Portland Day 6 and Day 7 to Seattle

Today was the final day at Railvolution and the my final day in Portland.

There was two workshops today and I attended the one discussing employment centers near TOD and an introduction to complete streets. The first session had some good information from Los Angeles on the concentration of employment on the subway the sea which was followed by a presentation from a Bellevue, Washington planner discussing how that city is planning to develop two station areas beyond the downtown alignment controversy.

The session on complete streets showed what states have passed legislation mandating complete streets (which also points out how little is being done about it). The session also talked about some of the difficulties being experienced getting road engineers on the program because it isn't part of their "little black book".

Finally I went on my final mobile workshop of Railvolution which discussed some successes and difficulties of developing suburban TOD in the Portland area. We had the opportunity to check out several TOD projects and I will be discussing what was talked about on those tours and some of the things that was not talked about.

That finishes up my time at Railvolution and Portland. On Friday I head up to Seattle on Cascade Talgo operated by Amtrak. For anyone who has not had the opportunity to ride the Talgos in service in the northwest I highly recommned it.

Upon arrival in Seattle I had the opportunity to take my first ride on Link light rail but it was only through the downtown tunnel. From there I picked up a rental car since I will be heading to areas with poor transit service during the week and non-existant service on the weekends.