At SmartTrips Downtown, we don't like to dabble even in the fray of politics, however, the Brookings Institute has released a side-by-side comparison of the presidential candidates' transportation policies.  Most of the policies cited in the fairly short paper come directly from the candidates' websites or interviews.   

This picture really has nothing to do with my posting

image: www.daylife.com

Congress recently invited Robert Puentes of the Brookings Institute to testify about transit's role in reducing the country's dependence on foreign oil.  His testimony is available on-line and is chock full of research and recommendations to increase the scale, scope, and availability of the nation's transit systems.

Puentes notes that Portland, along with New York and Chicago, have some of the nation's lowest vehicle miles traveled and carbon dioxide emissions per capita - a fact he attributes to transit's widespread availability and other key land use factors.

He also included this graph, highlighting portion of household income spent on housing, transportation, and other expenses by neighborhood type:

What do you think about your neighborhood?  Is it transit rich, auto dependent, or somewhere in between?  How could Congress help your area of town reduce its energy consumption?

Perhaps you've seen them: three-wheeled, pedal-powered vehicles with a comfy backseat designed for two.  They're called "pedicabs" and they are all over downtown.  With the central city's dense mix of restaurants, cultural amenties, tourism, and entertainment pedicabs serve to move people relatively short distances with an aura of eco-friendly romance.

There are a several companies making their entrance into the market and one recently teamed up with the Old Town Neighborhood Association to offer eco-friendly tours of the area.

To read more about the emerging pedicab market in Portland, check out this Oregonian article.