91视频

Tilikum Crossing, since opening Sept. 12, is approaching the 2 million mark for passenger traffic.

Users have crossed the car-free bridge an estimated 1,765,790 times (about 11,400 times per day), according to data gathered from various transportation agencies. The figure includes bus and MAX light-rail trips, Portland Streetcar trips and crossings by bicyclists. It does not count Tilikum Crossing trips by pedestrians; those aren’t tracked by any agency.

The Burnside Bridge, by comparison, hosts about 40,000 vehicle trips a day.

More than five months after opening, the futuristic multimodal Tilikum Crossing south of downtown is attracting daily use by Portlanders.

The MAX orange line carries the most people over Tilikum Crossing, with approximately 866,000 user trips since September. TriMet‘s buses have carried 629,000 users over the bridge.

Portland Streetcar does not count ridership over the bridge, but it does count passengers boarding and disembarking at stops near the bridge. On weekdays, about 90 passengers board near the bridge, and 100 disembark, said Julie Gustafson, spokeswoman for Portland Streetcar.

Before Tilikum Crossing was open, many passengers would disembark before the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, Gustafson said. Now, that area is becoming a popular place to board the streetcar for trips downtown.

System-wide, Portland Streetcar is gaining riders as transportation options increase.

鈥淲e’re definitely growing,鈥� Gustafson said. 鈥淚t’s exciting.鈥�

Bicyclists have been using the bridge too, although not as much as some other Rose City spans. Tilikum Crossing has clocked 259,000 bike trips since September. On an average weekday, 1,691 bicyclists cross the bridge 鈥� far fewer than the 5,397 who cross the Hawthorne Bridge.

Holger Link, a pediatrician at Oregon Health & Science University, rides his bike over Tilikum Crossing each weekday. He said the new bridge saves him only about 3 minutes each way, but it provides a much better experience.

鈥淚 love it,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think it’s a beautiful bridge, and I enjoy not having to go across Hawthorne Bridge with the buses and cars.鈥�

Link may not be the only bicyclist forsaking Hawthorne for Tilikum: the Hawthorne Bridge saw a 39 percent drop in January bicycle traffic compared to a year earlier.

Link said his only complaint about Tilikum Crossing is the bicycle stoplight could be better timed when the light is triggered by buses.

鈥淪ometimes you have to wait a long time,鈥� he said.

All users are getting used to the flow of the car-free bridge, said Rob Sadowsky, executive director of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance.

鈥淗ow we handle that interaction between streetcar, bus, bike 鈥� people are starting to figure that out,鈥� he said.

The commute-time crush can be tough at the bridge’s west end, Sadowsky said.

鈥淎t times of day, the number of pedestrians coming out of the Collaborative Life Sciences Building can be daunting to navigate,鈥� he said.

It remains to be seen how new South Waterfront development, including Zidell Yards, will affect traffic. And the Sellwood Bridge will reopen March 1, giving commuters another option to traverse the Willamette River.

Perhaps most importantly, Tilikum Crossing has encouraged some residents who previously avoided public transportation to try it.

Sadowsky pointed to his own in-laws as an example. They didn’t feel comfortable taking the bus from Sellwood to downtown.

Now, he said, 鈥渢hey take the orange line all the time to get downtown. They saw it as a doable and enjoyable experience.鈥�