Portland, OR, Residents Save $1.1 Billion by Driving Less

July 2007

The Achievement

• It’s not a typo: The two million people who live in metropolitan Portland, OR, save a combined $1.1 billion per year by driving, on average, 20 percent fewer miles per day than the typical U.S. metropolitan resident (four miles per day less).
• If Portlanders drove as much as the typical resident, they would produce eight million more vehicle miles per day, or about 2.9 billion more miles per year. The total estimated savings on car purchases, gas, and other vehicle-related expenses comes to $1.1 billion per year.

The Key Steps

• Portlanders drive less because their region benefits from smart land-use planning. An urban growth boundary was established in 1979, limiting sprawl and creating higher density development. In metropolitan Portland, 30 percent of all jobs lie with three miles of the central business district. Only New York and San Francisco rank higher in this category.
• On average, people don’t have as far to travel for work or recreation, and much of their traveling is facilitated by an extensive public transit system, which includes options from buses and streetcars to light rail and commuter rail.

The Benefits

• Because Portlanders spend less on cars and gas—money that leaves Oregon and even the United States—they can spend hundreds of millions more within their local economy. Portland has a thriving local food movement, and ranks third in the United States in restaurants per capita.
• Less need to travel saves Portlanders time, and time is money. They travel 2.88 billion fewer miles per year than the average U.S. metro resident, and 100 million fewer hours traveling. According to the Oregon Department of Transportation, the economic value of that time saved is $1.5 billion per year (when one hour of travel is valued at $15).
• When two million people drive four fewer miles per day, it saves 400,000 gallons of gas per day, and 1.4 million tons of greenhouse gases per year.

[Source: CEOs for Cities’ Portland Green Dividend Report]