Francois Vigneault The first attempts to siphon City Hall’s proposed gas tax have come up dry. Multnomah County Circuit Judge Karin Immergut this morning took up a challenge from state fuel lobbyists seeking to alter the language voters will see on the ballot. Then she swatted most of that challenge aside. Oregon Fuels Association President […]
Transportation
Posted inBikes
Uncle Phil’s Buying Portland Upgraded Bike Share Bikes
Dirk VanderHart Biketown! Weeks after announcing a hefty $10 million bike share sponsorship deal with Nike, the Portland Bureau of Transportation finally released documents that lay out the agreement this morning. Those include a revamped contract [pdf] with Motivate, the company that will procure and run the forthcoming Biketown system here, and an agreement with […]
Posted inPortland
#BusShame: The 15 on January 14, 2016
A few months ago, I wrote a story for the Mercury: “You’re Riding the Bus Wrong.” A lot of people read it! AND YET: A lot of people are still riding the bus wrong. Let us be clear. Riding the bus wrong is a shameful blight that gnaws at the heart of Portland, spreading its […]
Posted inNews
Portlanders Just Showed Up For A Homeless Resident Who Wants to Be A Cabbie
Sean Martinez, maybe your next cabbie. In these days of slackened taxi business, it’s not cheap to become a Portland cabbie. It costs anywhere from $75 to $100 for the background check the City of Portland administers, depending on what kind of driving you’d like to do. Then there are fees for drug tests, and […]
Posted inNews
Uber Flouted Portland Lobbying Rules, Will Be Fined $2,000
Mark Markovich Mayor Charlie Hales, Transportation Commissioner Steve Novick, and ride-hailing juggernaut Uber all ran afoul of city disclosure rules when they met over Uber’s future in Portland in December 2014. Only Uber will have to pay for it. Portland City Auditor Mary Hull Caballero announced today that she’s levying a fine of $2,000 against […]
Posted inNews
A Train’s On Fire Near the St. Johns Bridge
Photos: Massive train tanker car fire in St. Johns area : pic.twitter.com/l8ul9ykFd7— KGW News (@KGWNews) December 13, 2015 If you were thinking of heading over the St. Johns Bridge today, you’re not anymore. A train caught fire this morning near the bridge, setting six tankers ablaze with what Portland Fire and Rescue says is “hot […]
Posted inTransportation
Portland Is a Feces-Flecked Yellowstone This Morning
It’s one of Portland’s odd contradictions that we get rain almost constantly for nine months of the year, but don’t have stout enough infrastructure to handle much more than a stern drizzle. In any serious rains, our MAX trains flood when undercautious operators push through standing water, our hillside roads are prone to landslides, and […]
Posted inNews
PBOT Wants to Build a $6 Million Bike/Pedestrian Bridge Over I-405
PBOT As it casts about for new funding to maintain the city’s roads, the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s also setting its sights on bridge-building. Not metaphorically, either. PBOT wants to build a new steel bike and pedestrian bridge over I-405. In a grant application filed with the Oregon Department of Transportation in October, the bureau […]
Posted inNews
Commissioner Amanda Fritz Tears Into Her Colleagues (Again) As New Uber Regulations Pass
Nicolle Clemetson In seven years on Portland City Council—but maybe especially recently—Commissioner Amanda Fritz has made a habit of loosing blistering condemnations when it’s clear a majority of her colleagues disagree on an issue she cares about. Fans of the Fritz catalogue will remember such hits as March 5 of this year, when Fritz, unable […]
Posted inNews
Uber Rules Might Finally Pass Tomorrow. Surprise Rules For Pedicabs Won’t.
It looks as though Portland City Council may finally pass enduring regulations on Uber and Lyft tomorrow, nearly a year after ride-hailing services first launched in Portland. After weeks of jam-packed hearings—and complaints by Portland cabbies about basic unfairness in the proposed rules—city commissioners could well vote on more than 150 pages of amendments to […]
Posted inNews
TriMet Says It’s Investigating the Halloween “Flood Train” Incident
Portland max flooded on Halloween… Water was literally covering 1/3 of the door.Posted by Huy Yang on Saturday, October 31, 2015 You saw this video that emerged over the weekend from Facebooker Huy Yang, right? (Best comment: “Nobody seems that upset either xD they’re just having a good time on the flood train. Oregon is […]
Posted inNews
The City’s Finally Unveiled Permanent Rules For Uber and Lyft. Here’s What’s Interesting
Mark Markovich It might not seem like it now, but it was less than a year ago that Uber pounced on Portland, setting up shop here despite officials’ warnings over lawlessness and sparking the briefest of lawsuits. Today, after unceasing debate in the last year about how Portland will regulate Uber, and its competitor Lyft—and […]