Downtown Portland Clean & Safe monitors and publishes monthly foot traffic data on the Downtown Vibrancy Tracker and we offer a deeper look twice a year into these trends. Our more detailed reports highlight key intersections and uncover emerging patterns shaping the future of downtown.
Summer visitors lead growth on weekends
We saw the active summer event calendar brought people to Downtown and created a boost in foot traffic on weekends. When we look specifically at weekend foot traffic from June until Labor Day, this year has seen a 6% increase compared to 2023. When we look at weekend traffic in August alone, we saw a 20% increase. Portland’s summer event and activation schedule has been especially strong this year, including: the RockStar Energy Open Skateboarding competition; PDX Live music concert series at The Square; concerts returning to Providence Park; and a major art activation with the Coraline Curious Cat Trail.
So far this year through August, the current monthly trend reflects a steady foot traffic increase of 2%, compared to 2023. While modest, this growth is an encouraging sign of downtown’s ongoing recovery and resilience as more people visit the heart of our city.
February brought a festive surge to the downtown core with foot traffic increasing 10% compared to 2023 levels, mainly due to the Portland Winter Light Festival and mild weather. June also saw a boost in foot traffic increasing 4% compared to 2023 levels in large part to Portland Rose Festival related activities and unseasonably warm and dry weather.
The Downtown Portland Clean & Safe district continues to see overall traffic busiest on Saturday and Friday, with Thursday and then Wednesday close behind. When measuring employees in the downtown area we once again saw Wednesdays to be the most popular day to be downtown, this trend has held true since 2021.
Over the first part of 2024, when we look at the busiest locations in our district, we see that the West End Neighborhood continues to be a hotspot of foot traffic along with intersections in the core of downtown. The intersection at SW 10th & Burnside, across the street from Powell’s Books, is the busiest intersection in our district. This bustling hub is closely followed by the vibrant crossroads at SW Park & Burnside, the location of food cart pod “The Cart Blocks” and appears to be acting as a gateway into the rest of the downtown. Pioneer Place also stands out as a particularly active zone at the intersection of SW 4th & Alder in the center of the downtown core.
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Methodology
Now using Placer.ai data to monitor traffic and visit trends 24-hours a day, Clean & Safe has expanded its pedestrian count research to look at the entire 213-block district. Downtown Portland Clean & Safe can now compare results from past years and even compare data to other cities, as well as look at times of day people are in downtown, which days are busier, and the spaces/venues people are frequenting.
We closely track pedestrian activity within our 213-block district. Our data provides insights into foot traffic trends, comparing year-over-year numbers. We monitor the overall number of people downtown, peak times of day, the busiest days of the week, and the spaces people are visiting most frequently. These figures represent cumulative totals rather than unique visitors, giving a comprehensive view of downtown vibrancy.