Portland Green Streets

PGS has launched a brand new Facebook page, and our goal is to identify our strength in numbers by asking you, our Green Streeters, to “like” the page! Please click here to check it out, and be sure to click that “like” button to get our weekly green transportation updates! We currently have 1,900 members, so our goal is to reach at least 850 “likes”. Please help us be well liked!

For those of you who have ridden on the ZOOM or Shuttlebus bus between Portland and Saco or Biddeford, you know the benefits of saving gas money and helping to cut back on CO2 emissions. Portland Green Streets is a member of the Maine Alliance for Sustainable Transportation (MaST), which has been working to expand ZOOM commuter bus lines north of Portland, to Lewiston/Auburn and Augusta, as well as to improve current lines that run between Portland and Biddeford/Saco.

A resulting new bill (LD673) titled, “An Act to Expand Fiscally Responsible Transportation Through Increased ZOOM Bus Service” has been sponsored by Representative Moulton of York, and a public hearing is scheduled in Augusta for Tuesday, 3/22 at 1:00 PM. If you are an advocate of local transit options, please consider attending in support!  And let us know in the comment section below if your going because MaST is definitely hoping for the presence of some Green Streeters. For more information about the bill, attending the hearing, and other ways to lend your support go to http://www.mainesustainabletransport.com.

A new four-part workshop series is being presented by The Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System (PACTS) next Thursday evening and Friday morning (3/24-3/25) called “Moving Greater Portland… towards a transit-focused Region”. This series of presentations for regional leaders and advocates is to develop a vision of future transportation investments. On-going initiatives to be discussed include an Amtrak DownEaster extension, Lakes Region Bus, Portland North commuter rail/bus, Tri-Community Transportation Plan, Gorham East-West Corridor. For more information on the series, please visit http://www.pactsplan.org/ - the 3rd and 4th workshops will then be held 4/7 and 4/8.

As always, please sign in now here if you plan to use one of those alternate modes to get around this Green Streets Day – Friday, July 29th!

And don’t forget to check out the Portland Green Streets Calendar for exciting upcoming transportation-related events in Greater Portland.