Leave the car at home, take the income

Portland can earn an even bigger green dividend if it reduces the amount of driving in the region

Mayor Keith Wilson makes the connection between less driving and greater prosperity

Meanwhile state, regional and city policy-makers are undermining the green dividend–and sabotaging climate commitments–by planning billions for wider freeways based on traffic projections that call for vastly more driving.

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson made a passionate, well-reasoned economic argument for reducing car-dependence in Portland at his inaugural State of the City address last week.  Asked about what he would do to stimulate the city’s economy and job creation, he drew a straight line to less driving as a way to raise incomes and power economic growth.

His entire answer is worth reading:

We, by all rights should be the greenest city in the nation, and using those jobs as that catalyst to move us forward.  And so we have everything we need right here.  I really think that green leadership is the way we move our city forward.  You know, we are a car centric focus.  We have to focus on a multi-modal transportation system.  We need to unlock that potential:  We need to focus on street cars, which is that elemental approach to transit-oriented villages.  And then it has to be anchored with high speed rail.  And we have change how we lead our society:  Leave the cars at home, take the income and invest it in our communities for the health of our community.

For some time, City Observatory has pointed out that compared to other large US metropolitan areas, Portland earns a billion dollar a year “green dividend” because area residents drive about 20 percent less than in the typical US metro area.

Our compact development patterns, economic integration, jobs/housing balance and transportation investments in transit, biking and walking all reduce the amount of driving area residents have to do:  we either leave the car at home, drive fewer miles, or in many cases, don’t own a car at all.  All of those things benefit the local economy, because collectively households have a billion dollars more to spend on things other that cars and gasoline.

A key part of state, regional and municipal climate strategies is reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT).  State plans call for reducing VMT per capita by 30 percent by 2050.  That would help pay a huge additional dividend for the region, saving further  billions each year on transportation costs.

Tragically, the Oregon Department of Transportation and Metro, who are responsible for VMT reduction strategies for the state and region have largely lost their way.  Both are planning to spend billions of dollars on massive freeway expansion projects that are based on traffic projections that call for an increase in total driving:  we’re essentially subsidizing people to drive more, in a way that will undercut this green dividend we could be earning if we followed through on our plans (and climate strategy) that calls for us to drive less.  What Mayor Wilson wants—more streetcars (much less maintaining existing bus service), building high speed rail, and promoting transit oriented development—won’t happen if we continue to squander our capital on wider roads.

The City of Portland is effectively complicit in sabotaging exactly the approach that Mayor Wilson is calling for:  by supporting regional plans and state funding for the I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening, the Interstate Bridge and other billion-dollar a mile road projects, its both sapping revenue that could be used to support and greener strategy, while continuing to subsidize more pollution and create greater car dependence.

A hat tip to Bike Portland’s Jonathan Maus for his highlighting Mayor Wilson’s remarks connecting less driving with a strong economy.