The Historic Streetcar Network’s Impact on Urban Development in Portland, Oregon

Way back when (2007), as part of a Portland State University GIS class, I worked on a very cool project to digitize Portland's historic streetcar system and analyze it's impact on urban development. My partner (Ben Kinkley) and I used the creation of tax lots as a proxy for development. We found some pretty interesting development patterns. For example, between 1901 and 1910 fully 99% of all tax lots in Portland were created within one mile of a streetcar line and 81% were within a quarter of a mile. We've seen similar development patterns with Portland's new streetcar system (albeit not nearly the percentage of all city development) and in other transportation infrastructure projects.

Consider that I told my loyal following of readers that I would post the findings over five years ago, I thought I might as well deliver on my promise. Hey! I never said when.

To read and/or download the full report (pdf), click on friends...



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