Michael Mehaffy worked on Orenco Station in Portland, and says criticism that says it fails because most commuters drive to work misses the point of the forward-thinking development.
Mehaffy is responding to a recent article from Eric Jaffe citing new statistics about mode choice in Orenco Station.
Mehaffy writes that focusing on the car commuters misses the point:
"The idea is to let people live closer to all of their destinations, so that they can get to work, and to other destinations, more easily by any mode. If they work at Intel, just behind Orenco Station, they can't take light rail. But they will likely drive less than a mile to get to work, which is far better from an energy and carbon point of view than trekking across town to pile onto the light rail.
And indeed, 36 percent use transit, bike, carpool or bus, or some other combination. That's still not great, but far better than the U.S. average of 23.6 percent."
FULL STORY: In Defense of Portland's Orenco Station
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