‘SmartTrips’ leads to fewer car trips in Southeast

Behind the scenes at SmartTrips

SmartTrips materials are
delivered by bike.
(Photo © J. Maus)

PDOT’s Transportation Options Division has announced that their “SmartTrips Southeast” program led to a 9.4% reduction in drive-alone trips in the target area.

The program — which uses individualized marketing techniques to encourage participants to walk, bike, and take transit — was focused on over 20,000 Southeast Portland (and Milwaukie) households.

Participating residents were subjected to an all-out blitz of outreach events, access to resources, and free gifts (including the wonky-yet-fashionable bicycle map bandanna!) to help inspire them to make more sensible transportation choices.

In addition to reducing drive-alone trips, SmartTrips also led to increased bicycle use. PDOT reported an increase in bicycle mode share among those over 55 years-old from 1% – 4% and, for the first time ever, a majority of the bicycle trips (58%) were made by women.

The SmartTrips program (formerly known at TravelSmart) is in its fifth year and the current focus area is Southwest Portland. Learn more about this year’s program at the SmartTrips Southwest website.

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Founder of BikePortland (in 2005). Father of three. North Portlander. Basketball lover. Car driver. If you have questions or feedback about this site or my work, contact me via email at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or phone/text at 503-706-8804. Also, if you read and appreciate this site, please become a paying subscriber.

Thanks for reading.

BikePortland has served this community with independent community journalism since 2005. We rely on subscriptions from readers like you to survive. Your financial support is vital in keeping this valuable resource alive and well.

Please subscribe today to strengthen and expand our work.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

11 Comments
oldest
newest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Mark
Mark
16 years ago

Great works options — making the city fit and happy

keep it up!!!

Liz
Liz
16 years ago

Fantastic results!

Any news on the possibility of those snazzy bandanas being available to the general public?

Ashley
16 years ago

zOMG! Bike map bandana?! Genius, genius I say. Thank you SmartTrips, you\’re vunderful darling, simply vunderful.

9watts
9watts
16 years ago

that would be \’…leads to *fewer* car trips,\’ actually. Though all too common, whether in the express lane at the grocery store: \’12 items or less\’ or among us bikey folk: \’one less car\’ the rules of English grammar tell us that whenever the object is countable–as in all of these cases–the correct word is *fewer.*
Sorry to be so picky.

Matthew
Matthew
16 years ago

Southwest will be a interesting one. A lot of the other targeted area were areas where you could walk, (there are sidewalks,) bike (cause it was flat, and most of the side streets went through,) and had great transit…

Not so much for Southwest.

Mark
Mark
16 years ago

Interesting. I think the goal of SmartTrips is laudable. However, I\’d really like to see their methodology on how they arrived at these results. I can\’t seem to locate in on their website. Any ideas?

Jessica Roberts
Jessica Roberts
16 years ago

Mark, try that first link in Jonathan\’s story. It leads you to an entire page about the SmartTrips Southeast program, including the project plan, the final report, and detailed information on all the sub-projects (such as Women on Bikes, Senior Strolls, and Portland by Cycle).

KT
KT
16 years ago

Hm.

The map on their website is tiny and hard to read.

Exactly what area does this SmartTrips Southwest cover?

Options Guy
16 years ago

KT – you speak, we listen.
I\’ve posted a PDF of the STSW neighborhood map on the page for your viewing pleasure.

http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=46030&

Matthew – you are correct, Southwest will be challenging for some of our programs (like Portland By Cycle rides, which I lead). But I think we\’ll have interesting rides for cyclists of a variety of experience levels. And we\’ll be revisiting our previous Eastside neighborhoods with rides also.
Stay tuned to the http://www.GettingAroundPortland.org website for the full schedule of rides – to be posted soon!

Linda Ginenthal
Linda Ginenthal
16 years ago

Love that Options Guy!
Linda Ginenthal

Bill Stites
Bill Stites
16 years ago

Love that Linda!

Nice job getting people out of their cars. This clearly is a lot of upstream work … perhaps inspired by salmon?! 😉