The drawing is the least offending piece of this to me. Its the ~$100k website and non-stop TV advertising campaign that turns my stomach.

Maybe it's a $50-a-pop ploy to simply gather biased statistics to pad out more bogus claims and "studies".

After all, they've spent a lot of time and money gambling away our futures promoting a fantasy and they're not just going to let reality win without resorting to one shady gimmick after another.

I.e, it's basically "we'll pay you 50 bucks if you tell us what we want to hear".

Since when does it cost $100k to run a website? And why the dig at Portland not being a world class city? As in, if we were a world class city, we would just do whatever everyone else does? Grow up.

Jack- Can you find out how much the current TV campaign cost to develop and run? How much per response? (Public information, I assume?)

I'm guessing it's the work of the same geniuses who brought us 'Drive Less, Save More.' (i.e. 'Let's drop a couple hundred grand of public money to state the obvious.')

It would be interesting indeed to find out just how much Metro and the City of Portland spend each year on pushing people out of their cars.

$100k to run a website, not so much.

For a government entity to develop such a site with all of the meetings, design, graphics, backend and database stuff, etc. I think my guess is close. Also this being ODOT I would assume that at least half the work was contracted. Lets say 3 people 3 months at a the ridiculously low rate of $75/hr = $108,000.

The money regarlless of how much money is soent, it is should be spent on filling the potholes. At least that would benefit everyone, the drivers, the bicyclists, and the pedestrians too.
Spending money on advertising, web sites and $50 gift cards with non local companies is just a waste of money, time and resources.

Mr Grumpy is on the mark. This will give them bogus statistics (like bike counts) to show how good they are at getting people to car pool. Shopping with friends is very common this time of year. A more interesting bike number would be the number of single occupant cars going by at the same time they are counting bikes.

I think those bumper stickers, ("Weird isn't working"), are beginning to sting.

Whatever its propriety, it certainly doesn't seem like something that a world-class city would be doing.

Are you kidding? How can you be a "world-class" city and not do something like this?

Oh well, look at it this way: at least it's only $50. Much less costly than some of Metro's other goofy ideas.

Talk about "mission creep"! This is it in spades. When Metro can waste tax money on crap like this; it's time someone with a few dollars sues them for overstepping the boundies of their chartered activities.

They better send around a special compost container just for puke now. Please, God, make it stop.

Steve,...non-stop TV advertising campaign that turns my stomach.

Seriously, they are showing this project/drawing on TV?

I suppose I can be glad about one aspect of the "smart program"
when the smart meter installation wrecked our TV converter.