Transportation Showdown: PDX vs NYC

Based on my extensive experience, I bring you the definitive showdown between New York and Portland (don’t get me started on Seattle). I’m breaking down the various modes of transportation options and which city has it best. Who will emerge victorious?! First up: Shoes.

Walking:

In Portland, the sidewalks are wide, the concrete is smooth and recent, and the intersections are well marked with crosswalks. Avenues and streets are the same length (damn those long Manhattan avenues), and cars respect pedestrians. In NYC, jaywalking is the rule, not the exception, and slow tourists get in your way (“stop looking around so much – the Olson twins don’t live there!”) . The main difference is what I’ll call quality of life for the pedestrian. Walking is just more pleasant in PDX. There are nice things to look at, and you don’t have to worry about getting hit by a car or bike messenger (ask Luke Rona). The garbage is picked up on the streets, so you can actually wear sandals without fear of a foot STD. Although it won’t stop me from doing it, I am still waiting to get a jaywalking ticket here. Winner: PDX

Biking:

Portland is supposedly the city of bikes. And it certainly is a more prominent cultural topic here than in NYC. Everyone talks or writes about biking : how it works or doesn’t work. And I thought the fixie-riding hipsters in Brooklyn were progressive – they basically took a page out of Portland’s book. One main reason PDX works for bikers is that it is relatively small, flat, and easy to navigate. In fact, biking has gotten so prominent here, I’ve seen bikers stopping at intersections for other bikers when no cars were around! The whole reason I bike is so I don’t have to follow all the rules of the road that a car does, and as bikers get more and more attention here, the less that kind of thing will be tolerated, I fear. Negatives of PDX include the abundant rain, streetcar tracks (see image. Yes, we've done it), and locals passing judgment on you based on the bike you ride (a passerby told Lee she didn’t have to worry about locking her bike up on the street because “nobody would steal that piece of shit”). In NYC, the bike is the secret weapon of anyone willing to carry it up the stairs of their pre-war walkup. I could get across town in 5 minutes as opposed to 35, and the rush of riding in traffic was something I’ll never forget. Winner: NYC

Driving:

I never owned a car in Manhattan, due to the first born child costs of monthly parking, but I did rent or zipcar pretty frequently. I also rented my share of vans and trucks for my half dozen moves in, out, and throughout the city (click for the best deal in town). Like biking, there is a certain rush to driving in Manhattan, but if you’re not an assertive, decisive driver, you probably hate it. NYC negatives include: traffic, parking on the street, and terrible road quality. Portland is an entirely different car city, although driving is still frustrating, and not at all exciting. Everyone here owns a car, so traffic is pretty bad, especially on the freeways. What I was surprised about was the city driving. Like NYC, many downtown streets are one-way, and they alternate. But the problem is consistency. You can’t assume that 3 streets down will be westbound just because the cross street you’re at now is eastbound. And in the Pearl, where I drive a lot, you can hardly tell if a street is one-way or not. This is a serious issue. After passing five one-way streets, I pulled out to cross the sixth only to realize that there was 2-way traffic. The signage is not perfect, and I am constantly looking around blind corners with confusion, not to mention stopping at every intersection. Thruway streets are not clearly distinguishable from side streets, and I feel like I’m start-stopping around one big grid maze whenever I drive through. It’s hell with a manual transmission. Winner: Tie

Still to come: mass transit, commuter trains, *Bonus Round: Amtrak!*