Mission Statement

Our Mission Statement:
The Equity in Active Transportation Committee is focused on collaborative approaches to providing culturally competent and relevant transportation related programming in low income communities of color in the Portland Metro area. The Committee is comprised of program level staff from various agencies who are engaged in transportation program design, implementation and delivery.

The Equity in Active Transportation Committee was founded by the Community Cycling Center in 2010, and continues to be moderated and facilitated by them.

Goals

The goals of the Equity in Active Transportation Committee are:
1. To effectively collaborate as transportation focused agencies with our partner organizations that serve low income and communities of color in Portland, Oregon.
2. To share resources and challenges in providing culturally competent outreach, community engagement, leadership empowerment and program delivery in low income and communities of color.
3. To share resources and connections with our partner organizations to better provide ongoing support in a manner that best suits the needs of each specific community.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Bureau of Transportation distributes walk/bike maps in five new languages

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The Portland Bureau of Transportation attended a pre-employment training class at the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization today to give students walk/bike maps in five new languages as a part of its SmartTrips program. The additional languages for the popular maps were Burmese, Nepali, Somali, Russian and Arabic. IRCO informed PBOT that these languages would cover the most New Portlanders and help to get them to job interviews if they didn’t own a car.

“For New Portlanders, getting to that first job interview or first day on the job can be a monumental task, especially if English isn’t a first language,” said Marni Glick of PBOT. “Handing out walk/bike maps in other languages shows those new to our area that low-cost and free transportation choices are right around the corner. Plus, choosing to walk, bike, take transit, and carpool increases fitness, saves money, and reduces traffic congestion and pollution.”

The new languages were cost-effectively made by adding stickers to existing maps on top of map key and titles. These maps are currently available in both English and Spanish and show the locations of schools, community centers, transit lines, parks and grocery stores.

SmartTrips is the name for Transportation Options' programs that encourage alternative transportation choices. Bike and walk maps and ordering information can be found at www.gettingaroundportland.org.

According to its website, IRCO’s mission is to “promote the integration of refugees, immigrants, and the community at large into a self-sufficient, healthy, and inclusive multiethnic society.” More information is available at www.irco.org.

OPAL Launches their Campaign for Fair Tri Met Transfer

OPAL - Environmental Justice Oregon, launched their campaign for a fair Tri Met transfer on February 21st, 2011! TriMet riders who depend on the bus and MAX are facing greater hardships. Many transit riders, especially working-class families and people of color, rely on single-trip fares to meet basic needs and can’t afford to invest in transit passes. TriMet has cut bus service by over 170,000 hours leading to longer wait times between buses, overcrowded buses that pass us by, and missed transfers. Service cuts have decimated evening and weekend service.

OPAL has been working on this campaign for many months now, and they have a strategy not only for community involvement in the cause, but also for how things could be better.

OPAL Bus Riders Unite! has a Solution: 1. EXTEND ALL TRIMET TRANSFERS TO 3 HOURS FOR BUS AND MAX
2. SUPPORT EVENING RIDERS WITH UNLIMITED TRANSFER TIME AFTER 7PM

There are lots of ways you can get involved in this campaign and any of their other efforts such as this one:

BRU TIP Advocacy Team
Bus Riders Unite for Transit Justice in TriMet’s Transit Investment Plan (TIP)
We are seeking bus riders who are interested in making change for those who depend on public transportation.  Bus riders, particularly those from working class families and communities of color, need to have a greater role in TriMet’s annual Transit Investment Plan (TIP) to ensure equity and fairness in future service planning and priorities.  This unique leadership program will unite a core group of bus riders to strengthen our advocacy and leadership skills, with the goal of increasing our influence on transportation decisions.  Participants will meet at least once each month for advocacy training around public transportation processes, health impacts, and environmental justice issues in the Portland metro region.

For more information please go to their website at:
http://www.opalpdx.org/

Thursday, February 3, 2011

The Bike Mobile goes to Hacienda!


On Saturday, September 25th, 2010, with the help of our incredible outreach volunteers, we hosted the inaugural BikeMobile event in partnership with Hacienda CDC. We have been working with staff and residents of Hacienda for over a year now (as part of the Understanding Barriers to Bicycling Project), and this latest event was a community-driven request made by the Hacienda Bike Committee. Hacienda's Bike Committee is made up of residents, who are primarily first-generation Latino immigrant women. The Committee asked that we hold an outreach event where we could transfer some basic bicycle maintenance skills to residents while fixing some of their bicycles.

We arrived on in our brand new outreach vehicle, the BikeMobile, stuffed full of tables, tools, tires and tubes. We quickly set up stations around Hacienda's central building, including a basic bicycle quick fix station, staffed by six mechanics; a flat tire station staffed by four flat fix experts; an I Ride portrait booth, where community members could have their photos taken with their bicycles; and an outreach table where participants could find additional information about riding in Portland.

Our communications dude, Josh, was on hand with a large video camera on a tripod, working on documenting the event. The camera set up was an instant hit with the kids. They dropped their bikes on the grass and crowded around the video camera and Josh took the opportunity to teach the kids how to film. He would give them question prompts to ask while they were filming, and they would become interviewers behind the camera. It was pretty amazing to see an 8-year-old behind a huge video camera with a headset on, filming me pumping up some tires.

We did a quick orientation for all of the volunteers, and Hacienda Community Builder Tanya Wolfersberger gave everyone an overview of Hacienda's housing community that is comprised of about 85% Latino families and 15% Somali families. After the orientation, we were ready to roll (and so were the kids!).

Bicycles that needed more than just a flat fix were sent to the mechanic station, and Gram, a mechanic at our bike shop and the bike production expert for all of Holiday Bike Drive, played infielder, sending bikes to open mechanics. Our experienced volunteers got to work fixing everything from loose saddles to broken pedals. The flat tire candidates came and sat down on the ground in the flat fix area, and we empowered all of the bicycle owners with tools and patch kits, and walked them through fixing their own flats. Kids became engrossed in the activity, and many of them stayed and helped fix many more flats than just their own. The pumps were the most popular tool, and pumping air into tires and just back into the air, became a game in and of itself.

We closed the day with Japanese lessons from one of our volunteers, and the kids stood in the truck asking him to translate sentences, then they would all repeat it back. They wanted to know how to say things like: "Congratulations, you are going to college!," and "I am as strong as the Incredible Hulk!," which was heartwarming, as clearly these kids are already feeling empowered and strong. Also, the Japanese word for Hulk is pretty great, so all the kids and I continued on yelling "Hulkedaya!", as the truck door closed and we drove and pedaled away.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

New Columbia Bicyle Committee is in full swing!

There has been a lot of resident led energy at New Columbia since the Housing Authority opened this new development in 2005. In 2009 the Community Cycling Center received funding to begin to better understand the barriers to bicycling in low income communities of color in Portland Oregon. With the help of HAP Community Builder Leslie Esinga, and the Village Gardens Program, we were able to develop some really strong relationships with some of the resident leaders at New Columbia.

With the Community Cycling Center's Communities In Motion project, we were able to start facilitating a New Columbia Bicycle Committee, which meets monthly to help direct bicycle related programming and infrastructure in their neighborhood. The residents meet with staff from various agencies, including PBOT, Sunday Parkways and HAP, to give input on bicycle projects, and also plan upcoming bicycling events at New Columbia.

Past projects at New Columbia include:
  • Bikes For Kids
  • Bikes For All
  • Create a Commuter
  • Bike Club
  • Sunday Parkways Ride
  • Fix it day
Now in February of 2011 we are getting ready for our third monthly Bicycle Committee Meeting, with lots of visions and ideas for the spring bicycling events at New Columbia. The committee is working on putting together a bicycle bucket carrier building workshop during the Village Market Grand Opening, a bicycle ride during the Sunday Parkways event, and a Bike Mobile Fix It day in the spring.

To learn more about the community of New Columbia, check out their website here:
http://www.newcolumbia.org/