According to city planners, Portland will swell by more than a quarter million new residents over the next 20 years. The problem is: Portland’s landmark Urban Growth Boundary limits – thankfully – how much Portland can sprawl into farmland and natural spaces to accommodate them. More people — and their cars — will all have to fit into a space that can’t get any bigger, and we’re already feeling the effects in traffic congestion.

The Transportation System Plan (TSP) is Portland’s ambitious roadmap for the next 20 years, charting a course toward what the city should focus on and invest in so it only accommodates the quarter-million new residents expected to move here, but does so sustainably, equitably, and in a way that fosters economic prosperity for all.

It’s a visionary document with a girth to match: 350 exhaustively researched and highly detailed pages. My task was to distill it into a 7-minute introduction that conveyed the key issues and challenges in a way any citizen could understand.

[If you’d prefer, see the video on PBOT’s YouTube channel here]