On March 19th, Sam and I embarked on a 3-day trip to Montréal, invited to discuss Portland's efforts to become a sustainable city. There we met with transportation and sustainability directors, and gave a speech delineating Portland's sustainability efforts and challenges to date. Below are my thoughts on the trip...
Any time Sam’s team visits another city, we hunt for ideas to import back home. For example, maybe you saw the Oregonian’s story [1] some time ago on the bike rental concept [2].
Sam and I were in Montréal at the invitation of the Global City conference to report on Portland’s efforts to mature into a sustainable city. The morning before Sam’s speech we set out to explore Montréal’s famous “underground city,” a subterranean complex of retail stores and pedestrian corridors that connects office, hotels, schools, housing, and subway. The system is remarkably vast connecting some 30% of downtown Montréal.
The system is incredibly convenient. In a city known for long, often brutal winters the development pattern makes sense. Here in Portland we enjoy a more temperate climate and massive investment in an “underground city” probably would not be smart.
So forget the underground part.
The take-home lesson for us was how easy it was to ride the subway in Montréal. Like every successful subway system around the world, the stations are clean, comfortable, and easy to navigate. Where Montréal stands out from other cities I know is its convergence of shopping, workplace, and housing environments, all interconnected by rail and pleasant pedestrian corridors. Whether you need a bag of groceries for tonight’s dinner, a $398 pair of Italian shoes, or anything in between, it is all available within a matter of feet (or should I say meters?) from your subway stop.
What does it all mean for ridership? We asked Joel Gautier, Montréal’s transportation director, when we met with him and his chief planner. Mr. Gautier was embarrassed to admit the percentage of all downtown trips made with transit (aka the transit mode split) was “just 25%” but that the underground city played a huge role in getting it where it was. He was also quick to note they expected the mode split to jump with a new subway extension coming online in the next month, and that their investment in complementing central city bike and pedestrian facilities was poor to date, but ramping up.
Commissioner Sam Adams, Montréal NewspaperBut wait a minute; one of the chief complaints about our central city MAX is that it is too slow because it makes too many stops. And it makes those stops because TriMet and the City try put stops right next to each key destination, like the malls, the Convention Center, the Square, MAX’s nexus with streetcar,
Sam and I scratched our heads on this. No question Portland has put stops right next to key destinations, but why does Montréal’s system seem so much more convenient? We concluded it really is about a matter of feet. In Portland, some of our daily and discretionary purchases can be made somewhat close a MAX stop. In Montréal nearly all of those purchases can be made literally within a few feet of the subway stop. In other words, we have done okay, but Montréal shows it can be done better. Montréal’s riders prove it everyday.
Portland’s transportation planners get this. When we installed our original transit mall it was assumed the concentration of transit would ensure a critical mass of people, and our presence would sustain a lively retail corridor. In other words, provide for transit and the retail will take care of itself. While the original transit mall was a success by most measures, a quick survey of central city retail rents and vacancies shows transit mall retail has not kept pace. Upon the decision to add MAX to the transit mall, much planning has been focused on how to enliven and sustain the retail corridor. We believe the next 30 years will bring us a much more actively managed—and successful—retail corridor on the transit mall. Thank you, Montréal, for confirming the merits of our planning for our transit mall’s next era.
The situation changes, however, outside the central city. Our quick trip to Montral did not allow us to visit subway stations outside the central city so we cannot make comparisons. Nevertheless, the lesson of convenience, or maybe we should call it super-convenience, still applies. After all, our retail needs do not change whether we are in or out of the central city.
I thought about my regular morning MAX commute to city hall from North Interstate and Lombard, the busiest transit stop in our region. Three days a week my 12 month-old daughter, her stroller, and I jockey for coverage under the stop’s shelter among our fellow commuters. Almost everybody makes space for my daughter; Portlanders are cool like that. Then I check the transit ticker to see how long our wait will be (a superb and essential addition to transit stops; thanks, TriMet).
I stare across the sea of blacktop in front of Fred Meyer and see the familiar Starbucks logo. (Like many Portlanders, I prefer to patronize locally-owned shops, but I am not dogmatic about it.) I wonder how many of my fellow MAX riders are having the same thought, “Coffee sounds good right about now. But it will take me 20 minutes to navigate the maze of safety railings, wait for traffic lights, avoid cars walking through the parking lot, get upstairs to get that cup of coffee and retrace my steps back. I do not have time.”
I should have planned my coffee run into my day, right? Call TriMet for the schedule, get my daughter ready, ensure I have all the time I need, get my day dialed down to the minute.
Whatever.
All I know is most people are like me. If coffee was two minutes from my MAX stop instead of 20 the coffee shop would have a little bit more money in its till a little more frequently, and most of us would have a little bit less in our pockets. We would all be smiling, and based on the central city Montréal model, riding the train more frequently. Super-convenience matters.
Now think about development up and down the MAX yellow line on the Interstate Corridor. The sighting of the stops makes sense… Expo Center, downtown Kenton, Fred Meyer, New Seasons, Kaiser Permanente, Rose Garden, etc. But now ask yourself about whether we have developed each of these destinations to be more conveniently accessible by car or by transit.
The answer is obvious: car. And each of these destinations will tell you why: most of their patrons arrive by car. Even New Seasons, one of Portland’s most conscientious corporate partners, fought off the city’s efforts to orientate the store closer to the MAX stop (and put housing above). On the Interstate corridor we have made a multi-hundred million dollar transit investment to provide a transportation option better than the car. But let’s face it: it is not better if it is not as convenient as we need it to be.
In auto-centric America, even in Portland, super-convenient transit is a work in progress. But take note of central city Montréal because they can teach us lessons we can learn from.
(One year ago, Sam secured $250,000 to study station area development more thoroughly. A first phase focused primarily on the pending MAX green line is underway from David Evans & Associates with more to come.)