Sam talks transportation with a standing-room only crowd in Southwest PortlandEven if you couldn't attend a town hall meeting...NOW YOU CAN TAKE THE SURVEY, TOO!
GIVE US YOUR INPUT &
HELP SAM DEVELOP HIS PROPOSAL
Sam and his staff just finished the first round of Neighborhood Town Hall Meetings on transportation priorities and potential local funding options. Town halls were held across each region of the city. There will be another round of Neighborhood Town Hall Meetings held across the city between September 10-28.
The turnout was impressive, especially considering how beautiful the Oregon summer evenings were when the meetings were held. The turnout alone showed just how strong the community members' feelings are about transportation issues. An average of about 125 people attended each of the five meetings, with a total of about 600 people attending in all, far more anticipated.
Sam outlined the transportation problems facing Portland today, and then offerred some hypothetical funding scenarios to give neighbors perspective on PDOT's growing budget gap. Neighbors were eager to learn and then share their thoughts about the best way forward.
Sam also shared the results of some early initial polling on people's broad transportation concerns. This covered everything from road pavement quality, to issues PDOT does not control, such as TriMet's bus policies, and congestion on the state's highways.
[0]Portland's Pavement is CrumblingIn addition to sharing their opinions with Sam and their neighbors at the town halls, another way people made their opinions known was through a survey distributed at the meetings. Of the 600 attendees, we received roughly 250 completed surveys at the end of the town halls and in the mail (more arrive in the mail daily.)
Here are some of the most interesting results of our surveys:
1. The respondents ranked "Transportation" only behind "Schools/Higher Education" as the most pressing local problem, on a list 9 issues.
2. When asked about their top transportation priorities, respondents answered:
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Improving Safety At Intersections
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Pedestrian Safety/Crosswalks
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(TIE)
Basic Road Maintenance and Paving
Safety Near Schools -
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Improving Public Transit Services
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Environment/Reducing Pollution
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Reducing Traffic Congestion
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Improving Bicycle Services and Infrastructure
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Constructing Sidewalks Where They Do Not Exist
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Improving Unpaved/Gravel Roads
3. There was seemingly widespread support for at least considering new taxes and fees to care for Portland's basic infrastructure.
When asked, "Assuming they were at reasonable levels, would you support the following local transportation funding options?", respondents answered:
Gas Tax
Favorable - 78.3%
Not Favorable - 15.7%
Street Maintenance & Safety Fee (SMSF)
Favorable - 69.5%
Not Favorable - 17.5%
Carbon Emission/Gas Guzzler Tax
Favorable - 70.3%
Not Favorable - 21.0%
Parking Space Fee
Favorable - 69.0%
Not Favorable - 21.4%
Property Tax Bond Measure
Favorable - 34.5%
Not Favorable - 52.8%
4. When asked how much funding we should attempt to raise, by a large margin, respondents chose the bigger packages:
$0 - Nothing - 2%
$23 million - 17.3%
$45 million - 43.1%
$70 million - 37.6%
5. Respondents were also very positive about creating a citizen's oversight committee that would oversee the spending of money raised by any new funding measure, the inclusion of a cap on administrative costs, funding only a defined list of projects, and giving neighborhoods input in the project selection process.
Respondents were 52.2% male and Female 38.8%, and 8.9% chose
"Prefer Not to Answer/Other." Every age group was was well represented.
You can take a look at the full survey results of our neighborhood transportation town halls below.
Before you take the survey, we strongly suggest that you take a moment to VIEW THE POWERPOINT [0] that Sam presented at the town halls. It will give you some basic but important background information on how PDOT is funded, how we got into the mess we are in today, and give you an idea of the scale of the problem. Also posted below are a series of maps of possible maintenance and safety projects initially identified by PDOT staff; these maps are a starting point as we work with stakeholders to select and prioritize projects, and ultimately develop a proposal.
Then, TAKE THE SURVEY [1] to tell us about your transportation priorities and thoughts on local funding options.
We look forward to receiving your opinions as we continue working with the community to develop a proposal to address Portland's transportation woes.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Possible Bridge Projects.pdf [2] | 425.69 KB |
| Possible Safety Projects.pdf [3] | 799.5 KB |
| Possible Paving Projects.pdf [4] | 555.69 KB |
| SurveySummary.pdf [5] | 37.06 KB |