Hey ODOT: Congestion Pricing is for Reducing Congestion!

Posted on November 9, 2021November 18, 2021 by Henry Latourette Miller

Last week The Street Trust’s Policy Transformation Manager sent the letter below to the Oregon Tolling Program about the Regional Mobility Pricing Project. TST will continue to keep the pressure on leadership to use congestion pricing for what it is for–reducing congestion–not for paying for more highway lanes and car infrastructure at the expense of bike, pedestrian, and transit investments..

“The Street Trust is a membership advocacy organization amplifying the voice of street users from across Greater Portland. We work at the intersections of an ongoing transportation crisis. Every day, our unsafe and incomplete public streets threaten our lives and livelihoods. Together, we can stop preventable death resulting from racial and social inequality, inadequate safety, and the climate crisis. For that reason, we are working hard to overcome the political gridlock that ignores these most urgent needs.

Given these priorities, The Street Trust is focused on advancing a regional system that manages demand and prioritizes multimodal infrastructure. We are strong proponents of the emerging use of pricing as a tool to help manage traffic demand, address urgent climate concerns, and improve equitable access to other modes in our transportation system. However, The Street Trust supports using pricing as a tool to manage transportation demand, not as a revenue generator for expanding capacity for drive-alone trips.

The language in your draft document states that the purpose of the Regional Mobility Pricing Project is “to implement congestion pricing to manage traffic congestion and to generate revenue for priority transportation projects.” This is unacceptably vague and as such, we ask that you please clearly describe the characteristics of a priority transportation project, especially as it relates to the stated goals of “support[ing] multimodal transportation choices to provide travel options and reduce congestion” and “provid[ing] benefits for historically and currently excluded and underserved communities” and “reducing contributions to climate change effects” (p. 7).

We are gravely concerned that every project listed on the Urban Mobility Office’s website is centered on freeways or freeway expansion.The Street Trust believes the future of Urban Mobility is multimodal, not auto-centric. Oregonians deserve more than a “pave now, pay later” investment in the midst of a long-overdue climate justice reckoning and recalibration.

Throughout the draft document, there is not a single mention of induced demand. A
clear explanation of this principle and its consequence is a critical element of transportation planning discussions; thus, the final purpose and need statement document must include an explanation of induced demand.

As leaders in the discussion of congestion pricing, it is important that ODOT embraces its responsibility for driving an essential cultural shift towards the elevation and prioritization alternatives to the carbon-intensive, drive-alone trip. This project is an extraordinary opportunity to help Oregonians understand that the things they’ve perceived as free have actually been quite costly, causing harm to our most vulnerable communities for decades and that without urgent, strategic, and innovative intervention, they will continue to do so.

Finally, we ask that you move forward with a commitment to equity by ensuring you spend sufficient time and resources engaging and taking direction from the multiple generations of communities that have suffered negatively from your previous freeway projects, with a specific focus on Portland’s Black community members displaced during the original Interstate 5 construction.

We remain appreciative of the work you’ve done and are excited about the potential for our state to emerge as a national leader on innovative, equitable, and impactful transportation policy. Please do not hesitate to reach out to The Street Trust if we can support you in this important work.”

Many thanks,
André Lightsey-Walker
Policy Transformation Manager
The Street Trust

Advocacy work is painstaking and thankless. #TST staff attend hours of public hearings, write letters, and show up to testify week in and week out so your voices are represented in these discussions. But we need your support to make sure that pricing is implemented to reduce congestion and not to pay for more highway lanes at the expense of bike, pedestrian, and transit investments.

Donate today to support TST’s advocacy work ensuring fair and effective pricing in the Portland metro region.

City Council: Use pricing to change behavior, not generate revenue

Posted on November 9, 2021November 9, 2021 by Henry Latourette Miller

Last month, The Street Trust’s Policy Transformation Manager sent the letter bellow to City Council to support Portland’s Bureau of Transportation and Bureau of Planning and Sustainability in developing an implementation plan for a suite of equitable mobility fees and investments based on principles recommended by the Pricing Options for Equitable Mobility Task Force.

Dear Mayor and City Council Members:

My name is André Lightsey-Walker and I am the Policy Transformation Manager at The Street Trust, a multimodal advocacy organization and registered lobbying entity with the City of Portland.

Today is a day to celebrate! I’m happy to share both my excitement and appreciation of the work the Taskforce has brought forward and I want to commend not only their outcomes but also – and perhaps more importantly – the groundwork and processes that have led to their final recommendations.

The Street Trust supports the Pricing Options for Equitable Mobility (POEM) Taskforce recommendations and encourages City Council to formally adopt these recommendations and to move quickly towards an implementation plan.

We are here today to support you as you navigate potential points of contention surrounding these recommendations and align your bureaus to ensure that they are implemented equitably, directed to do so with requisite urgency, and from a position of leadership both regionally and nationally.

As a regional advocacy organization, The Street Trust has identified equitable pricing as a strategic priority (and opportunity) to achieve greater mobility, equity and climate goals across the greater Portland metro area. We ask that The City of Portland not only support but lead implementation demand management of our transportation system by forwarding the POEM Task Force’s recommendations from your seat at the table in ODOT tolling discussions. You have the opportunity to set precedent at a pivotal point in the region’s history, where conversations of pricing are coming up at the local, regional, and state levels. Let’s work collectively to reestablish Portland as a global transportation leader and use our influence and successes as a model for how urban areas can do pricing right.

These are highly uncertain times in which you’re leading, and when discussing pricing options it may be tempting to center your priorities on revenue generation. It’s going to be important in this pivotal moment that you remember to prioritize changing travel behavior as opposed to generating revenue. The decisions you are making surrounding the POEM recommendations have the potential to positively transform our city and establish a tangible dedication to achieving the safety and climate outcomes we hope to achieve.

I encourage you all to remember that the primary goal of these recommendations is to reduce traffic demand and support congestion relief. Potential revenue should be looked at as an opportunity and tool to double down on your impact, by using the generated funds to continue to help reduce said demand and improve equitable outcomes in our transportation system.

When facing pushback to POEM recommendations, we must understand that the bulk of opposition stems from a perspective of Portland residents, old and new, who have traveled along and experienced city streets where policies and investments have prioritized the movement of automobiles over people… often, quite literally right over them. As long as we continue to prioritize drive-alone trips in our policies and investments, we will continue to see the creeping pollution, traffic violence, climate deterioration, and preventable death in our streets associated with those choices.

Many people, not unsurprisingly, are angered by the prospect of paying for something they’ve cognitively established as free. Whether it’s plastic bags, parking in their neighborhood, or crossing a bridge, and response to this change is natural. As leaders in our community, you have the opportunity to play a key role in helping people better understand that the things they’ve perceived as free have actually been quite costly, causing harm to our most vulnerable communities for decades.

And they will continue to do so without urgent, strategic and innovative intervention.

Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

shows there is a national trend in traffic fatalities EVEN amidst the decrease in VMT associated with the pandemic. The City of Portland is no different: our streets are deadly, and we’ve already lost at least 51 lives to traffic violence in 2021. The Street Trust echoes PBOT’s proclamation that one death in our streets is too many, so we must collectively upend our auto-centric paradigm and prioritize the mobility of our most vulnerable street users first. We still have a unique opportunity to implement changes before returning to normal travel patterns. The Street Trust believes quick action on these recommendations will lead to more significant impacts and better outcomes for our community.

I ask for your continued leadership as we move forward in showing Portland and beyond, that designing streets for people is justice in action.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

A. Lightsey-Walker
André Lightsey-Walker
Policy Transformation Manager, The Street Trust
[email protected]

Donate today to support TST’s advocacy work ensuring fair and effective pricing in the Portland metro region.

It’s Just the Beginning: The Street Trust 2021 Alice Awards

Posted on October 7, 2021 by Henry Latourette Miller

Alice Awards Block Party Recap + Photos

Last weekend, an at-capacity crowd gathered beneath beautiful trees with friends old and new to activate a public plaza, reclaim and reimagine West Burnside Street, and celebrate the transportation champions in our community.

Coming together for a safe, joyful, inclusive celebration is central to our core work of building community for better outcomes in our streets. But more play means we have more fundraising work to support the organization. So if you weren’t able to join us or you just want to see more inclusive events like this, we need you to contribute $20, $50, $100 or $250 today.

To see more photos from the 2021 Alice Awards, follow our Facebook page, check out board member Dr. A.J. Zelada’s website, or visit Bike Portland’s photo gallery.

Congrats to 2021’s Alice Award Winners!

The Bud Clark Lifetime Achievement Award Winner was Metro Councilor Bob Stacey who for nearly four decades has been an environmental advocate, a public servant, a trusted advisor to leaders, and a tireless voice for smart transportation choices for our future.

The Alice Award was presented to State Representative Khanh Pham (OR D-46) who accepted the award on behalf of the many parents, small business owners, community members, and activists who have fought for years to make 82nd Avenue a safe place where we can work, live, play, and pray. She called this just the beginning of a transportation transformation that we’re going to be making together to make sure these truly are all of our streets.

The inaugural Elizabeth Jennings Graham Transportation Justice Award was presented to BikePOC PNW for their leadership in actively creating intentional space for bike riders of color in our region. BikePOC PNW co-founder Will Cortez introduced the group as a collective of people in the community who bring trauma, joy, excitement, anger, sadness, and a vision for something that can be really great.

Thanks, BikePortland, for capturing video of the acceptance speeches. See the tribute to Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Bob Stacey who could not be present, Oregon State Representative Khanh Pham accepting her Alice Award, and the organizers of BikePOC PNW and the Chingonas Ride accepting their Elizabeth Jennings Graham Transportation Justice Award. Watch the video here.

About the Venue – Ankeny West

We were so pleased to celebrate under a beautiful blue sky block-party-style at Friends of the Green Loop’s new Ankeny West plaza in the Cart Blocks. The plaza provided ample space for our family-friendly gathering and reclaiming parts of nearby streets (thanks PBOT Healthy Businesses permit!) gave room for extra bike parking and the stage. We enjoyed lunch from the following food carts, permanently sited at Ankeny West:

#1 Bento

Anna Thai Basil

Beijing House

Fernando’s Alegria

Hua Li House

Kafta House

KBap

Shanghai’s Best

Tito’s Burrito’s #2

Villa Angel Taqueria

Thank You Sponsors!

A huge thank you goes to all the organizations and businesses who made the event possible!

The 2021 Alice Awards stage was sponsored by Thomas, Coon, Newton & Frost. Our sponsors were Kaiser Permanente, Columbia Bank, David Evans and Associates, KPFF, and PBOT. Our “Picnic Table” sponsors were Randy Miller, The Foundry, and Nelson/Nygaard. A special shout out to Brew Dr Kombucha for supplying the delicious kombucha and Go By Bike for the bike racks.

#BacktoSchool with #TST

Posted on September 9, 2021September 13, 2021 by Henry Latourette Miller

Drive Like It

School is back in session and with students traveling to in-person classrooms again, drivers need to remember school routes are everywhere and #DriveLikeIt!

The Street Trust has partnered with ODOT, Metro, the Portland Bureau of Transportation, and Safe Routes to School programs to share this message across the region. Yard signs have been distributed and Trimet buses are running bright pink ads reminding drivers to slow down and watch out for kids.

Want to get the message out in your community? Visit our toolkit to download campaign posters and create your own social media posts!

Walk+Roll

Wednesday, October 6 is International Walk+Roll to School Day! Is your school ready to celebrate and encourage their students to walk and roll?

International Walk+Roll to School Day is a global event that involves communities from more than 40 countries walking and rolling to school on the same day. It began in 1997 as a one-day event and over time, this event has become part of a movement for year-round safe routes to school and a celebration – with record-breaking participation – each October. Today, thousands of schools across America – from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico – participate every October.

Visit the Safe Routes to School website to learn individual and whole-school activity ideas, including how to sign up for our next student art contest!

Oregon Friendly Driver Classes

Want to learn to be a safer and friendlier driver while out on the road? Attend a free virtual Oregon Friendly Driver class !

The Street Trust will teach you how to drive around people walking and bicycling by talking about laws, infrastructure, and common mistakes that people make while out and about through our interactive virtual class. This free class is appropriate for drivers of all skill levels from new drivers to professional drivers!

Joins for a lunch time Friendly Driver training Thursday, September 1 from 12 – 1 pm and Thursday, September 30 from 12 – 1 pm.

Want to host a free Friendly Driver class for your workplace?Request a training !

Parkrose Pedal

On September 1st, The Street Trust partnered with the Community Cycling Center for the #ParkrosePedal by the Parkrose Middle School. The event was dreamt by and organized by Nichole Watson, a local bike advocate looking to improve visibility and representation in the cycling community, and the Parkrose School District. Three #TST leaders supported the “bike rodeo” activity and joined dozens of community members for a walk and ride to build a more inclusive cycling culture in the region.

TST was thrilled to see such a large turnout and is always seeking volunteers to participate in and help organize more of these types of events in the future!

Questions about TST’s education efforts? Email TST Education Director Lindsay Huber at [email protected] or

visit our website.

The Street Trust Brings a Parklet to Oregon City

Posted on August 26, 2021August 26, 2021 by Henry Latourette Miller

The Street Trust won a $1,000 Park(ing) Day grant to install a temporary parklet on Oregon City’s Main Street on September 17th. To win the grant provided by SPIN Scooters and the Better Block Foundation, TST partnered with the Downtown Oregon City Association and Black Ink Coffee, a local cafe and bookstore that has become a popular pit stop for recreational cyclists.

A temporary parklet might not seem like much, but this project reflects the ambition of our 2021-23 Strategic Plan, which calls for working with and learning from diverse street users across the region. Over the next two years we will continue to build new partnerships beyond central Portland because we believe everyone wants to see an end to an inefficient, expensive, and deadly street system.

By bringing a parklet to a community often choked with car traffic despite its walk and rollable street grid, we are shifting the conversation around what it means to have a healthy Main Street in small town Oregon. By partnering with a business and a business association, we are creating new alliances with folks who can tell their community that a safe, healthy street isn’t just better for people: it’s good for business.

This competitive grant draws an international pool of applicants and we want to thank the folks at SPIN and the Better Block Foundation for entrusting us to carry out this important mission. We also want to celebrate fellow Oregon-based non-profit Better Eugene-Springfield Transportation (BEST) for winning the same grant and their plans to bring a parklet to Eugene in September.

Visit TST’s Oregon City Parklet on September 17th at 503 Main St., Oregon City. There will be games, coffee, shade, and bike parking.

To volunteer, visit our website.

Have questions? Email TST Events Coordinator Madi Carlson at [email protected].

Walk + Roll Art Contest

Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day​​