The State of Transit in Portland

Transit in Portland is actually doing pretty well in 2014. Construction continues on the new Orange MAX line, Streetcar Loop, and our city's newest transit bridge and TriMet will be returning to 15 minute schedules on most of their Frequent Service routes this spring. However, if we look at where those service routes are we'll see that this will do quite a lot for connectivity downtown but very little for residents of East Portland:

In fact only one frequent service line goes east of the 205 and that is the number 4 that runs from Gresham to St. Johns. Moreover there are no north/south Frequent Service lines east of the 205. It is easy to see that downtown Portland benefits from being not just the central bus hub but also the main beneficiary of rail travel as well. 

This system was created in 1982, four years before construction on the first MAX line was begun. We at the Eastside Equity Project believes the time has come to take advantage of the rail infrastructure that has been built to more equitably provide transit throughout the city. If you agree then sign up for our email list or send us a note at eastsideequity -at- gmail -dot- com