Your thoughts on Portland’s Streetcar

Tuesday, 10. 30. 2007  –  Category: Uncategorized

When I worked in downtown Portland about 4 years ago, I rode the MAX daily.  I loved it.  I walked to the light rail stop at Quantama about 1/2 mile away from my house in Hillsboro, boarded the train, relaxed, read a book, and 40 minutes later it dropped me off in downtown about two blocks from my job.  Talk about ideal!

My experience with the Portland Streetcar has been quite different.  I've found the car difficult to catch, doesn't go where I want it to, and walking proves to be just as fast in some cases. 

As more businesses, shops, and housing open along the Streetcars route,  it should become a much more powerful a transportion medium.   There are now more online tools  that make using the Streetcar much easier these include www.portlandstreetcar.org and mashups from googlemaps.  You can use many of these tools now on your mobile phone too.

Are you interested in learning more about the Portland Streetcar?  Dave wrote a very interesting article discussing the future of Portland Street on his blog. 

Links

Related posts:

  1. Service Alert: Portland Streetcar – RiverPlace to Gibbs closed May 11-12
  2. Streetcar Plan Gains Speed
  3. Live traffic condition for Portland on your cell
  4. Portland Mall: new construction photo gallery online
  5. Calling off the meter maid: payment by cell phone

One Response to “Your thoughts on Portland’s Streetcar”

  1. Dave Says:

    I lived downtown for three years, up until this summer, and worked downtown and in the South Waterfront area. The streetcar was useful some times, in particular when the weather was especially inclement, or I had stuff to carry, or I just happened to be lucky enough to be at the stop when it arrived.

    As Bob R of HawthorneStreetcar.orgpoints out here, the current downtown streetcar is a local circulator, not a commuter or interurban line.

    I hope that future streetcars in Portland will replace busy bus lines and make commuting easier, in addition to helping neighborhoods increase density and entice businesses. But we need city planners, politicians, business interests, and neighborhood groups to come together to make the best decisions on how to implement this . . . we’ll see how that works out.

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