Transportation Livability Hub

OTREC hosts region’s first Sustainable Communities dialogue

Daylong discussion with local and state leaders will help federal agencies work better together

The Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium held the West’s first listening session Wednesday under the Sustainable Communities Partnership, the effort to get federal agencies working together on green transportation and housing projects. Regional administrators from the Department of Transportation, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency met with local, regional and state leaders for open-ended discussions on building sustainable communities.

More than 150 people attended the daylong Oregon Community Dialogue at Willamette University  in Salem, organized by OTREC and facilitated by the National Policy Consensus Center. In one-on-one interviews, participants brainstormed the barriers to sustainable communities, the existing opportunities to work together and actions they could take to take to make their own communities more sustainable. They also discussed what they could accomplish if agencies did a better job of working together to pay for projects.

The discussions produced the following insights:

--Barriers to sustainable communities include a lack of shared vision on results, a lack of integration and coordination, a lack of marketplace incentives and confusion over how to achieve the goals.

--Federal agencies working better together would create opportunities for collaboration at all levels of government, give flexibility to use resources in new ways, allow for a better response to community needs and reduce waste and duplication of efforts.

--Given federal support, participants would erase divisions between agencies, create more inclusive local land-use planning processes and honor previously completed plans, reward visionary community efforts, create a clearinghouse for research and best practices and set up pilot projects to showcase those practices.

--Collaborative funding would create a simpler process, help meet multiple community goals simultaneously, build stronger working relationships and provide for more funding stability.

Administrators in attendance were Mary McBride of HUD Region 10; Michelle Pirzadeh, deputy administrator of EPA Region 10; Phil Ditzler of the Federal Highway Administration’s Oregon Division; and Rick Krochalis of the Federal Transit Administration’s Region 10. The administrators will now attend listening sessions in the other states of Region 10 and use the input to help make their agencies more effective, responsive and collaborative. 

Sustainable Communities Partnership - Oregon Community Dialogue

The Regional and Division Administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency, Housing and Urban Development and Department of Transportation are working with the Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium (OTREC) to convene a one-day, statewide, community dialogue to discuss their joint Partnership for Sustainable Communities today (June 30, 2010) at Willamette University.

Attendees represent a balanced representation of subject (transportation, housing, environment), geography (statewide, regional, local), and sector (public, private, academic, NGO).

The purpose of the event is to “increase awareness and understanding of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities; to receive input from state, regional, and local participants about opportunities and needs to inform our efforts; and, to catalyze an enhanced level of participation throughout Oregon.” The meeting will include presentations by the Administrators and workshop discussions facilitated by the National Policy Consensus Center.

Beyond the Motor City Portland Screening

OTREC and Architects Without Borders-Oregon are hosting an evening of ideas with a screening of Beyond the Motor City,a new documentary directed by filmmaker Aaron Woolf (INDEPENDENT LENS “King Corn”). This film examines how Detroit, a grim symbol of America’s diminished status in the world, may come to represent the future of transportation and progress in America. As an example, the picture on the left shows how the once great Michigan Theatre is now a parking lot. The film will be shown one-time only in Portland on June 29th, at McMenamins BAGDAD THEATER. Doors open at 5:30 pm & screening begins at 6:30 pm. Admission is FREE. A panel discussion to follow with Aaron Woolf (filmmaker), Bob Hastings (TriMet Architect), and Gil Kelley (Loeb Fellow, Harvard University). You can view the trailer below:

Portland is a Livable City

National Geographic recently described Portland as the City that “…gets almost everything right; it’s friendly, sustainable, accessible, and maybe a model for America’s future” (Cover story, Dec. 2009). Portland has a shared vision of a livable city, articulated in many different ways. It is seen in neighborhood self-help projects, big municipal investments, enlightened developers that build infill projects consistent with city plans, and the highest recycling participation rate in the country.  Taken together Portland is a city that is environmentally responsible, and conscious of both street level and of global impact of doing things right.

Comparing Active Transportation Approaches in China and Europe

In the last of the livability seminar series, OTREC's visiting scholars program welcomed Shawn Turner from the Texas Transportation Institute. Shawn's research spans the gamut of intelligent transportation systems data to bicycle and pedestrian issues.  Most recently, Shawn participated in the International Scan on Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety and Mobility.  His presentation compared his experiences on the scan in Europe to those in China.  During his presentation, he posed three challenges to Oregon:

• How does active transportation contribute to economic development?
• What is the tipping point for behavior and behavioral change?
• Can vanity play a role in social acceptance?

His presentation was followed by a discussion with local agencies, faculty, students and partners along with a 10-mile tour of innovative bike infrastructure in Portland.  Thank goodness the weather held up!

University Students Design a New Bicycle Shelter for Their Community

designBridge is a student-based organization at the University of Oregon that exposes students to real architectural and planning projects in their community. The organization promotes students’ engagement in their community while providing them with professional experience that will benefit them in their careers. In this OTREC-funded education project, led by Professor Nico Larco, the students of designBridge undertook the design and construction of a new transportation shelter for Roosevelt Middle School in Eugene, Oregon. The project results include not only the completion of the shelter but also the continued development of a service learning program that can effectively address small community transportation-related needs. To learn more about the project, down the final report at: http://otrec.us/project/247

New Visions for Suburbia

Suburban multifamily housing makes up the fastest-growing housing market in the country. Townhouses, condos and apartment complexes bring density to suburbia. They are also often located close to commercial areas. For these reasons, they offer the potential for active transportation and mixed-use development. Yet this potential rarely becomes a reality. Professor Nico Larco’s OTREC project explores why inaccessible, disconnected forms of suburban multifamily development dominate. The project draws on interviews with architects, planners, developers, and property managers of developments in four states. It proposes ways in which current practices might shift in order to create more livable, less congested, and multi-modal suburban communities. To read the report in it's entirety go to: http://otrec.us/project/152

Telling Oregon’s Transportation & Land Use Tales

To look at how buses, light rail, street cars, and bicycling have all become prominent modes in Portland, you need to trace back to important land use decisions made three decades ago. In 1974, Oregon adopted statewide land use planning goals. These goals shifted planning efforts away from freeway-building, toward investment in alternative forms of transportation. Since then, Oregon has been a leader in pushing back against car-centric landscapes and lifestyles. In this OTREC project, Professor Carl Abbott and Sam Lowry of Portland State University traced the history of land use planning in Oregon from 1890-1974. One of the project’s aims is to make transportation planning relevant and compelling to a broad audience. To do so, Abbott and Lowry gathered stories and information from a wide range of sources who enthusiastically shared their knowledge of transportation history. You can download the report to read more: http://otrec.us/project/138

Does transportation to school affect families’ housing choices?

Dr. Yizhao Yang’s OTREC project on understanding school travel examined the relationships between school transportation, neighborhood walkability, and where families choose to live. The study involved a 5,500-household survey of families with children attending selected public schools in Eugene, Oregon. In general, parents did consider school transportation in the process of deciding where to live. Unfortunately, housing opportunities around schools and in walkable communities are often limited. Dr. Yang’s project suggests a need for greater coordination between community land use planning and school planning. The study also points to the value of continuing to educate the community about safe and active transportation options to school. The final report can be downloaded at: http://otrec.us/project/184.

Rick Willson on Transit Oriented Development 2.0

As a part of OTREC's visiting scholars program, Professor Rick Willson from Cal Poly Pomona presented on the the next generation of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) on February 12.  In a nutshell, TOD is "the intersection of good transit planning and good development planning."  The initial implementation of TOD in California focused on vertical mixed development, fixed rail and property within a quarter mile.  It was a good step in the right direction of creating more livable and sustainable communities.  However, it had some shortcomings such as using cheap right of way, dispersed origin-destination, and counter incentives. New legislation in California and other states focused on vehicle-miles traveled greenhouse gas emissions reduction provides an opportunity to update TOD to use the lessons learned and improve on some shortcomings.  If you missed Prof. Willson's recent seminar, you can view the streaming video and access presentation online. (Image Credit: Rick Willson)