted by a close observer of the Portland – Vancouver I-5 freeway project (a.k.a. Interstate Bridge Replacement Program) who asked to remain anonymous. Project managers, listen up! You’re reviving a mega-project that failed to secure funding a decade ago. Do you go back and re-examine the original assumptions? Absolutely not! You … Read more
“We need to approach the crisis of vehicular violence with the same urgency and all hands-on deck strategies being implemented to address gun violence”— Jo Ann Hardesty, Commissioner-in-charge of transportation
There’s a Dutch saying that goes something like: “Government forced cars on us. Now we need the government to get rid of cars so then we can get rid of the government.” Last week, Elon Musk (who looked a lot like the villian from The Fifth Element) gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal … Read more
(SW 19th Ave in the Markham neighborhood is a showcase for narrow residential roadway treatment. Photos: Lisa Caballero/BikePortland)
