(Photo: M.Andersen/BikePortland)
In a digital companion to its Nov. 5 open house, Portland is circulating another online survey taking the political temperature of Clinton Street residents, businesses and users about traffic diverters on a busy stretch of Clinton Street.
It takes about 30 seconds to complete.
This is the second online survey asking how people feel about the city installing an experimental diverter in the 30th and Clinton area to see what happens to traffic patterns. The current proposal is to install one test diverter at 32nd, in addition to one planned for 17th.
In the first round of opinion-gathering, 83 percent of respondents said they supported the proposal, but the city moved the eastern test diverter a few blocks further east and now wants to know whether people like that idea.
The underlying goal is to cut motor vehicle volume on Clinton Street down from about 3,000 to about 2,000 per day. That’d bring Clinton, which is the second-most-biked neighborhood greenway in the city, into compliance with the city’s new neighborhood greenway standards.
The proposed diverter at 32nd has some critics in the area, who worry that it’ll send large numbers of cars on a zigzag down other streets instead.
Advertisement
In an email circulated Monday, diverter advocate Kari Schlosshauer of the group Safer Clinton suggested “a few key points” for other Clinton safety advocates to use when communicating with the city.
- Move forward with the diverter installation at 17th and 32nd immediately. The neighborhood and those who travel on Clinton by bicycle have waited long enough for needed safety improvements. We should not be asked to wait longer for perfect details to be determined. Let the “trial” begin, so that we can evaluate it.
- Establish the committee that will review the trial project. Neighbors want accountability, and this is a new process for the city. Open up the committee right away so people know they can have the chance to have their voice heard.
- Neighbors and people riding bikes on Clinton agree: there is a major safety issue, and MORE needs to be done. Everyone agrees that something must be done, and what we’ve all come to realize is that MORE needs to be done. The city should consider adding more elements to phase 1 (such as speedbumps on adjacent to diversion, enforcement of speeding, and more signs at the entry points to the neighborhood indicating local traffic only), and start planning phase 2 sooner.
— Michael Andersen, (503) 333-7824 – michael@bikeportland.org