Portland’s experience with rail and transit-oriented development has inspired similar projects in Seattle. This photo shows a lower-income housing project in Seattle -- a transit-oriented development that’s been created next to a Sound Transit System’s rail line. PHOTO COURTESY OF G.B. ARRINGTON

A national (and international) model for public transit

has, many observers agree there’s a differ- day is it isn’t just a transportation system. land State University, the group has hosted People travel from across ent and particularly desirable quality about It’s land use, quality of life, environmental 76 such tours, representing nearly 900 visi- Portland and how its residents have chosen quality, all these things reinforce each oth- tors, since its creation in May 2009. the world to observe to get around this special place. er,” says Ethan Selzer, an urban studies pro- Visitors want to know how Portland made “There is something about the Northwest, fessor at PSU. “What people really come its transportation system work so well, says Portland's transit system but you can oversell it,” says Robert Liberty, here to look at … is not just development of First Stop Portland Program Manager Nan- former Metro councilor and 1,000 Friends of a transit system but the link of transporta- cy Hales. And, once given a tour, they get a By CATHY SIEGNER Oregon attorney who now heads the Univer- tion and land use in a way that gets more good sense of how forward-thinking those in Pamplin Media Group sity of Oregon’s Sustainable Cities Initiative. from the whole than just from the individual the City of Roses have been. “You don’t have to be a latte-lapping liberal parts.” Among the contingents of visitors check- Portland’s reputation as “the best U.S. city to benefi t from a lot of choices in housing What draws people from around the coun- ing out Portland’s public transit credentials for public transportation” goes beyond the and cheaper and more choices in transporta- try, and, increasingly, from around the in the past two-and-a-half years, Hales re- pages of magazines that have awarded it tion.” world, to check out Portland’s transit-orient- members one group in particular. They that specifi c honor. Today, transportation alternatives — from ed developments? And what do these visi- were from Amsterdam, which made some In the real world, places such as Vancou- rail and automobiles to bike routes and tors think after they’ve been here? Oregonians on the tour wonder why they ver, B.C., Charlotte, N.C., and Waco, Texas, — abound in Portland. And public A good place to direct such questions is were over here instead of the Portlanders are eagerly looking for ways to replicate the transportation has opened up even more First Stop Portland, which organizes tours going over there. Portland area’s public transportation system choices across the board because of how it for national and international delegations The leader of the Dutch group later an- and the network of neighborhoods and com- interrelates with housing, shopping, work intrigued by Portland’s relatively high pro- nounced that they had gotten together to munities it serves. While these cities may and recreation. fi le in green building, sustainability, public refl ect on that particular question, Hales re- not adopt the same strategies that Portland “What really distinguishes the system to- transit and land use planning. Based at Port- calls, and decided it mattered enough to re-

10 MAX BLUE LINE 25TH ANNIVERSARY > TriMet.org | AUGUST 31 & SEPTEMBER 1, 2011 /Community Newspapers