Portland Bicycling News/Discussion

[maccoinnich]

Notice of a Type II Proposal [PDF] which will at least partially close the Springwater Corridor Sellwood gap:

Portland Parks and Recreation proposes construction of a 12- to16-ft wide paved trail segment along the Springwater Trail between SE Umatilla Street and SE Ochoco Street. Approximately 880 feet of the trail, between SE Umatilla and SE Clatsop, lie within the Greenway overlay zone. Only this portion of the trail construction, therefore, is subject to Greenway Review.

The area of the proposed trail is currently an informal gravel or bare dirt trail adjacent to the railroad tracks. No trees will be impacted by the paving, and all disturbed vegetative areas will be seeded with a native grass mixture upon completion of the paved trail construction.

A previous land use case (LU 08-147820-GW) approved a sewer interceptor and trail improvements. However, the trail improvements were not accomplished during the three-year permit limits. This proposal will complete the plans included in this former land use case.

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

Notice of a Type II Proposal [PDF] which will at least partially close the Springwater Corridor Sellwood gap:

Oh nice, that will make my commute easier, with the gravel now I have no interest of riding my road bike through that, I always just cut up through the neighborhood. Combine this with Milwaukie eventually putting a multi-use path down 17th, and my commute would be a breeze.

[tworivers]

Article on the Flanders bike/ped bridge over 405, with renderings, at Bike Portland.

[Abide]

I wish that segment of I-405 could just be covered and built upon, with a pedestrian and bike road down the middle. That would seem to be a perfect section to cover over. It's a uniform depth in a perfect rectangle.

[eric cantona]

PBOT just dropped an RFP for design and construction services for a bike/ped bridge across Sullivan's Gulch. looks like 7th Ave was the winner! salient info:

• 24' wide x 470' long bridge
• 4% gradient on the bridge is assumed
• funding available is only for design
• a trail alignment from the esplanade to NE 12th will also be identified
• the trail *might* be added to the contract at a later date

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by eric cantona

PBOT just dropped an RFP for design and construction services for a bike/ped bridge across Sullivan's Gulch. looks like 7th Ave was the winner! salient info:

• 24' wide x 470' long bridge
• 4% gradient on the bridge is assumed
• funding available is only for design
• a trail alignment from the esplanade to NE 12th will also be identified
• the trail *might* be added to the contract at a later date

That is awesome news, this is a really needed bridge to connect the two sides together safely for cyclists.

[tworivers]

Indeed, this is very exciting news. I've heard through the grapevine that AAT is pushing for this and may help with funding. I've been personally working on this idea for 10 years -- it was my project for the PBOT/PSU Traffic and Transportation course in 2006.

I also believe that this will ensure that the future gas-tax-funded N/S Greenway will be on 7th where it belongs (versus 9th) because the bridge will vastly increase the already large number of cyclists vying for space on that street.

Edit: here's the language from PBOT itself -- "PBOT intends to construct a pedestrian/bicycle bridge over Interstate 84 and the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) and to design an adjacent segment of the Sullivan’s Gulch Trail to provide improved mobility, better connectivity, additional transportation capacity, and safer, more comfortable pedestrian/bicycle connections between the Lloyd District, Central Eastside Industrial District and Downtown within Portland’s greater Central City. These proposed improvements are adopted in the City of Portland Transportation System Plan."

And the project has it's own page: https://www.portlandoregon.gov/transportation/71338

[maccoinnich]

I'm really excited about this project. My understanding is that the project is all-but-funded. Earlier this year City Council made the bridge eligible for $11 million in SDCs, and PBOT expects to be able to find the rest of the money from other sources (Regional Flex Funds, Portland Development Commission, adjacent developers).

[hat]

Here's a streetfilms vid on the recent threshold our neighbor just a few hundred miles north, Vancouver BC, met (50% alternative transportation). Portland could easily achieve this with the same changes, particularly removing I-5 and designing a waterfront, ped only streets, frequent LRT, and protected bike lanes.

[hat]

Holy shit! It might actually happen. PBOT has a RFP and designs (pdf) for a new ped/bike bridge across I84 at NE 7th.

Story at bikeportland.

[hat]

"Gerritsen Avenue, where a speeding driver severely injured 12-year-old Anthony Turturro after locals asked DOT to calm traffic on the street."


"State’s Highest Court Holds NYC Liable for Injuries on Streets Without Traffic Calming" via Streetsblog

Bikeportland covered it as well

[Sioux612]

A cool illustration of the green loop:


[Portland Monthly]

[urbanlife]

I feel like less people are biking in Portland compared to how much the population has increased, Downtown especially seems like far less are biking than before. It makes me wonder if things like Uber and Lyft are having any impact on cyclist and transit rider numbers.

[soleri]

Originally Posted by urbanlife

I feel like less people are biking in Portland compared to how much the population has increased, Downtown especially seems like far less are biking than before. It makes me wonder if things like Uber and Lyft are having any impact on cyclist and transit rider numbers.

The paradox is that as traffic gets worse, so do biking conditions. One of the most familiar complaints I hear in Portland comes from drivers who detest bicyclists. It's almost as if every bit of pavement in this city is now being contested by different tribes. Barring major improvements in biking infrastructure, I don't see how the situation gets better. As a non-car owning bicyclist living in central Portland, I increasingly avoid downtown. The Pearl, in particular, feels like a minefield of streetcar tracks, opening car doors, and impatient drivers.

[innovativethinking]

Originally Posted by urbanlife

I feel like less people are biking in Portland compared to how much the population has increased, Downtown especially seems like far less are biking than before. It makes me wonder if things like Uber and Lyft are having any impact on cyclist and transit rider numbers.

Thank god

It's dangerous for them anyways

[ebetsure]

Originally Posted by innovativethinking

Thank god

It's dangerous for them anyways

Well humans are biologically mortal and air pollution is dangerous for everyone, so if people want to bike and accept whatever dangers, more power to them. Cyclists probably have higher life-expectancy compared with non-cyclists overall, both because it selects for younger, more physically active types, and because the activity improves health (if you avoid getting in a bad crash).

It was an unusually wet, cold, and snowy winter, which probably decreased the number of bikers on the roads.

But soleri's comment about increasing hazards, and in particular the streetcar tracks, rings true to me. Grade separation for vehicles that require rails, please. This should be common sense. I am a huge proponent of mass-transit, light-rail, elevated railways, dedicated bike paths, bike lanes, subways, etc. But it needs to be done well, which for trains means minimizing the number of at-grade crossings. For at-grade crossings 1) The train needs to slow down dramatically. 2) Crossing traffic needs to stop ~20 seconds in advance of the train and ~10 seconds after the train has passed. 3) Pedestrians and bikes also need to wait. 4) The crossing barriers and alarms need to be maintained. In other words, it's a huge mess.

[RainDog]

Originally Posted by urbanlife

I feel like less people are biking in Portland compared to how much the population has increased, Downtown especially seems like far less are biking than before. It makes me wonder if things like Uber and Lyft are having any impact on cyclist and transit rider numbers.

I'm sure gentrification also has a role in that. I know quite a few people who have purchased cars over the past couple of years as they have had to move out to neighborhoods east of 205, where biking is unpleasant at best.

Also the city has really lagged at providing real, meaningful bike infrastructure. Sure they've set up a greenway here and there, a couple of improved crossings, but they really need more routes that are separated from traffic and out of the door zone.

I personally always found the pearl to be super easy to navigate. It's not that hard to avoid the streetcar tracks, and the speed limits are slow enough and the roads narrow enough that it has never felt dangerous to me in the slightest. Most of my dicey encounters have happened near the center of downtown where the roads have more lanes. Especially broadway. The number of times I was almost taken out by an aggressive cab drive on that road.... geesh.

[zilfondel]

I've been cycling to commute for work and so on since I moved to Portland almost 15 years ago. My observation is that there is still quite a bit of people biking, although I don't work in downtown anymore. However, aside from South Waterfront and the new bridge, there really is barely any new infrastructure that has been built. And yes, there is a HELL of a lot more traffic, so if your route requires you to bike in traffic, its borderline suicidal. Compared to 10 years ago, when you could take the lane on 11th or 12th as there were far fewer cars, today you could end up holding back 100 or 200 vehicles that all end up blowing by you... likely causing a lot of cyclists to rethink their sanity.

To be blunt, this city needs to get real about building real bike infrastructure. They've been experimenting for 2 generations on different configurations of bike lanes and cycle tracks. Apparently the city bureaus and city council have so politicized every goddamn inch of the streets that they have to spend 10 years on a design and community outreach process before abandoning any planned projects, like they just did with the proposed Foster streetscape, the Burnside couplet... goes on and on. Its been extremely aggravating to watch the absolute glacial pace of infrastructure improvements, particularly to bikes. Seems like there aren't any more projects on the horizon either, just like with Trimet cancelling the SE division/powell corridor.

We'll probably just turn into another Seattle with slightly less worse traffic.

[hat]

Originally Posted by zilfondel

I've been cycling to commute for work and so on since I moved to Portland almost 15 years ago. My observation is that there is still quite a bit of people biking, although I don't work in downtown anymore. However, aside from South Waterfront and the new bridge, there really is barely any new infrastructure that has been built. And yes, there is a HELL of a lot more traffic, so if your route requires you to bike in traffic, its borderline suicidal. Compared to 10 years ago, when you could take the lane on 11th or 12th as there were far fewer cars, today you could end up holding back 100 or 200 vehicles that all end up blowing by you... likely causing a lot of cyclists to rethink their sanity.

To be blunt, this city needs to get real about building real bike infrastructure. They've been experimenting for 2 generations on different configurations of bike lanes and cycle tracks. Apparently the city bureaus and city council have so politicized every goddamn inch of the streets that they have to spend 10 years on a design and community outreach process before abandoning any planned projects, like they just did with the proposed Foster streetscape, the Burnside couplet... goes on and on. Its been extremely aggravating to watch the absolute glacial pace of infrastructure improvements, particularly to bikes. Seems like there aren't any more projects on the horizon either, just like with Trimet cancelling the SE division/powell corridor.

We'll probably just turn into another Seattle with slightly less worse traffic.

Yep. You just summarized one of the main reasons I left Portland. I grew up there and saw the perception of bike culture serve as a replacement for actual physical infrastructure. Remember when Portland was looked at as #1 a decade ago by you name it. It's still a great place, but a robust bike culture only goes so far when there are virtually no PBLs.

[maccoinnich]

Portland actually has a lot of funded projects for high quality bike infrastructure in downtown:

• Flanders Bridge over I-405
• Sullivan's Crossing over I-84
• Central City Multimodal Project ($8 million allocated, projects TBD)
• West Burnside & 18th / 19th protected intersection
• SW Bond, from the Tilikum Crossing to River Parkway, with a protected bike lane
• Extension of NW 20th under Highway 30, including protected bike lanes
• Repaving of Naito/Front north of NW 9th, which will include new (painted) bike lanes

It's frustrating how long how long it's taking for some of these to get off the ground, but when they do they'll make a big difference.

Looking further ahead, the new SDC list for the next 10 years, published today, also includes these projects as SDC eligible:

• Willamette Greenway Trail, $2,500,000: Provide two paths in order to separate bicyclists from pedestrians in remaining gaps of South Waterfront's Willamette Greenway trail.
• NW Naito/Front Corridor Improvements (9th - 21st), $3,608,417: Construct multimodal safety and access improvements including sidewalk infill, protected bike lanes, signal improvements, and lane modifications.
• Bond Ave Extension, Phase 2, $16,000,000: Extend SW Bond one-way northbound from SW Whitaker to Porter, extend Portland Streetcar service north of the Tram, and convert Moody to one-way southbound operation to form a couplet
• I-405 South Portland Crossing Improvements, $5,000,000: Improve opportunities for people walking and bicycling to cross I-405 on Harbor Dr, Naito Pkwy, 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and Broadway.
• SW Broadway Bikeway and Streetscape Improvements, $1,500,000: Enhances the existing protected bikeway and sidewalks on SW Broadway adjacent to Portland State University. Includes the construction of a raised bikeway, sidewalk amenities, green street features, ADA improvements, pedestrian islands, curb bulb-outs, and a full signal at Harrison.
• NE Multnomah Protected Bikeway, $2,000,000: Construct permanent improvements to the NE Multnomah St protected bikeway, including pedestrian islands and transit islands.
• Broadway/ Weidler Corridor Improvements, Phase 1, $9,000,000: Enhance existing bike lanes and improve pedestrian/bicycle crossings. Add traffic signals, improve signal timing, improve transit stops, and construct streetscape improvements.
• Central City Multimodal Improvements, Phase 2, $20,000,000: Construct high-priority bikeways, pedestrian improvements, and transit priority treatments in the Central City.
• Inner Hawthorne Multimodal Corridor Improvements, $2,000,000: Construct an eastbound protected bikeway with transit islands to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety and comfort as well as transit operational efficiency. Explore feasibility of eastbound bus only lane as part of project design.