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Active Transportation Partnership
Planning and conservation › Transportation › Expanding transportation choices › Active transportation
Find out about the partnership working to secure funding to complete a regionwide pedestrian and bike network.
Demonstration projects
Local jurisdictions and partners have identified and developed active transportation corridor concepts that provide seamless, safe, enjoyable and efficient walking, bicycling and transit connections across the region. View the proposed projects
Coordinating with regional partners, the Active Transportation Partnership will increase the metro region's effectiveness in securing funding to complete a regionwide network of on-street and off-street bikeways and walkways integrated with transit and supported by educational programs.
Such a system would take cycling well beyond the exclusive domain of avid cyclists and the courageous to become a practical and preferred option for average residents. It would provide new options for walking, including trails connected to neighborhoods and safe pedestrian crossings. The system would allow people to bike and walk to transit, schools, employment centers, parks, natural areas and shopping.
The Active Transportation Partnership was developed to implement the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Committee for Trails.
Download the case for an active transportation strategy (1.6M PDF)
Executive Council for Active Transportation
The Metro Council convened the Blue Ribbon Committee for Trails in May 2008. The committee was charged with determining whether the region should increase its commitment to active transportation and, if so, to design a strategy for investment that would achieve significant results. The committee found that active transportation offered significant potential for the region and recommended that the region build a set of premier, high performing, projects in "urban," "suburban" and "urban to nature settings" as a way to demonstrate the economic, environmental and public health outcomes that can be achieved.
The committee concluded meeting in November 2008. Over half of the members of that committee elected to reconvene as the Executive Council for Active Transportation, with the mission to champion the region's strategy to complete the regional active transportation bicycle and pedestrian network. The Council is comprised of health care providers, business owners, corporate executives, elected officials and non-profit representatives.
Download a list of members
Download the mission statement of the Executive Council
Download questions explored on study tour of Amsterdam and Copenhagen
Transatlantic Active Transportation Workshop
Why do European cities choose to invest in bicycling and walking? What does it take to have 30 percent of trips made by bike? Why do American companies locate their European headquarters in walkable and bikeable cities? These and other questions were examined during a three day workshop Sept. 30 through Oct. 2. The German Marshall Fund, the Executive Council for Active Transportation and Metro invited experts from Europe in bicycle and pedestrian planning and policy to come review the region's active transporation corridors and discuss what is needed to take the region to the next level of active transportation.View workshop presentations and learn more
Active transportation application for TIGER funds
The Metro Council has requested $98 million in federal stimulus funds to invest in innovative bicycling and walking projects. Proposed projects in the cities of Hillsboro, Portland, and Milwaukie and in unincorpportated Clackamas County, will create links to transit service and employment areas, and demonstrate how levels of walking and cycling in urban, suburban and rural areas can be increased through the creation of safe and convenient places to bike and walk. The projects will create family wage jobs and reduce traffic congestion, transportation costs, air and water pollution, global warming and the cost of health care.
The proposal builds on decades of groundwork to achieve breakthrough levels of bicycling and walking, and will advance the vision of a regional Active Transportation Partnership, a coalition of organizations working to enhance and protect the region's quality of life and health.
The Transportation Investments to Generate Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants is a program of the US Department of Transportation has $1.5 billion available nationally. Grants will be awarded by February 17, 2010.
The four projects included in the grant application were identified by the Executive Council for Active Transportation. The Metro Council appointed the Executive Council on August 6, 2009 to review the active transportation projects submitted for the "Call for Active Transportation Projects".
Download the TIGER Grant application
Read an article in the DJC on the Metro Council's application for TIGER funds
Active transportation corridor brainstorm session
Learn more about a workshop for trail, bike, pedestrian, transit and transportation planners and advocates on "active transportation corridors" in the Portland metropolitan area. Learn more about the corridor workshop
Files and related materials
To view PDF files, download free Adobe Reader. To translate PDF files into text to assist visually-impaired users, visit Access.Adobe.com.
Files that are downloadable from this page
- Frequently asked questions about the call for active transportation projects 142K Adobe Acrobat PDF | Published July 20, 2009
- Call for active transportation demonstration projects 645K Adobe Acrobat PDF | Published July 15, 2009
- Active transportation principles 355K Adobe Acrobat PDF | Published April 3, 2009
- What is an active transportation corridor? 292K Adobe Acrobat PDF | Published April 3, 2009
- Portland Area Active Transportation Initiative TIGER Grant proposal 16.7M Adobe Acrobat PDF | Published September 16, 2009
- Members of the Executive Council for Active Transportation 39K Adobe Acrobat PDF
- Executive Council for Active Transportation Mission 161K Adobe Acrobat PDF
- DJC article on TIGER Grant 23K Adobe Acrobat PDF
- Europe Study Tour Questions 1.0M Adobe Acrobat PDF
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Related Links
Connecting Green
The Metro Council and other community leaders are working together to create the best system of parks, natural area and trails in the world.
Blue Ribbon Committee for Trails
A committee of civic, business and elected leaders gathered at Metro to think big about regional trails. Read their recommendations for investing in and planning our transportation systems to maximize mobility, livability and community.
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