LIMIT: 14 (14-passenger lift-equipped bus)
Location Details:
Meet outside Smith Memorial Student Union at 10:15 a.m., depart at 10:30 a.m.
Description:
This session will walk through the history, purpose, and building of the pilot Forest & Washington Park Express Shuttle. This short-term service, which is funded by the Oregon Department of Transportation's Innovative Mobility Program, will operate as a pilot during summer weekends in 2026. The session will cover (1) the need for additional transportation and transit access to green space; (2) infrastructure needs within the parks to support transit or a shuttle service; (3) partnership building with community organizations to provide activities, guides, and welcoming atmosphere to shuttle riders; and (4) the challenge of funding and operation over time.
We will be driving the Inner Park Loop, one of four lines that will make up the shuttle service during summer 2026, to view the unique challenges of supporting shuttle / transit access in Forest Park.
Background about the project:
The pilot Forest Park/Washington Park Community Connector Shuttle is a free community shuttle run by the City of Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R). It will provide transportation options for Portland, Oregon communities to access Forest Park and Washington Park, two significant City-stewarded parks with limited public transit access and neighborhood connectivity. Modeled in part on King County, Washington’s Trailhead Direct program, the pilot will provide free shuttle buses between Forest and Washington parks and well-known, transit-accessible PP&R or PP&R-affiliate / partner facilities in East, Northeast, and North Portland on weekends during peak summer visitation season. These areas of Portland feature neighborhoods with high and medium-high income disparity and/or significant populations of BIPOC and immigrant and refugee residents. In East Portland especially, these communities have statistically lower access to greenspace. The shuttle is intended to help connect community to these spaces.
Iconic Forest and Washington parks are regional resources but can be challenging to access, particularly for communities on the east side of the Willamette River for whom personal transportation is a barrier. At 5,200 acres, Forest Park is the largest forested city park in the country, features over 80 miles of trails and provides invaluable outdoor recreation, exercise, and educational opportunities. However, Forest Park is largely inaccessible to people without access to personal vehicles. Surveys demonstrate that communities view limited public transit and suboptimal parking as barriers to accessing the park, especially if they do not have access to a car. Indeed, the public can access only eight of Forest Park’s 40+ access points via public transit routes. Even those routes have limitations; transit travel times between established community gathering places like PP&R community centers to Forest Park trailheads can be long, chilling the public’s willingness to travel by transit. For example, travel via transit between the East Portland Community Center to the popular Leif Erikson NW Germantown Road trailhead in the center of Forest Park is ~128 minutes, including two transfers and a 1-mile walk on a steep, winding road with no shoulder. The same trip takes ~31 minutes in a personal vehicle.
Transit access to Washington Park from certain neighborhoods in the City is similarly limited. At 410 acres and considered Portland’s “crown jewel,” Washington Park features regional attractions like the Oregon Zoo, World Forestry Center, Hoyt Arboretum, International Rose Test Garden, and Portland Japanese Garden. However, there is no direct transit service between the park and North Portland; traveling there from the St. Johns neighborhood in North Portland takes over 70 minutes and at least one transfer via public transit, but fewer than 20 minutes by car. Long transit times between East Portland locations and the park can also discourage visitation. Further, there is no transit connectivity between Forest Park and Washington Park; although the parks are adjacent, visitors can only travel between them by hiking or via personal vehicle. The proposed shuttle pilot will link the parks and these neighborhoods with limited connectivity to offer more efficient and more reliable access for communities with limited options.
In addition, the shuttle could help relieve parking congestion in the parks during peak season by reducing single-car and drive-alone trips for community members with access to personal vehicles. With this effect, the shuttle would also help lower greenhouse gas emissions and increase driver and pedestrian safety around the parks.
A key component of the shuttle project is building partnerships with community organizations to provide activities, workshops, and guiding service to first-time and repeat visitors to Forest and Washington parks, ensuring a welcoming atmosphere and ample opportunities to connect with the landscapes. In addition, the shuttle project includes a youth development component in the form of an internship for youth in guiding, interpretation, and leading outdoor activities.
