11 results for tag: climate-smart transportation
Move Oregon Forward: A Coalition and Vision for Our Transportation Future
There’s a big problem happening in our transportation system today, and it’s been decades in the making. The Oregon Department of Transportation is facing a $1.8 billion deficit. If this is not met, ODOT staff have said they will need to eliminate more than 1,000 jobs, and that basic services that help to keep the state moving – including snow plowing, road repair, and bridge maintenance – will be halted or delayed dramatically.
What is being left out of this conversation is what will happen to the state’s commitments to reduce traffic violence, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and improve community health, economic resilience, and ...
Tolling in Oregon: What’s The Deal?
What is tolling?
It seems like a simple question, but a “toll” can be understood in many different ways. Most simply, a toll is a charge for driving a vehicle on a specific piece of roadway.
Looking beyond that, though, there are a lot of really interesting questions worth considering. For example, how much should a toll cost? What is the toll really paying for? Should every vehicle be charged the same amount, regardless of factors like the time of day or the number of passengers? The answers to these questions are more important than you might think. The price of a toll, much like the price of a loaf of bread or a gallon of gas, can ripple ...
The Inflation Reduction Act for Oregon
Only a few months ago, things were not looking good for federal climate action. The Supreme Court had just voted to strike down the Clean Power Plan. Senator Manchin of West Virginia had just announced he would not support a reconciliation package with new spending on climate change. And, after decades of denial, delay, and failed attempts, everyone’s hope was wearing thin.
Then, seemingly out of thin air, Senate Democrats announced they had struck a deal on a new package that would inject an unprecedented $370 billion in climate and clean energy programs nationwide. Weeks later, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into ...
New land use planning rules begin to address gaps from the past
Last month, The Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC) finalized the adoption of the Climate-Friendly and Equitable Communities rules.
These transportation and land use rules, while not completely transformative, have real potential to help communities shape their growth in ways that support thriving communities, reduce dependence on cars and greenhouse gas emissions, and provide more affordable housing options. The rules also aim to address equity by directing transportation, housing, and planning investments and policy to serve everyone in Oregon, particularly those from under-resourced and under-served communities.
Oregon's ...
Oregon Climate Action Plan Turns Two!
Two years ago, Governor Kate Brown made history when she signed the Oregon Climate Action Plan (OCAP), executive order 20-04. It’s the largest executive action on climate in Oregon history, and arguably the biggest single climate action ever undertaken by the state given its broad sweep. OCAP set in motion a broad array of state agency activities to respond to the climate crisis by reducing climate emissions from our state’s largest polluting sectors and prioritizing communities on the frontlines of climate impacts.
OEC and our partners in the OCAP Coalition, which includes more than 50 climate, environmental justice, youth, labor, public ...
What could we do with a billion dollars?
Now that Congress has passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, more than a billion dollars will be coming to Oregon for transportation.
That’s great news and it presents us with a big opportunity to think about how we can spend that money wisely. Some of the money is committed to specific projects already underway. But, we’ll have choices with the rest and we should demand that it be invested in things that we know we need in the future. Things that will give people more freedom, access, and choices about how they get around, and which also make our communities safer, healthier, and more resilient.
What kinds of things could this ...
A Supercharged EV Road Trip
Ava
During Covid, when schools shut down, my teenage daughter’s life was suddenly all online. So it didn’t surprise me when she started telling me about a new group of friends she met on an online forum dedicated to One Direction, an English-Irish pop boy band. Aware of the dangers of the internet, I was more than a little wary. I asked her a million questions and was pleasantly surprised to find that she was just chatting daily with a group of fourteen to sixteen-year-old girls infatuated with One Direction.
Over the next year, these six girls met religiously on Zoom, and became best friends. They lived scattered across the country and ...
Building Bridges: Connections Between Communities, Climate, and Equitable Transportation
The Columbia River between Washington and Oregon has been significant for transportation around the region for thousands of years, with people moving along and across the river to meet their needs, make a living, and connect across communities. The I-5 bridge between Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon, is currently at the center of a regional conversation about transportation, connectedness, and community needs.
Replacing the bridge has been discussed for decades. Most recently, a proposed project to replace the bridge died when the Washington State Legislature decided not to fund its state’s share of the project in 2013.
In 2019, ...