We The People
About M 26-218
Get moving will invest in:
- Up to 45 miles of new sidewalks and an additional 140 miles of new bike lanes, heavily weighted toward communities of color.
- 120 miles of roadway improvements, and 280 new marked crosswalks making getting around our region safer and more reliable.
- The region’s first rapid bus transit system.
- 11 miles of new MAX lines.
- Free youth transit passes for all of our region’s high school students.
- And 4,000 new streetlights to make our streets safer and more accessible.
PREPARING FOR GROWTH AND TRAFFIC: As our economy recovers and the region continues to grow, we’ll be right back in traffic congestion. We need to take action now. In 2018, an average of 1,000 new residents per month moved into the greater Portland region. An estimated one million new people will call this region home in the coming decades. We have to take meaningful, effective steps that help mitigate congestion without harming our climate, economy, and quality of life.
CREATING THOUSANDS OF JOBS: This measure will allow much-needed investments in our aging roads and bridges while creating over tens of thousands of jobs and helping to rebuild our local economy at the same time as we rebuild our transportation system.
INVESTING IN SAFER ROADS AND SIDEWALKS: We all deserve safe places to walk and bike. This measure targets resources for sidewalks and safe routes to school, as well as safety improvements on our roadways that give drivers more time to respond and encourage safer driving behavior.
JUMP START OUR ECONOMY: Economists across the political spectrum agree that in order to jump-start our economy and get working, moving, and thriving again we need to be investing in infrastructure and local jobs. From the New Deal to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: our region, state, and country have prioritized investment in transportation during moments of economic uncertainty. We know that’s the best way to make sure we emerge stronger than ever and prepared for the future we deserve.
ADVANCING RACIAL EQUITY: Let’s Get Moving also helps us put our values into practice and makes critical transportation investments in underserved neighborhoods where a history of racist transportation planning has resulted in a higher need for transit access, sidewalks, safety improvements, and other investments. It’s easy to say that Black Lives Matter — it’s another to put real investments into communities of color while fighting displacement. If we really do believe in racial equity and correcting the racist legacy of this country, then we have to take action and make changes.
EXPANDING TRANSIT OPTIONS: This measure will create our region’s first rapid bus network and build additional and much needed MAX line. These transit improvements will improve efficiency and safety, increase access for historically marginalized communities, and reduce carbon pollution.
ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE: Transportation is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in Oregon. No one measure or action will solve the crisis, but we know that carbon pollution can be reduced by providing alternatives to driving alone, including safe, reliable, and affordable transit, biking, and walking.
We can’t do this without you. Let’s Get Moving has been referred from the Metro Council to the people of our region — and we must pass it at the ballot this November.
Shaping the Measure
Transportation decisions have historically been made in back rooms with corporate lobbyists deciding which potholes get filled and which bridges get built. It has meant that many of our most dangerous roadways that criss-cross have been overlooked for decades.
Get Moving is different. A taskforce of business, community, and elected leaders spent nearly two years working closely with community members and more than 20 listening sessions identifying our dangerous and heavily used roadways, crosswalks, and where our transit service needs to be improved.
Endorsements
Job Creation
Transportation Means Jobs and Economic Recovery
“Since the days of the New Deal and the WPA, in times of economic uncertainty, our country, our state, and our region have always invested in major construction projects in order to create jobs and help stabilize the economy. There are lots of ways to create jobs, but creating jobs by building transformational transportation projects—that is rebuilding our economy and our transportation system simultaneously.”
These investments are critical to addressing short term pandemic recovery. For every $1 invested in transportation returns $3.70 in economic impact.
(University of Maryland Study)
Transportation is about more than just getting around — it connects us to work, to school, and to the people and places we love. For many of us, getting around is our job; for the laborers who build and maintain our streets, the delivery drivers, letter carriers, and bike messengers, transportation is a necessity.
Investing in our infrastructure is critical for our economic recovery. From job creation and business opportunities in construction and contracting, to long term benefits for businesses large and small, this measure is a critical investment in our economy and future. We can make long-overdue investments in our aging roads and bridges while creating tens of thousands of jobs to help rebuild our local economy.
Small Business — Big Benefit.
Let’s Get Moving was created and negotiated with small, independently-owned businesses in mind and workers . By fixing sidewalks and installing crosswalks, the measure will help connect small businesses to customers by making them more accessible. And with the new rapid-ride bus lanes, commuters, shoppers, and students will breeze through traffic to get wherever they need to go.
This measure is going to create high-paying jobs that will help this region keep going after the COVID-19 pandemic is over, provide ongoing careers in transit, and help speed up traffic as more individuals move to the area.
Small businesses will be able to reap the benefits of expanded transit systems and necessary road repairs without paying for them; about 91% of area businesses will not pay the small tax on payroll.
Our Union Partners
Racial Equity
That is how this package was created. Through close to two dozen community meetings offered in culturally-competent formats and 11 different languages, the organizers and builders of this measure were able to form a plan that truly accounts for the diverse needs of this region.
“Equity” isn’t just a label — it’s woven into every fiber of this plan. The investments in this project intersect specifically with the need for the Portland Metro region to actively address decades of racism and discrimination in planning.
“When plans are being made, the needs of low-income, minority communities are excluded, because they do not have representation in the planning process. But if the viewpoint of these communities were better incorporated in the process, it would help…make more just decisions. It would be a first step towards the inclusion of transportation justice in the city’s political agenda, which would make transportation more accessible and affordable for all.”
- The financial investments are strongly weighted toward areas of our region where people of color already live — including the creation of more than 37,500 jobs in unionized industries which have substantially reduced race and gender pay gaps than the private labor market.
- Safety and accessibility investments, including curb cuts, sidewalks, and crosswalks, are planned for areas where people of color live, without creating displacement or pricing out those residents.
- Creating safer routes to school and providing students with free transit passes will impact youth of color, as well as families, by allowing them to get to work and school easily and safely.
- In all, 60% of the total corridor investments are located in areas of our region where high concentrations of people of color live.
- Investments in access to transit — one of the single biggest predictors of lifetime economic gain — are heavily weighted toward areas where people of color live, work, and play.
This policy was not created for communities of color — it was created with communities of color, and supported by communities of color, and championed by communities of color. It wasn’t created with racial equity in mind. Racial equity was, has been, and will continue to be the goal.
Support us
This measure is an exciting opportunity for residents of our region to invest in our future — and show support for our values of equity, social justice, and community. We’re facing opposition with deep pockets and we could use your help.
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