The power of paint part two: Stark/Oak green lanes working well so far

I need to go check this out in person but I am liking what I see. I think it is helpful that the lane is pretty darn wide! Takes away some of the fear of getting doored by a parked car when you have space within the lane to move around as necessary.

Great job documenting the change, Jonathan! It is great that your office provides the chance to observe the effect this is having on car traffic.

That does actually look like it’s doing the job. I’m excited to try these out shortly. Imagine what this treatment would feel like on Broadway!

BTW, maybe we should all work to have this treatment used on the new Multnomah bikeway instead of the yellow (let’s start setting a precedent!) and paint the lane AND the buffer there too. I rode it last Sunday and while it is nice, it does seem to be rather narrow in some areas (I think the buffer was wider than the lane in a few spots!).

most people do what they should do: merge over onto the green just prior to the turn.

except that’s not what they should do… they’re not allowed to drive in the lanes at all, not even before getting into to right turn lane…

they’re allowed to CROSS OVER the bike lane during the designated merge area and not before it…

Here are more images showing how people in cars seem to be steering clear of them

1) truck and van in the green paint…
2) van riding the line
3) suv touching the green…
4) looks all clear!
5) looks all crear!
6) vehicles touching the white line
7) multiple vehicles on the white line

you know how critical we are here and I’d say those are some pretty poor examples of cars steering clear… 29% compliance is not good… if that were another car lane next to them they wouldn’t be riding the line like that…

yes, they may not be fully in the lane traveling the length of the block, but they still don’t respect the space more than the potential ticket cost…

The only problem with those pictures is the lack of bikes! I TRULY believe in “build it and they will come,” but I sure hope they come soon! Then the drivers can make sense of why so much of the road is taken up by green!

It has been much, much better. It’s even kind of an interesting visual sensation riding on it with all that green pavement streaming by under you.

I do note, both personally and in most of the photos above, that there is usually a car straddling the white line or even into the green with their right tires and will do so for the entire length (note the white van in multiple pictures above). I wonder how quick the edges of the lane will wear out (especially during “stud” season). If the edges get worn out, will it encourage cars to just encroach more?

Just look at all those people on bikes in the green bike lanes! One picture shows, over a series of three blocks, a total of two people on bikes, one per block, separated by a block! I hope they were able to avoid colliding with each other. Meanwhile, the pictures show cars backed up in the main lanes of travel.

I worked downtown for 10 years and commuted by bike for 6 of those years, I’ve never understood the need for additional facilities on downtwon streets. Sure, the bike lane up Broadway makes sense because of the degree of the incline, but otherwise the lights downtown are timed at a bit under 12mph, I have NEVER had a problem keeping up with the speed of traffic, and have felt perfectly safe by putting myself right in the middle of the lane and travelling at the speed of auto traffic. I’d argue the lack of use of these bike lanes is because it’s easier to bike on Alder/Washington as you come from (or go to) the east side.

Tonight I drive my car down Stark and what I really like is the clearer guidance on how to turn right onto 3rd. The bike lane changes pattern where I can merge across and there is a right turn only lane to the right of the bike lane that used to be parking. This is great. I’m heartened by the effort the city is putting into trying new solutions here.

Regarding all the comments about apparent lack of usage:
1. There is very little that can be inferred from a single set of photos taken within a short amount of time.
2. “If you build it they will come” has to be understood to include a bit of a time delta between building and coming–and with the previous treatment of this bike lane, it should be considered to have just been built.
3. As ‘are’ alludes to in a post above, there is such a thing as brilliant infrastructure in a crappy location. This street is apparently not used very much by car drivers either, which is probably why it was chosen for a bike treatment. Drivers don’t want it very much, so we’ll let the bike people “have” it. The unasked question I think of (wsbob) is “why is this street underused by autos?” Is it not a major connector between popular destinations? Is it not well-connected to river crossings? If it isn’t well-used by autos, what made anyone think it would be useful as a bike route? Does green paint smell like donuts? Is it irresistible to cyclists?

I think there is a particular phenomenon that is possible when building bike infrastructure: Transpo authorities look for a place to put something–anything–to make it look like they like bikes. Unfortunately, those authorities are under some amount of pressure not to “take away” road space from cars, so they look for either locations that are “out of the way”, or treatments that don’t result in much loss of car driving space. Then a facility is implemented that is either a) too complicated, b) too dangerous to be used with any frequency, or c) a beautiful “bike lane to nowhere” that no one uses because it doesn’t connect any desirable destinations. Then “news” outlets and the general public and government officials can point out all the money that was spent and the traffic that was disrupted, and the travel lanes or parking spaces lost, and the confusion that was introduced and “show” how spending on such things is a waste of money “because nobody even uses it”.