Right Sizing for Reality

#Oregon has elected some brilliant political leaders. Rep #KhanhPham is one of them. She serves on the State #Transportation Committee.

Pham is challenging why $7.5 Billion of DOT money is going into an ill-defined mega-project rather than where our priorities must be: #PublicTransit, #Safe #Streets, connected communities and #Climate solutions.

None of the $7.5 Billion is for #LightRail, #BikeLanes, #Walkways.

#JustTransitAlliance #PCEF
https://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/2022/12/opinion-up-to-75-billion-for-interstate-bridge-replacement-project-time-to-rightsize-for-reality.html

Good for him for checking himself in and for being open. Openness on this saves lives. Silence and shame kill.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/16/politics/john-fetterman-depression-treatment/index.html

The lowest ever recorded temperature in the US was hit today in Mount Washington, New Hampshire windchill of -78°C (-108°F)! It even *looks* cold!

Video via: https://www.mountwashington.org/

#weather #cold

"This blueprint will be vilified & attacked. Ultimately, it will be ignored. But it got it right: Climate policy is transportation policy is energy policy is housing policy. Everything connects."
@lloydalter

"This blueprint touches so many third rails & sacred cows that it is surprising it saw the light of day, let alone got support from four major agencies .. #energy, #transportation, #environment & #housing agree the solution to #ClimateChange requires coordination."

https://www.treehugger.com/us-agencies-release-blueprint-for-decarbonizing-transportation-7093837

The #NYTimes continues to flex its #NoMoreFreeways muscle. Today an excellent piece on #InducedDemand.

Matt Turner, an economics professor at #BrownUniversity, said adding lanes is a fine solution if the goal is to get more #cars on the road. But most #highway expansion projects cite reducing #traffic as a primary goal.

“If you keep adding lanes because you want to reduce traffic congestion, you have to be really determined not to learn from history,” Dr. Turner said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/06/us/widen-highways-traffic.html