I got the chance to visit Portland Oregon last week for business and was really excited to spend an afternoon seeing for myself the city that many people hold up as a model for sustainable transportation.  I’ve wanted to visit for many years and my expectations on what I would see included something like this: great sidewalks, street life, bikes everywhere, sleek efficient public transit, a vibrant community.  Pretty tall order, I thought I shouldn’t get my hopes up too much. It is Oregon not Europe.

Well,  in the end I was extremely impressed.  I spent most of the afternoon downtown.  The streets were beautiful, extremely clean, wide sidewalks, lots of outdoor seating.  The bus shelters on the street were sleek and modern, well kept, and even had flat panel real time bus arrival information!  The trams (think larger, quieter, cleaner versions of the MBTA green line) criss-crossed the downtown area,  seemingly on almost every other street.  I rode on one in the city center which was free in that zone and was impressed on how well kept and well used they were. Walking around the city was extremely easy, I never felt threatened by an automobile, and noticed that the system was set up so well, there was a lot less jay walking than here in Boston.

Bikes, yes there were a lot of bikes.  There were some areas that had taken out a couple of parking spots to put on street racks, which were full with upwards of 20 bikes.  Tons of dispersed bike racks throughout the city.  I don’t remember seeing illegally locked bikes and noticed that almost all bike riders were respecting the rules of the road, as if their accommodation had prompted them to not have to circumvent the law for their own safety or convenience.

I think the thing that was most interesting and different which I didn’t expect was the quietness, the utter harmony of all these transportation options.  I never heard a car honk, a pedestrian yell, a transit official upset.  It was kind of wierd, maybe it was the nice weather?  It was so pleasant being downtown, there weren’t long lines of cars waiting to get through lights, tail pipe fumes at every corner, the start-stop-start-stop of being a pedestrian in most large cities (Portland is about half the size of metro Boston).

I left thinking that Portland had figured something out and is now 50-75 years ahead of most of the rest of us.  It was really cool and inspiring.  I didn’t take my camera so here are some images I found on the web that brings home the livable streets.

Cheers, Chad