When you build a city that enables people to drive less, they spend less on cars and gas and have more to spend on other things.

Here is my 2007 report, published by CEOs for Cities, which describes Portland’s Green Dividend–the additional income that Portland area residents have to spend because they drive fewer miles than the typical American urban dweller. A decade ago, we estimated that Portlander’s saved a collective $1.1 billion thanks to the fact that they drove about 20 percent less than the average American.