Rally, Public Hearing Thursday at Capitol Opportunity to Talk Transportation and Safety

On Thursday, September 22nd at 5pm, the Joint Interim Committee on Transportation Preservation and Modernization will hold a Public Hearing at the Capitol.

Our own Senator Jackie Winters is a committee member.

This is the final stop on a statewide tour of hearings and listening sessions. Previously they made stops in:

• Portland
• Ontario
• Hermiston
• Eugene
• Bend
• Medford
• Newport
• Hillsboro

At least theoretically, all this is to prepare for a large "transportation package" at the Legislature in next year's session.

So there has been a bit of formal advocacy written about it:

• Oregon Environmental Council
• Bicycle Transportation Alliance
• Safe Routes to School

You may know of others.

Safe Routes has a concise take on it:

In order to be a success for Oregonians, and successful for our future transportation needs, that package must incorporate three key goals:

• Fix-It First
• Invest in Transit
• Make our Streets Safe

Unfortunately, any transportation package likely won’t incorporate the above goals unless our local and state elected leaders hear from us that these issues are important.

You might remember the group from Portland that biked down for a weekend rally and die-in on the ODOT steps earlier this summer (here and here).

They're organizing another ride and rally. Here are the events in Salem:

2:00pm: Group Meetup in front of Capitol Building
5:00pm-8:00pm: Witness and testify at the Legislature's Transportation Subcommittee and Department of Transportation Hearings. Recruit your state senator or representative to testify with you.
8:00pm: Candlelight vigil for those needlessly killed on Oregon roads at the Oregon State Capitol.

If you are interested in remembering someone lost in traffic violence, the vigil will be another way to share and remember the loss.

The Hearing itself is an opportunity to talk not just about more walking, biking, and busing. It's also an opportunity to talk about allocating resources appropriately for driving.

This casts a long shadow over everything
September 2014 Oversight Team Presentation

It's a chance to talk about waste in planning big, and backwards-looking, highway projects like the Salem River Crossing. And to ask why is it still such a struggle to allocate resources for seismic retrofits for our existing infrastructure.

Even if you think the bikey people are nuts, there's urgency in the "Fix it First" messaging. We need to preserve and maintain what we have before we build shiny new stuff that we already know we can't preserve and maintain.

There might be more to say on Wednesday, even if just a reminder.