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The City of Portland, Oregon

Portland Bureau of Transportation

Phone: 503-823-5185

Fax: 503-823-7576

1120 SW Fifth Ave, Suite 1331, Portland, OR 97204

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Media Relations

Dylan Rivera

Public Information Officer

503-823-3723

For breaking news from Portland Bureau of Transportation see our Twitter feed: @PBOTinfo

For breaking news on overall service disruptions in the Portland-Vancouver metro area, go to @publicalerts or see www.publicalerts.org 


Paris launches world's first electric car sharing program

Part I: Car Sharing 2.0 Series 

One could argue that 2011 will go down as a watershed year for car sharing. Zipcar, the leading North American car sharing company, launched a successful IPO on Wall Street earlier this year.

Peer to peer car sharing, where individuals rent their personal cars through a central web site has taken off in the Boston and San Francisco areas. And Daimler's Car2Go, where a web of cars are available at unassigned locations for one-way rentals, is gaining steam in Austin, Vancouver B.C and Hamburg.

Now Paris, France home of the the world's most successful bike sharing system, has launched an electric car-sharing system, Autolib.

The program has 66 ultra-small (even by European standards) e-cars but plans to grow the system to 3000 (with 1000 charging stations) by 2012. The program is run by a private company who has invested $265 million into the venture.

Read more in the Car Sharing 2.0 series:

Part II: A brief history of car sharing

Part III: The benefits of car sharing 

Part IV: Car2go provides one way car sharing in Austin, San Diego

Part V: Nationwide (and over the pond), Zipcar continues to innovate

Part VI: Peer to peer car sharing comes to Portland

Get ready to trip plan!

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Exciting news from TriMet about a cool new tool

Apologies to BikePortland.org for lifting this article (that's twice in one week for content but...)

BIG NEWS for those of you who like to plan your non-auto trip.  TriMet will launch its multi-modal trip planner in a few short weeks.  That means you can plan your bike/bus trip or your bike trip or your transit trip or your walking trip all in one place!

In the past if you wanted to plan a trip where you rode your bike to catch the bus you had to use more than one on-line trip planning tool.  No longer.  TriMet's tool not only allows you to change which mode of transportation you want to use or combine, but gives you great flexibility in what type of trip you take.

The new trip planning tool allows you to plan your trip based on elevation gain, time of travel, and safety.  Coolest of all, you can make your own mix!  Say you really don't want to bike up a hill but want a fast trip, you can choose a mix of speed and elevation.  The trip that is planned for you might take bike lanes on higher volume streets, but will keep you off that big hill!

Enough talk (type) about this tool.  Go play with the test version >>> http://maps5.trimet.org/opentripplanner-webapp/

NEWS RELEASE: Hundreds of students and local officials celebrate International Walk + Bike to School Day

Portland Bureau of Transportation Director Tom Miller and local school, health and community leaders promoted walking and biking to school at Prescott Elementary School this morning, working to reverse the national trend of fewer American students walking or bicycling to school now than decades ago.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 5, 2011

Contact: Mark Lear

Portland Bureau of Transportation

mark.lear@portlandoregon.gov

503-823-7604

NEWS RELEASE: Hundreds of students and local officials celebrate International Walk + Bike to School Day

"Who walked or biked to school today?" asked Portland Bureau of Transportation Director Tom Miller.

Portland, Ore – Portland Bureau of Transportation Director Tom Miller and local school, health and community leaders promoted walking and biking to school at Prescott Elementary School this morning, working to reverse the national trend of fewer American students walking or bicycling to school now than decades ago.

“Portland has worked harder than any other city in the United States to make our streets safer and easier for students to walk and bike, and it’s great to see so many students and families benefit,” Miller said.

“Unlike most of the country, over 40 percent of the trips to Portland elementary schools are made on foot or bike. That’s better than when we started Safe Routes to School, and much better than the national average of 12 percent,” Mayor Sam Adams said. “But there’s more to do, especially in East Portland. Which is why I dedicated $8 million to building sidewalks in East Portland. And I’m pleased to announce that completing sidewalks on the south side of Prescott Street is part of that plan.”

"In the 1960's over 40 percent of children across the US walked or biked to school in contrast to less than 15 percent of children who do so today,” said Kaiser Permanente pediatrician and childhood obesity expert Dr. Philip Wu. “On the other hand, in Portland our children are ahead of the game. Forty percent of their trips to school are active ones. By walking or biking, they are helping to ensure their good health."

Some of the credit for the increased rate that students walk and bike to school locally is due to the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School program, now in its seventh year of operation. Prescott Elementary, in Parkrose School District, was one of the first schools to join Safe Routes and has had remarkable success with the program. “Safe Routes to School provides significant benefits for Parkrose students and families,” said Parkrose Superintendent Karen Gray. “We’re proud of the fact that thanks to our partnership, every Parkrose student enters middle school having learned how to safely cross the street and navigate their neighborhood on bike.”

In addition to Superintendent Gray and Dr. Wu, Tom Miller was joined by Oregon State Senator Jackie Dingfelder, Prescott Elementary School Principal Michael Lopes, Multnomah County Commissioners Loretta Smith and Judy Shiprack, Bicycle Transportation Alliance Executive Director Rob Sadowsky, League of American Bicyclists President Andy Clarke, and more than 150 students and parents walking and biking to school.

Portland Safe Routes to School is a partnership of the City of Portland, schools, neighborhoods, community organizations and agencies that advocates for and implements programs that make walking and biking around our neighborhoods and schools fun, easy, safe and healthy for all students and families while reducing our reliance on cars.

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Riding transit at night

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The tree leaves may not be gold, but it definitely feels like autumn. The days are shorter, the air is cooler. And then there's the rain...

TriMet has some tips for riding the bus at night:

  • -Try to wear light colored clothing
  • -Stand up when your bus approaches so that you're more visible.
  • -If you have a mobile phone, flashlight or anything bright, wave it so that the bus operator can more easily see you.
  • -If you are riding between 8:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m., you can request to be let off anywhere along the bus route, not just at designated stops. 

Photo courtesy of Sunset magazine.

 

Sneak Peak of TriMet's Multi-Modal Trip Planner this Friday

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Potential to revolutionize online route planning: plan a combo transit, bike and walk trip.

We breathlessly previewed TriMet's mulit-modal trip planner last week, now word comes that Metro and TriMet are staging a coming out party for the tool that lets users plan a combination bike, walk and transit trip.

Portland Regional Trip Plan Sneak Preview

Friday, October 14

10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Metro Council Chambers

600 NE Grand Avenue

You can plan your trip to Metro using TriMet's existing trip planner or test out the multi-modal beta version.