[Screenshot from PortlandMall.org]
TriMet has launched a new website to, “provide you with detailed information about the Portland Mall MAX Light Rail Project.”
In addition to construction updates, photos, progress reports, monthly contests, and so on, the site has tips for cyclists navigating the construction:
- 5th and 6th avenues: Lanes will be open on 5th and 6th avenues between Union Station and PSU. Traffic will be restricted only in specific construction areas. Expect increased congestion during peak commute times (7–9 a.m. and 4–6 p.m.).
- 3rd and 4th avenues: During Mall construction, transit buses will be using 3rd and 4th avenues. As a result, peak times during the morning and evening commute may seem more congested than usual.
Check out PortlandMall.org for all your bus mall project needs.
One thing they should do during construction is to make sure the temporary utility cuts and pavement repairs they make are adequate for cyclists to ride on.
If you’ve been down near the KOIN Tower and Keller Auditorium on 3rd Avenue recently, the road is a mess, with lots of loose gravel, and tire-catching, wheel bending temporary patches. The Water Bureau, or whoever is doing this work (in preparation for the upcoming light rail construction), could be doing a much better job here.
this is also interesting…
from the site:
The new design provides bike access along the entire length of the Mall:
* In the Central and North malls, cyclists will share a general-purpose lane with autos and trucks. In the South Mall, the design includes two general-purpose lanes alongside two transit lanes. We are currently reviewing several options to add designated bike paths in the South Mall that provide sufficient safety for cyclists as they cross MAX, bus and Streetcar service.
* In addition, we are proposing to expand bike services downtown by introducing a bike station, which provides safe storage and maintenance support to downtown cyclists. This proposal requires private investment in addition to the public support of TriMet and the City of Portland.
Natallica! Interesting?!
Yup. Sure is interesting. Read into what they’re saying. “General-purpose lane” is marketing for “we’re doing nothing for bikes.” No sharrows. No bike lanes. No bike path. No nothing. It’s a car lane like the thousands of other “general-purpose lanes” in this city.
They’re building the project so they can cram a car lane through downtown. They’re breaking up the bus mall and screwing up the bus routing. They’re going to rip up the bus mall for 2 years, then not even return all the bus lines to the mall. Transit will run slower. 3rd & 4th Ave will suck. AND THEY”RE DOING NOTHING FOR BIKES WITH THIS PROJECT.
The best part of the “general-purpose lane” is that right next to you will be buses and trains weaving in and out of each other. With nothing between you and them.
Don’t believe me? Ask TriMet to walk you through the details of what’s good about this project for bikes.
Where’s the bike facilities (outside of the minimal bike parking they’re doing)? They don’t exist. This is about placating downtown businesses that believe that having cars drive by their stores will somehow bring them more business.
It’s another example, maybe the biggest one yet, of how TriMet doesn’t care about bikes.
Screw Tri Met and the great white horse they rode in on.
Why do we not have the north south light rail rolling along the east side of downtown, where we already have rail right of ways all the way south down the rive, and north up the river?
Tri Met has seriously done more bad than good in this town, in the form of:
Viloations in bike lanes of bus use.
Inadequate bicyle storage on trains, inadequate being not enough, and the hooks do not hold your bike enough to keep it on the hook during the herky jerky driving through some areas. I have a bike ruined by the light rail, when it flew off due to bad driving.
We already have no access priviledges through the safest route of downtown, through 5th and 6th, through the center of downtown.
I have been chased off the road by bus drivers myself, and , while I thouroughly complained, and was told I was in the right, nothing was done.
Bus drivers running red lights all day throughout town. Not yellow , red.
We have bus drivers attacking people off the bus, and bus drivers letting passengers off the bus to attack bicyclists and pedestrians.
We have had bus drivers chasing cyclists thru city streets, yelling over the PA system obscenities, with passengers on the bus, putting all involved in harms way.
Full subsidation of TRI MET, while they are ordering trains at the cost of three million dolllars a car.
Constant rate increases.
Total ignorance of bus violations by the ever present TRI MET supervisors. (supervising my ass!)
Acknowledged and horrendous abuse use of the “Illegal” bus mall route by Cabs, fed ex and ups, and the worst offenders, armored car drivers.
And the worst of all in my mind, the institution of transit Police, effectively giving Tri Met their own police force.
Haven’t we had enough of Tri Met’s crap already?
Why are we giving this money wasting corporation more right of way through the middle of downtown.
There are so many more reasons why Tri Met is bad, corrupt, and not what we need in this town.
I wish Metro would take over trimet, make it a publicly owned entity. Institue a Community Tri Met policing force, in order to hold Tri Met accountable for the attrocities that they institute in our fine city on a daily basis.
SHUT DOWN THE NEW TRAIN LANE!!!!!!!
I hate Tri Met, really, thjis is the truth. They have driven me to it.
Too many years of dealing with their crap has opened my eyes to the truth.
Can you folks even see it?
Open your eyes, and shut down the north-south light rail line thru downtown.
This is our town, and we do not need this at all.
I know this sounds like a rant, but I could not be more serious here.
Also, on a other note, Tri Met has not taken into consideration the everyday, working cyclist in this proposal.
I don’t see why they would as they have never.
Sure, they are being forced to make accomadations for commuters.
What is the working cyclist going to do with bike storage?
And, they are not going to allow maintaenance support without a paid, subscription style venture being involved.
We will be charged heavily for this.
And, I must note, that I believe they are being forced to put these maintanance and storage facilities up, in order to make up for the bike racks that will be pullled out and not returned in the process of messing up downtown. So, effectively, they are taking away free bike parking, and replacing it with bike parking that will be a financial gain to TRi Met, whom we already subsidize.
Free storage and maintenance should be offered to the working cyclist, in exchange for the hassles that Tri Met has caused for many years.
The random messenger willl be forced to lockhis bike around the corner, possiblly farther from the entrance to the building they are delivering to, thus costing them and the company they work for, money and energy.
They are in the process of wasting our money, both local and federal.
Tri Met has done nothing more than disrupt the life of the working cyclist for many years. And, as it appears, this will continue.
Please pardon my typos, I have a broken hand, can’t type…
Dabby,
nice rant, one thing to add that I think is true…Cabs are actually allowed to use the transit mall and rose quarter for pick up/drop off.
Dan,
Exactly. The working cab driver can use the bus lanes to pick up and drop passengers, yet the working cyclist can and will be ticketed for not only riding down, but for crossing over, even on foot, the bus mall lanes.
Thanks for helping to accentuate my point.
Dabby
The fact is northbound in downtown traffic, we don’t need a bike lane…just take a GP lane. Southbound in the south mall where there is some climbing, a bikelane should be included.
Let’s just make the GP lane on the new Mall a bike facility…more bikes more often will make it just that.
PSU is doing a major bike station as part of the project; we do need something in the central mall area.
Lightrail on the Mall will be great addition to Portland’s transit system…much better than being stuck in a tunnel somewhere.
So everyone is up in arms about the new mall for Tri-Met. You all sound like a bunch of crying children. WAAAAA!! I WANT I WANT GIMME GIMME GIMME..
The bottom line is you can’t change Tri-met cause far more people ride Tri-Met then take bikes. Why is Tri-Met taking car of bus and rail first? well it’s because that is their job.
They are not making any special walking only lanes other then GP side walks.
They are not making any unicycle or hot air baloon docks.
Bikers have to do what they always have to do adapt. Stop crying and adapt.
As far as parking for free downtown how come that is a bikers right? What is up with that? you will have to pay to park your bike! like everyone else who parks down town you will have to pay, just like people on the bus have to pay.
The problem with people on Bikes is they think they are gods, They complain about cars, busses and people walking as if they alone are the single most used and most important form of transportation.
Get off it.
You are all crying like children. Not every tri-met project is going to have something for you. Not ever city change is going to have some thing special just for bikers.
I ride and walk every day and you know what it is a choice I make. I don’t do a bunch of crying about it when something is not perfect for me.
If you cant grow up move to Holland.