Green city

Arriving in Portland and realising that the rail system had failed due to weather was really unexpected. This was not exactly a common thing as having the amount of rain arrive in such little time would affect many transport systems around the world. Once cleared, the max rail network was very punctual and served a great purpose to the city from the outer suburbs, which was very impressive.

Heading into Downtown, the streets were lined with stylings of brick paving and cobble stone stoned railway foundations. This was very unexpected as there has not been a lot of places around the world which had the downtown styling of streetscapes and buildings of as Portland had showed.

Many documents about skateboarding and the ease of access had been read before arriving. The roughness of the surfaces out of the downtown area would have proved difficult to traverse. With the amount of bicycle paths and access to bicycles (hiring), there is a great network of roadways, bike paths and active transport nodes in which the bicycle community can take. Also with the introduction of ‘B-Line’ the green bicycle logistics group, the eco-friendly approach to delivering items around the downtown and east side area shoes how Portland is changing from the air polluted city in the 1960’s to a large, all-inclusive green city. With light rail stations even powering lights and equipment with solar power and the light rail systems themselves obtaining power from the hydroelectric power station close by to Portland, showing that where energy can be ‘green’ then Portland is willing to try. 

Taxi services around Portland have even been changed to electric motor cars which improve the air pollution condition throughout the city, one taxi company has only veteran drivers as a source of employment. 

Noah Williams