The grid, in one minute
Every Portland address tells you where it is. The Willamette River splits east from west; Burnside Street splits north from south. So an address starts with NW, SW, NE or SE, and the numbered avenues count outward from the river (NE 15th is fifteen blocks east of it, SW 15th fifteen blocks west). North Portland is the peninsula north of Burnside and west of Williams Avenue; South Portland is the newer sextant below the west side's "SW" where the old numbering broke down; East Portland is the part of the east side past 82nd Avenue, annexed later and laid out on bigger blocks. The district map shows the seven on the City's own lines.
Downtown blocks are short, two hundred feet, which is why the center feels walkable and why addresses climb fast. House numbers run a hundred per block, so NE 1500 Alberta is near NE 15th.
The bridges
Twelve bridges cross the Willamette in the city. The ones you will use: the Burnside (the dividing line, straight into downtown), the Hawthorne (oldest, bikes and buses, lifts for river traffic), the Steel (MAX, trains, cars and a lower deck for bikes), the Broadway (Rose Quarter to the Pearl), the Morrison and the Fremont (I-405, the big arch), and Tilikum Crossing, the newest: trains, buses, bikes and people, no cars. On the Columbia only two bridges reach Vancouver: the I-5 Interstate Bridge, which lifts, and the I-205 Glenn Jackson, which does not.
TriMet: MAX, bus, streetcar
| Mode | Where it goes | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| MAX light rail, five lines | Blue: Hillsboro to Gresham through downtown. Red: Beaverton to the airport. Green: downtown to Clackamas. Yellow: downtown to the Expo Center through North Portland. Orange: downtown to Milwaukie over Tilikum Crossing. | Anything along the lines, the airport, the suburbs on the ends, snow days. |
| Bus, about eighty lines | The grid itself: the frequent lines run every fifteen minutes or better on the main streets (Division, Hawthorne, Belmont, Burnside, Sandy, Interstate, Barbur, Powell and more). | Crosstown trips on the east side, anywhere MAX does not reach. |
| Portland Streetcar, three loops | Downtown, the Pearl, Northwest, the Lloyd District, the Central Eastside, South Waterfront and OHSU. | Short hops around the center. It is slow; walk if it is under a mile. |
| Aerial Tram | South Waterfront up to OHSU on Marquam Hill. | The view, and the hospital. |
One fare covers all of it: tap a Hop card, a contactless bank card or a phone wallet on every boarding and the system charges a 2½-hour fare, caps it at a day pass, and caps the month. Cash works on buses only. Kids under a set age ride free with an adult; youth and honored-citizen fares are reduced. TriMet's trip planner and arrival times are at trimet.org and in the usual map apps.
Bikes and feet
Portland is flat on the east side, hilly on the west, and rainy from October to May. The neighborhood greenways are the way to ride: quiet residential streets with diverters, signed and marked with sharrows, running parallel to the busy ones (SE Clinton, SE Salmon, NE Going, N Concord). Bridges with good bike crossings: Hawthorne, Steel lower deck, Broadway, Tilikum. Biketown is the city's orange e-bike share, unlocked with the app, with a reduced-fare program. The Springwater Corridor and the Eastbank Esplanade are the long car-free paths. Walking the center is easy; the two-hundred-foot blocks mean a mile is about twenty blocks.
Driving and parking
Three freeways: I-5 north and south, I-84 east toward the Gorge, I-205 the eastern loop that also serves the airport; I-405 is the short loop around downtown. The west hills funnel traffic through the Vista Ridge tunnel on US-26, which backs up both ways at rush hour. Downtown parking is metered and paid by app or at the kiosk, with time limits that vary by block; SmartPark garages are the city's own and cheaper than private lots. Residential permit zones cover the close-in neighborhoods near downtown and the hospitals. Many east-side streets have no painted lines and local traffic rules: at an uncontrolled intersection the first to arrive goes, and the car on the right has the right of way.
Snow and ice close the hills first: the west side and Mount Tabor roads are the ones to avoid. The district sites carry the live conditions.
Which to use
| Trip | Best bet |
|---|---|
| Airport | MAX Red Line, or a rideshare at odd hours. See PDX. |
| Downtown from an east-side neighborhood | A frequent bus or a bike over the Hawthorne; driving means paying to park. |
| Across the river for dinner | Walk a bridge from the Central Eastside or the Pearl; streetcar if it is raining. |
| Beaverton, Hillsboro, Gresham, Milwaukie | MAX, Blue or Orange; the car for the far suburbs and Vancouver. |
| Mount Hood, the Gorge, the coast | A car. The camping guide covers the drives. |
Related: PDX airport, the district map, rentals and housing by neighborhood.