The cities where I live where obviously designed for cars, are there any proposals on how to transition cities built to favour cars over to other forms of transportation or examples of cities that have done so? I know it’s probably possible but my imagination is limited.
How new would you say this approach is, where people at the top are making Portland less car-centric? (are we talking 5 years or 20 years?)
How successful and popular would you say the changes so far have been?
It started around the 70’s with Portland’s freeway revolt. There had already been some push back against one freeway by prominently black neighborhoods, but this was a more powerful movement from the city as a whole. One planned freeway that would have taken out 1% of Portland’s housing was canceled, the Mt. Hood Freeway. Another proto-freeway that ran along the downtown waterfront was ripped out and replaced with a smaller boulevard and a strip of parkland, now the Tom McCall Waterfront Park after a governor who was instrumental in getting in built.
The federal money that was to go to the Mt. Hood Freeway was instead put towards the first 15 miles of track of the MAX light rail train. Since then, it’s been extended to almost 100 miles and 5 lines. Bicycle advocates don’t just have the ear of city council, they are city council. Portland’s been building out bicycle infrastructure ever since the 50’s. It’s no Amsterdam, but we’re decades ahead of most cities in the US. The area that I live in, Central Eastside, is within a safe bike ride of downtown Portland. Biking in isn’t too different from driving in and parking time wise, plus I save a lot on having a car, paying for fuel, parking, etc.