Portland Green Streets

Back to School with METRO

We’re living the last golden days of a glorious summer.  Before you – or the kids – head back to school, take advantage of one day to try a different mode to get your usual destination(s)!

And please take 30 seconds to  Sign in Here for Green Streets Day – Friday, August 27th.  Sign in now (and every month!) if you plan to walk, bike, take public transit, carpool, and/or telecommute this Green Streets Day.

For special treats for Green Streets Day participants, visit our Green Streets Freebies & Discounts page for offers of free food and drink and various area discounts that day.

Green Streets on the Streets

This in from Summer 2010 Green Streets intern, Michelle Boisvert:

“Munjfest [the Munjoy Hill Neighborhood festival that this year celebrated the bicycle] was a blast! Green Streets, the Portland Bike Commuter Meetup, and the Bicycle Coalition of Maine (BCM) teamed up to offer alternative transportation and bicycling advice, free bike tune ups, Green Street T-shirt stenciling, and a plethora of information about what each group is up to. Thanks to Jim Tasse from BCM, who brought a bike stand and equipment to provide the tune-ups – they were in high demand! Thanks, too, to Green Streets volunteers Maryann Welsch, Kevin Donoghue, and Jake Hoffman for helping out at the table! We met a lot of great people and printed a lot of Green Streets shirts. They’ll look great out on the street this Friday. One Green Streeter said she planned to wear her Green Street shirt on the days that she walks to her elementary school.”

Please take 30 seconds to  Sign in Here for Green Streets Day – Friday, July 30th.  Sign in now (and every month!) if you plan to walk, bike, take public transit, carpool, and/or telecommute this Green Streets Day.

For special treats for Green Streets Day participants, visit our Green Streets Freebies & Discounts page for offers of free food and drink and various area discounts that day.

Good day, Green Streeters!

As I mentioned in last month’s newsletter, I’ve been hired by Portland Green Streets to make improvements to the Green Streets incentives program (the freebies and discounts offered to folks who participate in Green Streets Day).  This project has been funded by a Community Putting Prevention to Work grant through Healthy Portland.  Our goal is to develop improvements to the incentive program to make being a Green Streeter easier, more convenient, and more attractive to more people.  We’re aiming to see a 15% increase in participation as a result of the incentive program improvements.  Here are some of the things we’ve been up to:

First, we are working with our local business sponsors to document usage of the incentives program and Green Streets participation.  Thank you to all of our business sponsors who are helping out to make this project possible.  We couldn’t do this without their generous support!

Another way we will be guiding the incentive program is through feedback from our business sponsors.  We have distributed a survey to assess what works and what doesn’t.  This will guide the actions we take to make the incentive program work better for both our business sponsors and you, their Green Streeting customers.  Again, a HUGE thank you goes out to the fabulous businesses in the Greater Portland area who’ve contributed their valuable feedback.

We’ll also soon be surveying Green Street participants for your feedback on the incentive program.  We want to understand if the incentive program works for you, what you love about it, what could improve, and what other kind of incentives motivate you to try new modes of transportation.  Your feedback will inform how we move forward in improvements to Portland Green Streets.

Some of the improvements we’re currently working to implement include:

• production and distribution of a “This is a Green Street business” decal to boost visibility for Green Streets Day and the support of our business sponsors.  The decals will be placed in the windows of businesses that provide incentives to Green Streeters.
• production and distribution of a Green Streets membership card for participants to present on Green Streets Day — to make accessing incentives a more convenient experience for both participants and business staff.
• featuring “Green Streets Business Profiles” in our monthly newsletter and on our website — these would feature pictures and descriptions of supporting businesses and would advertise the incentives they offer on Green Streets Days.

Don’t forget to be on the lookout for our Green Street participants’ survey!  And I’ll see you this Friday on the streets for Green Streets Day!

Michelle

The days are looooonnnngggg – enjoy getting around green this month!

Please take 30 seconds to  Sign in Here for Green Streets Day – Friday, June 25th.  Sign in now (and every month!) if you plan to walk, bike, take public transit, carpool, and/or telecommute this Green Streets Day.

For special treats for Green Streets Day participants, visit our Green Streets Freebies & Discounts page for offers of free food and drink and various area discounts that day.

Blessing of the Bicycles 2010 - Photo by Corey Templeton

Summer is firing up – a great time to enjoy walking, biking, or a breeze-filled bus, ferry, or carpool – or even get some work done from your home doorstep!

Please take 30 seconds to  Sign in Here for Green Streets Day – Friday, May 28th.  Sign in now (and every month!) if you plan to walk, bike, take public transit, carpool, and/or telecommute this Green Streets Day.

For special treats for Green Streets Day participants, visit our Green Streets Freebies & Discounts page for offers of free food and drink and various area discounts that day.

Spring is in full gear!  Have a great time out there getting around green – what’s a little rain?

Please take 30 seconds to  Sign in Here for Green Streets Day – Friday, April 30th.  Sign in now (and every month!) if you plan to walk, bike, take public transit, carpool, and/or telecommute this Green Streets Day.  For special treats for Green Streets Day participants, visit our Green Streets Freebies & Discounts page for offers of free food and drink and various area discounts that day.

Signs of spring are everywhere – have a great time out there getting around green.  It’s spectacular on the sunny days – and maybe not as easy on the heavy rainy days, but still doable.  And exhilarating!

Please take a minute to:

1. (30 seconds) Sign in Here for Green Streets Day – Friday, March 26th Sign in now (and every month!) if you plan to walk, bike, take public transit, carpool, and/or telecommute this Green Streets Day.  For special treats for Green Streets Day participants, visit our Green Streets Freebies & Discounts page for offers of free food and drink and various area discounts that day.
2. (2-3 minutes) Take our Portland Green Streets Survey – Please fill out this quick survey to help focus our work to change commuting behavior and move beyond the single-occupancy vehicle in Greater Portland. Special thanks to the League of Young Voters and GreenDrinks for help with getting this survey out to a wider audience at the March GreenDrinks event!

PGS Survey Table @ March GreenDrinks - Elliott May/GreenDrinks photo

Sign in now (click here) – Please take a minute to sign in now (and every month!) if you plan to walk, bike, take public transit, carpool, and/or telecommute this Green Streets Day – Friday, February 26th.

Signing in during the depths of winter helps us see how hearty we are – as we become a year-round green commuting region.

For special treats for Green Streets participants, visit our Green Streets Freebies & Discounts page for offers of free food and drink and various area discounts that day.

Warm, well-lit bus on a cold winter night

Sign in now (click here) – Please take a minute to sign in now (and every month!) if you plan to walk, bike, take public transit, carpool, and/or telecommute this Green Streets Day – Friday, January 29th.

Signing in during the depths of winter helps us see how hearty we are – as we become a year-round green commuting region.

For special treats for Green Streets participants, visit our Green Streets Freebies & Discounts page for offers of free food and drink and various area discounts that day.

Green Streeters - and Portland Bike Commuter Meetup members - John Brooking and Ian Riddell pause in downtown Portland, all lit up for the holidays

So here’s the crazy thing – Green Streets Day this December falls on Christmas Day – next Friday the 25th – and people keep asking if we’re still planning on doing it.  The answer is you bet!  And not just because some of us are celebrating Solstice or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or another lovely holiday besides Christmas in this season of light amidst dark.

But because even if it’s Christmas at your house – or maybe even especially BECAUSE it’s Christmas – what a wonderful time to take it slow and walk or bike or carpool or use public transit (except local buses that aren’t running that day ).

So no matter what you’re up to next Friday on the 25th – even if it’s just enjoying a day at home without having to get out at all – please sign in now (click here) if you won’t be getting into a car by yourself that day.  And being on vacation and/or traveling still counts, too!

And this holiday season we would love to post photos of you and your friends and/or family if you head out for a holiday stroll – so please e-mail us your photos at PortlandGreenStreets@yahoo.com!