(Photos © J. Maus)
The Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) has selected City of Portland Traffic Engineer Rob Burchfield as Public Sector Professional of the Year at its annual awards meeting in New York City last week.
According to a statement from the APBP, Burchfield was honored, “for his contribution to the field demonstrated by methodical testing and implementation of innovative bicycle facility designs in the City of Portland.”
Burchfield was specifically recognized due to his work on bike boxes, the new bikeways through the Rose Quarter Transit Center (which seem to be working quite well), and his leadership in “developing visionary pilot project plans” to install Portland’s first cycle track and buffered bike lanes.
When Portland first installed bike boxes back in early 2008, Burchfield was forced to defend the facilities because they were not yet approved as traffic control devices by the Federal Highway Administration.
Burchfield has helped push PBOT to install innovative (for America) bike facilities in large part because of his exposure to world-class bikeway networks in northern European cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Most recently, Burchfield has spearheaded a multi-city initiative to establish new best practices for bicycle and pedestrian facility design (more on that effort later).