Shifting Travel Patterns In Portland OR - Car, Transit, Walk, Bike

[jyl]

In 1994 the local transit agency surveyed Portland residents to determine travel patterns, and they did it again in 2011. I have no idea why they don’t survey more often than once every two decades, but anyway I thought the results were interesting.

Basically, there has been a significant shift in travel patterns away from cars and toward transit and bikes – in the very central area of the city. For the region as a whole, there has been some shift for “commuting trips” and a smaller shift for “all trips” (this is everything: grocery shopping, soccer games, kids to school, errands, visiting friends, etc).

None of this is terribly surprising, but the magnitudes (large or small) are interesting. Basically, it looks like these shifts mean about 200K/day fewer car trips overall and 82K/day fewer car commuters, for the Portland region.

For downtown, it means about 23K/day few car trips and 6K/day fewer car commuters. What is the context? Is this significant?

Downtown Portland has about 10K street parking spaces, about 4K city-owned parking garage spaces, and (I estimate) probably about 3X that number of private garage spaces, for a total of maybe 25K parking spaces. 6K / 25K = 24%. Pretty darn significant.

Our bridges across the Willamette carry very roughly 360K vehicles/day (Burnside Bridge carries 58K/day cars, Morrison Bridge 54K, Hawthorne Bridge 26K, Ross Island Bridge 55K, Fremont Bridge 110K, and I’m missing one bridge). I’d think about half of trips to/from downtown have to cross a bridge – twice, coming and going. So 23K * 0.5 * 2 / 360K = 6%. Fairly significant.

So I think the shifts are quite significant for the central city. By the time you get to the neighboring counties, or the further part of the suburbs, I think the shifts are not significant. The in-between is, well, in-between.

[Summary of data]

Numbers are rounded, so may not sum to 100%
Number in parentheses, like “(30K)”, is number of trips/day

Trips to/from the central business district (downtown):

All trips
1994 all trips – 56% by car, 14% by transit, 27% walk, 2% bike
2011 all trips – 46% by car (130K), 21% by transit (60K), 27% walk, 6% bike

Commuting only
1994 – 58% by car, 34% by transit, 6% walk, 2% bike
2011 – 44% by car (30K), 45% by transit (30K), 4% walk, 8% bike

Trips in entire Portland metropolitan region including suburbs:

All trips
1994 – 87% by car, 3% by transit, 9% walk, 1% bike
2011 – 84% by car (5.7MM), 4% by transit (290K), 9% walk (630K), 3% bike (190K)

Commuting only
1994 – 90% by car, 6% by transit , 3% walk, 1% bike
2011 – 81% by car (820K), 11% by transit (110K), 4% walk (40K), 5% bike (50K)

Use of transit, walk, bike is heavily correlated to whether you live in the central city, and also to terrain (flat vs hilly)

Live in central business district
1994 16% transit 40% walk 2% bike
2011 16% transit 47% walk 3% bike

Live in central city
1994 10% transit 36% walk 3% bike
2011 22% transit 23% walk 13% bike

Live in eastern outskirts of city (flat)
1994 6% transit 12% walk 2% bike
2011 6% transit 16% walk 8% bike

Live in western outskirts of city (hilly)
1994 3% transit 15% walk 1% bike
2011 6% transit 11% walk 2% bike

Live in suburbs, still in county
1994 2% transit 6% walk 1% bike
2011 4% transit 8% walk 2% bike

Live in neighboring county
1994 1% transit 7% walk 1% bike
2011 1% transit 5% walk 1% bike

Use of transit is heavily correlated to household income

2011 <$25K 9% use transit, $25-75K 4%, >$75K 2%

People are driving fewer miles in shorter trips

Miles/driver/day 1994 21 miles 2011 17 miles
Average trip 1994 5.1 miles 2011 4.4 miles
The avg household makes 9.2 trips/day, goes up w/ household size, basically each person makes about 3 trips/day

[Esel Mann]

That is interesting that with all the real time data capabilities such numbers are not shared more frequently.

The only thing I can guess with regards to the almost 2 decades span is 2 decades is generally considered a generation and perhaps the information was trying to convey a generational correlation?

I see the % walking inter county is no small number. Are your counties small or is it a geographical situation whereby perhaps two or more counties are butted together permitting easy crossing? (I suppose I could look that up but well that 2nd glass of wine has me in a mellow mood)

Now you make me miss Boston.

Here in ORL, they are finally moving forward with sunrail (I'm putting on my anti-flogging suit now). It's essentially a 1-line above ground S-bahn with special needs. By no means perfect, I do hope it becomes successful. There are some bike paths here but the biggy is trying to bike from A to B for 10 months out of the year, even biking up the street results in your body and clothes being completely soaked in a nasty sweat. Well at least for me. And biking on the road... Well lets just say they have a special hunting permit here for drivers which allows them to efficiently cull the biker population.

Portland is moving in the right direction by several metrics. Keep it up! It's on my list to come check out and see what's going on out there (sadly haven't been there, yet..).

[RWebb]

PDX started that "connected village center" thing only recently - the next survey may show more changes outside the downtown area

[jyl]

"All trips" is literally that, if you walk two blocks to the corner store that is a "walk" trip. I think that is how the data is set up. It's not that people are walking from one county to the other.

Portland has a pretty dense core. Two of my co-workers walk to work, they live about 15 blocks away, takes maybe 15 minutes. Out in the suburbs, I doubt there is too much walking going on, and the data seems to confirm it.

The question this survey is raising, around here, is whether it makes sense to have transit out in the suburbs - buses or light rail. If only 8% percent of people use it, why have transit there? If that percent has risen only 2% in twenty years, why invest in having more transit there?

I think the missing context is the absolute numbers. The population of Portland and its suburbs has grown a lot since 1994. The significance of going from 6% of a small population to 8% of a large population is more than just reading 6% and 8% conveys.

Naturally, our local crap newspaper has done zero thoughtful writing about this. The article simply regurgitates the percentages. There is a reason why the main use of the daily paper's three or four pages of pretend news articles is to light fires and wrap fish.

[Hugh R]

Two or three years ago I met you in Portland when I was at a conference. I rented a car and never drove it but to and from the airport. I could take the train/trolley from my hotel to meet you and Herr Oberst and Lane912 and others. I felt no need to drive. When I go to Portland again, I'll take the train/trolley from the airport and do without a rental car.

[jyl]

When are you headed back up here? There must be some filming going on? Seems like every year another TV show gets set in Portland, tho' for all I know they are filmed in LA. Like "Frasier" was set in Seattle but . . .

[Nostril Cheese]

I live in SE and work in Johns Landing. I wish there was a more direct public transit option. As it is, I gotta go over the Ross island Bridge every morning. It sucks.

[Hugh R]

JYL

Not soon enough. I had a great time there. Clean air, clean streets, nice public transpo. Great bars, what's not to like? Its a liberal town but I could totally enjoy Portland. I think the taxes, or lack of tax breaks, make it a non-starter for us. I was there at a conference, not a TV or movie shoot.

[Noah930]

You could live in Vancouver (or Camas or one of the other small towns along the Columbia along the north shore) and shop in PDX. No state income tax in WA. No sales tax in OR. Other than car buying, where the state DMV always gets you, it seems like the best of both worlds.

[jyl]

Yeah but the jobs are in Portland and then OR gets you for the state income tax even if you live in WA. They closed that loophole. I checked when we moved here.

[jyl]

The streetcar will cross the river at OMSI soon. Assuming our next mayor doesn't kill it. Would surely be faster to drive, as the streetcar is no speed demon. But would enable a bike commute without having to cross the Ross Island Bridge (can you even do that on bike?) or ride north to the Hawthrone Bridge.

I live in SE and work in Johns Landing. I wish there was a more direct public transit option. As it is, I gotta go over the Ross island Bridge every morning. It sucks.

[Noah930]

Originally Posted by jyl

Yeah but the jobs are in Portland and then OR gets you for the state income tax even if you live in WA. They closed that loophole. I checked when we moved here.

Sorry, you're right. I meant to clarify: you could live and work in Vancouver, and go shopping in PDX. Of course, then you live in Vancouver, and not PDX. And don't forget that extra 1% income tax for residents of Multnomah County (Portland) in addition to the 8% base for the whole state.

[RWebb]

The Orebonian is definitely a crap newspaper...

the issue re the burbs is the future...

[Noah930]

Heh heh. Though my wife and I clearly remember one Oregonian headline from years ago that read: Oregon Has Big Beaver Problem.

[Jim Richards]

Big as in many or big as in gigantasaurus-size?

[Noah930]

Originally Posted by jyl

But would enable a bike commute without having to cross the Ross Island Bridge (can you even do that on bike?) or ride north to the Hawthrone Bridge.

We have a poster hanging in my son's room that depicts the 11 bridges of Portland. It claims all are bike accessible with the exceptions of the Marquam, Fremont, and Burlington Northern (RR).

[RWebb]

ha!

but how many bicycle ONLY bridges does y'all got, huh??

[jyl]

Originally Posted by Noah930

We have a poster hanging in my son's room that depicts the 11 bridges of Portland. It claims all are bike accessible with the exceptions of the Marquam, Fremont, and Burlington Northern (RR).

Most have bike lanes or wide-enough bike/pedestrian sidewalks.

If you have to ride in the traffic lane, it is kind of dicey. Even though great big markings painted on the roadway state that bikes are permitted, some drivers get very bent out of shape.

In general, drivers seem to be touchy about bikes and bridges. I was crossing the Burnside Bridge at 5:15 AM yesterday, there was an SUV behind me, we were the only vehicles within three blocks either way and the bridge has two lanes for each direction so he would have no problem passing me. I was going over 25 mph up the west bridge approach - it is my "morning sprint" - so technically I was at the speed limit. He swerves at me, enters my lane and swipes by a foot away, honking his horn. I caught up with him 3 blocks later at the stoplight, and we had a discussion.

90% of the (few) negative incidents I've had with drivers have been with pickups and SUVs. There is something about the people who drive those vehicles.

[Noah930]

You mean they're a s s holes?

[teenerted1]

Originally Posted by Noah930

Sorry, you're right. I meant to clarify: you could live and work in Vancouver, and go shopping in PDX. Of course, then you live in Vancouver, and not PDX. And don't forget that extra 1% income tax for residents of Multnomah County (Portland) in addition to the 8% base for the whole state.

you forgot pump your own gas north of the river!!!!!!