like this in Southwest Portland.
(Photos © J. Maus)
Proclaiming that, “Southwest Portland wants to be Platinum too,” SWTrails has released their latest list of “immediate actions” and recommendations for bikeway improvements in their part of the city.
SWTrails has worked with Southwest Portland residents and the City of Portland Office of Transportation for well over a year (we last heard from them back in November) to identify and map out a comprehensive list of improvements that they say will bring SW Portland up to par with other areas of Portland’s highly touted bike network.
Keith Liden, a citizen volunteer who is spearheading the effort (he is also a member of the Portland Bicycle Advisory Committee) says that, “While SW benefits from many of the city’s bicycle promotion programs, the facilities in SW are generally not on a par with most other areas in the city.”
city budget hearing last year, is
an ardent advocate for better biking
conditions in SW Portland.
The main focus of the SWTrails effort is to identify a connected system of low-traffic bicycle boulevards streets that they say will provide people with “a pleasant and safe bicycling environment – something that is certainly lacking in SW Portland today.”
Liden and the SWTrails group have developed two maps, a spreadsheet, and a memo describing their draft recommendations, which they plan to submit later this summer to PDOT for official adoption into the Portland Bicycle Master Plan update.
The first map (download below) shows a list of “Immediate Actions”. Liden, says “We feel these projects are the most important ones for the city to consider completing as soon as possible. They generally are bike boulevards, although some important links, such as Terwilliger near Sheridan, would require more elaborate improvements, such as uphill shoulders or bike lanes.”
Here’s a detail from the map:
Download PDF here (2MB)
SWTrails has also mapped out a complete inventory of their dream bikeway network. Here’s a detail from that map:
Download PDF here (2MB)
Liden and other members of SWTrails plan to share more information about this effort and seek public input at an open house later this month.
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Southwest Portland Bicycle Boulevard Project Open House
Multnomah Arts Center (7688 SW Capitol Hwy)
June 18th from 5:30 to 8 pm
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Finally!
BTW, the immediate actions PDF gave me an error message and would not display properly.
The uphill shoulders are critical. We need those on Cornell as well. They should have made an uphill bike lane on Germantown when they repaved it last year. Maybe next time.
The Portland Pedestrian Advisory Committee supports the Red Electric/Fanno Creek Greenway connection to Hillsdale TC in its recommendations for Regional Flexible Funds. This is a priority for SW trails, and we think this would be a critical multi-use connection between SW Portland and Hillsdale.
Nice to see. It\’s such a shame that some of Portlands nicest biking terrain is on some of it\’s most frightening streets.
YES!
Barbur cycle track! I think that would promote westside biking more than anything.
Great job to everyone involved. I look forward to seeing improvements on the ground.
I too would like to see the Red Electric project developed. That will create many new bikers in my neighborhood. It will allow easier access to Hillsdale for those that actually don\’t like climbing steep hills or ride in heavy traffic.
I get an error when I try to view the PDF in my browser (firefox). But if I save it to disk first, then it views just fine.
This would be nice. I ride 16 miles a day on Barbur between Tigard and the Ross Island Bridge- I would love to have the option of a different route or have the bike safety improved on Barbur. The number of near right hooks that happen every week is crazy.
Expanding the Fanno Creek Greenway would be SO Fabulous…I would be able to actually do errands on my bike…
I couldn\’t be happier about this, and the cherry on top is that open house is across the street from our house.
SW (south of downtown, at least) often feels a little bit like the neglected piece of biking legislature in Portland. Glad to see this happening!
Just wondering why Maricara St. is in the plan as a possible bike path (far SW). It leads from a possible bike lane on 35th to a walking trail in Maricara Park to nowhere… Unless there is a hidden agenda here, Huber St. is a good through street, just a couple of blocks north. I\’ve seen people bike this way only to have to turn around when there is nowhere to go.
I\’m wondering too. Parks and Rec are moving existing trails near wetlands to protect wildlife. This is a nature park where a bike path doesn\’t belong.