If transportation projects need to span long distances or enable millions of trips to be considered of regional significance, what does that mean for active transportation? An Intertwine Alliance forum, hosted Jan. 27 by the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation at Portland State University, raised that among its many discussion questions.

The "How We Get There Matters" Regional Active Transportation Forum was sponsored by Metro, the Safe Routes to School National Partnership and Portland State University's Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation.

Speakers from organizations across the region offered their perspectives for participants, presenting ways to think of walking and bicycling as regionally significant. Discussion followed, with participants offering ideas in how to best make the case for elevating active projects to that level.

Participants spanned the public, private and nonprofit sectors and represented urban, suburban and rural communities. They arrived at Portland State’s Native American Student and Community Center by a variety of transportation modes.

When talking about regional significance, it’s easy to take too narrow a look at transportation, said Amanda Garcia-Snell, Washington County’s health promotion supervisor, said. Broadening the scope to examine the intersection with public health shows more of the significance of active transportation.

“Health is everywhere,” Garcia-Snell said.

Roger Geller, Portland’s bicycle coordinator, said biking and walking hold the key to reducing transportation emissions leading to climate change.  In this sense, “every active transportation trip is regionally significant,” he said.

Tougher climate strategies can lead to dramatically more active trips, Geller said. “Sometimes you’ve got to put a stick to it.”

Eric Hesse, strategic planning coordinator for TriMet, stressed the need to assess a community’s priorities before determining what’s significant. “You have to ask ‘What do we care about?’ ” Hesse said.

The idea of framing projects around communities resonated with LeAnne Fergason of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance. Schools form the center of communities, and projects that benefit schools strengthen those communities. Viewed through that lens, even small transportation projects can connect with others to make the case for regional significance.

If you missed the forum, you can watch the presentation here.

Ideas gathered during the forum will be refined into a report back available on the Safe Routes to School National Partnership's forum page.

Check out our photo set from the forum on the TREC Flickr page.