befitting of a bike-friend city.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)
“Sort of a joke,” and “atrocious” is how we’ve described the design of the bicycle wheel gutters on the stairs of the new Gibbs Street Bridge. Now it appears that the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) will do something about it.
Last week I confirmed with PBOT spokesman Dan Anderson that they have decided to move forward with a project to revamp and improve bike access on the stairs. Currently, there’s just a very narrow flat spot at the far edge of the one side of the stairs where bicycle wheels are supposed to roll. As I shared last week, the design is simply not adequate. There are well over 100 stairs and the incline is quite steep. Yes, there’s an elevator but it’s bound to be out of order and/or undergoing repairs now and again and people with bikes need a reliable 24/7/365 option.
Anderson says the final designs aren’t set in stone yet, but he assured me it would be, “a major improvement.” He says they’ll be doing the work in-house and that they’ll be looking at what other cities have built.
On that note, here are a few inspirations I hope they keep in mind…
First, here’s what we have now…
Here’s how they do it in The Netherlands…
And here’s one from Copenhagen…
The example below is from the bicycle stairway Wikipedia entry. It’s called “kinderwagen” so perhaps it’s from Germany. And with two tire channels, it’s also usable by some strollers…
And this one from Japan is nice and wide…
Whatever PBOT decides to do it will almost certainly be better than what we have now. As for when it will be completed, Anderson says, “The goal is to get something in by this fall.” Stay tuned.