NEW STORY // Op-Ed: Nobody Wants to Live Next to a Highway Op-Ed by Anna Zivarts (@nondriver.bsky.social), via @theurbanist.org // 🔗 www.theurbanist.org/2026/02/25/o...

All ODOT knows how to do is build freeways and they’re even bad at that

City transportation official opts for white line and signage instead of gate to keep their baby off the stairs.

just cooked up with the idea to do a bridge replacement project and this is as affordable as i could make it (bridge circled in red)

Holy shit

I think the gas tax hike should be even higher

Me trying to figure out how many zeroes are in $10B

Who wants to be the new boss and finally do something about these godforsaken cars? DM your resumes

The War on Cars, welcome to Portland, OR.

If ODOT was so busy expanding freeways, they could get back to their roots: blowing up whales

Reno Nevada put their surface running rail line into a trench for $282 million. For the cost of like 1/8th of a mile of I5 widening we could grade separate the line.

“It’s so endemic, it’s so pervasive, it’s so ubiquitous, that people don’t recognize just how much it is all around them” I've been talking motonormativity with @grist.org. Also features @sgoodyear.bsky.social and @brooklynspoke.bsky.social grist.org/culture/cars...

Hey Oregonians! Drivers on the road have the ultimate responsibility of driving safely, staying completely aware of their surroundings, and keeping in control of their vehicles at all times Raining? Slow down. Low visibility? Slow down. Hate traffic? Take public transit, bike, roll, or walk

I was walking down a street in New York and I thought how lovely it was, with the trees and the light. Tried to take a photo and this came out. It’s incredible how blind we become to the ugliness of cars. They really do mess things up. Yet somehow we manage to filter them out.

Paris celebrated the opening of its 300th “school street”: landscaped & pedestrianized or semi-pedestrianized blocks situated in front of schools. Most have been completed since 2020.

Why your next car should be an electric cargo bike

The new price tag for this project is gonna top $10 billion, or you can take one of the vowels from Iannarone.

Hello, Portland! We are so excited to announce that we'll be at the famous @powells.bsky.social on November 13th in conversation with @opb.org's @anomalily.net about our new book, "Life After Cars." Tickets, which include a copy of the book, are on sale now: www.powells.com/events/sarah...

On one hand, reducing car use reduces urban pollution. But on the other, everyone likes it and cities become more livable

Cars have degraded our environment, economy, and lives. Forced car dependency makes us poorer, less healthy, and disconnected to our natural world. The first step of a cure is to recognize that we have a car problem. Most of us don't even see where we are through our bug-splattered windshields.

Removing a highway is about more than eliminating a costly and decaying road. It’s about creating opportunity for community to thrive. Rochester did it with the inner loop, and already the city is seeing the fruit of that labor.

"Compared to other modes, [walking and biking were] found to have positive relation with mental and physical health of an urban commuter." doi.org/10.1016/j.jt...

Letting People Move climateandcommunity.org/research/let... @oregondot.bsky.social @pbotinfo.bsky.social @bikeportland.org @bikeloudpdx.bsky.social

Hey Portland, we on track to hit those mode split goals yet?

the funny thing about transportation policy is that the obvious fix is to stop wasting absurd sums of money on highway widenings that just make traffic worse but for some reason state DOTs are incapable of understanding that

A note for advocates: Despite the frequency of transit funding crises, they are not inevitable or “natural.” Starving transit is a political choice, and we must name and shame the elected officials who are allowing it to happen.

ACTION ALERT! The Oregon Transportation Commission votes Thursday to consider pausing the $2,000,000,000+ proposal to double the width and number of freeway lanes for the Rose Quarter Freeway. Join No More Freeways in demanding OTC direct ODOT to pause the expansion: nomorefreewayspdx.com/pauserq/

If Damian Lillard comes back to the Blazers, I’ll cancel the I5 Rose Quarter highway expansion

Just need to take down this freeway segment and Portland could have a great riverfront.

ODOT could cancel one of their underfunded highway expansion projects and keep the workers on. They choose not to. They are using the employees as hostages in a gambit to get money out of the Legislature to fund their highway building.

Here's the *real* future of transport (sorry, tech bros): The Non-Polluting, Autonomy-Building, Fitness-Enhancing, Happiness-Producing, Self-Driven Vehicle.

It's time for a full stop on ODOT's Rose Quarter freeway widening. Between the feds bailing and mass layoffs at ODOT, it is critical we stop the bleeding. Cancel all upcoming shovels in the ground BS. Send stop work orders to all contractors. Enough! @oregondot.bsky.social @tinakotek.bsky.social

We just want streets where we and the people we love can safely ride our bikes and cargo bikes to the places we need to go to.

Time for another reminder — our values & priorities are revealed in countless small but key details in our city design, deliberate decisions that have prioritized cars over people for decades. It will take equally deliberate decisions to change our priorities. HT #Dutch cartoon by Verwey, 1980

biggest thing that stands out to me from the oregon transportation bill debacle: HB 2025 was a serious effort to charge road users the full cost of road maintenance, and it collapsed under its own weight. vindication of the @strongtowns.org view of america’s unsustainably overbuilt infrastructure

devastating cuts to statewide transit on the horizon, but on the plus side, rose quarter is absolutely cooked. #orleg

Much opposition to the transportation bill has been about how Oregonians can't afford to pay more taxes to use our roads... But a study by the State Legislative Revenue Office showed that Oregon has LOWEST vehicle taxes among 7 western states. (And when HB 2025 passes, we'll move up to 6th place.)

I was also pretty unimpressed by the riverfront. The bridges are in poor condition for pedestrians. The waterfront park is aging. The east side of the river is a massive, multilevel freeway. Not great.

remember friends you are not stuck in traffic, you are traffic

One reason I think it’s important to continue to highlight the disparity on our streets is that most people just don’t see it. Despite it being obvious to some, so many people don't have clarity because we have done such an incredible job of normalizing this imbalance.

One of the less discussed impacts of transport. “Noise pollution is often overlooked, considered just an annoyance of everyday life. However, long-term impacts of noise on our health and environment are widespread and significant. Children are also particularly vulnerable to the effects of noise…”

amtrak’s marketing team gets it

Our obsession with the automobile has taken so much more than road space.

Flip Flop: In 2017, the Oregon Legislature moved to make ODOT "more accountable" by having the transportation commission appoint the director. Now, in 2025, it will make ODOT "more accountable" by having the Governor appoint the director, again. Rearranging the deck chairs, again.

Do you think ALL Oregon transportation money should go only to highways? No? Then contact your Reps TODAY Tell them *NO* on LC 4934 (and YES on HB 2025) gov.oregonlive.com/legislators/ Need more details on the astonishingly terrible bill? @bikeportland.org has a thorough summary. Please act today.