(Click to enlarge, or see below for details and links)
As we reported earlier this week, the City of Portland is trying to hone its massive transportation to-do list by asking people to rank their 10 favorite projects.
In a letter circulated this week, the citizens’ committee that’s most closely tied to Portland’s biking policies shared theirs.
Here’s the list, with a links to past coverage of each project:
1) A biking-walking bridge across Interstate 84 between NE 7th, 8th and/or 9th Avenues. This would create the most comfortable inland freeway crossing in the city between inner Northeast and Southeast Portland, linking the rapidly redeveloping Lloyd District and enabling a “green loop” of comfortable bikeways ringing the central city. $8.3 million.
2) Northeast Broadway Corridor improvements from the Broadway Bridge to NE 24th. This would link up to an anticipated protected bike lane on NW/SW Broadway all the way to maybe the #1 biking destination in the city: Portland State University. $3.5 million.
3) Terwilliger Bikeway Gaps. These would create a continuous bike lane over the hills above Barbur Boulevard and through Southwest Portland past another major biking destination, Oregon Health and Science University. $1 million.
4) Inner Barbur Corridor improvements. The needlessly wide stretch of road between Terwilliger and SW 3rd sometimes known as the Barbur Woods, where the land is mostly flat but the bike lanes end at two bridges and one person dies per year. $3.7 million.
5) I-205 undercrossing at NE Hancock and I-205. Connecting the 82nd Avenue area near Rocky Butte to Gateway Green and ultimately the developing Gateway regional center. $2 million.
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6) 4M Neighborhood Greenway. A neighborhood greenway, already fully planned, snaking from the I-205 path past David Douglas High School and eastward to the Gresham border. $450,000.
7) 122nd Avenue Corridor Improvements from NE Sandy to SE Foster. Bike lane, sidewalk and public transit stop improvements on East Portland’s most important north-south street. TriMet has said it would upgrade the 71 bus to frequent service if changes like these are made. $8 million.
8) North Portland Greenway Trail from Swan Island to the Rose Quarter. A direct link between two of the city’s fastest-growing job areas, Swan Island and the Central Eastside, and part of a continuous off-road path from the tip of the St Johns peninsula to the Springwater Corridor. $7.3 million.
9) Portland Bike Share. Using shared bicycles to create an active and supremely cheap form of all-hours public transit in the central city and surrounding neighborhoods. $4.5 million.
10) NW Flanders Neighborhood Greenway, including a biking-walking bridge across I-405. The first comfortable link between downtown Portland and the city’s densest residential neighborhood, connecting to the Steel Bridge and TriMet MAX. $3 million.
BAC Chair Ian Stude said this week that the committee devoted a lot of effort to building this list, drawing on what he said is a geographically diverse membership and striving to serve a mix of neighborhoods and populations.
In its letter, the committee added:
The PBAC has concerns about the overall project selection for the TSP constrained and unconstrained list and how this aligns with the need to equitably distribute these projects throughout the city. However, we have identified 10 high priority projects from the list of 290 currently listed in the TSP draft. We ask that PSC and PBOT prioritize these projects as critical improvements to the transportation network.
How do you think they did? Whether you disagree with any (as reader Terry D-M did, vociferously and with data) or agree wholeheartedly, it’s not too late contact the city by email or using its online Map App tool.