I didn't find walking around Amsterdam especially inviting because on many streets you risk getting run over by the hundreds of bikes whizzing past.

People who've visited Copenhagen have told me it's one of the most absurdly expensive cities they've ever set foot in. They must have good jobs there, or good state-welfare.

In 2008, the city reported fifty-eight percent of Portland residents limit walking, bicycling or taking transit due to concerns about traffic safety.

In 2012, one-hundred percent of Portland residents limit taking transit due to concerns about being mugged or shot at.

quest, n
1. the act or an instance of looking for or seeking
2. (Historical Terms) (in medieval romance) an expedition by a knight or company of knights to accomplish some prescribed task, such as finding the Holy Grail

Keep looking... elsewhere.

Before people can come out and socialize with neighbors, they need to feel safe and have a comfortable place to engage in social intercourse. Putting more bikes on the road doesn't do either of those things.

Now, proper community policing, neighborhood watch groups, community centers or activities in existing centers and the addition of porches or verandas on residential homes would be a more sensible approach.

Bicycles are not a magic bullet, especially when a portion of the community - very young and very old - are not going to find bicycle commuting/riding an option at all.

The world's first storefront porn shop opened in Copenhagen in the mid-1960s, but it went out of business a couple of years ago. The internet had hurt its sales in recent years, but the final straw came when the city installed bike lanes which eliminated the parking spaces in front of the store.

I forgot to mention that in Copenhagen they've also experimented with having very attractive topless women stand along busy streets in order to slow down traffic.

Didn't the city also report that 80% of homeowners wanted their garbage service cut in half with no corresponding reduction in rate?

Here's my research paper based on 55 years of experiential evidence:

People who are inclined to meet and socialize with their neighbors will.

People who are either not inclined to socialize with their neighbors, or have demanding schedules that prevent them from doing so, won't.

They will be when gas is $7+/gallon, as it is across Europe.

Why the animosity? He is applying for a grant, which seems to fit the mission of the fund. And his ideas are what I'd expect of a professional planner, whose observations could be adapted (in small part or otherwise) for many US cities. We are spoiled by inexpensive gasoline, but if we don't plan for the eventuality of high energy prices, many will be upset that 'they don't have a safe bike lane' to get through town -- when that day comes.

Muttonhead, seriously. "Installing a 'fear of the road'" into our children young in life", my a**.

Any parent who does not install a healthy fear of the road in their children, given the huge cars and trucks, poor visibilty from constant drizzle for months of the year, road ragers, drunks, schizophrenics off meds, and octogenarians driving out there, would be committing child abuse, period. So obvious this person is not a parent.

These people are really becoming very, very irritating, and need some
Velcro, the rough side, sown in to the crotch of their bike shorts, so that they will shut up and concentrate on reality for a change.

Mark, I don't drive to my neighbor's house.

And do you really believe that climate controlled long distance personal vehicular transportation will someday be scarce? Wow.

Why the animosity? He is applying for a grant, which seems to fit the mission of the fund.

How much is he being paid by the city to do all this? Apparently he went on leave from his city gig for the trip, but it looks as though he's done nothing else but babble about it for months leading up to it, and ever since he's come back. That goofball flash presentation took many, many hours -- I assume of taxpayer time.

A few years back Denmark had a 300% luxury tax on cars. That would explain somehat why there are so many bike riders. They have a socialist statemthat has to get money any way it can to keep it's generous programs alive. Anyone who can afford to buy a car after their regular earnings have been taxed at an exorbitant rate must be wealthy, no? But Copenhagen's city bus system is fantastic and heavily used. Why don't our planners don't talk about this?

I don't get the infatuation with having to know all your neighbors personally. Maybe I want to stay in my house or backyard. I only know the names of two other families on my whole block. Most of the rest don't speak English anyway.

If we ever get to the point that we have to abandon the motorized personal vehicle because we haven't been able to find a viable, and affordable, means of powering one (which I seriously doubt), won't those wide, well maintained, surface streets be a great place to ride a bike?

Also, some of the assumptions he makes in his paper are pretty laughable. For instance, he says that the wide streets are a barrier to interacting with our neighbors. So, we're not capable of walking 30 feet across a street to talk to a neighbor but we are capable of walking or biking miles to work everyday?

If these guys are so enamored of life in Europe why not move there and leave the rest of us alone? Why let infrastructure that has taken billions of dollars, and decades of work, to build simply crumble?

These "planners" seem to be using the same type of strategy as some conservative politicians. Namely, to convince us all that the status quo is "unsustainable" by actively undermining it. In the case of the planners, they seem to want to make driving so arduous that we all just give up.

"The threat of traffic and the nuisance of noise and car emissions prevent residents from enjoying the street outside their home as a place for active living and social interaction."

Those who like to walk may be doing less not because of traffic, but because the fabric of our city safety protection is falling apart. Too much money spent on pet projects, agenda promotions and that includes money spent on bikes rather than on basics, schools, public safety, etc. Include all the money then spent on propaganda and promoting the plans, which is another reason people get upset.

How about a survey on how much safer do we feel enjoying the street outside our homes and in our neighborhoods and in our city? I don't feel as safe as I used to. I doubt any grant money would be available for research on that subject.

Mark: ever tried biking in SW or NE Portland west of 23rd Ave.? Try it, then get back to us.

...Oversized roadways require more land making them unsuitable for space-deficient urban areas....

This term, space-deficient urban areas.....?
If so, who has created this?
We are not a small European country, we have vast amounts of land in our country.
No, I am not a sprawl advocate, but extreme density is not desired either.

Instead of always looking to Europe, how about sending some up to that community in BC that I have written about? They have saved more farm land than we have and have open space between their residential areas.

Is there a full moon, or what? Given all of the shootings, Max attacks, people getting attacked who come to the aid of others, etc. the past few days, it really does point out the need of the City to focus on core services - and police and fire employees need decent roads to catch the slimeballs out there.

And my mom used to say - go play in the streets, and don't forget the knives :)

Teaching children a "fear of the road" is what any responsible parent did in the past, does in the present, and will continue to do in the future. Whether it's getting run down by horses, cars and trucks, rude cyclists, or 20 ton public transit vehicles on pizza slicer wheels on rails, it's all the same... danger, because that's what thoroughfares are.

These planner types live in a dream world and we live in a city that sees them as the brightest and most fit to lead us over the cliff.

Clearly the guy who is asking for this handout to take a trip to experience some quasi-legal pot hasn't even seen most of Portland.

Show me an "oversized" residential street in S.W. Portland - the typical residential street is about 14 feet wide (barely enough for two lanes of traffic) if not narrower, with absolutely no sidewalk or bike lane, and often not even enough space to park a car on the side of the road.

Portland is known for not having any large boulevards - most cities in Europe have major streets, often with 10-12 lanes, serving as the main thoroughfares. Imagine if East Burnside was 12 lanes wide. Or Broadway. Or even 82nd Avenue.

Amsterdam is one of the most traffic congested cities - IN THE WORLD. A number of factors come together to permit high bicycle usage - high vehicle taxes, heavy congestion, and of course geography - Amsterdam is built on a bunch of tidal flats. There isn't a thing called "the West Hills", or "Mount Tabor", or even "Sullivan's Gulch" in Amsterdam - it's all just plain flat. Amsterdam is also a major manufacturing and shipping city where everything exists in one place to be close to the harbor - Portland has no such centralization - the shipping industry has very little local ties to it (mostly transloading from trains of cargo to and from Canada and the mid-west)

Where's my research grant?

B Mark Mason: They will be when gas is $7+/gallon, as it is across Europe. ...
JK: You are simply wrong. In Europe 78% of the motorized person kilometers traveled is by private car. See http://www.portlandfacts.com/transit/eurotranistshareloss.htm

B Mark Mason: Why the animosity? .... And his ideas are what I'd expect of a professional planner, whose observations could be adapted (in small part or otherwise) for many US cities.
JK: Yeah, he is a fascist. Like most planners. He doesn’t care who he hurts as long as he can dictate crackpot ideas to others.

B Mark Mason: We are spoiled by inexpensive gasoline, but
JK: NO. We are fortunate to have a government that isn’t run by real zealots and are only dreaming of a socialist dictatorship with them in charge..

B Mark Mason: if we don't plan for the eventuality of high energy prices, many will be upset that 'they don't have a safe bike lane' to get through town -- when that day comes.
JK: In Europe most forms of transit are rapidly losing market share to cars. Rail, bus, and tram all lost about 20% over a recent 20 year period. Ibid.

BTW, sorry to punch hole in your utopian dream as to how others should live, but US has cut oil imports from 60% of consumption to 45% recently with a clear trend towards independence. Fracking means cheaper, plentiful oil in the future. (That is the real reason the greenies oppose fracking - it interferes with their plan to de-industrialize the world.) Especially now that their climate fraud is being exposed.

Thanks
JK

Take away the streets all together, and build more bunkers and high-rises for residency! Those apartment and condo dwellers get together with their neighbors all the time, don't they? Surely they must throw even or odd-numbered floor parties and barbecues every few months, right?

Know how to increase neighborhood familiarity? Have children! That's how most neighbors get a chance to meet each other - through their kids. Oh but wait, having children is killing mother earth! (Not much of a mother, I guess.)

How and when civil engineering morphed into social engineering, I don't really know. But I'm pretty damn sick of being told how to live my life. This city was a greater place to live in and raise a family in the not too distant past. That's what compelled people to move here. Now those same people need to make everyone "change" to conform to their standards. Gimme a break. The best neighborhoods and neighbors are those that have evolved organically, not at the hand of some "planners." And that most definitely includes the "neighborhood association" nut jobs.

Jon : I don't get the infatuation with having to know all your neighbors personally.
JK: That’s just another planner thing. They are living in a fantasy world, thinking we still have ethic neighborhoods where most people have much in common. That world ended decades ago except in the planner’s world. Planners are simply uniformed people with fascist tendencies who dream of a return to the 1920s and are working to force us into that dream. See http://www.portlandfacts.com/planners_are_fascists.html

Thanks
JK

Do please let us know how that new European economic model works out.

Many of the main streets in my old neighborhood (part of the inner Eastside grid) were narrow enough to where you frequently had to pull over when a car came the other way. Even adjacent to traffic signals.

Everyone seemed to deal with that just fine.

The Catch-22 insanity behind this all is that 6% of the Population "Bikes", while 10% use mass transit and 84% used motor vehicles. If you divert monies from common day to day street maintenance (Pot Holes, Dips, Cracks and your occasional sink holes)like CoP has been doing for years to appease the "Bike" Crowd, the very roads they are neglecting will not be fit for "Biking", let alone buses and cars.

JK: (That is the real reason the greenies oppose fracking - it interferes with their plan to de-industrialize the world.)

S: The reason I oppose fracking is because it was given a legislative exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act, precisely because it often results in contamination of groundwater that people depend on. It's poorly regulated for other detrimental effects it causes. I'm sorry it's difficult for you to imagine principled opposition to industrial operations that are excessively destructive of the environment. You might want to ratchet down your level of paranoia.

He states "traffic safety/congestion higher concern than crime, enviromental issues and elementary school education"? According to some poll. I find that very hard to believe.

There is not one single use in either of those documents of the word "sidewalk." Since when are streets supposed to be safe for "gathering?" What is "placemaking" on streets? (What the hell is "placemaking" anyway? And what kind of dictionary is that "word" in?) The "community interaction" I am familiar with on streets is typically called a "crash."

After getting over the redundant nature of the paper's title, I was struck by the collection of cities discussed, three which I recognized (Munich, Rotterdam and Copenhagen) and one I didn't (Malmo) which - at first thought - I assumed was the capital of author Tove Jansson's Moominland. The Moomins are a tight-knit family of hippo-shaped creatures with easygoing and adventurous outlooks. Perhaps the paper's author saw some parallel between these creatures and the denizens of Portland.

We need to be just like Europe because they have done such a good job of...

Oh wait, they are just months away from falling completely apart with massive debt and an almost total loss of democracy.

Here's an article on biking in London vs. Amsterdam (historic and current) that I found interesting when it was posted a few months ago on Andrew Sullivan:

http://thisbigcity.net/how-london-tried-failed-become-cycling-city/

And another one about Amsterdam:

http://thisbigcity.net/amsterdam-urban-form-created-ideal-cycling-city/

While it's not a bad thing to learn from other countries' efforts and successes (regarding any subject), I continue to be wary of these Portland unicorn Utopian progressives' efforts to "sustainably plan" every aspect of Portlanders' lives, but also to export those efforts, through Metro and the rail mafia, to every suburban town in the metro area.

I'm not going to ride a bike, so get off my cloud.

I am old. I have one replaced knee and I need to get the other one replaced. I cannot ride a bike for transportation under any circumstances. There are lots of older folks just like me. The general demographic in this country and in Portland is aging.
The only bicycle I ride is my stationary one for exercise.
I drive a large SUV because it is easy to get into and out of and I plan on doing so until the state takes my license away, which will probably be a long time from now because they are so inefficient and continue to renew the driving licenses through the mail for 8 years at a time with no exams.
So watch out planners on bikes, this old, blind, crippled person might not see you till it is too late...for you. Tonnage always wins!

styrofoamcup S: The reason I oppose fracking is because it was given a legislative exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act
JK: Please provide a citation for that claim.

styrofoamcup , precisely because it often results in contamination of groundwater that people depend on.
JK: Often? Please provide a citation for this claim too. I ask to keep an open mind in view of the fact that I have seen claims that there has been NO contamination when they took a close look at some of the claimed contamination. I’m sure we all know, by now, that Gasland lied about the gas in the water tap scene - the water “burned” BEFORE fracking was done.

styrofoamcup It's poorly regulated for other detrimental effects it causes.
JK: What are these detrimental effects, (except lower energy prices?)

styrofoamcup I'm sorry it's difficult for you to imagine principled opposition to industrial operations that are excessively destructive of the environment.
JK: Yeah, right. When the multinational, multimillion dollar greenie corporations are spending millions and faking movie scenes to oppose something, one suspects we aren’t hearing the truth from the greenie. You know just like the greenies have been lying about climate disruption for decades and only now are the lies being unraveled..

styrofoamcup You might want to ratchet down your level of paranoia.
JK: I’ll wait for your evidence. (And I mean real evidence, not some unsubstantiated claim in a greenie web site.)

Thanks
JK

Christ, JK, google fracking and Safe Drinking Water Act and the first result is a Wikipedia article. You could start there-there are references cited. Your lack of knowledge on the basic facts of fracking and its associated environmental problems is your problem. I've got better things to do than dig up a bunch of citations for you.

JK, I won't pretend to be an expert on such things, but this was the most recent item I found:

EPA Connects 'Fracking' To Water Contamination

Jack: Your criticism is based based on a few assumptions. Makes for fun reading but not sure that's 100% fair.

Max: Yes. And I was run over by a car (in a bike lane)(in SW, no less)(how do you not see a 6'9" guy on a bike!?!) while riding. Lucky I came out in one piece. So I feel I can speak with some authority. It hasn't deterred me.

PdxLifer: You distorted my words. I didn't say cars would be scarce, I said energy would be scarce - or so expensive as to be prohibitive to some. Not you, obviously.

JK: I have no Utopian dream. I am as oil capitalist as they come and I put my money where my mouth is -- I haven't regretted it. But I also know things change.

It's hard work to not live in the past. But there are a lot of exciting opportunities out there.

Opportunities to do what? Ban cars from inner Portland? We need an economy, Mark. All this "let's sit in the middle of the street and sing Kumbaya" crap isn't the answer.

And if this kid didn't do 90% or more of his writing (and fancy presentation production) about this shinola on city time, I'll buy you and Dave a nice dinner somewhere.

Is he your nephew or something?

Bojack, more assumptions. It's too early in the game to call innovation DOA. Remember when you used to think there were no bad ideas -- just some were worse than others? And I'll let you off the hook if it's only 50%. And: no relation. Now THAT was funny.

A styrofoamcup said: Christ, JK, google fracking and Safe Drinking Water Act and the first result is a Wikipedia article.
JK: Thanks.
I found this definitive statement from a radical green in the Wikipedia article:
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson testified in a Senate Hearing Committee stating "I'm not aware of any proven case where the fracking process itself has affected water..."

A styrofoamcup said: Your lack of knowledge on the basic facts of fracking and its associated environmental problems is your problem.
JK: I just seem to have trouble figuring how fracking a few thousand feet below a water well, often separated by solid rock can contaminate the well. You do know that fracking usually is well below the water wells, don’t you. One obvious possibility is carelessness in sealing the bore hole at the higher levels where water can be found. That is a matter for legislation and safety inspections, not banning our energy future.

Now, who is lacking basic knowledge??

A styrofoamcup said: I've got better things to do than dig up a bunch of citations for you.
JK: Why don’t you find some credible evidence that “ it often results in contamination of groundwater that people depend on. “ and get back to us with a few citations.

So far all I have seen is a lot of people suckered by the lies in Gasland and the great greenie lie machine. And a few cases of no contamination when closely studied. Do you have proof otherwise?

Thanks
JK

5th Gen Oregonian: EPA Connects 'Fracking' To Water Contamination
http://www.npr.org/2011/12/08/143386908/epa-connects-fracking-with-water-contamination
JK: Did you actually read it the NPR story? It is about a “draft study “.
That NPR report on the draft study also says this:
EPA stresses that the geology under Pavillion is very different than in other natural gas formations across the country. So the results of the Pavillion study do not necessarily apply to other areas. The hydraulic fracturing near Pavillion happened much closer to the surface and to drinking water sources than in many other areas.

Notice that this was done “much closer to the surface ... than in many other areas”.
And the “geology under Pavillion is very different than in other natural gas formations”
And “the results of the Pavillion study do not necessarily apply to other areas”

Thanks
JK

Opportunities to do what? Ban cars from inner Portland? We need an economy, Mark. All this "let's sit in the middle of the street and sing Kumbaya" crap isn't the answer.

I always wondered why Portland didn't plan the Pearl District (built on an abandoned railroad yard) and SoWhat to be street-free developments, with only pedestrian paths.

Disneyland did it. It's wildly successful. Surely, Portland could have copied it. Oh...Portland isn't Disneyland, a magical place where people actually agree to pay $75 a day to be permitted past the berm. And...Disneyland doesn't have modern streetcars...they have horse-drawn streetcars, monorails (but we can't be too like Seattle, can we?) and steam powered trains (which Portland does own four of, but they're just a wee bit heavy to run on the light rail and streetcar tracks.)

That Portland had the opportunity to build such a car-free paradise - and passed on it - shows that cars are vital and essential. Don't like it bicyclists? I hear that Delta Airlines flies to Amsterdam, and they'll gladly take your extra money to ship your bike too.

JK, do you think the industry spent all that money purchasing votes from congress critters for their sweetheart exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act just for laughs, or because fracking does in fact often ruin groundwater resources, and their operations won't be as profitable if they are held liable for it?

A styrofoamcup said: JK, do you think the industry spent all that money purchasing votes from congress critters for their sweetheart exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act just for laughs, or because fracking does in fact often ruin groundwater resources, and their operations won't be as profitable if they are held liable for it?
JK: My guess would be that, if they really spent money for a “sweetheart exemption”, it was merely to defend against the huge amounts money being spent by the greenies in their major campaign against low cost energy.

Don’t forget that one federal official compared low cost energy top giving a child a machine gun.

Thanks
JK