Portland's reputation as a progressive city for transportation is well-earned. It may not have the mode split of bigger cities, but it is clearly doing all the right things.
Light Rail
Light rail works here, better than I’ve seen it work anywhere else. Many cities that try to use light rail as if it were commuter rail find that it is inconveniently slow, and lacking in capacity. Portland makes no such mistake. Street-running light rail is perfect for smaller places, and Portland’s scale fits it like a glove. Seattle needs its downtown subway, but smaller Portland feels complete and well-served with its slower surface trains.
Note the transit-only street.
I don't think I've seen a curved platform in any other American city. In fact, I thought it was against the rules. Guess not.
Note the name of the shop in the background.
Railcar interior, with dedicated bike area. This is a nice amenity to have, but you can only do it if your rush hour trains aren't
loaded to a crush.
Neatly lit up little station.
Annnnd, both LRT and streetcar at the same intersection. Good time to switch.
Streetcar
So, because the light rail in Portland is mostly on-street (at least in the central city), the difference between light rail and streetcar is minimal. Streetcar generally shares its lane with cars, but traffic on city streets is generally quite light, so it doesn't seem to much matter.
Personally I think streetcars are worth their weight in urbanist gold. They can't replace metros in big cities that really need metros, but they can do so many things, and are affordable enough that any city can build one. Basically, a streetcar line costs about the same to build as a high school. If your city can build a high school, it can build a streetcar.
Portland's streetcars are the same as
DC's will be, so I was excited to see and ride them for the first time. Seattle's streetcars are also the same model, but I didn't ride there, and the line is so much shorter and newer that it isn't nearly as much of a big deal.
Note how the station in this next picture "bulbs out" into the parking lane. By bringing the station into the street and not making the streetcar shift over a lane to reach the curb, the streetcar moves faster because it doesn't have to shift back into the traffic lane when it's ready to get going. This arrangement is also better for pedestrians, since it means they don't have to cross as far when they want to cross the street. Cars still get one completely free lane, so they can't legitimately complain. This is the kind of well-carried-out detail that helps Portland stand apart from many other cities. Portland gets the details right.
This trick works equally well for bus stops, for the record.
A picture of a streetcar, from the inside of another streetcar. Meta.
Speaking of the inside.
The interchange in this picture cost more than the streetcar. I promise. Of course, you'd never guess that from the incredible whining the highway lobby does in regards to Portland.
Speaking of streetcar detractors, some people think these two vehicles are exactly the same except for cost. They're wrong.
At Portland State University the streetcar goes through a plaza. Everybody takes pictures of this.
The other picture everybody takes is by the go by streetcar sign. You saw it in the neighborhoods thread, but here it is again.
Intercity Rail
The go by streetcar sign is an homage to the go by train sign at Portland Union Station.
By the way, every single intercity train station I used on this trip was under renovation. All three cities. Good news for train riders of the future, but upsetting to my picture-taking hopes.
I took this train from Seattle to Portland, then from Portland to Vancouver, then back to Seattle. Probably not the same train all three times, but the same line, anyway.
Main waiting room. Click the image for a bigger version.
Buses
The buses in Portland seem pretty mundane, and there are way too many other cool things to see there to focus much on them. So I didn't.
Some of the stops are neat.
I can't say I've ever seen seats integrated onto a pole before. Interesting.
The frequent service flag is cool. Nice to differentiate. Unfortunately it's a little useless without a map. Regular riders who already know where the bus goes also already know how often it comes.
Aerial Tram
The aerial tram is definitely not mundane. New York has one, and I think that's it as far as cities in the US are concerned. Portland's goes from the Southwest Waterfront up a hill to a big hospital.
Biking
For all its famous streetcars and aerial trams, Portland's biggest claim to progressive transportation fame may be its cycling infrastructure. Among large American cities only New York is in the same league.
Let's start at the base of the aerial tram. A *lot* of people bike here.
Cyclists in every city where streetcars are proposed flip their lid, but in Portland (just like in Amsterdam and many of Europe's best cycling cities) the two get along just fine.
The biggest danger to urban cyclists is getting hit by a car driver who isn't watching for bikes. Therefore anything you can do to make bikes more visible to car drivers is a good thing. Thus, painting bike lanes green is a great idea. You can save money and headache by only painting near intersections.
Interesting two-way bike lane.
This is called a bike box. It's very dangerous and difficult for bikers to turn left from a bike lane on the right side of a street. Bike boxes provide a safe place for bikers who want to turn left to queue at red lights.
When you put your bike lane between the curb and a row of parked cars rather than between the parking lane and moving traffic it is called a cycle track. This is much safer than a normal bike lane, but it takes up a little more street space.
OK, so get this. Here's a cycle track, painted green, with a bike box at the intersection. This might be the best on-street bike intersection in the country.
Covered bike parking. Costs more, but people like it.
Nice bike wayfinding system.
More little things done right: Public stairway with grooves along the side for bikes.
We stopped at the
Museum of Contemporary Craft in the Pearl because Wife is a big crafter. We were surprised to find there a special exhibit about utility bike design. Basically, as more and more people ride bikes around cities as a form of transportation, the cycling business is transitioning away from the racing/exercise market and towards a more everyday-people-doing-their-thing market. And, as a result, the design of bicycles in changing. It's becoming less important for every bike to be made of some super lightweight carbon nanofiber, and it's becoming more important for bike riders to be able to do functional things like carry a box, and not get their clothes dirty.
Thus the
Utility Bike Design Challenge, in which several teams of independent bike designers set out to build the perfect urban utility bike.
Finish line.
The end. Vancouver is next.