The key to being on-time and under-budget: Orwellian double-speak Oregon DOT projects are always on-time and under budget–because the agency simply disappears its original schedules and budgets. Delayed, half-finished projects are officially described as “On-time and on-budget” Oregon DOT routinely hides its waste, mismanagement and incompetence The last bits of fresh asphalt have been rolled […]
Moving the goalposts Read More »
Despite legal pledges to reduce greenhouse gases to address climate change, Portland’s transportation greenhouse gas emissions are going up, not down. State, regional and city governments have adopted climate goals that purport to commit us to steadily reducing greenhouse gases, but we’re not merely failing to make progress, we’re going in the wrong direction. April
Happy Earth Day, Oregon! Widening Freeways Kills the Planet! Read More »
If you’re serious about dealing with climate change, the last thing you should do is spend billions widening freeways. The Oregon Department of Transportation is hell-bent on widening freeways and destroying the planet April 22 is Earth Day, and to celebrate, Oregon is moving forward with plans to billions dollars into three Portland area freeway
Happy Earth Day, Oregon! Let’s Waste Billions Widening Freeways! Read More »
Here’s a thought: Let’s fight traffic congestion using the same techniques DOT’s use to promote safety. Let’s have costumed superheroes weigh in against congestion, and spend billions on safety, instead of the other way around. Why don’t we insist that driver’s take responsibility for the length of their commutes? Today marks the first day of
Let’s use a marketing campaign to solve traffic congestion Read More »
Oregon’s Department of Transportation concedes it was lying about crashes on I-5 at the Rose Quarter For more than a year, we and others have been calling out the Oregon Department of Transportation for its false claims wider freeways are needed to improve road safety. And we’ve repeatedly show that ODOT’s claim that I-5 at
Oregon DOT admits it lied about I-5 safety Read More »
ODOT hid its plans to build a $3 billion Columbia River Crossing in the Rose Quarter Freeway Widening Environmental Assessment The carefully crafted marketing campaign for the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening project is adamant that you don’t call it an expansion. It’s an “improvement project” they say. We’re not widening the freeway, we’re just
There’s a $3 billion bridge hidden in the Rose Quarter Project EA Read More »
Oregon’s Department of Transportation is lying about safety to sell a half billion dollar freeway project Fear-mongering is the one of the lowest, if unfortunately most effective, means of selling anything. Threaten anyone with a danger to their health and safety, and they’ll acquiesce to a sales pitch. Oregon’s Department of Transportation is using an
Safety: Using the big lie to sell wider freeways Read More »
Portland’s Albina neighborhood was devastated by the I-5 freeway; Widening it repeats that mistake Freeways and the traffic they generate are toxic to vibrant urban spaces. The great lesson of the urban freeway building boom of the 1960s was that it served chiefly to destroy, devalue and depopulate city neighborhoods throughout the nation. Freeways accomplished
How a freeway destroyed a neighborhood, and may again Read More »
Tax free shopping in Oregon saves the typical Southwest Washington household $1,000 per year Cross border shopping accounts for 10-20 percent of all trips across the I-5 and I-205 bridges Tax avoidance means we’re essentially paying people to drive and create traffic congestion Those who live in “the ‘Couv”–Vancouver, Washington–often like to poke at their
How tax evasion fuels traffic congestion in Portland Read More »
Why Portland’s freeway fight is so important to the future of cities everywhere The plan to widen the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway in Portland, at a cost of $500 million, is a tragic error for one city, and an object lesson to others. A wider freeway will induce more traffic and pollution (and ironically, worsen
Why Portland shouldn’t be widening freeways Read More »
