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Category Archives: Transportation

Amtrak and Improving Bicycle Connectivity for Portland

This past weekend I took a trip up to Portland from Eugene with my bike. I really appreciate the fact that I can bring my bike on the train, as it gives me the choice to do whatever I like when I arrive at Union Station. Upon arrival, one can bike to the nearest bus line to [...]

PDXppl: Diana Banning, Portland’s Archivist

1937 intersection at SE Powell Blvd. & 39th Avenue looking north, one of the many street scenes in the Archives’ collections. Photo courtesy of Portland City Archives A2005-001.517

PDXppl is a series of profiles of Portlanders and what they do. Be sure to take a look at the PDXppl page on the right-hand sidebar of this [...]

Who is your neighborhood bus driver?

I suppose this is a very general question. Which bus driver? The one that happens to be driving a bus I board from time to time? The one who drives the bus line near my house? The one that drives the bus on which I commute regularly?
I don’t ride TriMet too often these days as [...]

PDXppl: David Keller, one less car

PDXppl is the first in a series of profiles of Portlanders and what they do. Be sure to take a look at the new PDXppl page on the right-hand sidebar of this page where you can keep up on the urban gens of Portland!
When I was growing up in Southwest Portland, I never rode [...]

PDXpoesy: send in your poems!!!

Cities are about the people who define them. From Langston Hughes’ Harlem, to Baudelaire’s Paris, poets are a mainstay in defining daily urban life and documenting a city’s existence. I took an urban poetry class in my Spanish studies here at the University of Oregon and, I must say, if you can take a class on [...]

Portland: Livability, U.S.A.

In case you missed it, the passed two days have been big for Portland. The MAX Green Line saw its inaugural run with head politicos of the Portland area and the Oregon Congressional delegation. (Mayor Sam Adams was missing due to a City Council meeting that happens on Wednesdays.) Today, none other than the Secretary [...]

Corralling the Community Energy of Bike Corrals

I recently saw a post over at Bike Portland regarding a recently-installed “bike corral.” Bike corrals are a series of bike racks aligned in a row, in spaces usually reserved for parking cars. With the bike scene taking the city and its on-street parking by storm, the locations of these corrals are appearing across Portland. [...]

TriMet: a public agency with no elected officials

In light of the stark definition in the title of this post, I do not intend to criticize TriMet for not having elected officials in its ranks. I realized this fact after reading a post today over at Portland Transport today. Fred Hansen is not elected, this is true. But I question whether a publicly [...]

The Infamous “Fareless Square”

Who knew? Fareless Square, a peculiarly shaped square that includes much of downtown and NE Portland, isn’t free! The square is currently undergoing review by TriMet, Portland’s regional transportation authority. Inside the square, fare for busses, the MAX and the streetcar is free. The square was created in 1975 to stem the effects of traffic and pollution and now [...]

Portland: Trailblazing no matter how slow-coming

No, I’m not talking about the Blazers completing the longest winning streak in the history of the NBA (after a team received the number one draft pick). Au contraire, an urban renewal project of monumental impact has been stewing in the minds of neighborhood activists and planners for over a decade. The capital improvement project, known [...]