Comment 33231

By JonC (registered) | Posted September 04, 2009 at 16:44:54

Not to speak for Jason, but I'd go with you're misrepresenting what you're presenting.

You state "the market share of people using transit... is a measley 2%"

When in reality, the link you provided very clearly is a market share of the distance driven to get to work. The column on the right specifies work trip market share, which discounts any use for pleasure or trips to schools, etc.

I've never been to Portland or read much about it, but it took about 30 seconds of web searching to find this (which doesn't provide an everything is roses picture if you care to read it)

http://www.movingtoportland.com/portland...

From the 1990 census "Bus commuting grew 41 percent, while the numbers of bicycle riders and people working at home each grew 54 percent - well ahead of the 27 percent growth in people driving alone."

From 2005 data "A larger share of Portlanders commute by bicycle than in any other large city in America, eight times the national average... In June, 2007, the census director was in Portland where he released an analysis of 2005 commuting data. The survey found that 3.5 percent of Portland workers commuted by bike in 2005. Ranking second was Minneapolis at 2.4 percent, then Seattle, at 2.3 percent. The national average for cities with more than 65,000 population was 0.4 percent."

And

"The survey found that 77 percent of Americans drove to work alone, compared with 62.4 percent of Portlanders. In Portland, 13.3 percent of commuters took public transportation, twice the national average, but less than Seattle at 17 percent."

So I would go with they're doing okay. Especially considering the low cost compared to roads.

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