Portland is the City That Loves to Ride
Posted on: October 24, 2007
The New York Times calls Portland, “The city that loves mass transit”. I think they are right.
Portland has one of the most extensive mass transit systems in the United States; plus it is easy to use and economical. If you are visiting Portland you won’t spend all of your time trying to figure out how to get around. Visitors to our area can literally fly into PDX and hop on the MAX train to head downtown.
In Portland, you really can get a free ride; downtown has what is known as Fareless Square, which is 330 blocks of free rides on the MAX, bus, and streetcar. Bordered on the west and south by I-405 and Irving Street. The eastern boundary extends across the Willamette River to the Rose Garden Arena, Oregon Convention and the Lloyd Center Mall.
The trimet bus lines run through Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas Counties, which allows you to travel outside and inside of the Portland area. The bus frequency varies depending on where you are traveling, but the Tri-Met website has an interactive program that makes getting around Portland easy.
Another option for travel is the MAX (Metropolitan Area Express) lightrail. Portland’s 44-mile express offers train to plane service. The light rail system connects Portland, Gresham, Beaverton, and Hillsboro; and, it is currently expanding to the southeast Portland and Clackamas area. It runs roughly from 4:30AM to midnight.
The Portland Streetcar is another fun way to travel while you are visiting the downtown area of Portland. It runs a 7.2 mile loop through the downtown Portland and Lloyd Center Mall area. The streetcar runs about every 13 minutes during the day Monday through Saturday, and less frequently in the early mornings, evenings and Sundays. You can catch it Monday through Thursday from 5:30am to 11:30pm, Friday 5:30am to 11:45pm, and Sunday 7:15 AM to 10:30 PM. If you are nostalgic at heart you may want to take a ride on Sunday. From March through the last day in December before Christmas you can ride the old style trolleys. The vintage trolleys run along the MAX lines between Lloyd Center and SW 11th Ave. In downtown Portland, they run every 30 minutes with a round trip taking 45 minutes. The rides are free. In 1991 Vintage Trolley, Inc., reintroduced trolley service to Portland with working replicas of the Historic Council Crest Streetcars, that ran along Portland streets from 1904 to 1950.
Visitors may be surprised to see that in Portland many of the locals ditch their cars for these options and they also ride a lot of bikes. Portlander’s like to save on gas and parking. Also public transportation is better for our environment. You can lock your bikes up at several locations along the Max and Trimet lines, or bring it with you on the MAX trains and buses.
All in all, if you are a visitor to downtown Portland or the metro area you don’t need to worry about getting a rental car. Come to Portland and see a new way of getting around town.
Written by Brenda Lund, Broker for PortlandRealEstate.com.