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Editorial: There's Much to Like in Transportation Plan
Transportation infrastructure improvement projects are at the top of governmental “to do” lists at all levels these days. In fact, McMinnville’s Transportation Advisory Committee got its first look at the city’s draft plan earlier this month, and there was much to review. The plan takes a long view at capital improvement projects, concentrating on street functionality and upgrades, pedestrian walkways and bicycle paths. News Register, December 18, 2008
Open House Lays Out Future of Transportation in the Valley
An outlook on transportation in the Rogue Valley over the next 25 years will be offered at an open house today...Rogue Valley Transit District potential services are not included in the projections because the agency has no funded short- or long-term upgrades at present. Mail Tribune, December 16, 2008
Businesses, Ports form Coalition to Promote New I-5 Bridge
With an eye on President-elect Barack Obama's interest in public works spending to boost the economy, a Portland-based coalition of business groups and public ports will rally...support for a new Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River. The...Columbia River Crossing Coalition...said it plans to..."We feel that it's critically important...to have the project move forward," said Brian Gard, a Portland public relations executive serving as co-executive director of the coalition...The business support came as little surprise to bridge critics. Lenny Anderson, a longtime transportation activist who helped form smarterbridge.org...said business groups often endorse projects if someone else pays for them. "When the private sector comes to the public trough, they forget the discipline that keeps them in business," Anderson said. The Oregonian, December 10, 2008
With Increased Density Comes Transit
It's a classic chicken-and-egg problem...Buses and other mass transit work best when densities are high. The more people who live on each acre, the more likely they are to use public transit.
But which comes first? The density or the buses? Metropolitan area planners have concluded it's the density -- or at least the land-use rules that encourage higher densities. Fresno Bee, December 7, 2008
Wal-Mart Hearing Draws Crowd of 100
A four-hour hearing on a site plan review for a 150,000 square foot Wal-Mart building on property at the west end of town ended without any decision — in fact without any deliberation by the planning commission. The hearing, which drew an audience of more than 100 to the circuit courtroom in the Wasco County courthouse, brought forth lots of testimony from both proponents and opponents...The store proposed is about 150,000 square feet. In comparison, Home Depot is 100,000 square feet and the expanded Fred Meyer store is around 114,000 square feet, Gassman said. He said Wal-Mart proposes 745 parking spaces at the site, which is the maximum for the square footage of the building proposed. The Dalles Chronicle, December 5, 2008
Transportation Commission Formed Anew
The Traffic Safety Commission met for the final time Thursday night, after which it was abolished along with the Bicycle and Pedestrian Commission to prepare for a new Transportation Commission forming after the first of the year...Combining the two traffic-related commissions will allow the city to work on more long-term transportation planning, Olson said. The commission will deal with all transportation-related issues, including safety, planning, funding and advocacy for bicycles, mass transit, parking, pedestrians and all other modes of transportation. Mayor-elect John Stromberg said the commission will allow the city to be more proactive in planning for public and alternative modes of transportation. Ashland Daily Tidings, December 5, 2008
New Public Transit Hub Opens
The timing was just about perfect...Two years ago, [Frank] Thomas, aided by a host of local officials, landed an $893,000 ConnectOregon I grant to build a transit hub to house both Greyhound and Community Connection’s extensive public transit program...Thomas said the hub is important because it serves as a connection to other transportation services locally and across the region. “We have multi-modal built in by intent,” he said. La Grande Observer, December 3, 2008
Mass-Transit Projects Fared Well at Polls
U.S. voters approved billions of dollars for mass-transit projects, highlighting a growing desire to overhaul the nation's aging transportation systems...Some 23 initiatives were approved nationwide last week that will inject $75 billion into transportation systems, according to the Center for Transportation Excellence, a nonpartisan research group that promotes mass-transit service...Overall, more than 70% of the major transportation-funding measures on ballots this year were approved, about double the rate at which initiatives are usually passed, the CFTE said. Wall Street Journal, November 12, 2008
Will Rescue Plan Simply Serve Sprawl?
There’s a critical “place” story beyond the carelessness and/or chicanery of subprime mortgage lenders..In his study Driven to the Brink, researcher Joe Cortright identifies an emerging pattern...“Distant suburbs,” he writes, “have seen the biggest declines, while values in close-in neighborhoods have held up better, and in some cases continued to increase.” Dwellings within walkable neighborhoods, close to transit, shopping and places of entertainment, are holding their own in terms of price and value...The critics snickered at our bid to reinvent historic town form. Americans’ love affair with the automobile, they said, would never end. Though now, in an era of $4 gallon gas and traffic congestion horrors, the latter-20th century model is clearly running on fiscal fumes. Citiwire, October 12, 2008
Speaker Extols the Virtues of Walking, Biking
American communities are rediscovering how important it is for people to get around by walking and biking. Nobody’s happier about that than Tom Hylton. Hylton, of Pottstown, Pa., is a Pulitzer Prize-winning former journalist...Other speakers...told about state grant possibilities for enhancing students’ walking and biking experiences. Julie Yip, Oregon’s Safe Routes to School program manager, said projects between $50,000 and $200,000 can be funded if the community will first develop an action plan...Constance Beaumont, outreach coordinator for the Oregon Transportation and Growth Management Program, said her agency is ready to announce a new round of funding in the $50,000-$100,000 range for planning grants designed to “plan safe routes to school, downtown improvement” and other benefits. Baker City Herald, October 9, 2008
Cut the Sprawl, Cut the Warming
For years, while Washington slept, most of the serious work on climate change has occurred in the states, and no state has worked harder than California. The latest example of California’s originality is a new law — the nation’s first — intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by curbing urban sprawl and cutting back the time people have to spend in their automobiles. Passenger vehicles are the biggest single source of carbon dioxide in California, producing nearly one-third of the total...One obvious solution would be to change zoning laws so developers can build new housing closer to where people work. Another is to improve mass transit...so commuters don’t have to rely so much on cars. The bill contains significant incentives, including the promise of substantial federal and state money to regions whose plans pass muster...the state will relax various environmental rules to allow “infill” — higher-density land use in or near cities and towns. New York Times, October 7, 2008
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