Skip to Main Content View Text-Only

The City of Portland, Oregon

Portland Bureau of Transportation

Phone: 503-823-5185

Fax: 503-823-7576

1120 SW Fifth Ave, Suite 1331, Portland, OR 97204

More Contact Info

Enhanced Transit Corridors Plan (ETC)

ETC header


The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) led a planning process in coordination with TriMet to develop the Enhanced Transit Corridors Plan. This plan will help identify where transit priority, streamlining, and access treatments could be most beneficial on the planned TriMet Frequent Service network within the City of Portland. Such improvements can help make transit more attractive and reliable for people to get to work, school, and to meet their daily needs, especially for people who depend upon transit.

Implementation efforts:

Rose Lane Project

FHWA experiment with red pavement markings in transit priority lanes

City Council unanimously adopted the Enhanced Transit Corridors Plan on June 20, 2018.

Thank you to everyone who provided testimony!

We received over 60 emails or letters in advance of the public hearing and 15 people testified in person during the hearing.

 

City Council held a Public Hearing on June 20, 2018 to:

 

 Cover page of the Executive Summary - picture of Portland looking at the Hawthorne Bridge and downtown.                               ETC Plan Cover

 ETC PLAN - EXECUTIVE SUMMARY                FINAL RECOMMENDED ETC PLAN

  


Bus driving in clear Pro-time (peak period only) Transit Lane next to lanes congested with vehicles

 Characteristics of Enhanced Transit…

  • Increased capacity, reliability and transit travel speed
  • Moderate capital and operational investments
  • Context sensitive
  • Deployed relatively quickly
  • Can include buses and streetcar

 

ETC Plan Goals:

  • Increase transit ridership and improve the experience for current riders.
  • Support planned growth in centers and along corridors consistent with the City’s 2035 Comprehensive Plan.
  • Define and identify “Enhanced Transit Corridors” in Portland.
  • Establish clear and objective operational performance measures and thresholds to define what success looks like for the most heavily used Frequent Service lines.
  • Guide the prioritization of capital and operational investments in Enhanced Transit Corridors.

Why this plan:

We need to do more to support transit in Portland.

  • Buses are a “work horse.” Some bus lines carry as many riders as MAX and Streetcar lines.
  • Data shows that buses are getting stuck in traffic and trips take longer.
  • New growth is happening in areas in need of better transit service and access.
  • However, ridership is not growing adequately to support growth and the City’s policy goals.
  • We have limited sources of revenue. We need to identify priorities on where to start.

 


Enhanced Transit Toolbox:

As a part of the of the Enhanced Transit Plan, our consultant team developed an Enhanced Transit Toolbox. This Toolbox is a collection of potential capital and operational treatments that can be applied to improve transit performance or create safer, more predictable interactions with other travel modes. Learn more about the tools in the Capital/Operational Toolbox Memo

ETC Transit Toolkit

 

Past Events

Learn more and view the materials online here.


Contact Information:

April Bertelsen, Senior Transportation Planner and Project Manager
Phone:503.823.6177
Email: ETCplan@portlandoregon.gov


Planning Process

This planning process is primarily focused on several bus lines that are part of the TriMet Frequent Service network.

Regional ETC Pilot Program: Portland Candidate Project Locations Submittal

Maps and List of Portland Candidate Project Locations for submitting to the Regional ETC Pilot Program

Vision Zero and Enhanced Transit Corridors

Presentation to City Council on July 13, 2017