Tidbits for your health Only 50% of Portland-area residents get CDC's recommended amount of physical activity per day (30 minutes). Watch board member and Kaiser Pediatric Physician, Dr. Phil Wu, discuss the consequences and solutions for our country's obesity crisis.
If you haven't had a chance to visit, the new street has safe, separated facilities for people to use when they're driving, biking, and walking. It's an exciting new section of road because it increases the capacity of roads leading the the fairgrounds and it makes it a lot easier for people to carpool, bike, or walk to the MAX Station.
You can see what the street looks like for yourself in this short video:
Washington County Active Transportation Committees
On March 29th, the WTA brought together representatives fromtwelve organizations to share highlights and to network with eachother and interested citizens.
A packed crowd of over 50 staff and residents met at Billy's Bar to hear about some of the upcoming projects in Washington County.
DOWNLOAD a list of the contact information, meeting times and locations, and projects for all Washington County Active Transportation Advisory Committees.
Some highlights from the evening included:
City of Beaverton
The Crescent Connection bike/ped/ped to transit project was recently awarded preliminary engineering and right of way funds by the Oregon Transportation Commission
The Beaverton Crescent Connection Bicycle, Pedestrian, Transit, and Pedestrian-to-Transit Corridor Improvement Project constructs Fanno Creek Trail and Beaverton Creek Trail shared use paths, bike boulevards, sidewalks, safe street crossings, and pedestrian-to-transit improvements from Denney Road through Downtown Beaverton. The project goals are to fill gaps and create a multimodally connected system throughout the entire corrdior, to provide better access to environmentally sound transportation choices (walking, cycling, transit) in order to reduce vehicle trips, air pollution, and GHG, to foster livability through encouraging mode choices that produce health benefits, to construct the Metro/ODOT Highway 217 Study “parallel bike route,” to implement Beaverton Civic Plan and Transportation Plan, to integrate travelways with trails/parks, civic, employment, residential, and industrial areas, and to connect users from Tigard, Tualatin, and Wilsonville to transit that accesses PDX and the entire metro region.
Join the Westside Transportation Alliance at Billy's Bar in Beaverton for an opportunity to meet staff and representatives of committees working to promote active transportation in Washington County. Represented organizations include:
How to register: 1.) Go to www.DriveLessConnect.com 2.) Verify your account 3.) Sign in and complete your registration 4.)Log your trips and be eligible to earn rewards
THE PDX BICYCLE SHOW
Washington County has lots of inspired and passionate bicyclists. Two in particular have taken their passion for bicycles to the next level. Aaron and Andrea McBride are the planners of the PDX Bicycle Show which will take over the Portland Expo Center on March 24th and 25th.
Even though this dynamic duo is busy planning one of the biggest PDX Bicycle Shows yet, we managed to get their thoughts about bicycling in Washington County and their inspiration for this awesome event.
WTA: What inspired you to do the bike show?
Aaron: Andrea and I are avid cyclists and ride our bikes for transportation (short trips to work and grocery) and for fun (event rides and mountain bike rides). We wanted to organize a bike event that would welcome cyclists from all disciplines (road, mountain, commuter, racer, bmx, etc) into one event. Hopefully the event would impress upon others who don't bike and would make them see the fun and benefits of cycling. The ultimate goal is grow bicycling and the bicycle friendly culture in our area. Being that we live in a very damp part of the country, the goal was to have an event that would be a Spring kickoff to the cycling season and an opportunity to get folks engaged and thinking about their upcoming spring, summer, fall rides and commutes. At the show you would be entertained, attend seminars, and pick up great deals from the hundreds of bike companies and shops at the show.
WTA: What’s your favorite part about it?
Aaron: The diverse and friendly audience of bicyclists that are represented. From Kids to Seniors. Racers to Novice. Bicycling is a big group and culture. We like that it brings together such a fun group into one place to "geek" out on bikes.
WTA: Thoughts about biking in Hillsboro?
Aaron: Hillsboro has come a long way and is very cycling friendly. We are close to MAX light rail, so a short ride to the Max gets you access to downtown Portland. Also, we're 1-2 miles away from farm country and beautiful farm roads for longer bicycle rides. Commuting to work is getting easier and more accessible too with the addition of larger bike ways and lanes (think Evergreen Parkway to Solarworld and Intel campuses).
So now that you’ve heard from the masterminds behind this great event, we hope to see you there! For more information about this fabulous, family-friendly event go to www.pedalnationevents.com
Statewide Transportation Options Meeting
On February 24th the Westside Transportation Alliance and ToGo were proud to host the Statewide Transportation Options Meeting. The attendants included representatives from various government, non-profit, and private organizations who gathered to discuss the future of transportation policy in Oregon. Topics ranged from initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the best practices of bike share programs.
First up on the agenda was Stephanie Millar, Senior Planner in the Transportation Planning and Implementation Unit at ODOT, who discussed Transportation Demand Management’s Role in the Oregon Sustainable Transportation Initiative. Here is a link to the website about her project: http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/TD/OSTI/
Mike Hoglund, Research Director at Metro Regional Government, then discussed Climate Smart Communities. As described in the presentation, Metro’s current plan for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions in the State involves a three phase process that is already halfway completed. Click here to download his presentation.
The third speaker was Stephen Dickey, Director of Transportation Development at Cherriots.org. He discussed the Governor’s Non-Roadway Transportation Funding Working Group. Their goal is develop a plan for dedicated funding to non-roadway transportation projects. For more information visit their website: http://www.orconsensus.pdx.edu/11-019NonRoadwayTranspMainPage.php
Next we had a federal legislative update from Chris Rall, Field Organizer at Transportation for America who covered changes to Senate Bill MAP-21 and House Bill HR-7. Our final presenter was Mia Birk, President of Alta Planning and Design, speaking about building a culture of biking. If you don’t already have a copy of her book, “Joyride,” pop by her website at http://www.miabirk.com to check it out.
For more information or questions about the various presentations, we invite you to contact us:
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Washington County has lots of inspired and passionate bicyclists. Two in particular have taken their passion for bicycles to the next level. Aaron and Andrea McBride are the planners of the PDX Bicycle Show which will take over the Portland Expo Center on March 24th and 25th.
