West Hills Congestion - Petition Presented to Portland

Wanted to give you a quick update on the presentation of the petition to Portland Commissioner Steve Novick yesterday. This is likely the last email sent via change.org since this closes the petition process. If you would like to remain engaged and informed, please ‘like’ the West Hills Congestion page on Facebook. We’ll keep posts to a minimum. There may be meetings or hearings where you can participate, and it helps when people show up. We'll post those opportunities on the Facebook page, as they come up. ======== Summary of July 27th meeting with Commissioner Steve Novick about the Westover Closure, and long range programs to reduce traffic. Key points: - Commissioner Novick said the only thing worse than getting all the emails asking for the closure, were all the emails afterwards that were against the closure. So your voices were heard! - All petition comments were presented, but we also summarized the themes: (1) the effects of a new lengthy commute on getting to work, school and across town, reaching hospitals, (2) harm to the environment, (3) the relative numbers of those affected by the changes (i.e., Westover and Summit residents versus the thousands now inconvenienced) - We suggested that many petition signers could perhaps support the Westover closure, IF there were other improvements to mitigate traffic, but that doing it alone made a bad situation worse. - He said he was open to some short term changes that might help, and also a potential traffic signal at NW 25th and Lovejoy. PBOT members at the meeting suggested that the local neighborhood association will fight fiercely against a traffic signal because they believe it could speed traffic driving by Chapman Elementary, but Novick reiterated that’s not necessarily a reason not to do it. Funding is an issue, and we may need to get outside funding. - On the request for more transportation options, Multnomah County already supports the idea of a study to find ways to provide more options, and Portland sounds like it is interested as well, but there’s a question about what role Metro should play. Portland will consider adding a project to their Transportation System Plan similar to the Multnomah County Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Study project. That would help get the study funded. - Be aware that Portland's objective for 2035 (Draft Transportation Systems Plan - Dec 2015) is 2035 for 70% of Portland commuters to walk (7.5%), bike (25%), take transit (25%) or carpool (10%). They also suggest that by 2025, the % of households owning two cars will drop from 24% to 10%. We believe that better coordination between Portland, Multnomah County, Washington County and other agencies is essential if those objectives are to be met. - Our timing for this discussion is good because Portland is still working on their Transportation System Plan (TSP), and Metro is working on an update to their Regional Transportation Plan. We will need people to speak up during various upcoming transportation planning processes, and the Facebook page will let people know about those opportunities. We are making good progress. Thank you for your support!