Portland, OR

Level: platinum
Population: 647,805
Population Density: 4,740 / sq. mi.
Pedestrian Plan
Program Website
Contact: Michelle Marx
503-823-4589
michelle.marx@portlandoregon.gov

Portland is a Platinum-level Walk Friendly Community in recognition of their excellent plans and policies, engineering practices, and community-driven approaches to improving conditions for walking.

  • Portland’s “Strategy for People Movement” prioritizes pedestrians over other modes when making decisions about their transportation system. This policy is housed within the city’s 2035 Comprehensive Plan and is cross-referenced across city plans and clearly informs the city’s practices.
  • Portland adopted one of the country’s first Pedestrian Master Plans in 1998 and adopted its latest pedestrian plan, PedPDX, in June 2019. The new plan evaluates the current state of walking in Portland and establishes a clear vision for the future.
  • Portland’s transit agency, TriMet, also performed a Pedestrian Network Analysis on each of its 7,000 transit stops to determine the quality of the walking environment as it relates to transit.
  • PBOT recently updated its crosswalk striping specifications to require high-visibility markings at all intersections and identified all locations that do not meet new crosswalk spacing guidelines. These gaps will be filled via planned capital projects or the Pedestrian Network Completion program. The city has plans to include crosswalks at all transit stops moving forward and to study the elimination of turn-on-red in Pedestrian Districts and at intersections in the High Crash Network.
  • The city is committed to prioritizing investments on its busiest most dangerous streets. As part of Portland’s Vision Zero commitment, the city has identified the streets and intersections that are most dangerous for everyone.
  • Through the PedPDX Citywide Pedestrian Plan effort, Portland also identified a Pedestrian Priority Network after analyzing data related to safety, equity, and pedestrian demand.
  • Guiding the city’s decisions about modal tradeoffs in programs and projects is the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s (PBOT) Complete Streets Team, which is comprised of coordinators who specialize in walking, bicycling, transit, freight, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).