Recap: Meeting of the Minds event, July
30-31, 08
The Meeting of the Minds event brought together 288 invited participants to
Portland, Oregon to consider four policy areas important to the surface
transportation system of the Portland metro area in particular, and other urban
areas throughout North America:
1. Overall strategies for transportation systems sustainability
2. Vehicle fuel options to reduce energy consumption and emissions
3. Urban design and development to reduce automobile driving
4. Technology and road pricing to improve mobility
The program brought
together speakers from across the U.S. and Canada who presented information and
led discussions on a range of issues and opportunities that now confront the transportation system. The
program now provides links to selected presentation materials.
There was an active discussion of what speaker Mike
Meyer termed "capital ideas" that could reshape the transportation system of
the Portland region and the western part of North America to be sustainable in
the face of environmental, economic, and social challenges.
Sponsors of Meeting of the Minds were Toyota, Portland General Electric,
LandDesign, IBM, and the Oregon Department of Transportation.
These broad questions were asked and answered:
- What are some 21st century challenges and
opportunities we now face?
- Emerging non-sustainability
of a way of life and economy traditionally providing and
depending upon high mobility of people and goods on a declining
cost curve
- Declining petroleum supplies
driving up the cost of traditional liquid fuels gasoline,
diesel for transportation
- Declining public
revenues from the petroleum-based fuel tax that pays for
transportation infrastructure
- Restraint on carbon emissions
into the atmosphere as a matter of government policy responding
to global climate change
- Population growth and
expanded mobility demands in the northwest U.S.A. and western
Canada caused by population in-migration from nearby regions
facing severe water shortages
- Declining infrastructure
investment (covered in a
pre-meeting briefing paper)
- Ongoing deployment of new
technologies bearing on mobility and access
Note: The post-meeting
survey found that 92 % of respondents believed the current
transportation model is not sustainable.
- How must our transportation system change to address these
challenges?
- Aggressive local and national steps to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions
- Urban zoning, design standards, public subsidies, and other
land use regulations and incentives to establish
more compact, mixed use urban areas
that attract residents and commercial tenants who take advantage
of non-automobile mobility choices, thereby manifesting reduced
personal vehicle miles traveled in daily economic and social
life
- User fees on road use and
personal vehicle parking that generate revenue and provide
incentives for reduced driving in peak demand periods (covered
in a
pre-meeting background paper)
- Carbon taxes and parking
taxes to provide economic incentives for lowered vehicle use
- A continent-wide coordinated effort from government and
business toward new energy sources for transportation
- A growing share of vehicle power
from the electric power grid, with all that entails for the
management of the electric network (covered in a pre-meeting
briefing paper)
- New systems and incentives for encouraging higher private
vehicle occupancy
- Intelligent,
technology-intensive vehicle flow management of cars, buses, and
trucks to increase the hourly people-moving capacity on existing
roads
- Systematic knowledge sharing and technology transfer between
urban regions
- Removal of barriers to private sector investment in public
transportation infrastructure and systems
- A continuous, high level of infrastructure support for
walking and bicycling
Note: During the meeting, the electronic polling revealed
that 92% in attendance believed that designing and implementing
road pricing pilot projects within the next 5 years is a good
idea. 71% thought that at least doubling the market share of
urban trips in Portland taken in carpools and buses (now about
20 %) would be a good goal.
- What are the immediate next steps?
- Action to educate and mobilize the public on the coming
crisis
- Active support of political leaders who pass new laws and
continue existing programs in support of changes listed above,
as well as initiate new efforts.
Initiatives taken by Oregon Governor Kulongoski
- Active, Internet-enabled networking by committed
professionals (like those attending this event) to support
learning and action among and between different urban regions
- Active evaluation of costs and benefits of alternative
public investments in order to allocate limited
problem-solving resources toward development and implementation
of sustainable solutions in an environment with many problems,
some not transportation related.
- Focused efforts to achieve initial demonstration and pilot
implementations of new system capabilities
Several areas of mobility fell outside the scope of the
presentations and discussions at this meeting:
- Freight mobility (but covered in a
pre-conference briefing paper)
- Optimizing the mix of rail versus road-based public
transportation
- Rural transportation
- Intercity and international transportation
- Pipelines
- Aviation
- Marine ferries
- Telecommunications substitution for physical mobility
telework, e-shopping, online education
Post-meeting polling of participants, 34% response rate:
Six pre-meeting background papers were issued:
The organizers sincerely
appreciate the investment by sponsors and participants at Meeting of the Minds
in Portland!
For questions and further
information, contact George K Beard
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