into the central city.
Click to enlarge
(Kittelson & Associates, Inc.)
As part of their ongoing Central Portland Plan and the Central Portland Transportation Plan, the City’s Bureau of Transportation commissioned an analysis of parking conditions in the central city.
As part of that work, Kittlelson & Associates, Inc. (the planning firm the city hired), did a survey to find out which travel modes people use to get to the central city. [Note: The boundaries of the “central city” used in this analysis were Johnson/Naito Parkway/Burnside and 15th in the northwest and Burnside/Naito/Jackson and 18th in southwest.]
Their survey found that 13% of the commuters used bicycles to get to work (and 6% of the total trips were made by bike). 35% of the 406 respondents drove to work alone, followed by 30% who said they take public transit. 11% said they walk to work.
According to Kittelson’s report (available here), the survey was handed out at nine different locations throughout the study area between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. over the course of five weeks (the report was published in November, so I assume the survey was done in late summer-fall).
It’s also important to note this blurb from the report:
“These surveys do not reflect a statistical representation of the Central City community; rather they provide a “snapshot” perspective from a cross section of the public.”
Even so, surveys like this are always interesting to see. In addition to asking about travel modes, the survey also asked about the reason for the trip. Here are those results:
It was neat to see that both drivers and walkers/bikers listed “convenience” as their top reason for choosing their respective mode.
Compare this report to an annual survey done by the downtown-based Portland Business Alliance. Back in June, I reported that their survey showed a bike commute mode share of 6% in 2007.
For more on this latest central city commuting survey, download the survey results and more at the Central City Parking Analysis website.