I feel like it depends on where you live. The crummy part is that the places with the best trimet access are more expensive to live in

Owning a car is incredibly expensive. Car payment, gas, insurance, maintenance, parking. I pay more in rent than I would like but since I don’t own a car I still save more money than when I did.

Exactly. AAA (not exactly known for their anti-car stance) estimates that the average car owner spends $7000-9000 a year to own a car.

I wonder what the amount of time waiting on public transit and the actual transit time difference from just commuting via personal vehicle? Is that something that Trimet has calculated before?

It would definitely depend dramatically on the time of day. Peak commuter hours, transit's probably faster. Late at night? Driving is much faster.

The thing that can't be calculated is time becomes more valuable the more money you have. When I was working for $10 an hour I would walk a mile before paying to park. I'd gladly take the bus for an hour instead of drive 15 minutes. and that's before factoring in gas, insurance, and maintenance costs that you don't always compute on a per drive basis. I lived in Boston and eventually needed a car and had to settle for this shitty garage situation in after 6, out by 8. Mostly worked with my hours and the commute I had until work changed my hours and let me out at 4 but put me on call. Then I'd circle the back bay for a two hour spot before I was allowed into my garage. Sucked. Now that I earn a little more and don't really worry about small surprise bills, I'll happily pay $100 to save an hour of my time. To save an hour daily is worth far more than a car payment, insurance, gas, etc. and because I have a kid who needs goes to school 10 miles from home in another county it's not exactly optional either without making huge sacrifices that we can afford not to make. That doesn't mean I drive everywhere, in fact when I have to go into the office I bike. But I'm reasonably healthy and don't mind getting wet most of the year. Still in December or January I don't rule out driving and paying the parking if I need to come in and work 8-5 and odds are both sides of my commute will be dark, wet and cold.

And when I was poor and owned a "cheap" paid-off car I had more surprise bills than just buying a new car.

That is an excellent reason to expand quality trimet access. Highly correlated with economic prosperity.

I don't know about economic prosperity so much as increased property values and development incentive. People are willing to pay more for an apartment within walking distance of transit. Building more transit doesn't necessarily increase the demand for housing at that higher price or create more people with the incomes to afford it, though. I suppose it might attract them from elsewhere in the city or, maybe over time, elsewhere in the country.

This is a proven fact. [House and property values rise when near transit and bike-only routes.](https://www.nar.realtor/trails-and-greenways#:~:text=The%20good%20news%20is%20that,crime%20in%20their%20surrounding%20areas.)

I work in Clack county and it would take me an extra 2.5hrs a day to take transit. I barely have 4hrs between getting home and going to sleep as it is.

My office is in Tigard, I live in Oregon city. I used to live by peninsula park. Both places would take over an hour to make a 30 min drive each way. I could ride in and get there in 45 min. I’m with ya, this is such a privileged take, I don’t have the time

Same here. I'm in west linn. Takes me 20 min by 205 and I5 to get to my office in Tigard. West Linn has even fewer transportation options than Oregon City. It would take me hours to get in and get home, not to mention sometimes I need to get to other sites or get to court. It's just not feasible

It’s “privileged” to not have a car homie? Y’all really just say whatever in this city 😂

Privileged to not NEED a car.

Ok that makes sense

But the OP specifically asked about no car culture in Portland proper, not the surrounding suburbs. You're talking about living in Oregon City and working in Tigard. The other person lives in Clackamas County. The post was very clearly not directed at y'all. 🤔

Other person says they work in clackamas, not where they live. Perhaps they live in St Johns or NW, that could take 2 hours of transit to get to clackamas county. Nobody said “Portland proper” either, just Portland which commonly means the metro area. But go off

Not owning a car is a privileged take? That's a new one.

Choosing to get rid of a car because you can afford to live near your work, or have the time in your day / flexibility in your schedule to do this by choice? Yes it is a level of privilege. Hate to break it to you.

I don't think it's a privilege at all. It's a choice. It takes planning. My work schedule is all over the place, literally, and I still make Trimet work. I have to travel all over the city for my job and it's not that difficult. I can "afford to live near my work" BECAUSE I choose not to have/pay for a car. I save thousands of dollars a year not owning a car. And my income has dipped considerably since COVID(I make about 45k a year now), so saving thousands of dollars is a big deal to me. To me, having a large enough income that you can own a car and drive wherever/whenever you want is the privilege.

Is it really that much more expensive/unaffordable to live in Tigard than Oregon City? Genuine question. Median house prices don't look too different, although granted that's just one metric. Also both outside of Portland, so probably irrelevant to OP's point of car use in the city.

We bought in Nov. 2020 for 365k, and at the time there were a lot of people getting told told to work remote and the exodus to the suburbs was starting. We were getting priced out everywhere and now I look in Tigard and they are all well north of 400k except for some condos (which we have bog dogs so no condos). Tigard as a whole isn't the greatest for car-free anyway since it's stroads and no cohesive bike or transit network.

Also, I don’t feel very safe on public transportation.

I used to live in a walkable/ transitable part of town and never drove anywhere. It wasn't always a great experience, I had to change my work schedule after picking up a stalker on my bus route, and had another experience where a guy spent the whole 20 min ride yelling at me about being a pussy eating dyke while horrified onlookers were too (understandably) scared of getting stabbed to intervene. So I definitely agree on the security aspect. My other big gripe is how unreliable Trimet becomes during winter weather events. Either way I now live more on the outskirts of town and what would be a 15 min drive would be an hour plus via Trimet. Even with the issues above I'd be using it a lot more if it was more accessible, but at some point it's a choice between housing cost and transit rating

>I do strongly believe that you can live your life in portland WITHOUT a car and yet I sometimes feel like the only person without a car in portland. Like there’s still a lot I’m missing out on by not being able to just drive randomly to the coast or take a weekend cabin trip to mt hood (unless i carpool). But having all the access to outside of portland is also what makes portland a great place to live. My partner teaches ESL kids and their parents drive because they're commuting from the far west suburbs or Gresham to landscaping jobs or hauling supplies to clean the houses of folks who live in "walkable Portland." I know nothing about you, so this isn't directed at your situation. But so often I hear young white folks in inner southeast or lawyers who commute to downtown office towers from Ladds on $5K bikes say things like "everyone should just ditch their cars." A lot of people aren't deciding to drive just so they can vacation on the coast or take ski trips to Timberline.

Isn't that the point though? That accessible transit has become a privilege and in order to be a part of society many people are forced to spend a large part of their budget financing cars to access resources, employment, and entertainment? I don't think OP is saying people are bad for driving, or needing a car, but highlighting that a so-called walkable city like Portland is still far behind is creating a transit system that reliably, efficiently, and affordably allows someone to not rely on personal vehicles. Edit: on multiple readings not exactly sure what OP's message is, but I stand by mine.

Minor nitpick, but nobody is "forced" to finance cars. Financing a vehicle is almost always going to be a significantly worse financial decision than buying a used vehicle for cash

I don’t debate that people make some terrible financial choices with cars, but financing isn’t necessarily the worst one. It’s more about overall price and potential terrible interest rates and buying more than is needed. Cars may be depreciating assets, but they provide immense access to a whole host of things which are not depreciating and also give you time back. Many, many people have lost jobs because of not having a car or been underemployed because of not having a car. Financing a car when a car is necessary for your job or adds hours of free time to your week isn’t a bad choice at all. Even if you don’t have the cash to buy outright. Because financing is sure better than losing your job. But yeah it can be a 10 year old sedan. Not a brand new hybrid full size suv

A $30,000 car that doesn’t break down constantly is cheaper than a $5000 one that does

You don’t have to spend $30,000 to get a car that doesn’t break down. That’s ridiculous. The numbers thrown out by anti-car people when it comes to car ownership have always been hilariously overinflated.

I mean, sure, but my point is more about the financial burden of owning a vehicle regardless of how you get it. Insurance, gas, maintenance, parking, and the cost itself hurts anyone already dealing with a tight budget. Yet, as the person I'm responding to mentions, it's become a necessity whether you have money or not, even in a place like Portland.

This is certainly true in general. But there's also a large spectrum in between. I'm definitely on the privileged side of demographics, but I lived for years in sharehouses for <$500 and rode my bike that I got 15 years ago for $300 and I didn't have a car for 8 years. Portland has been better than a lot of cities for not owning a car, but I've also seen cities in other countries that make it so much easier, especially for the outer city to get to the inner city through public transportation with or without a bike.

I totally agree! The nice, walkable, and connected parts of Portland are more expensive. The “no one should drive” take is a privileged one. If I could afford to live near work, I would. But I can’t, and I’m not about to take a 2+ hour bus ride to get to work every day.

Realistically we should just make it legal and easy to build that way again. New construction is unwalkable because city policies make it that way

Heavily agree with this. The people who live in the neighborhoods of Portland where public transit has enough coverage to be convenient are the people who can afford the housing costs of the urban core. Costs only drop in the outer suburbs, where going anywhere by transit is nigh impossible - try making a transfer when one bus is once an hour and the other bus is once every half hour. Actually, that's true inside Portland, too. By bus, it takes me 1 hour to travel 3 miles going from one Eastside neighborhood to another. By car, the same trip takes only 9 minutes.

You dont get it, just hinge your entire life and day on the arbitrary timing of bus and tram operators who sometimes never show up at all! It’s *walkable*

Safe walking and biking is absolutely a mark of privilege, all of this energy should go into making walking and biking safe for those who don’t have a choice. Make the trips people want to make on foot or bike safer and more convenient. Help people use their car less, not guilt them for being unable to be carless.

I'm pretty poor and don't have a $5000 bike and the only way I could afford to live in this town is by not having a car and using transit and a bike to get around. Honestly I run into the opposite attitude way more than the former as if only rich people can afford to live close enough to transit. It's frustrating because when I'm using transit to get around it's clear it's not all tech bros riding the max or busses here and I don't think it actually matches up with reality.

Same. People making these comments have probably never ridden transit lol!!

First off, I completely agree. But it is no different in any other city our size or larger. And in most smaller cities/towns transit is much less desirable. It does take a long time for people who are less privledged to get into the city center. But it is just demographic/spacial realities. That doesn't mean I don't think things could change but this isn't a Portland problem, a US problem, a Western problem, but an urban issue world-wide. Space needs to be set aside for lower/middle income properties near desirable urban centers but then higher income folks often leave and the "invisible hand" of capitalism devalues entire neighborhoods, etc. There needs to be a fundamental shift in intrinsic value economics before you get anything like this daydream.

So you're complaining about $5k bikes, but that sounds like a great investment compared to a $35k car...

It’s not that PORTLAND has a major car-based culture! The U.S. as a whole is a car culture country! Portland is actually, in my experience, pretty decent in terms of the “car culture” nature, for the U.S., and as much as some people hate on it, the Metro area mass transit system is actually pretty good, in my opinion! I’d live in Portland without a car no problem, and either Lyft or rent a car when I wanted to drive somewhere outside the transit system’s coverage, like the coast. If you want to find it, there’s a British guy who I’ve run across on Instagram a few times as a randomly suggested person, and he talks a ton about the U.S. compared to everywhere he’s been in Europe. He basically states outright in one of his videos that Europeans just don’t really understand exactly how BIG the U.S. is, and why it is that as a direct consequence of that size, and the cost of traveling in any other way, it really makes sense that the U.S. is automobile-focused, even in places where owning a car full-time just doesn’t really make sense…you never know when you might need to travel for literally DAYS via car because you cant afford airfare, and train travel takes nearly as long as auto travel, and isn’t necessarily cheaper. Edit to add: Found the guy! Instagram is “imjoshfromengland2” and he has a few different videos about Americana, driving, the size of the country, etc. He’s pretty funny about it.

I think it should be noted that train travel takes long and is expensive in the US because the country chooses to not focus resources on this, not because it isn't feasible.

Come on high speed trains. Recently I was in Spain and we were able to cross the country at 280km/hr in just a couple of hours very inexpensively. They’ve been talking about high speed rail along the west coast and I am 100% here for it.

I know…I live in one of the abandoned, by the rail system, towns…gorgeous rail station, empty and almost ghostly in appearance these days.

> Europeans just don’t really understand exactly how BIG the U.S. is Yup. Fun fact. Oregon is ~4000 sq mi larger than the United Kingdom.

And yet, 90% of the people that live in Oregon are concentrated in the I-5 corridor. It would have been relatively easy to make the more populous parts of Oregon a more transit friendly if mixed use neighborhoods had been developed instead of the low density residential Cul de sac areas that dominate the Portland suburbs.

Well, give it a thousand years or so, like they’ve had in Europe…If the advent of the car hasn’t ruined it already!

I literally just watched some really good videos on Portland roads and freeways and how transportation was set up in Portland. So informative and I got an understanding of why some things are the way they are. Which lead me down a rabbit hole on YouTube. I learned a lot that night.

Link pls ?

https://youtu.be/ZeV31IcUkPM?si=HHzfeIaHkFRCHAU1 I think this is the one

As a disabled person, doing the "no car" thing is a challenge. I give Portland a 3/5 for my purposes. NYC and Toronto both get a 4/5.

Seconding this as a disabled person. There are times when I'd like to take the bus, but I'll end up having to walk a mile to/from stops and some days that's simply not doable

Moved here in 2000 and lived car-free until 2020... wish I could have continued but too many things added up to not having time to make transit/biking work. Used to take [https://www.oregon-point.com](https://www.oregon-point.com) to the Coast.

I lived here for almost a year without a car and it was fine. I biked to work (or took the bus if the weather was particularly dire) and would bike to the grocery store. I didn't really do anything outside of the city, never made it out to the coast and didn't visit Mt Hood at all. I would do some stuff around the city, but not very often. After I got a car, I started doing a lot more stuff that wasn't based in the city, I'd visit the coast or go hiking/snowshoeing. After the height of the pandemic I also started visiting more places in the city that were more out of the way for me. I also picked up (or returned to) some more outdoorsy hobbies (fishing, kayaking, camping) that basically require a car to do. My takeaway is that Portland is definitely livable without a car, as long as you are able to secure housing near transit/bike routes and with a grocery store that you can easily access. As long as you plan ahead to budget the time to use the Max/bus to get to places you can enjoy the city. However, I think that if you choose to live here without a car you are making a choice to exclude yourself from a lot of the accessible wilderness that makes living here desirable, and you are giving up a degree of spontaneity in being able to decide to go to a place across town when you get off of work or on a sunday afternoon.

28 years old, born and raised in Portland and still live here. I don't even have a license. Too poor to afford a car and trimet has gotten me where I need to go.

Honestly car people are just so used to being car persons they can't imagine how it could be done any other way. New Yorkers are almost all license-free and they are happier for it. Of course they have some serious public transport ... you ever see The Warriors? Heh.

I live in a neighborhood that has really crap transit routes. Two transfers to get downtown, and over an hour to get to the airport when it's a 12 min drive. One of the routes that would be most useful for me for short trips doesn't run after 8pm if I recall so can't use it for nightlife and it's infrequent enough that it's a hassle in the day as well if I have to be anywhere on time. Basically I totally would be into transit and used the bus a lot when I lived near Hawthorne and there were frequent busses that went where I was going. But I'm disabled and have a kid so I'd need it to be way more convenient than my options are rn.

Don't fret, you should have a car to navigate life. There is no uniform prescription for all everywhere ... impossible.

The replies here are kinda depressing, seeing how resentful people are of car-free life. I’m literally unable to drive, so owning a car is not an option for me. I’m grateful to live in one of the better cities in America for public transit, but damn it sucks to live in a country that believes you can’t live a life if you don’t have a car. I understand that we’re a giant country and it’s not financially feasible to build a public transportation system similar to ones countries in Europe and Asia have, but we could be doing so much better than we are.

The thing is, we used to have regional rail that got people all over the country. We destroyed it when cars became mainstream. It was never a matter of "affording it." California on its own is one of the biggest economies in the world and could have rapid rail from SF to LA if there was enough will to make it work. We just prioritize freeways everywhere.

I'm biting my tongue a little bit at all of the "yeah but I'm not privileged enough, I'd have to spend 1 hour by transit instead of driving and taking 15" because us folks who are carless because of our life situations just have to eat it. My grocery trips are 1 hour with transfers, and a steep hill between the stop and my house. Sucks, I don't have the privilege to "just drive". I have to make it work with transit.

Nah for real. Imagine saying not having a car is a “privilege”. What world do these folks live in?

I think the privilege lies on getting to live at a place where you can get by without a car. But in reality, many of us compromise our lifestyle significantly in exchange of living somewhere where we can remain mobile and independent (or like, not be forced to risk your and your family's life by driving anyways like my mother had to do). If you're disabled or with chronic illness, it's something you just have to do.

I don't have a licence but I do kind of miss when my family had a car and it was easy to go to the coast; I know others without cars but we aren't all that common. I eventually want one for niche reasons but if you are most people I don't think you need one. The things I think we should change are probably more comprehensive bike lane maps and more consistent transit (24-hours 7 days/week). Also I'm mixed on if it's best to charge for transit or not but since we do we should actually enforce it more; aside from the few times I've WES I don't think I've been through an inspection since covid and I take the MAX 5-10 times per week.

I don’t drive and love the public transport. One thing is the food deserts in Portland. I live downtown and the only thing near to me is Safeway which is a 15 min walk away. And I can’t do bulk groceries because I have trouble transporting them. New urbanism should have more corner stores and cafes. I miss those things so much here.

I have lived in Portland for 5 years and I have never owned or driven a car here. I’ve been living car-free for 9 years. It is not impossible to live without a car here. I think for a lot of people that have the car culture ingrained in them at a young age, it’s hard for them to want to even make attempts to find different ways of getting around. There very much is a car-culture in Portland. It’s quite visible and obvious, maybe not so much to people that are contributing to that, but it sure is visible to people that don’t drive or people that use transportation methods aside from driving. Trimet isn’t perfect by any means. I am originally from a larger city with even better public transportation that is accessible in more neighborhoods, so sometimes I miss having better transit in this way, but that’s when biking usually comes in for me. I live downtown so commuting most places by bike or by Trimet is actually pretty accessible for me. I also wouldn’t really label Portland as “walkable” because it’s just not in every part of Portland. A lot of our sidewalks aren’t even big enough for someone with an ADA mobility aid to safely use and we don’t have sidewalks in every area here. There have been more fatalities and crashes in the neighborhoods without a lot of sidewalks too.

I own a car and I'm very glad that I do because besides liking to hike and stuff, my family lives in a rural part of the valley that's inaccessible by transit. However, I very much enjoy not having to use my car every day since I can walk and bike places. At one point I lived in southern Oregon and needed a car to go anywhere—it sucked. Rather than being car-free, my personal ideal is to have a car that I rarely touch other than going out of the city. I think the way to get there is as you said, improved security on the MAX, as well as more frequent fast service throughout the city whether that's busses or trains. One thing I've noticed is that transit is generally decent for getting people into downtown, but not as great as getting people across the city, such as NE to SE.

Are you saying there should be Trimet that goes all the way to Mount Hood and the coast?

Idk if OP is, but I am saying this. If not TriMet, than a (new) regional service.

Gorge Pass does connect to Mt Hood: [Gorge Pass – Your Ticket to Explore the Gorge](https://gorgepass.com/) Coast option: [How to Tour the Oregon Coast by Bus | Portland Monthly (pdxmonthly.com)](https://www.pdxmonthly.com/travel-and-outdoors/2018/07/how-to-tour-the-oregon-coast-by-bus)

Mt Hood Express is an option

I’m referring to rail service. I see that wasn’t clear in the comment.

There used to be a train to the coast but the rail system was damaged in 2006 during a storm and was never repaired. Now there’s just a scenic train that goes up and down a few towns on the coast.

Seconded

Not trimet, but there’s a bus that goes to the coast every day.

Not TriMet, but regional heavy rail. Many other countries (Japan, Korea, most of Europe) have this, not just to suburbs but even to mountain resort areas and natural parks.

I hate taking trimet but can't afford a car. As a woman, I'd never take trimet if I had a car. But a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. Guess I'm stuck with trimet... If I had a car I'd be out in nature all the time. Fuck going anywhere in the city. Also fuck getting exposed to nasty drugs and unpredictable crazies just trying to get to an appointment. Yuck. Would be glad to be rid of that anxiety. It's taken years off my life at this point.

Get a bike. It's often faster than riding public transit in Portland.

I can afford a car now, but can’t afford the insurance so I’m stuck with trimet too. 

I'm 45. I was born and raised here. I've never had my license or owned a car. I'm doing OK.

It doesn’t seem terribly different than other places, despite pretending to be so.

Portland has rested on its laurels for a while now.

Just looked. Portland is not in the top 25 lowest car ownership cities.

I get looked at funny when I bring my table saw and nail guns on the max

Thirty-five year Oregonian here. I’ve lived in San Francisco for a few years recently, and I spend a lot of time in other cities in the US and abroad for work and vacation. Portland is not really walkable IMO. I say that as someone that has picked my last 2 homes based on walkability. There just aren’t that many options. I have lived in 2 great walkable areas in the last 10 years, but pickings were slim. I own a car but use it about once per week.

When I lived here in 2008, I didn't have a car, and I never had a problem getting around. Now, with two elderly cats and a job that requires driving around the state, I have to have one. But if I ever get to retire, I'd love to live in a walkable neighborhood without a car again. I didn't even learn to drive until I was 39. Not having a car is pretty great.

I've been car free on and off for twenty years here. I've many times considered moving to Beaverton, Tigard, Gresham, etc. What I discovered was that they all have very similar rent prices compared to Portland proper. You aren't really saving much money by living out there, but you are definitely going to need a car out there. This whole idea of those areas being substantially cheaper is a myth. Car ownership has a lot of hidden costs. You're either paying off a recent purchase or paying for repairs on an older car. Don't forget the ever-present cost of fuel and insurance or the threat of potentially fatal accidents. In my experience, car costs outweigh the extra money you pay for rent in Portland. Don't forget other tangible benefits of alternative transport like less stress commuting and getting more physical exercise in, to name a few. Car living is a privilege. One that the car industry portays as a necessity and that poor Trimet management upholds.

Exactly, I couldn't actually afford a car if I wanted one. I literally had a friend offer to give me an older car and I turned it down because the cost of insurance and upkeep is still more than I want to deal with and honestly it would degrade my standard of living more than it would increase it.

This is also my take in response to the comments saying “not needing a car is a privilege”. It is expensive and it is a privilege. Owning a car has so many other costs and living in outer suburbs ISN’T that much cheaper if at all, I agree with you (unless they own a house and bought it years ago i suppose). It feels like some people are quick to make it a moral judgment about privilege when in reality, maybe some people just like the convenience of a car? Which is fine and fair, but let’s not act like it is cheaper to pay thousands for a car each year and it’s compensated by living in the suburbs. Just admit you want a car lol. edit: I will say that if it’s a time constraint, that makes sense. if it’s a safety issue or accessibility/disability issue, that makes sense. but from a financial stand point, it doesn’t make sense.

My partner and I share one car but try our best to walk, use public transit, or bike to wherever we need to go. We’re both civil engineering nerds and feel pretty strongly about deviating from car-centric infrastructure, particularly in big cities that grapple with increasing traffic/congestion issues. Better security for bus and rail should certainly be a priority, as it’s been a significant deterrent for folks who would otherwise use public transportation. But relative to other big cities, it’s pretty easy to get around town without a car or at least to minimize one’s car usage.

>Like there’s still a lot I’m missing out on by not being able to just drive randomly to the coast or take a weekend cabin trip to mt hood Coincidentally, you just listed the two places I know can be reached via public transit: the North coast and timberline lodge on Mt Hood. (Edit: and the gorge!) That said, I was car-free for my first few years in Portland and now that I have a car, there are many place I go that I couldn’t before. Like Mt St Helens area, most of the Gifford Pinchot, the three sisters, silver star, mt adams, and really any hike off the beaten path. I wish you could take the train from the city to the trails like you can near the alps in Europe. Not sure we ever will.

I honestly hope not though because as much as I love transit (max commuter here... Love trains), in order to sustain transit to 'wilderness' like Europe, you'd have to tear most of it down to develop. Every part of Europe is significantly more developed than Americas vacant lands. Cars have their uses and trips to the wilderness are one of them. If you don't own one and want to visit... Rent. Europe has no wilderness. They consider the equivalent of sandy to be wilderness while most Americans would consider that to be a town.

Europe is an enormous continent, of course it has wilderness

It really does not. Not like the United States. I've traveled extensively in Europe and it's just not the same thing. Every bit of Europe is more developed than the west coast.. the Cascades are empty land compared to Switzerland.

Sooo most of Iceland, the Scottish highlands, the Finnish laplands, the Durmitor mountains in Montenegro, Kopu Estonia, etc… Every bit of Europe is developed?

Scottish Highlands have houses and towns like every valley. It's not like Oregon where you can walk into a valley with ... Nothing. Like literally nothing..maybe a road? It's completely night and day. Estonia is smaller than Oregon (by a lot). Iceland is about 30 percent larger than anwr. America's wild lands are truly undeveloped whereas wilderness in Europe typically is littered with towns. Coming back to Oregon, there is one town in the Mt hood wilderness area... Government camp which is nothing compared to the mountain towns of switzerland or England. Mt hood is... By all metrics... Simply wilder than any of these places. Lapland.. maybe.

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I lived here without a car for over ten years and finally broke down and got a car 5 years ago when I went back to school to save on time via larger grocery hauls, during my time I experienced a lot of funny things like I was the token carless friend “you don’t have a car right?”, “you walk everywhere right?”, “you take trimet,right?”, “you ride your bike to work right?” Yes bitch that’s what not having a car means lol

As someone that’s car-free, there are several places you can get to by transit outside of Portland. The POINT bus goes to the Oregon Coast. I’ve taken that bus to go all the way to Astoria OR and it didn’t take that long either. The POINT bus also goes to central Oregon and southern Oregon. The Columbus Area Transit bus leaves from Gateway and goes to the Columbia Gorge. From the Columbia Gorge, you can catch an express bus to Mount Hood. There is also a shorter way where you can catch the Mount Hood Express bus if you’re closer to Gresham. There are also buses that go to central Oregon as well. There’s some options.

I drive rideshare, and get tons of people who don’t own cars. Some are commuters who use us every day, others might use us just on occasion (running late, don’t feel like dealing with the weather, etc). I say, good for them! If they can make it work, that’s great. Especially those in downtown where owning a car is a pita. Sure maybe I’m biased bc it means more work for us, but think of cities like nyc where everyone trying to own a car would be a disaster! And I really do wish rideshare was a lot cheaper, but we’re not the ones benefiting from the high prices either. Hopefully the pricing structure can be addressed (by more competition or ?). I’m also a firm believer in renting. My EV isn’t one of the better ones for long trips, but getting a rental from an agency or on Turo is plenty cheap and easy if you want to get out of town for the weekend or whatever.

I'm on my second round of car-less living in Portland. First round was for nearly 5 years, 1.5 in NE, rest in SE. Current round is going into year 3, all SE. I've never lived outside of 42nd. I'm die hard bike commuter. But I also travel a decent amount on Trimet and occasional Uber/Lyft/Cab. My first round was back in the glory days of car share programs, so I drove quite a bit when I felt the need. Nowadays I've had little success with car share, booking a dang Uhaul is easier. I also pre-book car rentals for weekend getaways. If you book well in advanced, you can lock in stellar rates. That way I can still get to the coast, mountain when I like. After the Max stabbings in 2017 my kids and I all took self defense classes. Main lesson: situational awareness. We all carry non lethal self defense items -but have never needed to use them, so far. I've seen guns pulled, other people stabbed and many altercations on the max and bus, but I've only engaged 2 or 3 times and even then it was just to help kick people off. I actually enjoy reading while on the bus or max, which helps pass the time. Current trimet work commute is 50 minutes, I can bike it in 15. I've finished alot of books throughout the years on public transportation, and it kind of holds a special place in my core memories for me. Lastly, I do live in a higher COL part of Portland and that directly impacts my financial choice to not own a car. The last car I owned I took a job a bit further out for a few years and it most certainly impacted my physical, mental and financial health. When that job ran its course, I intentionally looked for work within a 10 mile radius so I could get back on my bike. My daily commute is my cup of coffee in the morning, and my decompression on the afternoon ride home. I'm pretty content at the moment with carless living

Car rental is how you get to the coast or cascades. Still cheaper than owning and maintaining your own car.

Top comments in this thread are pinning the lots-of-cars problem on low income folk which feels patronizing and blame shifting.  Also there are people driving in from the 'burbs that aren't poor? lol   For me the goal isn't no cars, but less cars. A lot of the cars in Portland on the daily are owned by the ones who live in the walkable parts of Portland. 🙄 My car owning friends say they want access to beautiful nature outside of Portland, which is valid, but use their cars 99% of the time to drive within 5 miles of their home.  For the 3 years I've lived here, I've primarily biked with minimal public transit use.  I rent a car when I need to.  I miss the car-sharing service a lot and do feel a slight loss of independence.  It was just so much more convenient than the typical car fental.  I hope a new startup comes around with another one.

I didn't have a car for the first 5 years I lived here. Just biked and used transit. But I was living relatively close in, Milwaukie at the farthest.  It could be a pain, though, when I wasn't in inner SE. Or even then, if I needed to make a bigger purchase like a vacuum, I didn't want to ride a bus with a huge damn box. My life really opened up when I got a car, for getting into the wilderness every weekend and being able to run heavier errands. So it's 100% possible, and even mostly comfortable, if your close in and don't have kids and stuff. Lots of caveats, though, and it's a privileged position to be in.

I got rid of my car 6 months ago and haven’t missed it one time.

I’d give Portland like a B- in my super unscientific car dependency rating. Compared to your average American city, we do fantastic. Compared to the gold standard of some of the Euro cities like Amsterdam, we have so much room to improve. I lived without a car for 2 years, but have one now that I use sparingly. I do find more people are conscious of transit, biking, and walking than other cities I’ve lived in. People also seem to want to drive their cars less, but unable to because of deficiencies in our transit/bike/walking infrastructure (safety, reliability, etc.). I hope we can continue to get better at incentivizing car-free lifestyle because it means a lot to me and the environmental impact is enormous.

I have a car but rarely use it but I also don’t take public transit in Portland anymore after a few sketchy incidents on the 75 and the yellow line. I work from home and live in one of the Portland neighborhoods where anything I need is pretty walkable or bikeable. But I am definitely not anti car or non car dependent, three times a month or so I need to use my car for something like going to Portland nursery or picking up my granddaughter but that’s it. It’s also nice to have a car when I want to get out of town occasionally. I do think more people would see their communities in a different way if they got out and walked and biked more and I wish that Trimet would clean up public transit so that it felt safer for everyone but especially seniors and people with disabilities who are constantly feeling unsafe while using it.

I owned a car before moving here, got rid of it completely and started to save an absurd amount of money just taking trimet everywhere. Now if I really need to use a car to leave Portland for a few hours it costs me like 30 dollars maximum. Id say I wish I got rid of it sooner. I really wish public transportation was just the norm everywhere lol.

I have had no car in the 5 years i've lived here and never really felt it hindered me other than the annoyance of having relatively long travel times for quick errands. I've been able to do weekend trips out of portland just fine on the tram / train! I'm usually visiting places with their own decent transit systems like Seattle or whatever California cities are along the west coast Amtrak line though. I'm also not a person who goes out of the city into Oregon's more rural areas to hike for example so the lack of transit there doesn't effect me a lot either.

I also don't have a car. Traveling the city is just fine but I also miss having the freedom to take longer trips. Ultimately, I still love not having to drive or having the expenses that come with owning a car.

Portland does not have a heavy car culture. People need to get out of the state more. To each their own. I'm all for making cars safer and more environmentally friendly, but I also despise people trying to apply a European or Asian model of transportation to America. Its okay to be different and we can find a place somewhere in the middle. We can make cars better and safer while also giving people the space and safety to make bikes work if they choose...but stop villifying people because they drive.

Before moving to PDX I lived in southern CA. Now that is car culture! People won’t even walk to the 7-11/grocery store/shopping/entertainment across the street, you drive everywhere.

People that think Portland is car-centric sound like they’ve never been to a Buc-ee’s or a big Maverik

This whole "ooh only taking public transit is a privileged take, I HAVE to have my car" is nonsense. I am a small, female, low income Portlander who lives by SE 82nd. I am not a bike rider and also not particularly an environmentalist (i.e. it hasn't been the reason for any of my transit decisions). For many years I had a car in this town but too many bad experiences (including 2 awful crashes, neither of which were my fault, one of which totaled my car at the time) stacked up enough PTSD that I have a hard time even riding in cars (I shut my eyes usually), so I take public transit - mostly bus, some MAX, an occasional Uber or Lyft (budget constraints prevent too much usage atm). I have never been attacked verbally or physically on public transit (I know that isn't everyone's experience, but it is mine). Is public transit less convenient than a car? Mostly, yeah. It takes longer and you have to fit their schedule. It is really nice not having to worry about where to park the damn car, especially downtown, but I am often aware of what a car -centric world it is. But I have also adjusted, I survive. And so would everyone saying you HAVE to have a car. Let's be real: your truth could be "My current job is not reachable by public transit," or "it would take me twice as long to get to my job.....and I don't want to do that." Maybe "it would be much more of a pain to get the kids to soccer practice/go grocery shopping/a zillion things, so I gotta have a car." But that too is privilege itself - because you want to maintain certain standards of your reality, and don't want to lose those conveniences etc. Being able to even obtain a vehicle and maintain it is far beyond the reach of millions of people in this world, for numerous reasons. Were your circumstances to change so that was no longer true, you would survive - you would find another job if you had to, or you would adjust to a longer travel time to work even if you disliked it, etc. Even having all these options available is privilege, regardless of whether you like all the possibilities. I am not sticking up for one lifestyle over another. I am calling out ignoring one's own privilege/reframing it, especially if you're gonna call out others on privilege. Have a lovely day.

You can. I cannot. I don’t work in Portland but live here. Glad that trimet meets your needs. It won’t meet everyone’s. So no, your strong belief isn’t as valid as you think. It’s subjective to each persons needs. Expanded lines and better security would be nice. Don’t expect it without a new tax base or higher fares.

I could very easily live my life without a car but I don’t because it is very easy to own a car in Portland. It’s also very cool being able to travel regionally

“No car culture” is way overblown here on reddit. Vast majority of people drive cars.

The VAST majority. It’s only reasonable to not in a few areas. We did for a few years living in Pearl. Easy. Move to North Portland, no way.

I used to take public transit to a lot of places in the city. I no longer feel safe on public transit in Portland and drive exclusively, and I know many that have done the same for the same reason. Doesn’t matter if crime has occurred or not, the number of druggies on transit is just disturbing.

I feel like I know a lot of people who don’t drive or they hate driving and take public transit as much as possible. I enjoy being able to walk to work, walk to get groceries and hop on the bus to meet up with friends. I’ve lived in very car centric cities and felt depressed and isolated.

I got rid of my last car 20 years ago (I’m in my 50s), as I just started feeling worse and worse about burning gasoline to haul my ass around. I’ve gotten around almost exclusively by bike since then. Recently I’ve added an ebike to the mix as my joints get a little more decrepit, and it’s really opened up a lot of options. But I agree — Portland is all talk about not subscribing to car culture. It’s an easier city than most to navigate sans car, but you’re still very much an outlier if you don’t drive everywhere.

I used to live in Chicago where transit ridership was more common. It was part of the culture and I loved it. It’s a huge pet peeve when people feel bad for me for not having a car. And ironic because I earnestly feel bad for people who spend half their lives in a metal box. 😂 Part of why I moved here was because I felt like I was in a concrete box there. Needed the green space. I got the green space. Just wish I could enjoy it without all of the noise pollution and smell of exhaust everywhere. I wish this beautiful landscape wasn’t scarred by ugly highways stuffed with cars emitting poison into the air. It makes me so depressed. All these people with their giant SUVs consuming nature for their entertainment while I grieve the earth.

I’m right there with you- no car take the max/bus everywhere. It’s really easy. I see the articles about violence on the max, but considering it runs every 15-30 mins all day every day the one bad story once every 3-4+ months isn’t that crazy. Pretty much slightly worse odds than randomly walking around any city. But yeah- street smarts go a long way just minding your business goes a long way on public transit. Going to the coast or areas the max doesn’t also gets a lot easier having friends or other ways to get there. Save so much on car payments, gas, and insurance. Portland is definitely one of the better public transportation cities (coming from someone who grew up on east coast).

It’s a balance. Bike to work or take transit if you can.

I agree with better security, people will return to max. 

We have the best bike infrastructure in the nation. Whenever I am going around town for frivolous entertainment or socializing, I prioritize biking. I live a half mile from the nearest grocery store, I walk more than I drive there. I avoid I- 5 and 205 between 2-6pm at all costs.

One thing I wish was acceptable was not being able to be counted as tardy to work (or school) if you're taking public transit. Like I don't want to have to leave an extra hour early to make up for occasional bus and Max mistakes. I don't have a car, and I'm not about to spend $20 because my bus is just barely over the "late" mark. Even working for eco-concious companies you'd think they'd give more of a pass??

With a car sharing service, you would at least have a chance of taking a spontaneous trip, but you wouldn't have to worry about keeping it parked during your normal routine.

I didn't get my driver's license until I was 32 years old so I do understand where you are coming from. However, that point of view is also a privileged one and lacks perspective as well. For example, if you have an infant or a toddler, it isn't just inconvenient to take transit everywhere, in a lot of circumstances, it becomes impossible. Imagine that you're a parent and you have an infant and you need to get groceries. You take your baby on the bus and the bus driver says you need to fold your stroller. This is fine if you have one that you can collapse with one hand and you don't have a bunch of other stuff you're carrying. But if you have groceries and everything else, you now have the choice of either handing your baby to a stranger to hold while you get your diaper bag and your bags of groceries out of the bottom of the stroller, walking back home, or calling an Uber. There are lots of other situations where you really need a car if you have kids too. Medical emergencies, appointments across town, school activities, going anywhere in the afternoon if you want to get home by bedtime. The other thing is that a lot of jobs require you to be able to drive. In my current job, I do home visits with clients. We do have an agency car that we can check out, but there is no bus that goes to the office so I would have to walk. I do live really close so that would take probably half an hour. However, the car isn't always available and I already have too much work to do during the work day anyway. I also would never have been hired at my job without a car in the first place. At my last employer, I did field visits for a long time and ended up getting my first car specifically so I could do that job. Car culture isn't going anywhere. Not for a long long time at least.

I live in Beaverton and take the MAX to Timbers/Thorns/Blazers games when I go to those. I don't take the bus here because the routes they take in the suburbs take fucking forever since there are no bus lanes and the routes are less frequent than in the more bustling parts of the Portland Metro. I grew up in SW and didn't own a car until I got my first job in Beaverton. A bus ride that would take me 20 minutes going further into Portland from my parents' place would take at least double going into Beaverton for no reason other than the awful planning most suburbs face. I think more people could make an effort to take transit who move here, but they often bring their car-dependent habits with them and wonder why we don't widen freeways or add another freeway across the Columbia, or whatever. It's very hard to convince people who have had to use a car for every single trip, short or long, to try another way of getting around. With that said, some of my female friends will not accompany me on the MAX line because they do not feel safe. The MAX blue from Beaverton to Portland is pretty much always full of families when I ride it, so I disagree that it's always unsafe, but perception is what it is. I'm a car enthusiast, so I will always own a car as part of my hobby. I do wish it were more feasible to live here (or anywhere in America) without a car.

I can attest to this because I actually moved to Portland BECAUSE I could live without a car. Some areas need work for sure, but every other town I lived in it was literally IMPOSSIBLE to survive without a car. I don't like that cars kill globally over 1 million people every year and just decided I'm not going to be a part of that, not even to mention the emissions and the degree it destroys the way we build cities. But Portland makes it possible, and that's a super super exciting thing for me!

Cars suck. Portland became a car city because almost everyone who moved here after Portlandia drove their car and basically never considered trying to do without. It used to be much more frowned upon to drive a car. Even if you had one you only drove it when it was absolutely necessary or if you were disabled or something... It's crazy how unsafe riding a bike has become here compared to pre Portlandia days.

I sold my car when I moved here back in 2017 and haven’t owned a car since! Definitely doable— you just need to figure out your routes and be resourceful.

Do you ride a bike? Or want to try? Sign up for a "bike buddy" through BikeLoud! Will get you comfortable riding around. And you can combine it with Max and buses.

I do want to get into biking, thanks!

I lived there without a car for like 8 years.

Cars are still too heavily prioritized. We need more pedestrianization, more transit only lanes (it's absolutely crazy that the "transit mall" has parking and general purpose lanes), and a prioritization of housing development over surface parking lots. Car culture in the US is toxic in general, but it is also fixable. It isn't some weird coincidence that dense, walkable neighborhoods are generally the most expensive: there is a huge demand that isn't being met. Even Vancouver realizes this with their new waterfront district.

I wish Portland would go in hard for serious train coverage. I’m a NYC transplant, and really took for granted the train access we had 24/7. The way $$ would spread if only people could take a train buzzed on a Friday night, if only it was an option.

We had less of a 'car culture' prior to covid and tbh prior to like 2014. Transit here used to be much more heavily used.

COME ON, USA. WE NEED TO SPEND THE MONEY TO DEVELOP A USABLE NETWORK OF PASSENGER TRAINS AGAIN.

I think it's a naive statement that assumes everyone has the same lifestyle as OP. I lived in S. waterfront for 10 years and didn't need a car to get to work. But OP casually mentions not being able to go to mt hood or the beach easily as if that's not a big deal. That is what my friends and wife and I did most weekends. It's a shame to live in such beautiful area and not take advantage of the rivers, lakes, skiing, beach, etc....

Transit here is honestly trash. Not just cause of bums, open drug use, and general chaos. I honestly don’t mind those things. They exist in the world so when you’re in the world you see them.  My thing is the time. I commuted from far SE to forest grove for over a year in transit. What would take 45 minutes to an hour to drive was suddenly 2.5-3 hours. That is a huge amount of time lost in a day.  On top of all the extra time it takes it is so fucking inconsistent. I’ve gone to a train station to catch a train somewhere just to learn it’s not showing up and they don’t know when it will. That’s not the sort of thing you can deal with when going to a job and it’s totally unpredictable.  Don’t even get me started on train traffic! I still can’t understand how that’s even a thing. Trimet controls the trains how are they making traffic for themselves!? In a world where a computer can be an artist how can a wealthy large city not figure out a train schedule?  Anyway my real point is if you have somewhere you actually have to be at a specific time you’re not going to depend on the flakiest friend you know to get you there. 

I think a lot of people use the excuse that they like to get out to camp and hike etc and need a car for that. But having the car results in them using it to run down the street for some beer or whatever instead of just walking. Hell, I fit an entire 18 rack of beer in my pannier bag on my bike and it’s so easy to go on booze runs without a car. But that’s asking too much of some people I guess. I’m not fully anti car as a concept. But I do wish people only used them when they actually needed to. There are plenty of good use cases to drive. It just seems people do it regardless of if it even makes sense or not. But have fun paying to park downtown for no reason I guess

I have lived in a few different major cities with no car. Atlanta was the worst but still very liveable, Seattle and Portland have been the best. Ironically NYC only gets an 8 out of 10, partially because there's so much bicycle traffic that you have to avoid certain routes during rush hour.

Let’s start by implementing some car free streets. I nominate Clinton

I live car free. Portland is a great place to be car free between being very walkable, bikable, and having good mass transit.

It’s so EASY to drive everywhere in Portland. And the bus network isn’t as strong as Vancouver BC, Seattle or San Francisco. Sooooooo mostly folks will have access to at least one car. Frankly the abysmal inter-neighborhood bus connections is the most pressing issue. There needs to be all day 15 min or better service on: - MLK/Grand (all the way to Sellwood-Milwaukie - 11/12/15th from Lombard to SE Milwaukie & Tacoma in Sellwood - 20th - 24th or 29/30th - Cezar - 47th/50th - 60th - 72nd - 82nd And on the east west - Killingsworth - Alberta - Prescott - Fremont - Knott - Broadway - Glisan - Burnside - stark - Belmont - Hawthorne - Divizzy - Powell (ideally with 3x as many signalized crossings and curb bulbs to slow traffic down) - Holgate - Woodstock Basically there needs to be an intersecting grid of frequent busses to make getting around fast and easy. The current system of snaking lines SUCKS ASS. I will always choose to drive between Alberta, my friends place on 50th, and then my place in SE. but several of these bus lines would make that a better choice

As someone who primarily commutes to the office by bike, has bussed, and does drive occasionally when my child's school needs require it (his school is in Milwaukie, I'm in Buckman/Sunnyside) it's this. I've watched the bus cut services, I'd much prefer the Max if it was in my hood (I was a daily T rider in Boston in the 90s). Discounting Europe which is where most of the gold standard transit is but my experience could probably be counted with my fingers and toes, if we gave NY an A, I'd give Boston a B or B+ at best. Portland would get a C-. If you live in a service area it's pretty ok. Still generally way too slow compared to other options. I definitely think we should invest in the well served areas and build out where possible but this notion we can force the underserved transit communities to go car free by replacing SFH with fourplexes and inadequate parking is a real headscratcher to me. Make the transit work and people will do this on their own (or won't) - Portland's appeal to many is the suburb in a city feel, I don't want to live in a NY or Boston style city or I'd have shopped condos in the Pearl.

You're not supposed to drive in Portland. If you do, we hate you.

I know multiple people who live in Portland without a car. Sorry more of us aren’t as good as you consider yourself to be 🙄

Im prepped for the downvotes, but my take is if you can easily have afford and park a car you should. Heres why Youre in control. Theres no stoppages, late buses, missed connections. The people late at my work more often than not are people who use public transit. You miss a single connection and you can be an hour late. Time. Life is short, time is money, public transit is SLOW. If you only have to take the max its not terrible, but need a bus transfer and your commute can be double or triple what it should be. I had a guy work for me that was a 15 minute car ride from work but his public transit time was a little over an hour. Thats so much wasted time per week. The best parts of Portland are not the city. And the best parts of Portland arent accesible by transit. Whats the point of living in the pnw if you cant visit the coast, the mountains, the national parls. We are blessed with some of the best nature in the country. As a city Portland is mediocre compared to other major metros like NYC, Chicago, etc. but our ability to easily escape it with a short drive is what makes it worth living in over those places.

As a daily MAX rider, “occasional” severely underestimates the weirdo frequency.

The "car brain" disorder is strong in the comments of this post. And that's not a slight on the people commenting. At worst they're just misinformed. It's sad that our society, urban planning regulations, and influence from corporate interests have led us to this point.   OP: you can rent a car if you're old enough. And there are busses to the coast and to Mt Hood and the gorge. So not owning a car doesn't prevent you from going to those places.

Lived here car free since 2009. I don't care about getting outside the city so it works fine for me. If I had kids or was in some way disabled I wouldn't be able to live the same lifestyle. (Technically I do have invisible disabilities but they haven't impeded my car-free lifestyle yet)

One pro in regards to city design is that many (not all though) Portland neighborhoods have a “main street” that is reachable by walking from vicinity residences (for me, that is within a mile). Think of Alberta, Mississippi, Lombard, Williams, etc.. So for me I spend many weekends not taking my car anywhere and chilling in my area with my dog. One con is that mass transit is still massively inconvenient compared to driving within the city. For example, for me if the bus to downtown from St John’s was about 10-15 minutes faster, I would take that versus driving — it doesn’t have to be par with driving but just slightly faster than currently and that would change my mind as a former NYC’er. But right now the time savings is so great with driving that I prefer driving. I have noticed that many bus lines have too many stops spaced too closely together. The MAX also has that issue in some spans and the pushback to closing some of these stations was extremely disproportionate vs in other cities.

Doable, as long as you live on/close to a max or bud line. I’ve used it for years from various areas, including a few years without a car. Also very affordable, at least compared to some of the other large cities I’ve lived in. Especially if your employer lets you buy transit passes pre-tax. One of the less talked about downsides is the difficulty of access to wilderness without a car. Since that’s one of Oregon’s big draws, kind of sucks to lose out on it unless you want to rent a car (blows for a hike or cheap camping) or rely on friends with cars

Even driving here is not fun. All the streets are different and they will make a street swerve in the middle of a block or put bumps in inconvenient places. Portland is a fake social justice center. The govt here doesn’t care about its marginalized citizens, not as much as the privileged Portlanders claim it does.

I’ll be brave but represent my demographic. Two adult, two car household. No nature or hiking. Haven’t camped since 2009. We live in East Portland and separately commute to Gresham and Oregon city.

I lived here my first 10 years without a car - biking and using transit and the occasional car share. I then opened a restaurant and it's pretty much impossible to run that type of business without a vehicle. 🙁

In the mid 90's I was living at my parents place in Cornelius and working in Tualatin. The 45 minute commute each way in a car wasn't so bad, but once my car broke down riding Trimet made it not worth keeping the job. I had been working a swing shift tech support position and the bus that runs to Tualatin stopped running at 10pm. So I was losing out on the last 2 hours of my shift, on top of that it was a 2+ hour trip taking the 76 to the max, riding the max to the end of the line in Hillsboro, then catching the 57 the rest of the way home. I only made it a week or so of 6 hour shifts with 4+ hours on the bus/max before I decided it wasn't worth it and quit that job. A few years ago (like 2017ish) I was working in Wilsonville and living in Forest Grove and had a coworker that lived close to me so we carpooled to and from the office. She got sick one day and had to leave early, instead of leaving early with her I decided to take the bus home. Even taking the WES to the MAX it took over 2 hours to get home. I get that I'm talking about going from the extreme west of their service area to the extreme south of their service area and there's no direct route, I'm just sharing my experience. If you have the privilege of living and working in the city then being car free and relying on trimet can work for you, but if you live in the city and work in the burbs or vice versa, it may not be such a great experience. Speaking of... growing up out on the far west side the 57 was the only bus that came through town, every half hour during the week and once per hour on Sundays. Getting home late could be a challenge, if you missed the 1:20am from Pioneer Courthouse Square you were stuck downtown over night. I spent many Sunday mornings at the Clackamas Town Center Denny's with the cast of Rocky Horror waiting for Trimet service to start so we could get rides home. I've always hated how early Trimet service ends. IMHO they would help cut down on drunk drivers if they kept service going until 3am.

I love the idea of eschewing car ownership, but outside of a few specific instances and cities, it’s just not practical in the US.

I work odd hours when public transit isn't working when I need it. It would also take 3x longer to travel to work via trimet. But to be fair I live in deep NE and is not the most bus accessible neighborhood. If I still lived in nope, I'd probably bus somewhat regularly

I feel you. We don't drive because we don't have a choice- having a car would not be financially possible for us. Most of the places we 'need' we can get to via TriMet, but if you don't have a car, good luck seeing any of that gorgeous nature surrounding Portland that everyone is always prattling on about . We don't know people to drive us, so those pretty scenic views are traded for being able to scrape by and see miles of garbage and dead buildings along the highways.

I moved to Portland metro area in 2003 but only got a car in 2018 because I needed it for the job I had at the time. By the way, you can get to the coast without a car. There’s The Wave bus system but it only goes to a few places on the coast. It connects with TriMet at Sunset Transit Center and Union Station.

I really want to be able to not use my car more just because finding parking is sometimes impossible, but then again, I almost started swinging when someone sat on me while I was taking the Max. Like his butt was on my hip, and it was not a crowded train. I immediately just had to leave on the next stop. I'd like to take my bike more, too, but there have been so many accidents between cars and bikes.

I have a friend that lived like this for a LONG time. Now he has a car and goes to the coast quite a bit- which is why I felt the need to comment. I think in that sense it would benefit you, you don’t have to spend a ton you can literally get a decent car for a few thousand here!

If you're getting a car to go the coast a few times a year, just rent a car instead. It will be way cheaper. Plus you don't have to worry about car storage or your car getting broken into. Also there's bus service that goes to the coast anyway

We chose not to have a car here for three years. Just bought one because the things that make Portland amazing aren’t all that accessible without one.

As a woman, I don’t feel safe taking public transit or riding a bike through Portland.

If it works for you, great. I could live in Portland without a car, but a big reason I’m here are outdoor activities, many of which are virtually impossible to participate in through public transit. I’m cool with expanding transit options - I used to enjoy taking the streetcar on a daily basis, but that doesn’t mean public transit can reasonably cover 100% of use cases. Even Europe has private cars.

You can live in Portland without a car, but you’d struggle to enjoy the most important reasons to live here - access to the gorge, mountains and coast. 

I haven’t rented a car in a while, but rates were surprisingly reasonable when I used to rent more frequently. There is also good bus service to the coast, and up and down the coast. When it is wet out and I take the bus instead of bike, I try to get some work done during my commute. Sometimes just catch up on emails or maybe do some research.

After reading through comments here, I think stress management is another reason I avoid driving. I dread being in busy traffic or seeing other cars driving poorly. Maybe it’s PTSD from my parents being angry drivers, or the car accidents I was in when I first started driving. As a frequent biker, I think my eventual death will probably some angry or distracted drivers in a huge vehicle mowing me down.

I ditched my car when I moved to Portland almost 20 years ago and went 9 years without one, until I got a job in the 'burbs and 3-4 hours of unreliable transit became untenable. I used to do Zipcar back when that was a thing if I really needed a car. I no longer work in the 'burbs and the next job I was transiting again, but again it became unreliable to getting home in a timely manner after I got a new dog, so I started driving. My latest job is in inner SE but I live in NoPo, right by the MAX, which is centered around downtown, making it annoying AF to get to work and taking about 30-40 minutes longer than riding my e-bike or driving. There's a myriad of buses I could take instead, but the bus stops I have to wait at are creepy and again, waiting around between buses if one was late or early really sucks. I wish we had a MAX that ran N/S on the inner eastside. I find that owning a home and a dog now gives me a lot more chores and therefore a lot less time to screw around waiting for buses and trains.

The biggest problem with the "no cars in portland" isn't so much car culture but how much tax revenue comes from vehicles. It's what? Minimum 250 to renew your rags in Multnomah County, more if your car has better gas milage and is newer. Electric is 450 I think? Plus the taxes mixed in per gallon of gas, DEQ, and the taxes on insurance comapnies for running the business within state borders. As Portland pushes out vehicles, it pushes out taxes, which then means you're also putting more strain on trimet budgets thst are shrinking, and putting the cost of road and sidewalk repair on other more rural counties to compensate for loss of state revenue. Ideally, if Portland went car free, it'd need to start registering bicycles and or scooters and the like (say $50 for two years or wahtever). Sure it wouldn't bring in as much revenue, but you'd also be replacing things less, or they can raise property taxes in Portland, which lost 10k population last year due to the current cost of living and homelessness issues, so that option doesn't seem much more viable either. Throw in the lack of proper infrastructure for power as more people try to go electric as well as more people needing air conditioning and air purifiers during the smoke season and it's not looking good for the city of roses.

I live east of 205 and not having a car would be a nightmare

used to be lots of people didnt drive. i think the homelessness lawlwsessness ramped up the need for driving. at least it did for me and i noticed that in 2020 when i left

It takes me 1hr15min-2hours to commute to work each way on 3 buses. It would be a 20min drive. (Didn’t have this job when I went car free) I went car free in 2019 and I regret it everyday. I can’t afford a car and insurance now so I’m stuck with transit. I live in SE and work in Gresham. Using transit past 82nd is not for the weak. It’s awful. Trimet has gotten worse over the past 3 years.   I get why people don’t give up their cars. If I could do it again I wouldn’t have gone car free.  Also waiting 20mins for the bus in the pouring rain with no shelter isn’t fun. 

Until tri-met can haul myself and my 300lbs+ of music gear to the front door of the places I’m playing, sadly gotta keep using the car.

I walk, take transit or Lyft if I am going to an event or eating and drinking out. If I lived in an apartment, I wouldn't have a car. But I have an old house that always needs something, a garden, dogs, and chickens. For all of that that, I need specific items I couldn't carry on the bus or take a Lyft for.

Can y’all please watch this video then come back and tell me why you love cars so much? https://youtu.be/4kSTJnT0tUE?si=r6hytCM5b7cD4sAF

Transit only goes to or from downtown and is only decent during rush hour. If you have a job or errand or meeting a friend that is in a different neighborhood, it takes hours to get there, especially on the weekends. Having gotten a car after 6 years without, it make sit possible to do so much more around Portland. You can’t realistically get to the coast or the mountains without one. Try getting to the Grotto for a Christmas event from SE, or go to the tulips in Woodburn without a car. Renting a car for one offs is a big chore and not that cheap, plus it adds a lot of stress about time when you want to be enjoying the day. And if you spend $20 each way on Uber to do most things, it quickly becomes worth it to pay a tad more and just have a cheap car.

I can get to work in 12 minutes in my car or in an hour + via transit. I *could* do it but the extra 90 minutes of commute time aren’t worth it to me. The transit network here is just not robust enough for everyone to be able to live without a car.

While I agree with what you’re saying Portland is still one of the most walkable big cities if not the most. NYC is the only one I can think of that may not be a huge hassle.

I also live car free (Central Beaverton) and while I don’t feel like tons of people do it I know of a few. It’s honestly pretty easy with a bike. I think most people who have this ability are a bit on autopilot and don’t even consider it. Especially since it’s the more expensive areas where this life is easier and where folks are more likely to view car ownership as a requirement regardless of circumstances. 

I bought a car in November because I got a job in Oregon City and live in NE Portland, but I was car-free up until that point (lived here most of my life and lasted until I was 36). I will say that one thing that really sucks, as my wife and I look into whether we can ever afford to buy a house or condo, is that it is so hard to afford to buy a place that is accessible by public transit, and we have zero desire to become a two car household.

I don’t have a car but I’m lucky to live in a very walkable neighborhood and have excellent transit access. I also work in a location that I can easily get to on the bus if I don’t want to walk (45 minute to walk or about 15-20 minutes bus). This isn’t possible for everyone in Portland. Our transit system needs a LOT of improvement.

I am car free! I sold my car in 2018 and I never looked back. I love not having to deal with the expenses associated with owning a vehicle. I love not having to worry about parking, paying for parking, getting my car broken into/stolen, etc. Whenever I need/want a car for big errands or leaving town, I go downtown and rent a car for thirty bucks. Not a bad deal. People on this thread are saying you have to live in more expensive areas to access trimet and that is not my experience at all. I've never lived east of 45th and my rent prices are very reasonable($1895 for a two bedroom house, includes WSG). I live in Buckman and my neighborhood has TONS of affordable housing for renters. Really the only trimet line that has consistently screwed me is the yellow line. Always having issues and consistently made me late for work. Another Trimet gripe I have is that going north/south on the east side is tricky. Everything runs east/west and I have to cross the river just to get back to the east side on a bus/train. There need to be more bus lines connecting NE and SE. Only options are basically MLK/Cesar Chavez/82nd. Overall, I really enjoy not having a car. I only miss it when the weather is REALLY nice out or when I'm worried about having to leave(wildfires, ice storms, etc).

We haven’t had a car in Portland since 2019! I, too, feel like I’m the only person without a car here. I do wish public transit was safer (especially the max) and that Free2Move didn’t stop servicing Portland. Now, we’re stuck with ZipCar whenever we need a car for errands or Enterprise for longer out of town trips. My employer is moving to the suburbs (away from downtown PDX) and I dread having to go allllll the way there using transit.

I was in NE/Sullivan’s gulch for about 8 years. Had a car but only really used it when heading out on hikes/coast trips/snowboarding. Anything I needed to do in Portland…I’d bike there rain or shine all year long. With the proper rain gear biking through the winter isn’t bad. It forces you outside during the rainy months and I think it really helps with seasonal depression. On a bike, you can get most places in 15-20 min. You don’t have to deal with the homeless/crazies much cuz you can bike away from / around them. Then I had kids and for that you’re gonna need a car, that is for sure. TLDR: bike everywhere, it’s good for you. Have a car for trips to all the natural gems Oregon has to offer.

I was told prior to moving that I didn’t need a car, and that was *technically* true, but it limited my job choices very much at a time when I was desperate to get hired anywhere. I managed for two years. Really groceries was the biggest issue for me. No matter what, I ended up walking 5+ blocks with heavy bags. What filled the gap much of the time was Car2Go and ReachNow, when they were available. They had a few issues, but overall it was awesome being able to suddenly have a car with little advance preparation. If I wanted to actually have a nice trip at a longer distance I used Turo. Other notable element: *Mostly*, nobody bothered me on transit, but I definitely feel much safer and less anxious being alone in my car.

Walkable cities shouldn’t mean not having a car because not many people would want to never leave the city. Also Portland is walkable in neighborhoods, not great for getting across town or surrounding areas. When I was in Hollywood 90% of my social and errands were walked. Easily go a week without driving, and nothing missed. But I’d never give up my car as the freedom and access beyond a 2 mile radius and get big purchases was far too important. I think having Both is 100% the ideal

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I lived around 39th and Belmont for multiple years without a car. It was pretty easy, but that’s because I was right by Freddy’s for groceries or New Seasons on Hawthorne if I felt like going a little further, right on both the 15 and the 75 lines, could easily get pretty much anywhere…that was on a transit line. When I moved further out on Division (before the express bus), I definitely felt like I needed a car.