The LA Times‘ Road Sage, Steve Hymon, asks today in the Bottleneck Block, what can Portland teach Los Angeles about transportation?
I recently spent a long weekend in Portland, Ore. The trip was for fun, but it was hard not to look and sometimes marvel at the many things that Portland does well on the transportation front and wonder if they can be applied here.
The somewhat starry eyed analysis looks at cycling, light rail, parking downtown, the bus mall, the streetcar, and even the tram.
Clearly, a city like LA is a different beast than Portland, not just in size, but in political culture. Decades ago Portland chose, and stuck to, a path that deviated from that taken by most of the country. Portland is now reaping the transportation benefits, in particular, and providing an example to other cities.
What benefits have Portland roads seen? Traffic is at a stand still for half the day. The MAX is filled with drugs and crime and is very slow. There isn’t enough money for new buses due to MAX taking all the money. People are forced on to bikes since they cannot afford the high cost of housing and taxes. Wow, Portland is a great place.
cowboysrule – I, and a lot of other people, wouldn’t trade Portland’s traffic and “drugs and crime” on the Max (which is laughable hype) and bikeable infrastructure for any other comparable West Coast city’s 10 lane highways (with much worse traffic than Portland) and sprawl and unwalkable neighborhoods.