Live! Bike Master Plan hearing at Planning Commission

[UPDATE, 10/28 10:30am: I’ve summarized and analyzed the hearing in a separate post.]

Let the hearing begin!
(Photos © J. Maus)

Tonight the Portland Planning Commission will get a presentation from City of Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) staff about the Portland Bicycle Plan for 2030. This is a public hearing and, despite it being the opening game of the Portland Trail Blazers’ season, there are actually quite a few people here ready to testify.

As I rolled up to the bike parking outside, City of Portland bike coordinator Roger Geller was locking up. He said (with a grin), “I think we’ll hear it from both sides tonight… from people who think we’re going too far [for bikes] and those who think we’re not going far enough.”

I will report as the hearing unfolds (hopefully it wraps up before I have to leave at around 7:15). Stay tuned, this is sure to be an interesting evening. (*Note: The Commission is also having its second hearing tonight on a group of zoning code changes that includes an amendment that would drastically increase the minimum required amount of long-term bike parking at multi-family dwellings (condos and apartments. I won’t be hear for that portion of the hearing but will follow up with sources to share the results as soon as I can.)

Master Plan project manager Ellen Vanderslice opened with an intro saying the plan “articulates a transformative vision” for our city.

PBOT bike coordinator Roger Geller is now giving a presentation…

Tier One would put a “low-stress”
bikeway within five blocks of 80%
of Portlanders.

“We’ll be asking u to make the following recommendations to City Council (in January): To adopt the plan; to recommend the policy changes in it into the Transportation System Plan; to direct city staff to identify and pursue strategies to get funding; to use the plan to inform Portland Plan; to direct PBOT to work with other agencies for comprehensive street design guideines.

…Our story is that we have built it and they have come. [He’s going through the history.] It has been the network that’s been the foundation that everything [all Portland’s success] has been built on… If that network doesn’t fit their [the people not currently biking] needs, no amount of encouragement will get them on a bike…

… Our humble investments have resulted in high bike use. Almost one in five say bike is their primary or secondary means of transportation. The bike culture this has spawned is unsurpassed. There’s been an explosion in bike use, in bike culture, the eonomic benefits [quote’s Joe Cortright’s Green Dividend study].

… To advance, we need to reach out to the average people, the mainstream, people that ride not because they’re cyclists because it’s safe and comfortable… Our plan builds upon our bicycle legacy and will make bicycles a pillar of our city’s transportation system.

… The effort begins at where people interact with the street system. Currently, only 28% of Portlanders live within five blocks of a low-stress bikeway. At the buildout of Tier One [$100 million in improvements], 80% of all Portlanders will live within five blocks of a low-stress bikeway. Outer East Portland [a place that currently lags behind in developed bikeways] will have more miles of developed bikeways than currently exist in all of Portland…

… Our job is to develop as many low-stress bikeways as quickly and as equitably as we can… when the number of trips made by bike outnumbers the number of trips made by car, we’ll know we’ve reached our goal. “

Green Transportation Hierarchy

Mia Birk, principal of Alta Planning, former City bike coordinator, is up now. “I’ve had a hand in hundreds of bike plans around the country and this is the best one… I also talk to you as a business owner.” Birk shared the idea of a “green transportation heirarchy” where pedestrians are at the top and single occupancy cars are at the bottom. She also warned of “pushback” because the plan calls for “re-allocating space”. She ended with, “We’ve made great strides [since last plan adopted in 1996], but we’ve really only scratched the surface. I encourage you to adopt this plan.”

Jay Graves, owner of six local Bike Gallery stores is up next…

“I own six bike shops in Portland, but I want talk to you as an owner of a truck, trying to get around town. I think of the 20,000 trips taken by bikes every day and I think of the business aspect of what we’re talking about.”

Graves talked a lot about the bike economy, sharing that his company gets a lot of resumes from “young, smart” people moving here specifically for our bike scene. “I’m hosting 25 retailers next week. They wanted to come here specifically because of what they’ve heard about what a great city Portland is for biking.” Graves also shared that, although commissioners might assume he’s one of the “Strong and Fearless” riders [one of four categories PBOT uses to identify type of cyclists], he is “getting old” and tonight he’ll ride home “On the Tillamook bike boulevard, not on the bike lane on Weidler.”

Randy Miller, another member of the Bike Master Plan Steering Committee, said “this whole bike issue been a sea change for me. “I haven’t been a cyclist for too long [about a year and a half he said] and what I see with this Master Plan is a huge opportunity for Portland.” Miller is a major player in the downtown business scene. He said, on all those business committees he sits on, “We’re always looking for a way to distinguish Portland. We have a to find a way to stand out.”

Joe Adamski, a volunteer with the North Portland Greenway project, says he has a problem with “implementation” in the plan:

“It boils down to the assignment of two projects, Sullivan’s Gulch and the North Portland Greenway trail, to Tier Two status. Tier One projects are all on-street… while that is an important part of the master plan, totally ignoring and deferring off-street trails, is a huge missed opportunity.

We recently received nearly $500K to do a feasibility and engineering study, so to all the sudden be pushed off to a 30-year timeline renders all the work we’ve done as moot and I really have a problem with that… We’re asking the North Portland Greenway to be moved to Tier One status.”

Adamski’s testimony started an exchange with Commission Chris Smith and Howard Shapiro that centered on which type of facility — a bike boulevard or an off-street path — are the best “gateway drug” (as Smith put it) for getting new people to try bicycling.

Commissioner Howard Shapiro said, “I don’t think it’s a question of either-or, we’d like to see it all.”

I’ve got to leave in a few minutes. I’ll wrap this up tomorrow morning.