Speak up at your local bike boulevard open house

BTA New Year's Day Ride-16

The new bike boulevard in Sellwood.
There might be one coming to your
neighborhood next. Will you have a say in
what it looks like?
(Photo © J. Maus)

The City of Portland Bureau of Transportation is in the midst of a massive public outreach effort to share their bike boulevard plans. If you want to tell them how you feel about the project coming to your neighborhood, you should seriously consider attending one of them.

In case you haven’t noticed, many of these projects have already started. Crossing treatments are going in, signs are being added and changed, and new pavement markings and other features are on the way.

This is real. This is not a drill. These projects are moving forward and if you want to influence how they look and feel you need to show up and add your voice to the mix.

Detail of proposed cycle track on
Powell to assist in crossing at SE 85th/86th.

PBOT staff have told me they’re hearing from people at these open houses who are not excited about the bike boulevards and, with the bad PR around the Mayor’s recent Green Streets/BES/PBOT funding plan, it’s likely they’ll continue to hear pushback. Whether you support bike boulevards or not, it’s important to give PBOT your feedback.

PBOT plans two open houses for each project. At the first one, PBOT presents neighbors with a look at existing conditions on the route. At the second open house, PBOT presents more detailed plans that reflect neighborhood input.

Proposed plans and other updates for all projects are here. Information on the bike boulevard open houses can be found here. I’ve also listed them below so you can quickly mark your calendars:

    Southeast 101st Avenue Bicycle Boulevard – 1st Open House:
    Tuesday, March 30
    6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
    Lent Elementary (Eagle Room, 5105 SE 97th Ave)

    2nd Open House
    Tuesday, April 27

    North Central Street Bicycle Boulevard – 1st Open House:
    Thursday, April 1
    6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
    Sitton Elementary (Cafeteria, 9930 N Smith St.)

    2nd Open House
    Thursday, April 29

    Northeast Klickitat Street Bicycle Boulevard – 1st Open House:
    Thursday, April 8
    6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
    Alameda Elementary (Cafeteria, 2732 NE Fremont St.)

    2nd Open House
    Thursday, May 6

    Northeast Holman Bicycle Boulevard Open House
    April 6, May 4

    Portsmouth Bicycle Boulevard Open House
    April 13, May 11th

    SW Illinois-Vermont Boulevard Open House
    April 15, May 13

Stay tuned for more coverage. Check our bicycle boulevard archives for previous stories.

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Founder of BikePortland (in 2005). Father of three. North Portlander. Basketball lover. Car driver. If you have questions or feedback about this site or my work, contact me via email at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or phone/text at 503-706-8804. Also, if you read and appreciate this site, please become a paying subscriber.

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Mele
Mele
14 years ago

Hey Jonathan,

Where did you find the intersection diagram for Powell? I did a project on 86th/87th bb for school and I’d love to see the final plans. Thanks!

Mele
Mele
14 years ago

Nevermind, just saw your links. Thanks!

RyNO Dan
RyNO Dan
14 years ago

There are still problems with the Spokane street situation. The issue is that hundreds of motor vehicles leave Oaks bottom and Sellwood waterfront park each day, and there is not a dedicated path to get these mv’s out onto a major street. The cars are funneled to the corner of 6th and spokane, and…..then what ? The choice is to proceed down Spokane, on the bike boulevard, into the neighborhood, or turn right and face the horrible exchange at 6th and Tacoma. And so this design encourages motor vehicles to drive on the bike boulevard. =Bad.
No doubt I am way late pointing this out. Take home message -> don’t let this happen to your bike boulevard.

Steve B.
14 years ago

I’m excited to attend an upcoming open house!

Now, when do we get to talk about fixing our 1.0 bike boulevards that have very little–if any–accommodations for cyclists?

I’m thinking of Tillamook & Ankeny, but I guess those are the 2 I use the most. My main complaint is the lack of traffic calming devices and clear signage to indicate that automobiles are ‘guests’ in the bike boulevard. Both Tillamook & Ankeny suffer from a lot of cut-through traffic, despite the occasional traffic diverters.

ChaseB
ChaseB
14 years ago

You don’t list times or locations for the last three open houses on the list. Can you update that?

Brighton West
Brighton West
14 years ago

I’m at the bike blvd presentation in outer southeast and there are way more loud voices that are anti bike. Just 3 cyclists in the room trying to explain why they need improvements while the car people complain about cyclists. Bike blvds aren’t going to happen unless neighborhood cyclists show up and show that we want this.

People saying that all bikes should use the i205 trail on the other side of I205, but they don’t want to drive one block further or that speed humps will inconvenience them.

These people need to meet cyclists and see that they are real people and not just “those crazy cyclists.”

matt picio
14 years ago

RyNO Dan (#3) – Amen. Personally, I take Umatilla, and avoid Spokane altogether.