Portland Metro and SW Washington Area Transportation Facts [PDF] Facts about transportation in the Portland-Metro and SW Washington area.

• Each household in the region travels approximately 39 miles a day. If a person’s car gets 22 miles per gallon and gas costs $3.00, then those 39 miles represent $5.32 a day in gas alone. That’s about $1,941 a year!
  
• Each household in the region makes almost 45 car trips a week.
  
• The average commuter today spends an extra 39 hours per year on the road
  due to gridlock.
  
• By 2025, area residents will spend an additional 50 hours in traffic per year as
  our population grows.
  

• Travel speeds have decreased as congestion has increased.
  

• Non-work trips (for shopping, recreation and errands) are estimated to account
  for 67 percent of all trips in the region. Almost half of these trips are made by
  individuals driving alone.
  

• If each household in the region eliminated two car trips per week, there could be a four to five percent reduction in cars on the road.
  

A recent 2005 regional study shows that residents are willing to reduce single-person car trips…

• Congestion is the leading transportation-related concern today in the Portland metro and SW Washington area.
  
• Most residents believe it is important to reduce single-person car trips to ease traffic congestion.
  
• It is widely recognized that taking fewer single-person car trips would help reduce pollution and our country’s dependence on foreign oil.
  Nearly two-in-three residents believe it would not be difficult to take one less car
  trip each week.
  
• Nearly two-in-three residents believe it would not be difficult to take one less car trip each week.
  
• More than eight-in-ten residents say they would be likely to take fewer car trips
  to save on gas and time.
  
• Trip chaining is the most likely option for residents in reducing single-person car
  trips followed by mass transit.
  

Note: A “car trip” is defined as a single, one-way trip.