Portland Gets the Bike Share Program It’s Always Wanted

Although Portland is known as an American cycling mecca, Rose City denizen Kirsten Holmes doesn’t commute by bike as much as she did a few years ago. The issue isn’t illness or injury. Rather, the physician’s assistant used to live in the Hague, the bicycle-friendly capital of The Netherlands. “We rode bikes everywhere there,” Holmes … Read more

Short-line Freight Railroads

After decades of neglect and shrinking influence, short-line railroads are showing their relevance once more to Oregon’s economy. But as communities like Coos Bay win plaudits from the rail industry for restoring these short-distance links to the national railroad system, others, like Tillamook, are opting to abandon old tracks — reflecting a divided approach to … Read more

Catch that Train!

As high-speed rail inches forward, could new routes cut congestion and revitalize rural economies?

Car Talk

BY LINDA BAKER

Everyone knows cell phones and driving are a lethal combination. The risk is especially high for teenage drivers, whose delusions of immortality pose such a threat to us all. Enforcement alas, remains feeble; more promising are pedagogical approaches aimed at getting people to focus on the road, not their devices.

On the Brink

BY APRIL STREETER | OB CONTRIBUTOR

Leslie Carlson channels the big idea.