About that special session: @OregonDOT gearing up again for that same old bait and switch: Plead pothole poverty to get more money, then spend it on billion-dollar-a-mile megaprojects, consultants and debt. cityobservatory.org/the-old-…
cityobservatory.org/what-opb…
There’s no requirement ODOT use its $290 million to fix roads, watch for "bait and switch" to divert it to megaprojects & cost overruns.
Accountability measures are meaningless
It repeals a congestion pricing on Portland freeways, a key climate policy
Joe Cortright retweeted
"2/3 of Seattle’s greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation, with 9/10 of those carbon dioxide molecules coming from cars… The levy’s proposed investments are out of balance for a city that has committed to more than 2x transit ridership by 2030"
thestranger.com/guest-editor…
Joe Cortright retweeted
FOIA Lady is Ms. Margaret "Marge" Moore.
The person who supervises FOIA office "also hates FOIAs".
"It's more in the line of a govt secret, but too complicated to explain in an email. But I learned the tricks last year from an old friend, Marg Moore, who heads our FOIA office and also hates FOIAs". [D. Morens, Feb 25, 2021 from the SSCP-Staff-Memo-5.22.pdf].
cybercemetery.unt.edu/oilspi…
Joe Cortright retweeted
Yes, this is absolutely terrifying! (not)
Traffic engineers think you are idiots. When you treat people like idiots, they act like idiots. This design treats people like humans and, guess what? They act like humans.
(Note: humans try and avoid crashes.)
Joe Cortright retweeted
"Fire departments are consistently the most vocal opponents of any proposed road diets, including sidewalks, bus lanes, and bike lanes. This is despite the fact that fire departments spend more time responding to car crashes than fires." @bhargreaves
thesisdriven.com/p/on-fire-d…
Joe Cortright retweeted
"Why did cities spend SO much on half-assed highway caps that did a pretty marginal job stitching back together neighborhoods when Rochester had already demonstrated benefits of ripping out highways instead?" is a question our frustrated descendants will be asking for a long time
@megankimble new book “City Limits” is fascinating. two things I can’t stop thinking about:
🚊Rochester, NY has successfully de-highwayized … that’s crazy
💸Transit is termed “socialist” but really, highways are the biggest socialist program considering the 💲 taxpayers pay
Joe Cortright retweeted
The war has always been on cities. After WWII, US DOTs demolished neighborhoods and hollowed city centers in order to make way for the car. These mid-century highways divide communities, generate noise and air pollution and are vectors of illness, injury and death to this day.
Some drivers say San Francisco is at war with cars.
They feel under siege in a city becoming less hospitable to vehicles amid efforts to make streets safer for bicyclists and pedestrians. trib.al/pnh4XwF
Joe Cortright retweeted
When contemplating “war” it’s helpful to consider who is doing the killing and who is doing the dying. Cars are inanimate objects used to wage war on PEOPLE. People on foot (and bikes) are dying at the highest rate in 40 years. There is no war on cars. There is only self defense.
Some drivers say San Francisco is at war with cars.
They feel under siege in a city becoming less hospitable to vehicles amid efforts to make streets safer for bicyclists and pedestrians. trib.al/zDE469H
Joe Cortright retweeted
I think people’s brains are fried from 11 years of a majority of CPI prints coming in below 2%.
Joe Cortright retweeted
Cities that are serious about zero emission technologies install and invest in proven technologies like Trolley Buses, while immature transit agencies and cities still chase after half-assed techno-bandAids like battery buses.
Congrats to Vancouver for being smarter than most
Great trolleybus news from Vancouver, who have issued a Request for Information. The order could reach 512 trolleybuses -308 standard; 204 articulated - doubling the fleet size. Main contenders will be @newflyer (RH photo in Seattle) or Solaris (demonstrator on left).
Joe Cortright retweeted
For every ⬆️ of 1,000 lbs, a vehicle is 40-50% more likely to kill the occupants of another vehicle in a crash *whether they are wearing a seatbelt or not.* In the case of a pedestrian, this car would just vaporize them. What an absolutely tone deaf we-are-the-problem Xeet.
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Joe Cortright retweeted
The folks claiming capping I-676 in Philadelphia's Chinatown will allow development on the reclaimed land are delusional. Or in fact know better but are betting they can fool the public.
We're going to spend so much money on these highway projects for some pretty mediocre parks.
Joe Cortright retweeted
The city of Austin now says three story buildings on I-35 caps are "unlikely to be feasible" because they would require additional engineering and cost. So now, they're working on the assumption that buildings would be two stories max.
Here's a new rendering.
