#Portland traffic free#

Ferries such as the O&CRR Ferry#2 were used to cross the Willamette River before the construction of the first Steel Bridge in 1888. In 1882, a second horsecar system was built for Third Street. īen Holladay was the first person to offer public transportation to the city of Portland when in 1872 he opened the Portland Street Railway Company, a horsecar line on First Street extending to a garage at the end of Glisan. In September 2012, the fareless zone was discontinued entirely, due to a $12 million shortfall in TriMet's annual budget.

#Portland traffic free#

In 2010, free rides became limited to light-rail and streetcar service – no longer covering bus service – and the zone was renamed the 'Free Rail Zone'. įrom 1975 to 2010, all of downtown Portland was in Fareless Square, a fare zone within which all rides on buses, light rail and streetcars were fare-free, and starting in 2001 this zone also covered a portion of the adjacent Lloyd District. The new MAX Green Line opened 13 days later, on September 12, and it also serves the downtown transit mall. Light rail service on the transit mall was introduced on August 30, 2009, when the MAX Yellow Line moved to the mall from its previous routing. The transit mall reopened to buses on May 24, 2009, and operator training runs on the new light-rail tracks took place during the late spring and summer. To facilitate this major renovation and rebuilding, lasting more than two years, all bus routes using the mall were diverted to other streets (mainly 3rd and 4th avenues) starting in January 2007. Tracks for light rail ( MAX) were added, bus stops spaced farther apart, and the left lane opened to general traffic (but with right turns prohibited). First opened in 1977, and for three decades served only by buses, the transit mall underwent major changes in 2009. Within the downtown area (the city center) is the Portland Transit Mall, a transit-priority corridor on which buses and light rail trains from many different parts of the region converge. Transit service between Portland and Vancouver, Washington, the second-largest city in the metropolitan area, is provided by C-Tran, with a small number of express routes. cities, but is lower than in some others, such as Baltimore and Seattle. Portland's rate of public transit use (12.6% of commutes in 2008) is comparable to much larger cities like Los Angeles, and higher than in most similarly sized U.S. The bus and rail system is operated by TriMet, its name reflecting the three metropolitan area counties it serves ( Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington). Portland has a public transportation system. 1.5.1 Portland, OR Public Transportation Statistics.