October 16, 2006

Proposed Recommendations on Accessible Development Patterns

Overarching Recommendations: 

I.          Foster a land use pattern and transportation system that will make it easier for people to shift trips to walking, biking and transit when oil prices stimulate changes in travel behavior.

II.        Prioritize investments in improvements to the city’s network of pedestrian and bicycle facilities, especially in areas of low accessibility.

Specific Recommendations

The city should:

1.     Rate each Portland neighborhood on its degree of  “accessibility”: the degree to which retail, profession and civic services (such as grocery stores, schools, doctors’ offices, libraries, transit stops, day-care centers, cafes and restaurants, dry cleaners, hardware stores, parks, banks) lie within convenient walking and bicycle distance from households within the neighborhoods.

2.     Map those portions of Portland neighborhoods that do NOT lie within ½-mile of a grocery store of neighborhood size (15,000 to 35,000) or larger.

3.     Develop an action plan of measures to improve neighborhood accessibility, such as improved pedestrian and bicycle facilities; more flexible zoning to allow neighborhood-scale retail, professional and civic services, or to allow additional dwelling units to create a market for such uses.  

4.     Implement Metro’s Corridor Study: designate Corridor stretches (portions of 82nd Avenue, e.g.) for revitalization (residential/retail/office), supported by frequent transit service.

5.     Develop “location-efficient mortgage” programs in neighborhoods with a high degree of accessibility.

6.     Encourage Metro to refine its modeling capabilities to enable it to evaluate the effects of combustion engine fuel increases on land use patterns and travel behaviors.

7.     Encourage Metro to minimize expansion of the urban growth boundary (UGB).

8.     Encourage Metro to provide permanent protection to prime farmland close to the UGB.

9.     Place parking meters in well-developed retail districts (Hawthorne; NW 23rd; Gateway);  earmark a portion of parking revenues for pedestrian/bicycle improvements within district.

10.  Enhance “individual marketing” in those neighborhoods with low neighborhood accessibility to determine which measures would be most likely to reduce the number and length of SOV trips in the neighborhood.

            Impacts Addressed

1.     People living in neighborhoods without affordable travel options will spend an increasing portion of their disposable incomes on travel. 

2.     There will be reduced funding for transportation improvements – for transit, pedestrian and bicycle improvements as well as for road capacity for cars - due to reducing travel by gas-powered vehicles.

3.     There will be reduced funding for transit operations.

4.     The cost of housing will rise in more “accessible” neighborhoods.

5.     Lower income households will be forced to the edges of communities, where transit service is  poorer.

6.     There will be fewer car trips. 

7.     There will be a shift of trips to walking, biking and transit.

8.     There will be increased demand for telecommuting and compressed work week.

9.     Mode shift is most likely to occur in discretionary, non-work trips.

10.  There will be a reduced demand for parking.

11.  There will be increased demand for housing and retail services near transit stops, especially near light rail and street car stops.

12.  There will be an increased demand for retail, professional and civic services within walking and biking distance of more households.

13.  There will be increased demand for new housing types, such as accessory dwellings, co-housing and live-work space.

Triple Bottom Line:

These recommendations also help achieve other recommendations from the Peak Oil Task Force and other important city and regional objectives:

• Improve citizens’ health  (residents of compact, pedestrian friendly places suffer fewer chronic ailments than those of sprawling communities; residents of walkable communities are less likely to be overweight; residents of compact communities spend 20 minutes a day less in a car than those in a low-density suburb; Cascade Scorecard, Sightline Institute, 2006)
• Reduce the capital and maintenance cost of services (asphalt up 13 percent since 2004, adding $100 million to highway projects on state’s books; Oregonian, 7/31/06, Mayer)
• Reduce pressure to expand UGB
• Save nearby farmland for food security
• Improve air quality (motor vehicles are the largest source of air pollution; Cascade Scorecard, Sightline Institute, 2006)
• Reinforce city’s carbon dioxide reduction plan.

Other Recommendations:

• Set an ambitious but achievable goal for the people of Portland: reduce the number of gallons of gas consumed by the average Portlander in a week from 8 to 5.3 gallons.

• Protect intermodal freight facilities to facilitate shift in freight modes in response to fuel price increases.

            Impacts Addressed

1.     Higher fuel costs will force companies to consider shifting from trucks to other modes.

2.     Rail and ship freight facilities will become relatively more important f or movement of goods.

Findings:

• Vehicle Miles Traveled/Capita is dropping in region (from approx. 21.7 to 19.8 from 1996 to today). Cotugno class at PSU; PDOT handout. 

• Cycling traffic in Portland has risen 257% in last ten years. BBC News series
• Crossings over four Portland bridges by bicycle commuters increased 15% in 2004 and 18% in 2005.  PDOT

• Transportation consumes 28% of energy in U.S.  U.S. DOE, Energy Information Administration, John Cogan
• If one in ten Americans used transit regularly, U.S. reliance upon foreign oil could be cut by 40%.  APTA
• A doubling of density results in a 25-30% reduction in VMT.  Reid Ewing, “Is Los Angeles-Style Sprawl Desirable?” Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 63, No. 1, Winter, 1997, p. 113.
• Increased density correlates with increased use of transit and walking.  Age-Related Shifts in Housing and Transportation Demand: A Multi-disciplinary Study Conducted for Metro by PSU’s College of Urban and Public Affairs, August 14, 2006.
• An average urban household uses 320 million BTUs/year; an average suburban household uses 440.  Jennifer Henry, U.S. Green Building Council.
• Lower-income households are more likely to change their travel behaviors in response to rising gas prices than average households.  Pew Research Center Survey of 1,182 Americans
• Lower income families are migrating to the suburbs.

• Portland is eliminating over 62 million car trips a year. BBC News series
• Greenhouse emissions have risen 13% over last 10 years in U.S.; down to 1990 levels in Portland. BBC News series
• Trips in downtown area are shifting to bicycle.  Geller PSU slides.

• Work trips comprise only 20% of all trips in Portland.
• Mode use for work trips virtually unchanged from 1997 to 2004-05 (slight increase in drive-alone from 71 to 71.5%).  PDOT citizen survey handout
• Cars and trucks are responsible for 38% of carbon monoxide emissions in city. PDOT “Facts About Portland 2003-04.
• Mode split comparisons with European cities shows that the big difference is pedestrian trips.
• Mode shifts are more likely to go to pedestrian/bicycle than transit (Europe; data: transit costs).
• Walking is the easiest mode shift to make; also the #1 choice of those considering a shift.
• Cost of parking is the most-often cited reason for not driving.
• People who live in walkable, mixed use neighborhoods have a 35% lower risk of obesity.  L.D. Frank, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 27, 87-96 (2004).