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Overview
The transportation system is essential to the functioning of the city and the well-being and prosperity of the community. It connects people and businesses to goods and services, and links them to the region, state, nation, and world. Although transportation is often measured in terms of mobility, it also creates access to opportunity. The way we build our city has an impact on our mobility and, by extension, our access to opportunity. What is access to opportunity? It’s being able to get to childcare, reach your healthcare, get to school and higher education, perhaps one’s spiritual or religious pursuits, economic opportunity (your job), maybe civic engagement, recreation, and more. Our mobility impacts our opportunities in life in a truly fundamental way. Our city’s goals and policies also reflect the role of transportation planning in reducing carbon emissions and improving public health. And there’s a role that streets can play in providing great civic and recreational spaces.
With robust and equitable community engagement and technical analysis, the City of Portland’s TSP update process will help answer the questions:
- What do we want?
- What do we have now?
- What will we need in the future?
- How will we fund our projects?
- What should we do first?
Process schedule
The following diagram illustrates an overview of the 2045 TSP process schedule. Public engagement efforts will span three of the four phases up to implementation, including groundwork, development, and refinement. These efforts will occur alongside other TSP tasks that are listed in the diagram arrows under each phase.
What's in the current TSP?
Browse projects and street classifications in your neighborhood or search and browse existing policies in the 2025 TSP via our interactive tool.
Explore the interactive 2035 TSP
Watch an introduction to the 2045 TSP process
Frequently asked questions
How does the Transportation System Plan interact with other area, corridor and modal plans?
Modal and area plans are deeper dives into the specific needs of different areas, corridors, modes or uses of transportation, identifying projects or programs to fill needs, and refining street design classifications for how streets should function within and across networks. In addition to these Comprehensive Plan elements that need to be included and reconciled in the TSP, these plans also contain additional context, strategies and actions that don't necessarily rise to the level needing inclusion in the TSP. As such, these plans continue to be useful reflections of the work we have done with community members and businesses across Portland to build a shared vision for needed transportation improvements.
How do modal and area plans impact the TSP Major Projects list?
TSP updates are informed by all the other plans that have been done since the previous TSP update. When we update the TSP, we can bring in "Major Projects" (historically, that's meant projects that cost over $500,000) identified from our modal or area plans, as well as consider policy and classification refinements recommended by plans adopted since the previous TSP update. During TSP updates, any Major Projects identified in modal or area plans since the last TSP update, go through a fresh round of screening against updated criteria reflecting current goals for the transportation system and compared with updated financial analysis.
If one of our modal, corridor or area plans say to do something, aren't we supposed to be doing it?
Depending on how citywide needs and tradeoffs are processed through a TSP update, not all classification or policy change recommendations from modal, corridor and area plans might end up adopted as official City Comprehensive Plan policy. It is possible that not all Major Projects identified in area or modal plans will end up prioritized in the TSP's financially constrained project list. The TSP update process is how we begin to reconcile tradeoffs for the transportation system as a whole through time. This trade-off process also continues through the process of TSP implementation, including being funded and constructed through Quick Build programs identified in the TSP as well as planning, building and managing transportation assets guided by TSP policies on Street Classifications, Public Facilities and Services, Urban Form, and Design and Development Goals.
If a project is listed in the TSP, will it definitely be completed?
The TSP financially constrained project list is a 125% list and not a straight-up "to do" list. Simply including a project in the TSP's financially constrained project list does NOT mean that we have funding for it currently in hand. The financially constrained project list is developed according to projections of "reasonably available" funding we think we can leverage over a 20-year horizon. However, we still have to actively do the leveraging based on funding resources actually available. This means, over time, we still have to seek and secure the revenue necessary to fund each project relative to the current cost, which can also change significantly over relatively short time periods as we have experienced the last several years. PBOT has very little discretionary revenue that it can use towards transportation improvement projects. Regional and federal grants are one of the significant sources of funding for transportation projects as well as transportation system development charges, which are often used as matching funds so that we can apply for grants. Since we are generally guided by outside funding sources, we have to match TSP project prioritization guidance with grant funding guidance as well as ongoing community and council feedback as we determine which TSP projects are ultimately funded and constructed.
Dive deeper: Documents and other resources
Explore essential documents, videos, and other resources related to the 2045 Transportation System Plan. on the 2045 TSP: Documents Page