Portland Parks & Recreation has added new pavement markings on the Eastbank Esplanade floating ramps to warn people on bikes to prepare for a bump. The new markings are part of a larger campaign aimed at improving safety of path users.

Back in July of 2010, we brought attention to these jarring bumps after hearing about a friend who had crashed after hitting them. Shortly after that story ran, Parks vowed to evaluate the situation and six months later they installed a less severe "transition strip" to flatten the bumps.

Now Parks has put down a series of pavement markings with the word "BUMP" along with white stripes across the path. I took a closer look at them yesterday and they seem to have an impact. People were noticeably grabbing brakes and slowing down as they approached...

Parks spokesman Mark Ross says the new markings were installed in response to "concerns raised by the Portland bike community," and are part of a larger effort to improve traffic safety on both the Esplanade and in Waterfront Park.

New signs coming soon.

"We are working in collaboration with PBOT on all of these improvements," said Ross via email this morning. He added that Parks is collaborating with bike safety experts at PBOT along with a traffic engineer to make sure the markings are consistent with what folks see on the street."

Other elements of the biking and walking safety effort will include new signs targeted at people on bikes and more pavement markings at "a few key intersections." The work is expected to be completed by this spring.

Have you seen the "Bump" markings? We'd love to know what you think about them.

An electrical pole recently installed on the northern side of the Broadway Bridge has raised concerns because it narrows the opening of the very busy biking and walking path to a substandard width. Concerns have been raised by advocates, citizens, and even Multnomah County (who has operational jurisdiction over the bridge) says they opposed the pole's placement.

Chris Smith, a City of Portland Planning Commissioner, a major proponent of streetcar, and a member of the board of the private non-profit Portland Streetcar Inc. (PSI, the private non-profit that builds and operates the streetcar), has called the pole, "an abomination" because it, "creates an incursion into a bike facility with no process or consequences" and a "a crash hazard" because it, "makes it difficult for cyclists to share the space with other users of the shared use path."

Asked whether he thinks these concerns are valid, the executive director of PSI, Rick Gustafson (the father of Julie Gustafson, a project spokesperson for streetcar contractor Shields Obletz Johnson), said he agrees that the pole's placement is "unfortunate" and that concerns are "valid any time you constrain bicycle access," but that there were no other feasible — or affordable — options.

View looking west.
(Photos © J. Maus)

Smith wrote a letter (which was signed by BTA Executive Director Rob Sadowsky) to Gustafson and PBOT Director Tom Miller last month decrying the pole's placement and requesting several mitigation measures to offset the negative impact the pole has on the bike network.

Mike Pullen, a spokesman for Multnomah County said County staff opposed a similar request from the streetcar project to place a pole in the south sidewalk of the bridge. In that situation, PSI and PBOT were able to locate the pole off the path by cantilevering it off the bridge railing.

"Our staff also raised concerns about the pole in the north sidewalk," Pullen told BikePortland. But in that case, they were told there was no reasonable alternative location.

"We agree this is not a good location," Pullen added, "and that it creates a pinch point for sidewalk users." (Pullen also said that given all the poles on the sidewalk, "one more pole should not make a substantive difference.")

With so much agreement that the pole placement is problematic, why did PSI and PBOT move forward with it? (At about 4-feet 10-inches, the narrowed width is below PBOT's own standard for bike-only lanes and this is a shared path.)

According to Gustafson, it's simply an, "unfortunate trade-off." While Gustafson echoed a PSI spokesperson's claim that the location was chosen based on engineering feasibility, Gustafson also said it was also an issue of money:

"For a couple-hundred thousand dollars you could do it [move it somewhere else]... But you get to a point where you have to say, let's go back and assess the value... How much per inch are you willing to spend? ... We have a 4-foot, 10-inch passageway for bikes, so what's the value of a 5-foot, 6-inch passageway? Is it $200,000?"

Gustafson has entertained the idea of moving the pole, "But they all involve an inordinate amount of money."

When asked why the community wasn't able to debate the merits of that expenditure, Gustafson acknowledged that PSI and PBOT made a mistake in not making the pole's placement public prior to installation.

"I agree, that's unfortunate. That's a problem and it's not how we typically operate or how we'd like to operate. It [the pole location] was a surprise to quite a lot of people."

One key issue that Chris Smith raised, and that has troubled citizen activist Joe Rowe (who has launched a Facebook page for the issue), is that the pole was initially intended to be placed in a different location, but project staff used the "change order" process to move it. That process wasn't made public claims Smith.

Today, Gustafson denied that it was done through a change order, but he admitted that a change could have been made by construction crews and that the change wasn't made public.

"There may have been an infield decision to move it over because of an issue with the [bridge] support member... I don't have precise documentation. If that occurred that would be a mistake on our part to make a change in the field without alerting the bike community that we violated the standard bike lane widths... And that goes for the City and Streetcar; both were in agreement to place that pole."

BTA Executive Director Rob Sadowsky says if they had an opportunity to review the plans prior to installation, "None of this would have happened."

"You would never put a pole in the middle of a road," added Sadowsky, "You shouldn't be putting a pole in the middle of an MUP [multi-use path] — it's just wrong."

Gustafson says he and PSI are "as committed to the goal of 25% bike mode split as you are," and he recognizes that to reach that goal, "we need to have outstanding facilities" for bikes.

As for the mitigation measures requested by Chris Smith to make up for the pole's impact on the bikeway, Gustafson says he and Smith are actively working on them and they plan to bring a proposal of improvements to PBOT Director Tom Miller and then "figure out a way to fund it."

PBOT is giving the plastic bollards on the NW Lovejoy ramp another shot. There are 30 or short "wands" installed to keep cars out of the bike lane; unfortunately not more than a few days after they were put in, drivers managed to uproot all but four of them.

A PBOT contractor is out there as I type this re-installing the wands with what agency spokesman Dan Anderson says is a "better method" of attachment. "Our maintenance crews have some techniques for concrete that should make these harder to knock off," he says.

Hopefull he's right. Time will tell (see update below).

Check out more pics below...

UPDATE, 10:05 am on 1/11: So far it looks like the newly installed bollards are holding up well. None of them had been knocked over when I went by this morning...

Biking continues to improve for residents of North Portland. The City just unwrapped a small but important improvement that will improve bike safety during pick-up and drop-off on the main road outside Cesar Chavez School on N. Willis Blvd.

As part of a their Safe Routes to School Program, PBOT engineers identified the lack of a marked crosswalk in front of the school and the lack of bike parking capacity as two key improvements they needed to make. The just-completed project has added a bike corral, a new bike lane, crosswalk striping and signage, and a curb ramp.

Before improvements were made. (Image: Google Map)

PBOT spokesperson Dan Anderson said the entire project was done for just $5,450 and was paid for with state gas tax funding allocated from House Bill 2001. Here's more from Anderson:

"The goal of this small project was to improve student safety through cost-effective investments in a marked, accessible crossing at the school’s front door and additional bike parking that has the added benefit of protecting the marked crossing by preventing drivers from obstructing it."

The project ties into PBOT's North Portland Connector Neighborhood Greenway project.

PBOT has worked with Cesar Chavez School (formerly Clarendon at Portsmouth School) on the Safe Routes to School program since 2007. The program also includes hands-on biking and walking safety education.

In other North Portland news, PBOT has just added sharrows and turned stop signs on N. Bryant Ave between Albina and the Bryant Street Bridge as part of their Bryant-Holman Connector project.

After I shared photos of a psuedo-cycle track in Tigard, and when I visited an actual two-way cycle track in Eugene, some of you contacted me to share your experiences with a cycle track in Beaverton, about two miles south of Tualatin Valley Highway.

I went to check it out for myself and it was nice to have dedicated space for me and my bike. Unfortunately the cycle track is more of a proof-of-concept than it is a valuable piece of a transportation network.

At barely two tenths of a mile long the track is best suited for local traffic and doesn't do much to connect other bicycle-friendly routes.

The cycle tracks runs next to Sexton Mountain Elementary School, along SW 155th between Sexton Mountain Drive and Rigert Road (you can see it in this satellite view of the area).

First, let me share what works well on this stretch of road.

Bicycles travel on asphalt raised up to the level of the sidewalk for most of the length of the cycle track. Planters and trees provide a barrier to motor vehicle traffic in those sections as well.

The bicycle lane drops back down to the level of the motor vehicle lane at intersections, sharing a space with motor vehicles at stop signs.

Initially I was expecting right-turning cars to pull over and block bicycle traffic but in my time riding in the area most cars kept to their side.

Textured pavement in the intersections, combined with planters and trees separating most of the bike lane, seem to be enough of a reminder that people in cars should be watching out for other modes of transportation.

The cycle track passes through three- and four-way stops along SW 155th, demonstrating that this style of cycle track can be adapted to different types of intersections.

There are also many elements of the cycle track that could use improvement.

Speed bumps have been installed in the motor vehicle lane in an attempt to limit travel to the legal, posted speed limit. The bumps aren't particularly large though, and cars seemed to have no trouble passing over them without slowing down.

One person in a truck passed through while I was taking pictures, traveling at what seemed to be well over the posted speed limit. They didn't need to slow down over the bumps at all. Only the four-way stop caused them to briefly reduce their speed.

The south end of the cycle track is also uninviting to bicycle traffic.

Coming from the south you have to share the road with motor vehicles traveling quickly downhill, without the aid of a bike lane, while watching for people opening the doors of parked cars.

Leaving the cycle track and heading back south in the opposite direction, you're dropped off the track and onto a road with nearly no shoulder and no signs warning other traffic of merging bicycles.

End school zone and end cycle track

This cycle track is a great addition to the neighborhood but it doesn't provide much value (outside of improving access to the elementary schoo)l. It provides safer access to the school for kids and parents, and could be helpful if you're already planning to ride on SW 155th, but it's not worth going out of your way to ride along the track.

Without safe, convenient connections to the ends of the cycle track it will likely continue to only benefit short, local trips. However, this section of SW 155th can serve as a proof of concept showing that we can find plenty of room on the road for all of us, even in the suburbs.

Do you ride your bike along this stretch of road? How did you use it to travel around Washington County?

UPDATE: Bill LaMarche, Public Information Manager for the City of Beaverton, emailed me with some additional details about the track's construction and some recent work done to smooth out the asphalt:

The cycle track was constructed with the SW 155th Avenue Improvements in 1996.

The project was designed by the City of Beaverton to help walkers and cyclists who use 155th in that area. The sidewalk was not originally extra wide but improved later.

The City’s Public Works Street Crew ground down the raised asphalt about a month ago due to tree roots.

You can see a photo of the asphalt smoothing LaMarche refers to here.

— Read more Washington County bike news here. Contact Will Vanlue, will [at] bikeportland.org with tips and feedback.

A missing section of the Fanno Creek Trail, nearly a decade in the making, is nearing completion.

The new section of trail will connect from where the Fanno Creek Trail now ends at Denny Road to where it picks back up near SW Allen Boulevard and Scholls Ferry Road.

Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District (THPRD) initially reported that the trail could be completed as early as December 1st. When I rode my bike to check it out just before Christmas, however, I found there was still a sign on SW 105th saying the trail was closed ahead.

I figured I'd check out what I could see from the edge of the closed section but when I rode on I found the trail kept on going without any fences or barriers blocking it off.

The new section is well paved and provides a fairly direct route between the current end points of the Fanno Creek Trail. It features a bridge over Fanno Creek as well as a series of smaller bridges over low areas which, hopefully, will prevent the trail from flooding as often as it does in other areas.

All of the bridges are constructed of plastic and wood composite boards which look like they'll hold up well to bicycle traffic and Oregon's wet climate.

Further on down the trail I met a construction crew putting finishing touches on the trail. They explained that, despite there being no barriers or fences, the trail was in fact closed to the public. According to the crew on site during my visit, construction will be finished and the trail will open on December 30th.

After I visited, one of our readers contacted me to say that as of December 24th the new section trail had been fenced off and is inaccessible.

I'll be checking out the new section of the Fanno Creek Trail in the new year and will share more once the it is officially open.

If you do try to check out the trail yourself, use caution and be sure to obey all posted signs and the direction of construction crews on site.

Were you able to check out the trail before it was fenced off? Be sure to share your impressions in the comments below.

— Read more Washington County bike news here. Contact Will Vanlue, will [at] bikeportland.org with tips and feedback.

A new, unauthorized traffic sign attached to a utility pole on NE Ainsworth Street at 30th urges people on bikes to leave the narrow, busy street and take the neighborhood greenway one block over instead. Nearby resident Stephen Upchurch sent in a photo of the sign. It reads, "Bike route one block [arrow]: Be SAFE."

The sign touches on what has become a major debate in bike and transportation planning circles as cities across the country develop bike boulevard networks: Should people continue to ride on busy, narrow streets when there is a bike-specific, low-stress route just one block over?

Former Portland bike coordinator and now nationally prominent consultant and author Mia Birk penned an article about this issue recently that appeared in the Portland Tribune. The headline itself, Are cyclists clueless or just plain rude? spoke to the heated feelings around this issue.

Ainsworth specifically, is in many ways ground zero for this debate because of its extremely narrow cross-section. Despite being a major neighborhood collector street that serves a relatively high volume of traffic, a "linear arboretum" that runs down its center and on-street parking make it too narrow for people on bikes and cars to travel side-by-side.

Not much space on Ainsworth.
(Photo: Peter Welte)

And who can forget the famous "Ainsworth Incident" back in 2008 when a Portland Police officer nearly struck a group of people riding on Ainsworth and then issued one of them a ticket for impeding traffic.

We've offered suggestions on how the City might improve access on Ainsworth; but so far we're not aware of any changes in the works.

This brings us back to the "Be SAFE" sign. Mr. Upchurch shared some of his feelings about the street with us via email:

"[The sign] attempts to direct those on bikes toward what is termed a "Bike route" accompanied by the suggestion that being SAFE is taking that route. That's presumably Holman the neighborhood greenway, as opposed to Ainsworth with its narrow travel lane and on-street parking that combine to squeeze bikes and cars and any tension within their occupants right to the top.

The sign is, in my mind, symbolic of that tension. Tension that arises out of the unfortunate way that the street is set up.

Don't get me wrong I enjoy riding on Holman and am happy with what PBOT has done with it but I can tell you as one who lives on Ainsworth there is a consistent stream of bikes on the street and I don't think they are going away. I just wish there was more room... for everyone."

Should a city focus on big, high-profile facilities or should they focus on building a network of safe, low-stress connector streets and trails if they want to make riding a bike safer and easier?

It's a chicken-or-egg sort of conversation I got into with Shane MacRhodes, Program Manager of Eugene Safe Routes to School, while we were riding around Eugene with Bob Passaro, publisher of Eugene Bicyclist.

Our conclusion was that one can't exist without the other if either are going to live up to their full potential.

For example, take a look at where the Fanno Creek Trail crosses Hall Boulevard.

The Fanno Creek Trail is a convenient route that many people can use to transport themselves around Washington County. When the trail reaches Hall Boulevard anyone who wants to get across has to go well out of their way to find a safe, marked crossing.

The result is that the Fanno Creek Trail near Hall Boulevard gets less use than other sections of the trail that don't come to a dead stop.

Another example, this one of a large facility without safe connecting routes, is the bicycle and pedestrian bridge over I-5 near Kruse Way and Highway 217.

You probably have driven under this bridge, located over I-5 about 10 miles south of downtown Portland, but you may not have noticed it. That's partly because the getting to either side of the bridge can be unsafe and the bridge is nearly impossible to find.

Here's the cross walk on the west end of the bridge...

And here's the sidewalk leading up to the east end of the bridge...

Accessing the Kruse Way bridge is unpleasant, at best. The condition of crosswalks and sidewalks leading to the bridge may prevent some people, especially those with mobility limitations, from accessing the bridge at all.

Building a safe transportation network and a big facility that work together make both more than a sum of their parts. The Hawthorne Bridge in Portland and the DeFazio Bridge in Eugene are examples where that combination has proved successful and people have responded by coming out on their bicycles in droves.

Hawthorne Bridge in Portland
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

In order to get the most out of every scarce dollar we spend on transportation, planners must "think big" when it comes to barriers like freeways and rivers but they also must make sure there are safe, comfortable connections to their big ideas.

Starting January 1st, cities throughout Oregon will get the green light on bicycle signals.

Bike-specific signals aren't new in Portland, the City's Bureau of Transportation has used them for years now; but technically they've been doing so on an experimental basis. This past legislative session, the City helped pass Senate Bill 130, which codifies bicycle signals into Oregon law and makes them official traffic control devices with as much legal weight and respect as standard signals.

Peter Koonce (yes, we're
in good hands!).

To learn more about bike signals and the new law, we asked PBOT's Signals and Street Lighting Division Manager, Peter Koonce (in photo at right) a few questions. Koonce rides a bike around town often and he brings that sensibility to his work. Last February, Koonce testified on behalf of SB 130, telling legislators that they should pass the bill because,

"Providing an exclusive signal display recognizes the differences between motor vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians, and it separates bicycles from conflicting movements."

Koonce answered a few of our questions below...

"The law adds the green, yellow and red bicycle symbols displayed in bike signals to list of traffic control devices. Additionally, flashing yellow arrow symbols are defined in the law. These definitions were not in the Oregon Vehicle Code or the Uniform Vehicle Code, which most states use as the base from which to build their own state Vehicle Code. It allows Police to enforce violations of the displays at intersections as we do other traffic control devices."

"The City of Portland installed its first bicycle signal in 2004 at N Interstate and N Oregon. The bicycle signal has improved compliance, is intuitive and has been an effective tool to communicate expectations to users at the intersection. Perhaps the most important element of bike signals’ introduction is the improved safety performance. For example, we haven't experienced any bicycle-related crashes at the intersection in the seven years since the signal began operating."

"The City has worked closely with the Federal Highway Administration to develop experimental designs that allow us to test new traffic control devices such as the bike signal at N Interstate. The bicycle box study is another example of the City doing experimental traffic engineering to test yet-to-be-approved traffic control that looks promising. More information on the Federal process is available on their website."

"There are several locations where bicycle signal displays would reduce potential conflicts and remove unnecessary delay. We look forward to working get them installed under the new law.

For example, we are currently designing a bicycle signal for the westbound movement at the intersection of NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and NE Lloyd Blvd.

The Portland to Milwaukie Light Rail project is a large project for the region and we are incorporating bicycle signals to control some of the unique movements that will result to insure safe operations of people on bicycles, buses and light rail trains.

The new law clarifies the meaning of the signal display and allows enforcement with less ambiguity."

"There has been considerable interest nationally in our efforts. Denver recently implemented their first bicycle signal, Eugene turned on their first bicycle signal in December of this year, and Clackamas County, Ashland and Salem have designed bicycle signals for their localities."

—

In some ways, this official recognition of bike-only signals is yet another way that Portland is moving toward more separation between transportation modes. Keep your eyes peeled for bike signals in 2012.

If you've ridden through Tigard (about 10 miles south of downtown Portland) recently you might have seen short white stripes in front of storm drains in the vicinity of Tigard High School.

The stripes are placed in front of grates sunken a couple inches into the pavement. Dropping unexpectedly onto the grates can be jarring but usually they're relatively safe for bicycle travel (the slots of the grates are oriented perpendicular to the direction of travel and won't catch your bike's tire).

The markings, installed on streets maintained by the City of Tigard, seem to be an indication the drains are a hazard to be avoided and therefore don't meet state requirements for bike lane construction.

It's nice to have warning of a grate coming up, but the stripes extend nearly to the edge of the bike lane. Avoiding the hazard marked by the stripe leaves only a couple inches for your bicycle to pass.

Oregon Revised Statue (ORS) 810.150 clearly states that storm grates must not interfere with bicycle traffic. The statue requires drains in the road be built so that bicycle traffic can pass over grates "safely and without obstruction or interference."

I've left a message with Mike McCarthy, Tigard's Bicyce Coordinator, to get more information about the purpose of the markings and if the city has further plans to address the interference the sunken grates cause.

McCarthy is out of the office for the holidays, but once he returns I'll update this story with his comments on the markings.

UPDATE: I spoke with McCarthy this morning and he confirmed that these stripes were placed to warn people on bicycles about the presence of grates which, in the past, were installed without full consideration for bicycle traffic. He explained that the City of Tigard does consider bicycle traffic a priority and now will usually raises up the level of the drain basin, when needed, as they resurface roads.

Stripes on Durham (pictured above) were installed after the city received feedback from people who bike in Tigard, including BikePortland commenter K'Tesh. McCarthy took the time to ride the route himself and purposely rode over the drains to determine which were jarring enough to warrant a warning stripe.

The drains could have been retrofitted and raised to street level but the process is fairly cost-intensive when it's done as a separate project and not as part of resurfacing the road.

Also, when a drain basin is raised as part of street resurfacing it can be worked into the budget of the resurfacing project. When the drains are raised up one at a time the cost must be taken out of bicycle and pedestrian improvement-specific budgets which, based on input from citizens and Tigard's Bicycle Advisory Committee, is usually spent on larger projects which can create new, safe routes for people on bicycles.

— Read more Washington County bike news here. Contact Will Vanlue, will [at] bikeportland.org with tips and feedback.