Metro, greater Portland's regional government, is building a list of transportation projects for a possible November 2020 ballot measure (T2020). We are proud to be founding members of the Getting There Together Coalition, and recently joined with other community leaders to analyze the recommended list of projects and put forward our own recommendations that lead with the values of equity, safety, affordability, and climate.
Staff from the Safe Routes Partnership and other Coalition members conducted a full assessment of the Metro Staff Recommendation for projects based on a series of questions and criteria, and found that many of these investments are a good first step in regional transportation investment, and will represent important improvements to the people living and moving along regional corridors with long-known safety and transit access needs. However, some projects do not meet the Coalition’s values, nor rise to the top in terms of long-standing needs and priorities for the region. Additionally, we found that on many corridors the Staff Recommendations do not go far enough to build the existing transportation needs that would fulfill the needs of the community when it comes to the Task Force’s and Metro Council’s values of equity, safety, transit access, affordability, and climate and that prioritizes moving people, not cars.
In the projects discussion, the Coalition is calling for greater investment in safety, transit access for people who walk, bike, and roll, and more transit priority projects, and has proposed that the Task Force and Metro Council “doubles down” to fully fund identified needs on certain corridors, such as TV Hwy, McLoughlin, and 82nd Avenue; ensuring every corridor receives transit improvements; and by allocating more funding to these corridors in the T2020 recommendations.
Read more about the T2020 project selection and the Coalition's analysis and recommendations.
