Back in October, transportation advocates and concerned citizens attended a Transportation Safety Summit hosted by Commissioner Sam Adams. The goal was to identify specific strategies that would make our streets safer.
Based on the summit, PDOT created an action plan and released it for public input. Only problem is that no knows it exists. Turns out it was released just before the holidays and has since become buried in a far off corner of Sam’s blog…until now.
This draft of the Transportation Safety Action Plan (PDF) is an important document that outlines 50 specific “actions” that can have a profound effect on how it feels to live in our city. PDOT wants to know your feedback by January 21st. Once they’ve heard what you think, they’ll take it to City Council and from there, if approved, it will become a guide to future policy.
Here are some of the bike-specific actions in the plan:
- Provide at least 500 motorists and bicyclists with bicycle safety diversion class for bicycle-related traffic violations.
- Partner with Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to increase bicycle education.
- Initiate program with bicycle shops to provide safety information and bicycle theft registration with sales of all bicycles; and implement a program with car-rental agencies to provide pedestrian and bicycle safety information.
- Build 10 on-street bicycle parking facilities to enhance turning visibility and reduce clutter on sidewalks to allow more sidewalk tables and planters.
- Target bicycle safety engineering improvements to create a network that is comfortable for families traveling between neighborhoods and comfortable for children traveling within their own neighborhood.
You can direct comments to Mark Lear at (503) 823-7604 or mark.lear@pdxtrans.org. It would also be great to have cyclists testify when it comes up at City Council. I’ll keep you posted on when that happens.
>Build 10 on-street bicycle parking facilities to enhance turning visibility and reduce clutter on sidewalks to allow more sidewalk tables and planters.
I believe these on street bike parking facilities are created by converting a single car parking space to a space with racks to hold lots of bikes.
My first thought is “Wow, this is awesome! Having 10 more of those things would rock”.
My second thought was “OK, so we’ll have less than 15 of these after the ten are built… thats like 0.0001 % of the # of car spaces.”
Ten is a great start, but how about 50, or 100? Whatever it takes to create sufficient bike parking everywhere. Now *that* would really rock.
I agree, more bike parking would be cool…but the reality is that we are a small percentage of the population. Of course there’s a debate about whether more parking would cause more people to ride. There’s also the political reality of the city decision makers not being behind more bike parking. The bottom line too is that most business owners still see dollar signs when they look at car parking and see a nuisance when they see bike parking…hopefully someday this will change.
Im curious as to what the design elements will look like for these on street bike parking areas. Firstly, I doubt people (including myself) will want to park there if they are not shielded somehow from traffic and the adjacent parking spaces. We’ve all seen one too many bikes that got ‘accidentally’ bumped by a car.
If you want to check out an on-street bike parking facility, PDOT built one on N. Shaver at Mississippi Avenue where the Fresh Pot cafe is. My recollection is that there is some protection from cars. Greg Raisman at PDOT (greg.raisman@pdxtrans.org) coordinated the project and I’m sure would be happy to answer any questions.