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Transportation in Portland, Oregon

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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. 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.[1]

Mass transit

Current downtown area transit service
Commuting statistics for major U.S. cities in 2006

Portland is well-known for its comprehensive public transportation system. The major bus and rail system is operated by TriMet, its name reflecting the three metropolitan counties it serves (Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington). Portland's rate of public transit use (12.6% of commutes in 2006) is comparable to much larger cities like Los Angeles, but considerably lower than similarly sized cities such as Baltimore or Boston.[2]

The greater downtown Portland area is in "Fareless Square", within which mass transit rides are free. It covers most of the area between the Willamette River and Interstate 405, from Union Station to Portland State University, and in 2001 was expanded to include the Lloyd District on the eastside.[3]

Within Fareless Square is the Portland Transit Mall, on which buses from many different parts of the region converge. Due to light rail construction (the MAX Green Line), the Transit Mall is undergoing major changes; buses which used to take advantage of its dedicated lanes now serve temporary stops along 3rd and 4th Avenues. These changes will remain until major construction is complete, which is anticipated in Spring 2009[4].

MAX Light Rail

The MAX Yellow Line.

Portland's MAX Light Rail (short for Metropolitan Area Express) consists of three color-coded lines:

  • The Blue Line is a 33 mile (53 km) east-west route. It begins in Hillsboro, a western suburb, passes through Beaverton and downtown, across the Willamette River through NE Portland and east to the city of Gresham.
  • The Red Line incorporates a five mile (8 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 with the Blue Line, continuing west through downtown, and terminating at the Beaverton transit center.
  • The Yellow Line adds almost six miles (10 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. Once the transit mall opens in fall of 2009 the Yellow Line will switch to a North/South alignment through downtown, serving PSU.

A fourth line, the Green Line, is under construction. It will run from Clackamas Town Center near Clackamas, north along I-205, up to Gateway transit center, where the Blue and Red Lines meet. From there, it would travel westwards towards downtown Portland along the existing tracks and then run along a light rail addition to the Portland Mall. The Green Line is projected to begin service in 2009.

Longer term, MAX may be extended south past the Portland Mall as the Orange Line. It would continue through Southeast Portland along existing rights-of-way to downtown Milwaukie. No construction date for this extension has been proposed yet, but would occur after the existing Yellow Line is rerouted to also run on the new north-south Portland Mall tracks.

Portland Streetcar

A Portland Streetcar

The Portland Streetcar runs on a 7.2-mile continuous loop from Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital 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.[5]

Area urban planners hope to make use of the right-of-way preserved by the Willamette Shore Trolley to nearly double the length of the streetcar line and reach Lake Oswego[6]. In addition, a line across the river and through the inner eastside and other routes are also being planned.[7]

Commuter Rail

Westside Express Service connects the cities of Wilsonville, Tualatin, Tigard and Beaverton. It is one of the few suburb-to-suburb commuter rail lines in the country. Instead of electric MAX cars, the line uses FRA-compliant diesel multiple units running on existing Portland and Western Railroad freight tracks. Service was planned to begin in Fall 2008 but had been delayed to February 2009.

Portland Aerial Tram

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

A more unusual form of public transportation, the Portland Aerial Tram, is an aerial tramway used to connect the South Waterfront district with Oregon Health and Science University on Marquam Hill above. The tram was opened to the public in January 2007.

Cycling

Portland has earned multiple "bicycle friendly city" awards[8][9][10], including being awarded platinum status by the League of American Bicyclists[11]. Portland also has the highest rate of bicycle commuting to work of any major American city with 4.2% of workers commuting to work by bicycle in 2006.[2]

An important milestone in Portland's utility cycling infrastructure was the expansion of the sidewalks of Hawthorne Bridge in 1997, which significantly improved the safety and ease of bicycle commuting across the Willamette River. Other bicycle-friendly projects include blue-painted bike lanes, and the Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade. A more recent project will bring covered bicycle parking to the popular southeast Hawthorne Boulevard shopping district[12], and bicycle access to the Morrison Bridge is planned to be improved[13]

2007 Tour de Fat group ride.

Portland is developing a network of bicycle boulevards to make cycling easier and safer. The east side of Portland is particularly well-suited for this technique due to its consistent grid of north/south and east/west streets. The boulevards are defined with a combination of street markings, signs, and better signals for crossing busy intersections.[14] In addition, the city has painted sections of hazardous bike lanes blue, in order to try to prevent car-bike crashes.[15] More recently, the city has installed experimental bike boxes that allow bicyclists to wait ahead of traffic at red lights.[16]

In 2004, a bike path along the Sunset Highway between Sylvan and Cedar Hills was completed, helping to link Beaverton and downtown Portland.

Overall, bicycle use in Portland has been growing rapidly, having nearly tripled since 2001. 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.[17].

Yellow bike project

The Yellow Bike Project was a 1994 civic engagement project and the brainchild of Portland, Oregon activist Tom O'Keefe. After watching the documentary "Sex Drugs & Democracy", O'Keefe proposed painting donated bikes - repaired by at-risk youth served by the Portland-based Community Cycling Center - bright yellow, and deploying them for free use around Portland. "Gratis Pedalis Feralvus" was a tongue-in-cheek slogan for the quirky eco-transportation project.

O'Keefe enrolled fellow environmental activists Joe Keating and Steve Gunther along with two Community Cycling Center employees into promoting and supporting the project. Project launch: On a weekday in East Portland, in front of a local radio station, a press conference was arranged by United Community Action Network (UCAN) Directors O'Keefe & Keating. They presented about a dozen bright yellow bicycles for free distribution. Local media showed up and that night's evening news featured what looked like scores of bright yellow bikes ridden by a variety of Portland characters. A local Earl Scheib franchise painted the bikes at no charge. The bikes' tires, spokes, pedals, chains, and even the handlebars were all painted mustard yellow.

The project was one of the first community bicycle programs in the United States. The Yellow Bike Project was reported in the New York Times, received editorial condemnation from the Wall Street Journal (an affront to private property rights) and culminated in a nationally broadcast Yellow Bike story on the CBS News Magazine 48 Hours. The Yellow Bike Project provided nearly 400 free bicycles available for unrestricted use in downtown Portland in its first six months. Though The Yellow Bike Project inevitably suffered from theft and vandalism of the bikes, in a broader sense the Yellow Bike Project was an amazingly successful publicity generator for Portland, Community Bicycling Programs and The Community Cycling Center. The Community Cycling Center, which helped to operate the Yellow Bike Project, has since developed its Create-a-Commuter program, which provides 375 free bicycles per year to individuals.[18][19]

Some of Portland's bicycling advocates have participated in Critical Mass and Zoobomb activities.

Pedicabs

Portland Cascadia Pedicabs, and Pdx Pedicab, operate pedicabs in the downtown area. Portland Cascadia Pedicabs operates 35 pedicabs, and PDX operates 8 pedicabs in 2008. [20][21] Pedicabs offer safe, fun, and environmental transportation. Pedicabs operate daily and nightly downtown. Pedicabs are also used for special events. Pedicabs also collaborate with local public agencies such as the Portland office of Transportation, the Portland Old Town Arts & Culture Foundation, and the Old Town Chinatown Neighborhood Association to provide pedicab-led audio tours.[22]

Walking

According to a city video, in 1994 Portland became the first city to develop a pedestrian master plan.[23] Blocks in the downtown area are only 200 feet long, making walking pleasant. Many streets in the outer southwest section of the city lack sidewalks; however, this is partially made up with various off-street trails.[24]

Highways

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

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

Columbia River

Bridges over the Columbia River, listed west to east:

Other

A pedestrian bridge over I-5 following under the Portland Aerial Tram is approved, funded, and expected to be complete at the end of 2010. See Gibbs Street Pedestrian Bridge.

Alternatives

Skateboarding and roller blading are welcome methods for travel around town. Downtown Portland includes signs labeled "skate routes" to aid the urban skater.[25]

Portlanders living downtown or in nearby neighborhoods have car sharing as an alternative, through Flexcar, which acquired Carsharing Portland in 2001. 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.

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).

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Timothy Egan (May 31, 1987). "FOCUS: PORTLAND; SO LONG CARS, HELLO PEOPLE". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
  2. ^ a b U.S. Census, American Community Survey 2006, Table S0802
  3. ^ "Fareless Square Map". TriMet. Retrieved 2007-07-05.
  4. ^ TriMet: Portland Mall (Transit Mall) Service
  5. ^ Portland Streetcar: Streetcar History
  6. ^ Metro: Lake Oswego to Portland Transit and Trail Alternatives Analysis
  7. ^ "Eastside Streetcar Alignment Study". City of Portland Office of Transportation. Retrieved 2007-01-31.
  8. ^ MSNBC North America's most bike-friendly cities
  9. ^ Bicycling magazine, Best Cities for Cycling (2008)
  10. ^ Scan of 2006 Bicycling magazine Best Cities for Cycling
  11. ^ Portland Tribune: Bike group gives Portland 'platinum' award
  12. ^ Hawthorne Boulevard Project, City of Portland
  13. ^ Morrison Bridge Bicycle & Pedestrian Improvements, Multnomah County
  14. ^ BTA: Bicycle Boulevards Campaign
  15. ^ Blue Bike Lanes Report, City of Portland
  16. ^ Bike Boxes, City of Portland
  17. ^ Portland Bicycle Counts 2008 (PDF), City of Portland
  18. ^ "Yellow Bike Project". Community Cycling Center. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
  19. ^ "Portland Journal; Where Trust Rides a Yellow Bicycle". December 9,1994. Retrieved 2007-12-14. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ Pdx Pedicab
  21. ^ Portland Cascadia Pedicabs
  22. ^ Eco-Tourism in Old Town Chinatown, The Heart of Portland, Oregon, Old Town Chinatown neighborhood
  23. ^ Portland Walks - Be Safe
  24. ^ SW Urban Trails SW Urban Trails
  25. ^ [1]
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