Two Days in Portland

Two weeks ago, I took a 10-day trip up the West Coast, visiting the Bay Area, Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, BC. It was a pretty awesome trip, and I got to see an entire side of this country (and another country) that I hadn't before. So I wanted to share some thoughts on some of the places I went to; the things I learned about these vanguards of urban planning.

So I thought I'd start with Portland, the city often cited as the gold standard of city planning...

Being an urban planning student, I had heard a lot about Portland. Being an urban planning student interested in transportation, I had heard even more about Portland. After all, the proposed modern streetcar for Albuquerque a few years back was directly influenced by Portland's system. So, it was exciting to finally see this city I had heard so much about.

Firstly, let me say that I thoroughly enjoyed Portland. The atmosphere was delightful and the people incredibly friendly and laid-back. Indeed, I found myself eagerly chatting locals up. This is when I discovered that, in spite of their friendliness, Portlanders are a proud people. Several people I spoke to said things about Portland that would make the convention & visitors bureau grin - they were so obviously pleased to be Portlanders, to the point that a couple of people I spoke to barely seemed to be able to comprehend a world beyond Oregon.

And yes, one of Portland's points of pride - true pride, you could see it in their faces - was their public transit system, which they were quick to boast about. In the visitor's center at Pioneer Courthouse Square, I overheard a man take the local pride in TriMet to the next step: mocking the public transit system of other cities. Namely, Seattle. He said to a fellow visitor, and I quote:

Here in Portland we have four light rail lines, a streetcar, an aerial tram, and a fantastic bus system! But in Seattle they've only just opened their first light rail line!

Somehow he seemed to have forgotten Seattle's new streetcar line, it's ferry system, and it's insanely extensive bus system which, no offense to TriMet, seemed far more extensive than Portland's bus system.

At this point I was starting to wonder how much of the hype about Portland was due to Portlanders themselves. However, I was still impressed with much of what I saw in Portland. I loved the water fountains in Downtown, the fact that there were a number of public restrooms scattered around Downtown, the large amount of park space in the center of an urban area, and the pedestrian-friendliness of the whole area. Another thing that struck me was the sheer number of bicyclists in Portland - a walk along the waterfront afforded me a view of the city's many casual cyclists, as well as a number of bicycle vendors - a new concept to me - who were taking advantage of the Rose Festival crowds to sell things like ice cream sandwiches and snacks.

But what of the public transit system? What of the MAX light rail, or the very influential Portland Streetcar?

Let me start with the Streetcar. Firstly, let me say that it's impact on development seemed pretty clear. If you're in Downtown, you can see the buildings generally get taller around 10th & 11th Avenues, where the streetcar runs, as the residential density gets higher. That, not to mention to huge amount of new development in the Pearl District and South Waterfront (although judging from the amount of vacant land surrounding the South Waterfront, it looks like the recession has slowed the excitement down here) looked like clear signs of the impact the streetcar had on private development.

But as a mode of transportation, as an actual means to get around, I found the streetcar surprisingly frustrating to use. There were a few separate times during my stay there where I'd be walking in Downtown and I'd plan to head south or north, and I'd think "Hey, the streetcar goes there and the stop is nearby, I'll just take the streetcar!" Then I'd walk to the stop and the LED arrival sign would tell me that the next streetcar wouldn't come for another 10 minutes. 10 minutes? Screw that, I'm walking. And sure enough, I would get to my destination faster just by walking than if I had waiting around for the streetcar to come. Portland's downtown is decently sized, but it's not that big.

When I finally did get on the streetcar (I had walked down to South Waterfront and now wanted to get up to the Pearl district) I found the cars wonderfully comfortable and spacious, but the ride felt at times ridiculously slow. It's true: buses, even local buses, are faster than these things. It must have taken a good 25-30 minutes to take the streetcar from the South Waterfront to the 12th Ave/Northrup stop (just a couple blocks from the "Go by Streetcar" sign) in the Pearl. It's not that far.
Comparatively, I found the MAX light rail system a delight to use, even just for getting around downtown (which is exactly what I used it for on several occasions). You see, though the stops are further apart, the lines overlap in downtown, so two lines with service every 15 minutes means you get service about every 7-8 minutes (the trains are in their own lane of traffic, so this overlap principle works for them where it doesn't for Albuquerque's Rapid Ride). This was one of the things that held the MAX above the Streetcar, even when the Streetcar should have been ideally suited for the task of just getting around downtown: the higher frequency meant it wasn't as much of a commitment to stand and wait for the next train. It was faster, and because of it's dedicated right-of-way there was greater expectation from riders that it would arrive on-time, as illustrated when an alert was sent out over the train's intercom system that, due to river traffic which raised the bridge, the trains were unfortunately running 5 minutes late.

I found many things to enjoy in Portland and I think it's a model for urban planners for good reasons, although there were certain things I found to be much overhyped. The Streetcar, though obviously an effective development tool, didn't convincingly prove me it was such a great transportation mode.