What’s the most
mass-transit intensive city in the US?
By the numbers, New York City.
But for a glimpse of the real future of mass-transit, the winner is clearly Portland Oregon!
Portland has only 632,000
residents but 2.3 million in its metro area.
Yet it has, per capita, what I think is the largest, most extensive and
best integrated systems of light rail, streetcars and bike lanes in the nation.
LIGHT RAIL: It was 1986 when Portland
opened its first light-rail line. Today
the system covers 60 miles (including the airport, 12 miles from downtown). In 2001 a downtown streetcar system
was added. It proved so successful that
Portland now manufactures streetcars for other American cities.
Like the city’s
extensive bike-rack equipped bus network, all of Portland’s mass transit
operates on the honor system: you buy
tickets before boarding and only show them if a inspector boards, looking for
proof of payment.
To encourage
ridership, fares are ridiculously cheap.
For $2.50 you can roam the system for 2 ½ hours. An unlimited day pass is $5 or $26 a month
(about the cost of a round-trip to NYC on Metro-North). “Honored Citizens” (seniors, Medicare or
disabled) get a monthly pass for $7.50!
DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT DRIVING: To further encourage use of the
ubiquitous mass transit, driving in downtown is difficult and expensive. The main transit corridors have one lane for
streetcars, one lane for bikes and just one lane for cars. Parking is really expensive, both by meter on
the streets and in lots. And yes, the
freeways crawl just like in LA.
TECHNOLOGY: The bus and rail system offers free apps for trip-planning which use GPS to
tell you exactly how long you’ll wait for the next trolley, directions by line
to your destination and expected travel time.
And yes, you can buy and show your ticket using your smartphone.
BIKES ARE KING: The
city’s unofficial motto is “Keep Portland Weird”, and the residents work hard
to do so. Outside of Europe or Asia I
have never seen so many people on two-wheels traversing a community.
There are so many
dedicated bike lanes that when a new bridge was built crossing the Willamette
River, the bridge
was built for everything except cars and trucks: a mass transit-only bridge!
When a new Medical
Center was planned on a downtown hill, designers realized it would be
foolish to waste land on parking, so they built an aerial tram from
unused industrial land on the waterfront.
Hospital employees and patients alike take light rail or bike to the
base station (where a free 400 space bike-lot is usually full) and are skyward in minutes.
So if you are ever disillusioned
by the sorry state of mass-transit in our area, take heart. The future is now in Portland!
