As the Crow Flies
Since Portland is once again in the news on a public transportation issue, I thought I should weigh in with some first hand observations. The Portland Aerial Tram opened to the public last weekend and my sons and I gave it a test run yesterday. As the pictures attest, we rode up on a brilliant day, with views of our treasured mountains out each window. Given the stunning scenery and the smooth, efficient ride, we easily forgot the controversy that has surrounded this addition to the city’s transit scene. 
The tram consists of two space age cabins which glide 3,300 feet up a 500 foot hillside to the campus of Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU), the city’s primary research hospital and one of its largest employers. The tram connects OHSU’s main campus, which overlooks downtown Portland and the Willamette River, with the hospital’s nascent South Waterfront campus roughly 500 feet below. We rode in both cars, which bear the quaint names of Walt and Jean, in honor of two pioneers in Oregon education. The entire one-way ride takes about three minutes and carries a fare of $4 for casual riders. Employees and patients ride for free. While regular riders will eventually take the views for granted, my sons and I, captivated by the liberating feeling of gliding over the cityscape, could have ridden the tram all day. Unfortunately, the fare squelched any romantic notions of how to spend our day, and we quickly returned to ground-based transportation.
The tram was constructed through a collaboration between the city of Portland and OHSU. The hospital had outgrown its landlocked main campus and, in search of open land to develop, honed in on the vacant waterfront south of downtown. The only drawback was, despite a mere 3,300 feet separating the two locations, driving between the two locations could take up to 30 minutes on the winding, often traffic-filled roads. 
The tram creates a unique link that allows hospital personnel and patients to move freely between buildings on both campuses. The tram, along with the extension of the city’s streetcar line to the base of the tram, cements the South Waterfront as the new hot spot for real estate development in Portland. As the pictures show, the formerly industrial area offers a nearly blank slate for developers desperate for new space to build near downtown.
For most Portland residents, the tram will be little more than a novelty. With construction costs of $57 million, the tram is a luxury in a city with other pressing capital improvement needs. As the national media have pointed out, the city’s willingness to share $8.5 million of the price tag is consistent with Portland’s reputation for embracing innovative transportation solutions, usually in advance of an identified need. Whether the city’s prescience in anticipating its transit needs is a self-fulfilling prophecy or not, the fact remains that Oregon has been on a nearly continuous growth spurt for the past two decades, and is poised for more growth. An extensive public transportation system is one reason the region has been able to absorb so many new residents without destroying the quality of life for the rest of us. For now, the tram is more symbol than workhorse, but let’s check back in five years. My guess is the story will be far more uplifting.