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PBOT to install new bike box, lane markings at Madison/Grand today

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward


PBOT plan drawing for SE Madison between 6th and Grand.
-Full image below-

PBOT will install a new bike box and colored lane markings on SE Madison just east of SE Grand today. Back in September, the City unveiled a list of 11 bike box locations, saying, “Our observation is that they’ve contributed to a safer, more comfortable travel environment.” This is the second bike box to be installed from that list.

Bike traffic in Portland-8.jpg
Bike traffic on SE Madison waits
for the light at Grand.
(Photos © J. Maus)

This bike box installation also comes with a new striping plan for the bike lane on Madison between SE 6th and Grand and a trial of a new type of material for the green pavement marking.

This location, which feeds directly onto the Hawthorne Bridge, handles a high volume of vehicle traffic (both cars and bikes) and there is a frequent service bus line that stops right at the corner. To “better manage the interaction,” PBOT says they’ll add a short segment of green bike lane that highlights the area where motor vehicles cross the bike lane to enter the right turn lane.” (Grand is a one-way headed north. Madison is one-way going west).

From PBOT:

“The green bike lane highlights the transition area where motor vehicles will cross the bike lane to enter the right turn lane. The bike box is to provide more space for bicycle riders to queue in the front of the travel lane to be able to more quickly clear the intersection. This improved bicycle operation will clear the bike lane faster and make it easier for buses to leave the bus stop. It remains important that bicycle riders yield to buses when their yield light is flashing on the back of the bus. It also is important that motor vehicle operators use the right turn lane for right turns and not make them from the through travel lane to the left of the bike lane.”

PBOT will also use this project for the first trial demonstration of a new material known as “streetbond.” Other green markings around town use a cold-formed thermoplastic that is laid down in sheets. That material is expensive and hasn’t performed as well through our cold winters as PBOT would have liked. In a statement about the Madison project, PBOT said, the new material is “being tested for cost-effectiveness, maintenance and general traffic performance.”

The new streetbond is a spray-on epoxy that is easier to apply to large areas. It’s also the same material being used in New York City (and they’ve applied a lot of it, so they should know!).

Look for the project to be completed by the end of today. UPDATED: See below for larger plan drawing complete with signage/marking notes and more info.

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