I spent the last week in Minnesota, and was a prisoner of our rental car. The Twin Cities—with the exception of a few tightly planned neighborhoods, most of them in Minneapolis—were built for cars. We put more than 400 miles on the rental in just six days, simply by bouncing around to see family. It seems like we spent more time on I-494, I-52, I-94, and I-35 than we did enjoying what the cities had to offer. To be fair, 100 miles was a round trip jaunt to the rural town where my grandparents have retired, but still—300 miles is more than we put on our car here in Portland in a month.
But we didn’t have any other options. Transit in the Twin Cities is terrible (unless you’re taking light rail from the airport to the Mall of America). Even if we’d had bikes, most of my extended family’s homes are separated by miles of bike-unfriendly freeway.
So, though I’ll miss the fam, I was stoked to return to Portland yesterday. Last night, I walked to the store. This morning, I biked to work. If I don’t step foot in our car all week, I certainly won’t complain.
And the trip has put me into just the right mindset for tomorrow, when I’ll be moderating two panel discussions at the Toward Carfree Cities conference. One panel’s on the death of the Mount Hood Freeway, which would have bisected inner SE Portland on the way to Gresham (neighborhood activists, for the most part, stopped it), and the other is on the huge Columbia River Crossing project. You all know how I feel about the CRC, and those feelings were reinforced in Minnesota (even as I repeatedly drove past the site of the I-35W bridge that collapsed last year): We’ve got a good thing going here in Portland, where people have carfree options that are growing each year. Building a gigantic freeway project between Portland and Vancouver—and reinforcing the notion that people should live far from their jobs and commute in cars—is a move in the wrong direction. The discussion tomorrow will be looking toward the future: If we go ahead with the CRC project, what are the implications on things like quality of life, health, and our region’s economy?
There’s more carfree fun (and geekery) to be had all week—like a keynote speech tomorrow from Andy Clarke, Executive Director of the League of American Bicyclists, which just awarded Portland the Platinum designation for being a bike-friendly community—details after the jump!
Tomorrow is the free public day at the conference. Events at PSU’s Smith Memorial Union include a discussion on “How to Save Money, Save Your Sanity, and Save the Planet by Not Driving,” and a panel with a carfree panel from Issaquah, Washington (a distant suburb of Seattle). There’s also mobile discussions, like the “Dead Freeways Bicycle Tour,” and walking tours of downtown. Tomorrow night, the Sprockettes perform at City Hall, capping off an art show.
You’ll have to pay to attend Wednesday through the end of the week, but there are panels in things like urban pedicab companies, co-housing and other development that encourage walking and biking, transportation equity, and “Why Carfree Cities Are Safer,” with the Portland Office of Transportation’s own Greg Raisman moderating. There are also movie nights, a panel on carsharing, a look at San Francisco “From Critical Mass to Congestion Pricing,” and so many other great panels that you should take a peek yourself.
“Building a gigantic freeway project between Portland and Vancouver—and reinforcing the notion that people should live far from their jobs and commute in cars—is a move in the wrong direction.”
I’m all for getting people out of our cars, but it’s an interstate freeway, that compresses into two lanes, one thats disappears ephemerally in order to allow ship traffic to pass.
Should we similarly allow I-5 to atrophy at the California border?
As a Portland expat in the twin cities, I’d like to say that Minneapolis is #2 in number of bike commuters among major US cities, and Portland doesn’t even have winters.
Go Minneapolis! The bikey neighborhoods we did see were in that part of town. My fam’s in St. Paul, West St. Paul, Mendota Heights, and Inver Grove Heights, though…
You’re celebrating the blocking of new major arterials and ignoring the fact that freight doesn’t arrive by bike. We need to get across rivers and there’s no way around that.
Getting more people out of cars more often is great but there are limits. Even if we all could ride bikes or mass transit everywhere, you still need to move goods and services.
And I live where I work but when I want culture downtown, I have to drive. There isn’t another reasonable option…like light rail from Wilsonville to Portland.
And after the bridge is built freight will continue to be stuck in vancouver commuter traffic. Induced demand will insure this. If freight is the issue then build a dedicated freight lane. This bridge is nothing more then a 4 billion dollar clark county real estate subsidy
On the Twin Cities front, those who live in Minneapolis proper have one up on us: the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway, 40+ miles of dedicated bike paths weaving a wide loop from downtown along the Mississippi River, Minnehaha Creek, and Chain of Lakes… One of the great points of cycling pride amid the vast Twin Cities sprawl.
But everyone who has a proposal on the crossing includes space for both light rail and bikes. It just seems that continuing with the span as it stands is unrealistic, and all of the voices that oppose it are arguing out of sentimentality rather than realism.
Why is continuing with the existing span unrealistic? If you want traffic to move smoothly, toll it. If not, you can’t build your way out of congestion.
Everyone wanting a new bridge are ignoring that it costs $4.2 billion — money that clearly could better improve safety, freight movement, the region, health, etc.
@7:
Well, we do have the Springwater Corridor. It’s about 40 miles.
I also wanted to add, I’m actually working for a pro-bike, pro-transit advocacy group in Saint Paul this summer. You wouldn’t believe how many times I hear the “this is what they did in Portland” or see pictures of the Hawthorne bridge with bike commuters/bridge pedal/TRIMET around this office. (www.tlcminnesota.org)It makes me beam with civic pride. PORTLAND I’LL BE HOME SOON.
Hopefully we can expect a few more updates about the carfree conference? I would have loved to have gone.
A-M-Y baby?
Are you saying you sorta like transit in this city without actually saying that you like TRIMET, cause you just can’t stomach saying that you actually LIKE
ta da~~!
TRIMET?
Al M (your pal)
BTW!!
I LOVE THE ALL DILDO AND PLUG HARNESS AD NEXT TO THE POST COMMENT PAGE!!
LOL!!LOL!!
ONLY ON THE MERCURY!
how bout it A-M-Y?
Al, despite the fact that I wrote a piece you really didn’t like about the two gals who were kicked off the bus for kissing (probably because I quoted you in a not-flattering light), I don’t hate TriMet. Like just about any public agency, I’ve got criticisms of it, but on the whole I appreciate that we’ve got a decent transit system.
Getting around the Twin Cities is easy and fast if you don’t have to get to the suburbs that spread out *forever*. (sounds like you did..yuck.)
I’ve been in pdx for 2 years and love, love, love it. For 10 years before that I lived in Minneapolis and I loved it too. 🙂 I think the large number of cyclists here is totally weather related. 🙂 (partly at least) Mpls cyclists are tough mofos. Seriously though, it’s getting better (green lanes) but I generally hate riding in Portland.
MAX is rad for a few places I need to be, but I still think the Twin Cities mass transit kicks Trimet’s ass. Don’t get me wrong, the bus system is fine here…far better than most places. But I miss bussing the way I used to in Minneapolis. The snow? Not so much.
“”I’ve got criticisms of it, but on the whole I appreciate that we’ve got a decent transit system.””
OK FOLKS..YOU HEARD IT HERE…
FROM AMY RUIZ HERSELF!!
THANK YOU AMY!
YOUR QUOTE GOES ON MY BLOG FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER….
Yes! I’ve been waiting forever for Amy to say that. I’m going to bookmark your blog post that contains the quote!
This is my real comment: Since when was “carfree” a word? It makes sense in a url, since words are often bunched together in urls. But using it like that in regular sentences? It should be hyphenated, right? (I guess these questions are directed more toward Carfree Portland… but if you’re writing an article about the conference, I’m wondering if you’re going to change your perfectly reasonable style guidelines in order to flow better with the organization? I hope that made sense.)
Amy,
Join me on the 12-Barbur sometime, and then tell me how great our transit system is.
Hint #1: Don’t ride the bus if the outside ambient temperature is greater than 80 degrees.
Hint #2: The busses aren’t crowded at rush hour because everyone rides the #94. Before/after rush hour, prepare for crush loads unlike any other TriMet bus route. I’ve seen standing-room only busses at 5:30 AM, at 10:00 AM, and at 8:00 PM – on a routine basis when I had to ride that bus at those hours of the day.
Hint #3: Prepare for your bus to be anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes late. The #12 bus is TriMet’s ***worst performing frequent service bus line***.
Hint #4: Expect the unexpected. Expect your bus to make sudden unannounced detours, or have a driver unfamiliar with the route take you places you never thought you’d go. Today we almost ended up on I-5. Tell me, where on the #12 line does the route include driving on I-5?
lol..
ERIK!
You crack me up!