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I'd like to discuss ways to improve bus stops; our Garden Home community just built a bus shelter with volunteer dollars and labor. TriMet allowed but did not contribute. We now have an improved bus stop.

posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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You introduced the program with the words "Metro does all the land use planning for Washington, Multnomah, and Clackamas Counties..." In fact, those local jurisdictions do their own land use planning (with or without meaningful citizen input); Metro only provides the land use framework/land supply for the local planning to take place.

posted 3 years, 1 month ago
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For another related show, you could discuss funding for transportation infrastructure, maybe in light of the upcoming adoption of the Regional Transportation Plan at Metro. A clear explanation of the amount of all the dollars spent by the region (federal, state, local) to expand and maintain the motor vehicle infrastructure compared with the amount of money spent on infrastructure to make biking and walking possible would be useful to people.

For example, ODOT is adding an on-ramp lane from 217 northbound to 26 eastbound that will cost $35 million. That is just one very small project in the region and the cost per mile is very high. Right now, the RTP includes huge amounts of money for freeway and arterial expansion that dwarf the 20-year amounts that Portland proposes in its new bike plan.

The graph of regional expenditures over the past 10 years for car/truck space really has to be compared to the graph of regional expenditures for bike/ped to get a clear picture of the how the region isn't "shorting" car drivers by adding infrastructure for walking and biking. Transit capital for light rail, new buses, and the street car should also be treated separately from transit operation dollars to better understand how much transit service we are really getting. 

posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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