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The ever-geekalicious Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute had a great take on traffic congestion a few weeks back on Planetizen. As Litman explains, most congestion studies (such as this annual study, which always gets a lot of press) consistently overestimate the costs of congestion. But even using these relatively high estimates, the costs of congestion are pretty modest, compared with the comprehensive costs of owning and operating...

My youngest son had a bike wreck this summer: a driver cut him off on a steep downhill. Peter managed to avoid the car by tumbling over the curb, but the fall inflicted some nasty road rash. It also inspired me to dig into the question of bicycle safety more rigorously than before: Is it safe for Peter to be biking so much? Here’s what I learned: Biking is safer...

Adding lanes to a highway will increase road emissions and total global warming emissions over the long term — even if it reduces congestion over the short term.

Portland has long been a national model for managing growth while preserving farms and open spaces near cities. A few months ago, we produced a map showing how Measure 37 threatens Portland’s legacy. Now, we’ve updated the map based on new data—and we’ve added a few touches to make it clearer. In this map, each red dot represents 10 new people based on active Measure 37 claims. Bigger, better maps...

The Hood River Valley has been ground zero for Measure 37 claims. Yesterday, we examined how the valley’s prized farm country is threatened by an exurban population boom. Today, we take a different look at how Measure 37 jeopardizes Hood River farmland. In the map below, properties with active Measure 37 housing claims are showing in red. Yellow is land that’s zoned for agriculture.   Here, you can see all the...

Over the past week or so, there’s been a big to-do about greater Seattle’s transportation measure—affectionately known as the “RTID”—that’s set to appear on the November ballot. The measure would spend more than $17 billion on new roads, road maintenance, and rail transit, mostly through an increase in sales and vehicle taxes. To many people’s surprise, King County Executive Ron Sims (a former board chair of Sound Transit) came out...

A few months ago, Sightline produced the first-ever map showing how Measure 37 claims could lead to an exurban population boom outside of Portland’s growth boundaries (see here). Now, we’ve expanded our analysis to include Oregon’s heartland: the Willamette Valley from Salem to Eugene. In the map below, each red dot represents 10 new people based on active Measure 37 claims.     This image provides only a glimpse. Bigger and clearer versions...

Confession: I have long coveted a Bike Friday. What Cascadian cyclist wouldn’t? A made-in-Oregon folding bike that fits in a suitcase—and the suitcase becomes a bike trailer! Pedal to the airport or train station, take your luggage out of your trailer, fold your bike into the trailer, check your luggage (including your bike), and at trip’s end, reverse the process. Ingenious! So I danced a jig when a founder of...

I recently bicycled from Seattle to Bellevue, Washington, across Lake Washington on the I-90 floating bridge. This trip is not complicated. Once you’re on the wide, well-shielded bike lane, you’d think that getting to Bellevue would be assured. You’d be wrong. First, you have to get across Mercer Island. On the island, the bike route leaves the freeway and vanishes into a labyrinth of branching paths. They’re beautiful bikeways, no...

When my wife and I bought our house, the yard was typical for our neighborhood: a mostly barren plain of lawn so sunbaked that you could bounce a tennis ball off it. So being eco-groovy types, we’ve tried to improve the place: we put in a rain barrel, built a natural drainage system, and added topsoil planting berms. But I’m most proud of the trees we’ve planted: a pair of akebono...