Portland Transportation Recovery and Accountability Plan

Retired · October 25, 2026

Active work on this project ended on October 25, 2026. The published material remains available as a dated archive. Retirement does not mean that unresolved questions have been answered or requests fulfilled.

You do not need to be an institution to demand accountability from one.

A defensible explanation for every transportation reduction can still leave people with a system that does not meet their needs. Portlanders should be able to see what can improve, who can act, and what happens next.

TRAP asks a practical question: what is the recovery plan?

Read the historical petition

For another city: Get the starter kit: PDF and editable Word.

The request

TRAP means Transportation Recovery and Accountability Plan. I asked TriMet, Metro, the City of Portland, ODOT, and other regional transportation leaders to publish a coordinated plan that explains:

• What can improve now under existing authority and resources.
• What is constrained by funding, law, operations, or jurisdiction.
• Who owns each barrier and next action.
• What needs a decision from another institution.
• What work is underway and how improvements in access will be measured.

The original request asked for a public plan within 60 days of the first confirmed formal submission, with action beginning sooner where the problem and authority were already clear. This was my requested timetable, not a statutory deadline. The November 16 checkpoint was also my requested follow-up, not a verified external deadline.

The plan should include a simple public view of progress: what changed, what remains blocked, why, and who is responsible for the next step.

Why it exists

People need to reach work, school, appointments, and one another. Funding and operating constraints are real. So is the obligation to explain how the region intends to improve transportation access under those constraints.

Residents should not have to design a replacement transportation system before they can ask its leaders to pursue a better outcome.

The work

I wrote and published the petition, developed the public request, and emailed several baker’s dozens’ worth of folks and organizations in the initial launch. That outreach crossed government and public agencies, neighborhood organizations, rider and worker advocates, labor, transportation and climate groups, business and civic organizations, higher education, state leadership, legislators, and policy organizations.

I also contacted local organizations and community accounts through Instagram, asking for sharing, useful routes, corrections, and local context.

Further testimony, written comments, meeting participation, outreach, and recurring review were planned but are not being carried forward after retirement. The historical record does not establish that the requested recovery plan was delivered.

The published materials are:

• The petition and its updates, which hold the historical formal request.
• Why shouldn’t we reinvent the wheel?, the argument for examining systems against present conditions.
• This project page, which connects the argument, archived materials, and material developments.
• The Recovery Accountability Framework, a city-neutral starter kit for people adapting the method where they live.
• The Portland Porch, which connects this work to my other Portland maps and investigations.

Follow the research

The public records used for TRAP remain in the ArcGIS research collection. It also includes City decisions, procurement and payment records, and work that extends beyond transportation. Retiring TRAP does not retire that shared collection.

That collection now also houses CALL WAITING, my research into Portland emergency response. Some older links still use the Portland Accountability name. They point into the same developing collection, rather than a separate finished service.

Browse the public records · Explore The Portland Porch

The Portland Porch remains active as a broader geographic publication, and CALL WAITING remains an active investigation. TRAP’s historical request and reusable framework remain here as an archive.

Archived Portland campaign materials

The petition, explainer, graphics, and their original links are preserved for historical reference. I am no longer requesting signatures, promotion, community organizing, project submissions, or institutional follow-up for Portland TRAP.

These original downloads include petition links and QR codes from the retired campaign. Their wording is historical; they are not current invitations to sign, circulate, or join an active project.

Archive corrections

For a factual correction to this archive, email hi@kaitlinquinn.com with the subject “Portland TRAP archive correction,” the page or document, and the correction and source. This route is for corrections to published material, not new investigations, participation, or follow-up requests. No response schedule is promised.

Submit an archive correction

Where it stands

Retired October 25, 2026, with unresolved questions preserved. Older records retain their own verification dates. Later correspondence, including Metro replies on October 13 and 14, remains part of the record; retirement is not a new verification of every ledger entry.

Updates

September 5, 2026: Initial email outreach was complete. The project moved to response, amplification, and public participation.

September 10, 2026: Published the Recovery Accountability Framework starter kit for adaptation in other cities.

Want to do this in your city? Take the framework.

I turned the operating method behind TRAP into a city-neutral starter kit. Use it for a public problem where you live, whether that problem involves transportation or another public service.

Choose a specific question, identify the institutions with authority to act, and put the request into the public record. Then track what was answered, what remains open, and who is responsible for the next step.

The kit includes:

• A kickoff sheet for defining the problem, public ask, authority map, and first deadline.
• Stakeholder categories, a bounded outreach plan, and starter emails and Instagram messages. The initial launch appears as a pilot example, not a target.
• Public-meeting preparation, written-comment guidance, three-minute testimony, and a 90-second backup.
• Outreach and response trackers, follow-up copy, public-update and media-pitch templates, and a 45-minute weekly maintenance model.

Read or share the PDF. Use the editable Word version to adapt the starting materials. Both contain the same framework.

Replace the local names, agencies, sources, dates, and request with your own. Check the relevant public body’s meeting rules and keep the distinction between what you know, what you are asking, and what remains unanswered.