At tonight’s meeting of the Portland Bicycle Advisory Committee, PDOT Project Manager Rich Newlands unveiled the marketing materials intended to educate Portlanders about the new bike boxes coming this spring.
Here is the centerpiece design of their “Get Behind It. The Bike Box: Portland’s new green space” campaign:
According to Newlands, this graphic will become a temporary, 30″x36″ sign to be placed “as close to the bike boxes as we can get.”
Along with these signs, a brochure has been created with more details about bike boxes and a billboard and transit-based ad campaign will be launched. A YouTube-style viral video will also be created to help spread the word.
Education was said to be the main objective of the campaign. “We’re specifically concerned with the issue of encroachment,” said Newlands. “Our target audience with these signs is not the biker, it is the motorist,” he added, “We will definitely education cyclists too, but we feel that for most of them, how to use these bike boxes will be self-evident.”
Here’s an excerpt from the brochure
What Motorists Should Know:
When the traffic signal is yellow or red, motorists must stop behind the white stop line behind the green bike box. Don’t stop on top of the bike box. Keep it clear for cyclists to use. No right turns on red at these intersections!
When the light turns green motorists and cyclists may move through the intersection as usual, with cyclists going first. Motorists turning right on green should signal and watch for cyclists to the right, especially in the green bike lane in the intersection.
What Bicyclists Should Know:
When the traffic signal is yellow or red, enter the bike boxbeforefrom the approaching green bike lane. Stop before the crosswalk.
When the light is green, proceed as normal. Be aware of right-turning motorists, especially while in the green lane in the intersection.
Along with these marketing efforts, PDOT has been working with the Portland Police Bureau (the new Captain and Lieutenant of the Traffic Division were at the meeting tonight) on an enforcement strategy specifically tailored to the bike box campaign. Newlands said officers will be watching these boxes closely and will initially give out warnings to violators.
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Also at tonight’s meeting, PDOT traffic engineer Matthew Machado gave us an update on the bike box/green bike lane configurations at the 14 intersections planned for improvements. Most of the designs are the same as I shared last November, but the three that are still being figured out are: NE Broadway and Williams, N. Interstate and Greeley, NW 9th and Lovejoy. All three of those intersections are especially tricky and several options for each are still on the table.
Project Manager Newlands says the new bike boxes and green bike lanes are slated to begin rolling out the first week of March and should take about a month and a half to complete (as long as the weather cooperates).
Portland’s existing blue bike lanes will also get the green treatment at the same time installation begins on the new improvements.