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Let Me Pick Your Brain For a Second.

ChrisSChrisS
edited May 2011
Can I crowdsource some research real quick?

I'm working on a piece about commuting in Portland and hoping to uncover some tried and true strategies for getting around town in and on various means of conveyance.

Like: best bike thoroughfares? Or, say, the best way to enjoy a hassle-free trip to a Blazers game or something?

Or any advice about cabbing it home at 2am. Best cab companies?

I'm currently at sort of a standstill with my research.

How do you get to the important places in your life?

Comments

  • lml__0_0__lmllml__0_0__lml
    Best bike thoroughfare and route to the blazer game would be subjective to personal desire and unanswerable without a start point.

  • ThickeningAgentThickeningAgent
    i think portland is under-recognized for it's walk-ability. it's really easy to get around this town on foot.
  • ChrisSChrisS
    Okay, maybe a more specific question: what's the best way to bike from NE to SE? This has always been a source of annoyance for me.

    And are there like unofficial lots that people use as park and ride places?

  • MirandaJulyMirandaJuly
    edited May 2011
    I saw this thing that said they'd drive you and your car home for $15. Some kind of thing against drunk driving. Seems cheaper than most of my cab rides from downtown to home. Feels kind of like you'd be scamming them, but... they offered? Sorry I don't know the number.

    People use the movie theater parking lot at Lloyd Center all the time for Blazer games. I always get tricked into thinking the movies are packed.
  • freddyfreddy
    This is way too generic for me to answer. How people commute in Portland??

    Lots of people bike (highest mode share in US for a real (non-college) city. Many choose the bike boulevards, now called neighborhood greenways (http://vimeo.com/groups/5475/videos/16552771). They're sort of a hidden treasure.

    Lots of people take transit too. Transit Tracker is the key to everything. iPhone people like PDX Bus app a lot. Our transit system is the only one in the US (I am pretty sure) that allows 24/7 access for bikes to all transit vehicles with no additional charge or license required. Read more about Trimet at http://portlandafoot.org/.

    Portland's good for walking but you can't get very far.

    Lots of people in Portland choose not to own cars. Zipcar is helpful, but peer-to-peer carsharing has even more potential. Read more at: http://p2pcarsharingoregon.blogspot.com/

    Tell us more and I can definitely hook you up. But there are also a ton of articles already written about exactly this.

    Required reading: like, all of Bikeportland, Elly Blue on Grist, lots of Sarah Mirk's articles on the Merc blog, Portland videos on Streetsfilms (http://www.streetfilms.org), PortlandAfoot (esp. twitter feed), Portlandtransport.com. Check out also OTREC research (especially Dr. Jennifer Dill). And so much more!
  • lml__0_0__lmllml__0_0__lml
    @chris
    Start address and end address
    "NE to SE" is too general NE 82nd at Lombard to SE 1st at Tacoma? Or NE 28th at glisan to SE 20th at ankeny? I am confuse

    There are many streets with "sharrows" indicating it is a bikeway, there are also streets with bike lanes. Do you want to get there fast? Do you want to stop at every stop sign?

    What you are asking is like "what's the best store to buy something"

  • lml__0_0__lmllml__0_0__lml
    I ride my bike everywhere
    I get sweaty
  • ChrisSChrisS
    Yeah, I guess I posted this query in an intentionally vague way as a way to skim the tip of the iceberg. Freddy's links and tips will probably help a lot.

    Just the word "sharrows" is helpful for me.

    "NE to SE": I was thinking, like, NE Alberta to SE Hawthorne.

  • lml__0_0__lmllml__0_0__lml
    Take Alberta to 42nd, follow bike streets south to Hawthorne.

  • ThickeningAgentThickeningAgent
    "Portland's good for walking but you can't get very far"

    ???

    is there some sort of moat or invisible fence that i don't know about?
  • ThickeningAgentThickeningAgent
    also, there is a cool dude in town named Boaz who did a project a couple years ago called the un-roadtrip. he traveled the entire country road-trip style except he never got in a car. he made a cool web series out of it that just got turned into an actual tv series. it's full of creative and kooky modes of transportation so maybe it will help you: http://www.unroadtrip.com/
  • freddyfreddy
    I just mean, specifically for "commuting," walking isn't a major player by itself. But walk+transit is a great option.
  • MirandaJulyMirandaJuly
    edited May 2011
    Train hopping is really in now. You can get from the waterfront to the East side pretty fast.

    PORTLANDIA S02?
  • lml__0_0__lmllml__0_0__lml
    there's a pretty serious bike commuter racing scene

    some days i feel like the champ
    other days i feel like i should have taken the bus
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