Good places to live in Portland without a car
From Portland Afoot
Good places to live in Portland without a car depend somewhat on whether you expect to get around mostly by TriMet, Portland's above-average public transit system, by bicycle, or afoot.
Neighborhoods that come up on most lists are downtown, the Pearl District and Hollywood. The Goose Hollow area just west of downtown, the Nob Hill area in the Northwest District and the Buckman neighborhood also have very high percentages of low-car and car-free households.
Up-and-coming neighborhoods include Kenton and Montavilla.
Neighborhoods that are human-friendly despite a few clear disadvantages include St. Johns and Sellwood-Moreland, which are relatively far from the city center, and the recently developed South Waterfront, which still has few businesses within walking distance.
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[edit] Useful websites for low-car home hunting
- Most walkable neighborhoods in Portland, by WalkScore.com. This excellent tool is based on the number of services in each of several categories (grocery store, library, school, and so forth) that exist within 1 mile of a given address or city block. Locations within 1/4 mile receive extra points. The results are weighted by population density. For detail on each of the city's most walkable neighborhoods, click the names in the upper left. By this measure, Portland's most walkable neighborhoods are downtown and the Pearl District, but the Hosford neighborhood of inner southeast Portland also ranks well.
- Best neighborhoods for transit riding, based on Transit Score and created by Chris Smith of Portland Transport. This measure emphasizes mobility (the number of different places you can get to rapidly) over access (the number of places you want to get to near a given location). By this measure, Portland's best neighborhoods for transit riding are all in the central city, though Gateway, Hollywood, North Tabor and downtown Beaverton also rank well because they are close to multiple MAX lines.
- Transit plus walking travel time by location, by Front Seat. These maps are more accurate than the similar service by Stefan Wehrmeyer, which is overly optimistic because its methodology underestimates the effect of low-frequency buses.
- Portland apartments that offer Zipcar discounts, by Zipcar.
[edit] Neighborhoods with the most car-free households
According to Census samples from the years 2005 to 2009, the 10 Census tracts with the largest share of car-free workers are:
- tract 53, the heart of downtown, between Burnside, SW Jefferson, 12th and 4th: 75% car-free
- tract 54, the east side of downtown, between Burnside, SW Jefferson, 4th and the Willamette River: 75% car-free
- tract 56, immediately around Portland State University, 48% car-free
- tract 52, northern Goose Hollow: 42% car-free
- tract 11.01, the southwest corner of the Buckman neighborhood, between SE Stark, Hawthorne, the Willamette River and 16th: 40% car-free
- tract 55, southern Goose Hollow: 38% car-free
- tract 49, the center of the Northwest District neighborhood, between NW Thurman and Burnside, 24th and 17th: 36% car-free
- tract 21, the northwest corner of the Buckman neighborhood, between Interstate 84, SE Stark, the Willamette River and 20th: 33% car-free
- tract 48, the south-central Northwest District, between NW Marshall and Burnside, 23rd and 20th: 27% car-free
- tract 51, the Pearl District, Chinatown and Old Town: 23% car-free
[edit] Good places for bicyclists to live
City surveys show that the most popular neighborhoods for bicycle commuters to live are inner northeast Portland and southeast Portland, followed by north Portland.
There are few online tools about the best neighborhoods for bicyclists, though at least one is in development.
In 2010, PSU scholar Nathan McNeil developed a tentative system to score a location's bikeability, based on nearby bicycle amenities, nearby businesses and connectivity to good bike routes, as part of a master's degree in urban regional planning. McNeil found that of 25 locations around the city, the most bikeable were in downtown, Nob Hill and Hollywood, while the least bikeable were in outer northeast Portland and the 10200 block of Southeast Powell Boulevard.
[edit] Neighborhoods with many short commutes
According to 2005-2009 data from the Census's American Community Survey, the neighborhoods with the highest percentage of commutes of 30 minutes or less are largely in inner southwest Portland:
- Tract 58, the Homestead neighborhood near OHSU, with 89%
- Tract 37.02, the northern Humboldt and southern Piedmont neighborhoods in north Portland and northeast Portland, with 87%
- Tract 46.02, the eastern Southwest Hills neighborhood, with 87%
- Tract 61, the Hillsdale neighborhood, with 86%
- Tract 68.02, the Bridlemile neighborhood, with 85%
The neighborhoods with the fastest-improving share of short commutes since 2000 were largely in north Portland and southeast Portland:
- Tract 92.01, the eastern Mill Park neighborhood in southeast Portland, with a 17% jump
- Tract 37.02, the northern Humboldt neighborhood, with a 16% jump
- Tract 39.02, the western Arbor Lodge neighborhood in north Portland, with an 11% jump
- Tract 13.02, the northwestern Richmond neighborhood in southeast Portland, with a 9% jump
- Tract 83.02, the northwestern Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhood in east Portland, with a 9% jump
[edit] Good places to live in Portland's suburbs
All of Portland's suburbs have at least small walkable areas in their downtown. According to Walkscore, Portland's most walkable suburbs, on average, are Forest Grove and Milwaukie, followed by Beaverton.
Downtown Vancouver and Camas and the Uptown Village area just north of Vancouver's downtown are human-friendly, but poorly connected to the TriMet system. Vancouver's Van Mall neighborhood also has some commercial density, but is highly auto-oriented.
Downtown Beaverton is well-served by MAX but has a very small walkable commercial district.
[edit] See also
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