Studying relationships
It also continues to densify as it grows and pushes against it's Urban Growth Boundary.
One challenge of that growth is knowing which areas may benefit most from the increased density.
Sites where transit access is abundant are naturally suited
to growing denser, and many already have, but some may have been overlooked. These sites present an opportunity for higher density residential development.
This study investigates if there are sites in Portland where transit is plentiful but housing density is still sparse.
Housing Density
First we want to look at the density of housing in Portland. The 2010 US Census gives us a measure that we can convert to dwelling units per acre. There is a huge variability here, and the map is scaled to highlight the lower end of it.
Next we want to look at how accessible public transit is to each block. All of Portland's transit stops are mapped and their catchment area is projected over the blocks. The overlapping area is added up and divided by the size of the block to get a score, representing the amount of transit available a short distance from any point on the block. Again, very high variability led us to truncate the scale to better represent important differences.
Finally, the value we are most intersted in, degree of housing under-utilization. For this we simply take the transit access score and divide it by the housing density. This gives higher values to sites with great transit access but very low housing density. Many of these have obvious potential for higher utilization.
but low housing density