Transportation in Portland, Oregon

Road bridges across the Columbia and Willamette Rivers are a critical piece of Portland's transportation infrastructure.

Like transportation in the rest of the United States, the primary mode of local transportation in Portland, Oregon is the automobile. But Portland's reputation as a well-planned city is due to Metro's regional master plan in which transit-oriented development plays a major role.^{[citation needed]} This approach, part of the new urbanism, promotes mixed-use and high-density development around light rail stops and transit centers, and the investment of the metropolitan area's share of federal tax dollars into multiple modes of transportation. In the United States, this focus is atypical in an era when automobile use led many areas to neglect their core cities in favor of development along interstate highways, in suburbs, and satellite cities.

“	Portland is "an international pioneer in transit orientated developments."	”
—Sayeeda Warsi, a leader of the UK's Conservative Party, from a 2006 episode of Newsnight

Commuting statistics for major U.S. cities in 2008.

Mass transit

Portland has a comprehensive public transportation system. The bus and rail system is operated by TriMet, its name reflecting the three metropolitan area counties it serves (Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington). Portland's rate of public transit use (12.6% of commutes in 2008) is comparable to much larger cities like Los Angeles, and higher than in most similarly sized U.S. cities, but is lower than in some similarly sized cities, such as Baltimore and Seattle.

Much of the downtown Portland area (the city center) is in the "Free Rail Zone" (formerly known as Fareless Square), within which rides on light rail and streetcars are fare-free. The fare-free zone covers most of the area between the Willamette River and Interstate 405, from Union Station to Portland State University, and since 2001 includes a portion of the Lloyd District on the eastside.

Buses and bikes in downtown Portland.

Within the Free Rail Zone is the Portland Transit Mall, a transit-priority corridor on which buses and light rail trains from many different parts of the region converge. First opened in 1977, and for three decades served only by buses, the transit mall underwent major changes in 2009. Tracks for light rail (MAX) have been added, bus stops respaced, and the left lane opened to general traffic (but with right turns prohibited). To facilitate this major renovation and rebuilding, lasting more than two years, all bus routes using the mall were diverted to other streets (mainly 3rd and 4th avenues) starting in January 2007. The transit mall reopened to buses on May 24, 2009, and operator training runs on the new light-rail tracks took place during the late spring and summer. Light rail service on the transit mall was introduced on August 30, 2009, when the MAX Yellow Line moved to the mall from its previous routing. The new MAX Green Line opened 13 days later, on September 12, and it also serves the downtown transit mall.

Buses

TriMet operates a fleet of 651 buses on a network of 81 bus routes. 12 of the routes are designated "Frequent Service" bus routes, with more frequent schedules than other routes. Originally intended to have buses scheduled every 15 minutes or less all day, every day (including weekends and holidays) recent budget cutbacks have forced many of the "Frequent Service" routes to have longer waits, especially on Sundays. TriMet's bus fleet is made up of 30' and 40' buses, with half of the buses older high-floor models built from 1990–1994 and 1998, and the other half are low floor buses manufactured from 1998 to current. TriMet's bus routes also include express buses from downtown Portland to South Beaverton, Sherwood and Oregon City, and express buses from Marquam Hill to Beaverton, Tigard, Southwest Portland, and Milwaukie. TriMet also has several "cross-town" routes that do not serve downtown Portland.

The bus network operates predominately in a hub-and-spoke network starting with the downtown Portland transit mall, and includes outlying transit centers in Portland's suburbs.

In addition to the fixed-route service, TriMet operates a paratransit service known as LIFT which operates 254 minibuses and 15 sedans offering door-to-door service for citizens who cannot access regular TriMet services.

MAX light rail

A Siemens S70 MAX train, in service on the Blue Line.

Portland's light rail system, named MAX (short for Metropolitan Area Express), consists of four color-coded lines as of September 2009:

• The Blue Line is a 33-mile (53 km) east-west route. It begins in Hillsboro, a western suburb, passes through Beaverton and downtown Portland, then across the Willamette River, through Northeast Portland and east to the city of Gresham. The 15-mile line between downtown and Gresham was the first light rail line opened in Portland, in 1986. MAX lines first became designated by colors in 2000.
• The Red Line incorporates a 5.6-mile (9 km) north-south addition between the airport and the Gateway Transit Center near the northeast Portland neighborhood of Parkrose. From that point the line overlaps the Blue Line, running west to downtown and beyond, terminating at the Beaverton Transit Center, where it and the Blue Line meet WES, a commuter rail service.
• The Yellow Line added 5.8 miles (9.3 km) to the system. It connects North Portland's Expo Center with downtown. This line is often referred to as "Interstate MAX" because much of it runs along Interstate Avenue, and parallel to I-5. Until 2009, the Yellow Line followed the same mostly east-west alignment through downtown Portland as used by the Blue and Red lines, traveling along Morrison Street (westbound) and Yamhill Street (eastbound) through the core of the business district. However, on August 30, 2009, the Yellow Line shifted to a new north-south alignment through downtown that has been constructed along the Portland Mall (see Green Line).
• The Green Line runs from Clackamas Town Center, in the Clackamas area, north along I-205 for 6.5 miles (10.5 km) to the Gateway transit center, where the Blue and Red Lines meet. From Gateway, it joins them and travels westwards to downtown Portland along the 1986-opened tracks extending to the Steel Bridge. From there—a new junction on the bridge's west deck—the Green Line uses 1.8 miles (2.9 km) of new tracks passing Union Station and running mainly along the transit mall for the remainder of its route through downtown, sharing that routing with the Yellow Line and terminating at Portland State University.

The next proposed MAX line is a 7.3-mile (11.7 km) extension south from the Portland Mall to Milwaukie. Officially named the "Portland–Milwaukie Light Rail Project", it has not yet been assigned a final route color. TriMet maps suggest it may be the Orange Line, but it is more likely to be opened as an extension of the Yellow Line. It would cross the Willamette River on a new bridge and then turn southwards, passing through Southeast Portland along a combination of existing railroad right-of-way and SE McLoughlin Blvd., to downtown Milwaukie. The terminal station would be at Park Avenue, just south of downtown Milwaukie. At the end of March 2009, the Federal Transit Administration approved the start of preliminary engineering work for this new line, and TriMet hopes to begin construction in 2011 and open the line in 2015.

Portland Streetcar

Portland Streetcar.

Main article: Portland Streetcar

The Portland Streetcar runs on a 3.9-mile (6.3 km) route from Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center at NW 23rd Avenue through inner-Northwest and Southwest, including the Pearl District and Portland State University, to the new South Waterfront neighborhood, where it connects to the Portland Aerial Tram. The first portion of this modern-streetcar system opened in 2001.

The last funding needed for a planned $147-million expansion, a 3.3-mile (5.3 km) second route serving the east side, was given tentative approval in April 2009, and construction of this new line began in August 2009. See Portland Streetcar (Future expansion) for more detail.

Area urban planners hope to make use of the right-of-way preserved by the Willamette Shore Trolley to more than double the length of the first streetcar line with an extension of about 6 miles (9.7 km) south to Lake Oswego.

Commuter rail

The Westside Express Service connects the cities of Wilsonville, Tualatin, Tigard and Beaverton. It is one of only three suburb-to-suburb commuter rail lines in the country,^{[citation needed]} along with Tri-Rail in Miami and the Inland Empire-Orange County Line operated by Metrolink between San Bernardino and Oceanside, Calif. Rather than electric railcars like those of MAX, the line uses FRA-compliant diesel multiple units running on existing Portland and Western Railroad freight tracks. The first rides open to the general public took place on Friday, January 30, 2009, and regular service began on Monday, February 2, 2009.

A few commuters use Amtrak to commute to Portland from Oregon City or Salem: in 2011, daily ridership between Salem and Portland reached 24,146 boardings. While the schedule is very limited, the 20-minute ride from Oregon City is faster than any TriMet option, and tickets are cheaper.

Portland Aerial Tram

Portland Aerial Tram car descends towards the rising South Waterfront district.

Main article: Portland Aerial Tram

The Portland Aerial Tram, is an aerial cableway used to connect the South Waterfront district with Oregon Health and Science University on Marquam Hill above. The cableway is two-thirds of one mile (1 km) long and was opened to the public in January 2007.

Cycling

Main article: Cycling in Portland, Oregon

Bicycle use in Portland has been growing rapidly, having nearly tripled since 2001; for example, daily bicycle traffic on four of the Willamette River bridges has increased from 2,855 before 1992 to over 16,000 in 2008, partly due to improved facilities. Approximately 8% of commuters bike to work in Portland, the highest proportion of any major U.S. city and about 10 times the national average.

Walking

According to a city video, in 1994 Portland became the first city to develop a pedestrian master plan. Blocks in the downtown area are only 200 feet (61 m) long. Many streets in the outer southwest section of the city lack sidewalks; however, this is partially made up with various off-street trails.

The Gibbs Street Pedestrian Bridge, a planned new pedestrian bridge over I-5 near the Portland Aerial Tram, is under construction.

Traffic flow

Many roads in Portland are one-way; roads in downtown Portland (Southwest Portland bounded by I-405) are virtually all one-way, forming a grid of alternating street traffic: for north-south roads, odd-numbered avenues (1st, 3rd, etc.) are southbound, while even-numbered avenues (2nd, 4th, etc.) are northbound, and similarly east-west streets alternate. This is partly due to the roads downtown Portland being relatively narrow (64 ft, 20 m). This grid extends a short way west across I-405 into Goose Hollow, terminating at SW 18th Street/PGE Park, and extends to some degree north across Burnside into the Pearl District, particularly with the north-south streets extending into Old Town.

Most roads on the east side are two-way, but there are a number of one-way pairs along major routes: Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd (MLK)/Grand Ave (4th and 5th Ave), and 11th/12th east-west pairs are connected with bridges, with NE Couch/Burnside forming a pair east of the Burnside bridge from 3rd to 14th avenues, SE Morrison/SE Belmont forming a pair from the Morrison Bridge to SE 25th Ave, and SE Madison/SE Hawthorne forming a pair from the Hawthorne Bridge to SE 12th Avenue.

Highways

State highways, numbered as Interstate, U.S and Oregon Routes, in the metropolitan area include:

• Interstate 5
• Interstate 84
• Interstate 205
• Interstate 405
• U.S. Route 26
• U.S. Route 30 (with a business route and a bypass route in addition to the main highway)
• Oregon Route 8
• Oregon Route 10
• Oregon Route 43
• Oregon Route 99E
• Oregon Route 99W
• Oregon Route 210
• Oregon Route 212
• Oregon Route 213
• Oregon Route 217
• Oregon Route 219
• Oregon Route 224

Portland is also well known for the highways that it didn't build, or removed altogether, such as the Mount Hood Freeway, Interstate 505, and Harbor Drive.

Bridges

The large number of bridges in Portland has given the city its "Bridgetown" nickname.

Willamette River

Bridges over the Willamette River, listed north to south:

• St. Johns Bridge (1931) - U.S. Route 30/N Philadelphia Avenue
• Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge 5.1 (1908)
• Fremont Bridge (1973) - Interstate 405
• Broadway (1913) - Broadway
• Steel Bridge (1912) - Pacific Highway West/former Oregon Route 99W
• Burnside Bridge (1926) - Burnside Street
• Morrison Bridge (1958) - Morrison Street
• Hawthorne Bridge (1910) - Hawthorne Boulevard
• Marquam Bridge (1966) - Interstate 5
• Ross Island Bridge (1922) - U.S. Route 26/Powell Boulevard
• Sellwood Bridge (1925) - SE Tacoma Street

Caruthers Bridge is the working name for a planned new bridge across the Willamette.

Columbia River

Bridges over the Columbia River, listed west to east:

• Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge 9.6 (1908)
• Interstate Bridge (1917/1958) - Interstate 5
• Glenn L. Jackson Memorial Bridge (1982) - Interstate 205

Rail service (intercity)

Long-distance passenger rail service to Portland is provided by Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, with trains stopping at Union Station. Amtrak routes serving Portland include the Coast Starlight (with service from Los Angeles to Seattle) and the Empire Builder (with service from Portland to Chicago), along with the Amtrak Cascades trains, operating between Vancouver, British Columbia and Eugene, Oregon.

Airports

Portland's main airport is the Portland International Airport (IATA: PDX, ICAO: KPDX), located in the northeast quadrant, near the Columbia River, and 20 minutes by car from Downtown. PDX is also connected to the downtown business and arts districts by the MAX Red Line.

The Port of Portland's Hillsboro Airport (IATA: HIO, ICAO: KHIO) is an executive and general aviation airport located in Hillsboro, Oregon, and it the second busiest airport in the state. It is connected to the metropolitan area by MAX Blue Line, and is the starting point for many corporate and charter flights, including Nike, Inc. and the Portland Trail Blazers NBA team. Hillsboro is currently being considered for commercial traffic to relieve the increasingly congested PDX.^{[citation needed]}

Troutdale Airport also serves the area. Portland is also served by Wiley's Seaplane Port, a private seaplane base on the Willamette.

Portland is home to Oregon's only public use heliport, the Portland Downtown Heliport (ICAO: 61J).

Other alternatives

Portlanders living downtown or in nearby neighborhoods have car sharing as an alternative, through Zipcar, which acquired Flexcar in 2007. As of 2005, there are over 5,000 members sharing 70 vehicles which are located in neighborhoods such as the Pearl District, Old Town Chinatown, the Lloyd District, Hawthorne, and Brooklyn.

Skateboarding and roller blading are welcome methods for travel around town. Downtown Portland includes signs labeled "skate routes" to aid the urban skater. The Wall Street Journal stated Portland "may be the most skateboard-friendly town in America."

See also

• Transportation in Seattle and Transportation in Vancouver for Pacific Northwest comparisons
• Neil Goldschmidt, a Portland Mayor and U.S. Secretary of Transportation who exerted broad influence on transportation in Portland^{[citation needed]}
• Rose City Transit, predecessor of TriMet within Portland

External links

• City of Portland's Office of Transportation
• Oregon Department of Transportation's TripCheck, including a speed-of-traffic map (in GIF format)
• ODOT's Portland-area projects
• TriMet
• Portland's Bicycle Transportation Alliance
• Portland SHIFT to Bikes
• Multnomah County bridges