West Hills Congestion: Your comments are making a difference!

Our recent efforts to influence Portland’s TSP (Transportation System Plan) to include a TDM (Traffic Demand Management) program for the West Hills have been successful! Here’s what the city-wide email about the TSP updates says: “Among the comments we received, we heard the most about: 1) Interest in a TDM study for the West Hills”... That means we submitted the most comments on any one topic across the city – THANK YOU! In response to our comments, the city added a new sub-policy into the draft that says: “TDM strategies. Explore and emphasize Transportation Demand Management strategies and tools, that function in spite of unique topographic conditions of the West Hills, to provide effective options for commuters while reducing carbon emissions, improving neighborhood livability and cycling safety, and protecting important natural resources.” The city’s draft isn’t final - there will be hearings this fall, but getting this language into the draft TSP is a huge step forward. We’ll try to figure out if we need more input for those hearings, and let you know. We’re working with other neighborhoods in our area to get them to join our request, so we can get the city moving on this. Many thanks to everyone who submitted a comment asking for a TDM policy for the West Hills! We aren’t done – we need the language to be formally adopted, and we need to work for funding to implement a program, but this is a key step and we wanted to make sure that everyone who helped knew that their comments made a difference.