Metro’s Transportation Policy Alternatives Committee, or TPAC, is an advisory committee that reviews regional plans and federally funded transportation projects across the three-county Portland area. TPAC is comprised of 15 transportation professionals appointed by area jurisdictions, and six at-large community members. TPAC community representatives bring a various areas of representation and expertise to the regional transportation conversation.
Carol Gossett is a retired business owner and a former member of the American Planning Association and Urban Land Institute. She serves as the land use chair of Sullivan's Gulch Neighborhood Association, and has extensive experience in implementation and finance strategies for large development projects.
Steve White graduated from Portland State University with a Master's in Urban and Regional Planning. He is a project manager for Oregon Public Health Institute’s Health Impact Assessment and Healthy Community Planning Initiatives. His work at OPHI focuses on assessing and improving the connection between the built environment and health. This is his first appointment to TPAC.
Heather McCarey has a master's degree in City and Regional Planning and has worked with the Lloyd Transportation Management Association and the Westside Transportation Alliance. She is now executive director of Washington Park Transportation Management Association. She has served with TPAC for one year.
Carol Gossett brings fiscal experience to TPAC
When Carol Gossett moved to Portland four years ago to be near her sons, she retired from the business she'd owned for 20 years.
"I did economic development planning and finance strategies for large projects," Gossett said. "We'd look at development options for a project and figure out how to finance it. With implementation planning, you're figuring out how to actually do a project. It's the bridge between the planning document and the final result."
Gossett loved her work, and after moving, she started searching for volunteering opportunities in the area. She became involved with the Sullivan's Gulch Neighborhood Association and, through her work there, heard of TPAC's recruitment for community representatives.
Gossett saw the recruitment as an opportunity not only to re-enter her field of interest, but also to provide the committee with a non-affiliated perspective.
"To me, it seems that having (community representatives) who are not directly associated with an organization is important," Gossett said. "Everyone is representing their own interests, so it's good to have a person who can just look at the broader landscape."
Gossett believes that the work to which TPAC will contribute has the opportunity to carry forward the Portland region's reputation for innovative planning.
"Forty years ago, this region led the country with its urban growth boundaries and a different way of thinking about land use planning," Gossett said. "I think the next big deal is how we, as a nation, finance our infrastructure."
Looking to her future work at TPAC, Gossett is excited for the potential projects on which she can bring her financing expertise to bear. The Powell Boulevard project, she said, is one such "stunning opportunity."
"It's really important because they're saying, instead of federal funding, let's look at the relationship between the infrastructure and the economic development opportunities that are created," Gossett said. "There are opportunities for dense transit-oriented development areas. There's an intimate relationship between infrastructure and economic development."
Steve White eyes connection between cities and health
Although Steve White spends every day thinking about how the built environment contributes to public health, he knows that, for some, the connection isn't immediately evident.
"The key health challenges that are facing the general population are lifestyle related chronic disease issues affected by physical activity and nutrition, such as heart disease, obesity, and diabetes," White said. "When we look at what's causing people to be sick and to die, there are conditions in their environment shaped by a wide variety of things."
White said he and his colleagues in the public health field take an approach of "health in all policies" – examining how the design of workplaces, transportation systems, and even general buildings affects the choices and health of the public.
"We need to engage decision makers in all of these sectors to think about public health priorities," White said.
White contributed to land use and transportation planning efforts during Metro's Lake Oswego to Portland Transit Study and became interested in transportation's potential to influence public health metrics.
Health impacts of transportation planning range from things like crash safety and air pollution, to how design can reinforce opportunities for social cohesion by making community resources accessible.
Through TPAC, White hopes to be an advocate for bicycling and pedestrian infrastructure in future projects. "Opportunities for active transportation are going to be really beneficial," he said.
White is also excited for the chance TPAC will provide to engage with region-wide representatives.
"Our organization has been pretty active in Multnomah County with an ongoing dialogue about public health, but not quite as much in Washington and Clackamas counties," White said. "I'm looking forward to educating people at the table on public health issues, and why I'm also there."
While he doesn't know what his time at TPAC will hold, White hopes to integrate public health priorities into the long-term conversation.
"I think it would be really interesting to look at the different planning documents Metro has, larger scale like the RTO (Regional Travel Options), and get health equity goals included in those plans," White said. "That way, we would not only understand connections, but there would be specific policies and benchmarks to help us understand how we are going to move the needle on those metrics."
Heather McCarey helping to improve transportation
It's one thing to have lofty transportation goals, said Heather McCarey. It's another to see how those plans actually work on the ground.
McCarey applied for TPAC when she was working in Washington County, hoping to cast light on business and suburban considerations.
"In the urban core, it's one thing," McCarey said. "But farther out, where you don't always have a grid, it's a discussion of: how can we bring alternative transportation and transit to these areas, while still understanding what the business needs are.
"There are a lot of freight needs, and the need to move around commuters," she continued. "We have to understand those issues, but also understand that we can't solve them with only more roadways and single occupancy vehicles."
McCarey hopes that TPAC can contribute to a sustainable solution for meeting various transportation needs – not only environmentally and socially, but fiscally as well.
"Even if we wanted to just expand roadways, our budgets couldn't handle it," McCarey said. "It's incredibly expensive to build roads."
Additionally, McCarey is interested in making transportation planning information and processes more accessible to a public audience, to increase understanding and engagement.
"It's sometimes hard for the public to quickly synthesize policy and plans to get a sense of what's going on," McCarey said. "I have a background in transportation planning, and even for me, it can sometimes be difficult to really understand what decisions are being made. It would be great for someone who is interested, but not engrossed in transportation talk all day, to be able to plug in and join the conversation."