Looking back at 2009, public transit had a big year throughout the region. With a trip north to Seattle and Vancouver, B.C. late in the year, I was able to experience every rail transit line that opened in 2009. Here’s a review of those systems, in chronological order, with a few highlights.

TriMet’s WES Commuter Rail [...]

One of the most remarkable sights of the Vancouver, B.C. area is not the high-rise downtown or the dramatic mountain scenery surrounding the Burrard Inlet, but the presence of high rise towers in the suburbs. An all-day tour of the city via SkyTrain — the region’s largely elevated heavy rail transit system — gives one [...]

Is Vancouver a picture of the urban future, and/or Portland’s long lost twin? Perhaps neither.
Living in Portland, Oregon, I sometimes get a bit jaded about our region. Thanks to a strong tradition of urban planning, a large transit system, and comparatively robust growth management laws, Portland has become a kind of poster child for urbanization [...]

Vancouver, B.C.: dense, diverse, and highly urban. Photo from Dan Haneckow’s Flickr stream.
Just a quick heads up that this week I will be in Vancouver, British Columbia. My goal is to see a little bit of this city, which as has been noted elsewhere is not entirely dissimilar from the Portland metropolitan region. In addition [...]

Earlier this week I had to be in Salem for most of the day, so I took a trip via WES and SMART/Cherriots to the capitol. Although I have never made this trip before, I had heard through the grapevine that there were people making this commute every day. Atop this, there have been numerous [...]

As the CNU Transportation Summit winds down on its last day, I’d like to go over some thoughts I’ve been having about how communications were employed throughout the event. My focus will be heavy on how new media was employed, both good and bad, throughout the conference.
First off, lets start with the trendiest of all [...]

Day three at the CNU Transportation Summit in Portland consisted mostly of discussion of how to refine the Congress’ ideas for a sustainable transportation network. This was the largest of these summits to date, with 180 in attendance.
The Congress’ idea of the network model is an attractive one. It stresses the importance of the “last [...]

Should cities grow and adapt using lessons from the high tech industry? Image: Merger HDR New York, from Flickr user diceliving.
Stan Curtis from IBM Smart Cities presented what was likely the most challenging presentation given today.
Curtis first laid out some key concepts. First, the Earth, as Thomas Friedman pointed out in his book, is [...]

On break between sessions, I have time for a brief update. The most interesting mid-day activities revolved around two issues, first the idea of transportation reform at the Federal level, and second in regards to the history of the misplaced priorities that got us to where we are as a nation today.
Discussing the reform of [...]

According to the CNU Transportation Summit, networks — like Portland’s downtown street grid — may be a better solution to the transportation needs of the 21st Century than capacity improvements to arterials and other hub-and-spoke systems. Image: 1950 Downtown Portland map, collection of Jason McHuff.
After scaring attendees with the eccentricities of Voodoo Doughnuts, day two [...]