Good evening, members of the Task Force. My name is Kari Schlosshauer and I am the Senior Policy Manager for the Safe Routes Partnership. We are proud to be founding members of Getting There Together, a Coalition of more than 25 member and mission-based organizations in the greater Portland region that prioritizes making our streets safe and accessible for people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds by investing in new and better transit & safe walking/rolling access. Our member organizations work with stakeholders, businesses, and community members across the region, including communities of color, transit riders, youth, older adults, and the most vulnerable users of the road. You will hear from several of them tonight.

The Getting There Together Coalition represents many of the people that the potential T2020 transportation improvements would affect. As you all continue to prioritize corridors, and start to look at projects and programs for potential investment through the T2020 measure, we continue to urge you to use a people-driven approach.

Your own guiding values, together with Getting There Together’s analysis, indicates corridors in the final list should be centered around equity focus areas, should have a vision/need for safety improvements and/or increased + improved transit service, and investments must be prioritized for dis/underinvested communities. Corridors that accommodate new and better transit, and safe walking/rolling access projects will serve a triple bottom line: support communities most in need of transportation options, drastically reduce climate emissions, and help people get where they need to go, safely and quickly.

You all have received a packet of information (PDF) from us with specific information about the corridors Getting There Together proposes be considered for selection to be in Tier 1 & why, as well as those we suggest do not move forward in this package.