PBOT eyeing cycle track on SW 12th through downtown

I use this route frequently, coming off the train at goose hollow. I hope they do it. (Vehicular cyclists may throw themselves in front of cars on other streets.)

We need a good northbound bike route downtown but this seems too close to 14th

I ride along this north-bound street every morning from the PSU campus. I agree it could easily lose an auto lane. It has good connection across Burnside to the Pearl District with a signalized intersection and it intersects the east-bound Stark Street cycle track. This would make a nice addition to the system of downtown bike facilities.

Seems awfully silly to me, the street is downhill pretty much all of the way downtown, you can easily maintain the 12.5 mph necessary to keep up with traffic while staying right in the middle of one of the traffic lanes. A better way to spend the money would be creating a CONTINUOUS cycle track heading south (uphill) from SW Burnside to PSU, either via Broadway or some other street.

We need multiple cycle tracks. 12th is too far out of the way for most people, although it would serve the relatively small niche of PSU students commuting from NW Portland & the Pearl.

For anyone riding to downtown over the Willamette, next to useless. We really need a cycle track between Broadway and 2nd.

It would be better if there was a logical way to tie into Madison and access to the Hawthorne Bridge. But the condos and PAM block a direct connection west of the Park Blocks.

I live in this area. I say to use 10th and put the cycle track on the left side of the street. We need to make everyone realize that it is OK for bikes to use the left side when there are streetcar tracks on the right side of a one-way street.

12th will probably be ok, and I agree that it has excess capacity as it exists now. It just seems a little out of the way for most people so it isn’t going to have as much impact as it should.

I also agree with the comment that we need another southbound cycle track. Broadway, with it’s short but steep hills, is really terrible. 11th would work, again with the cycle track opposite the streetcar tracks.

I can’t see the point. I take the lane on 12th, any lane, and have never had anything resembling a problem. It’s downhill and wide and easy. Can we have one southbound instead?

if PBoT gets a green lane project grant from bikes belong there will be money to fund various public relations activities around this and similar installations, including money for studies to show how well the thing works, so that other cities may be encouraged to do something similar. to compete for the grant, they had to identify specific projects that they could put in during 2013. check out the surveymonkey link on
http://www.bikesbelong.org/bikes-belong-foundation/green-lane-project/for-interested-cities/
in short, you may want to ask whether 12th was selected in part because it would not be difficult or expensive to implement quickly, and the data (depending how they frame the study) are likely to show that it “works.”

I think this is nice, but not particularly impressive. Seems like PBOT is desperate to come up with more low-hanging fruit to pick.

I say make a statement on Broadway with a separated 2-way cycle track and road diet from at least Burnside to PSU. If NYC/Sadik-Khan can show guts and heart with what they’ve done in Manhattan, we should be able to as well.

how about giving cyclists a whole “buffered” lane. given signal enforced speed limits down town there is absolutely no need to “protect” cyclists behind a wall of parked cars (as on broadway).

the cycle track walled garden is not the ultimate destination, its just a temporary fix.

Are they considering a two-way track? Southbound flow is needed much more than northbound, I think, because it’s uphill and 14th already serves a lot of the northbound traffic.

I think it’s a great idea for an experiment, but I agree with several others that the street that desperately needs this treatment is Broadway.

My suggestion (in addition to 12th):

I think that a bidirectional cycle track on 5th ave would be great – its not like that many cars use the street anyway. Just ban cars from the street and everything would be peachy.

This is seriously one of the most underutilized streets in downtown, automobile-wise. There are roughly 1,000 – 2,000 cars per DAY that use the street – far fewer than Vancouver/Williams couplet, which are during peak hour more than 2,000 per hour! Anyways, Broadway is 2 blocks over. So is 3rd. Both of those streets have far higher traffic counts, likely because they are much better streets to drive on.

Take a look at this Portland traffic count map if you don’t believe me:
http://goo.gl/EdnV9

I guess we’re supposed to be happy at any and all cycle-track projects, but like the one by PSU and the one in Cully, this is yet more low-hanging fruit. How much proof-of-concept do we need before exerting the political courage to do something truly useful? As many people have noted recently, Portland is in a plateau/rut when it comes to bike infrastructure improvements.
Yesterday’s “world class” is today’s also-ran. Cycle-tracks-to-nowhere are almost more embarrassing than they are effective showcases, or perhaps they are effective to the degree that they get us to say “hey, when the hell are we going to get one of these on a street that matters?”

there are literally thousands of cyclists who head towards the willamette bridges from ohsu and psu. please remind me of a single downtown facility that serves them. is this what one would expect in a world class cycling city?

A SW 12th cycletrack is a great idea.

Of all the SB streets in downtown, this one has plenty of excess car capacity. And it goes straight from PSU to Lovejoy.

Before the Lovejoy Bike Lane was decommissioned as part of the streetcar project, 12th => Lovejoy => the Broadway Bridge was an underappreciated route from PSU to N/NE Portland. Except for a 3 block jog off the Park Blocks, it was as direct as direct can be, made excellent use of the downhill bonus, and had little car traffic. It’s still good, as Johnson/9th work just fine to get to the bridge.

Thanks PBOT, let’s do it!

Ted Buehler

I’ve always thought 12th needs to be turned back into a 2 way street with bike treatments going both directions. There are not enough 2 way streets in downtown to create a well connected, efficient grid.

Cool. But what about Broadway???? That’s the main route into town from N and NE Portland, and it’s the most dangerous thing I ride. I ride it EVERY DAY to work! I hate getting doored, I’m tired of getting hooked. So why not deal with that instead? It’s a huge safety hazard, and it’s a way bigger problem. Why are they avoiding dealing with it????

A better, cheaper solution would be to just close the Park Blocks to through motor vehicle travel.

There is not enough traffic on SW 12th to justify this, it’s easy to take the lane and make all the lights, it’s mostly downhill.

I have only skimmed the comments, so probably just reiterating many of the same points it seems, but as far as I am concerned, this is not needed. I take 12th on my way home from work and traffic is very light, it is basically downhill, and the lights are set at 12 mph anyway. There are three lanes so there is plenty of room for a car to go to another lane to get around me.

There are so many other things that we could focus on instead of this.

A West End planning proposal a few years ago called for making SW 12th Avenue a calmed two way street, with one motorized traffic lane in each direction. There is plenty of room left for very generous, protected bike lanes/tracks in both directions. This street connects PSU directly with NW College of Art in the Pearl District, with both Johnson and Marshall getting you to the Broadway Bridge. Then we just need the NE 7th Avenue Bridge over Sullivan’s Gulch.

I bike down 12th Ave everyday on my way home. I find this street to be very safe, as is, for bikes. The traffic lights are regulated and there is already plenty of room. (I ride the bike lane all the way up 13th Ave too.) Ironically 14th (or whatever is on the west side of I405 has a bike lane all the way north. This street is much more dangerous on a bike. The transition from the bike lane on the left of the street to the right just before Burnside typically seems dangerous probably because the auto drivers aren’t used to sharing the road with bikes here.

I’d prefer to see the city do something bigger and more significant with Broadway. Converting 12th seems like a flaky half-effort.

I’ll say this, following on my previous criticism of the project being a too-easy cycle-track-to-nowhere: if it is two-way cycle-track (perhaps as part of making 12th 2-way for autos as well) and goes all the way to Lovejoy, then we’re talking some more substance and utility, and something that could serve as a broader proof-of-concept than the upper Broadway snippet of cycle-track.