(Images: TriMet)
Portland’s regional transit agency expects to add new locked “Bike and Ride” facilities this year to its Goose Hollow, Beaverton Creek and Orenco Station MAX stops, greatly increasing the west side’s capacity for bike-to-transit commuting.
It’s especially welcome news for MAX commuters through the crowded Robertson Tunnel between Portland and Washington County. Job and residential growth in Central Portland and urban Washington County have been leading to more and more people looking to reach those stations by bike.
At at least one of the facilities, there’s even room being set aside specifically for cargo bikes.
The Goose Hollow facility, pictured above, will include “about 50-60 bike parking spaces total, including both secure, enclosed facilities and covered bike parking spaces,” with construction starting later this year and finishing by the end of 2016.
Here’s a shot of the nearly complete Orenco Bike and Ride, which will offer “50 secure, enclosed bike parking spaces, a repair stand with tools, air pump, cargo bike parking area and outlets for e-bikes.”
“The facility is opening soon and we’ll announce a date shortly,” TriMet said Friday.
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The Beaverton Creek MAX station just south of Nike’s headquarters, meanwhile, is getting the biggest upgrade of the three.
“Initial concepts call for about 100 bike parking spaces, including both secure, enclosed facilities and covered bike parking spaces,” TriMet said. Spokeswoman Mary Fetsch said the current plan is for about half of those to be secure and half to be outdoors but covered.
That project, too, is supposed to start and finish in 2016.
At three cents per daytime hour parked and 1 cent per nighttime hour, the cost of using TriMet’s Bike and Rides comes out to about $6 per month for someone who parks a bike for 10 hours every weekday, or about $6 per month for someone who parks a bike for everything except 10 hours every weekday. (For people who are really into it, that’d be $12 a month to securely store two bikes at different bike & rides and use both of them for different legs of a daily commute.)
Storing a car for up to one day at a TriMet park & ride remains free.
The project at Orenco is assisted by a grant from Metro, with matching funds from TriMet. The projects at Goose Hollow and Beaverton Creek are assisted by an Oregon Department of Transportation Connect Oregon grant, with matching funds from both Washington County and TriMet.
If you’d like to influence the facilities or design of the Goose Hollow or Beaverton Creek areas, contact TriMet Active Transportation Planner Jeff Owen: owenj@trimet.org.
— Michael Andersen, (503) 333-7824 – michael@bikeportland.org
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within 1 week people will be camping under these!
Probably won’t be any camping under the cover these facilities offer, because they’re secured by a fence and a card lock gate. Security from theft and vandalism, which comparatively speaking, cars have and bikes don’t, is what people are paying for, rather than simply to park their bike.
I wonder though, just how much people actually use these facilities. Beaverton Transit Center has one. Infrequently during the day, I walk by and peer in to see how many bikes are parked there. Don’t think I’ve ever seen it even as much as half full. In terms of design aesthetics, the facility is ok, but not great..standing away from it, it seems a bit dark.
Well said, wsbob.
This is terrific news! TriMet has been teasing us for over a year with promises of a bike parking facility at Goose Hollow and they’re finally building it! Glad to see that some of the spots will be secure as well. This should greatly cut down on bike crowding on the MAX. Hopefully, it will be in before the summer crowding starts!
Now all we need is a protected bike lane couplet on Jefferson/Columbia so people can safely ride to the MAX station.
Yeah, really cool. And better connections to the westside is always a good thing.
I think many people who ride, just want to avoid riding uphill both directions through Washington park which is reasonable, but this seems like encouragement for not taking your bike on the MAX at all.
Of course I’m sure they are also trying to encourage more use of transit and by leaving a bike at only the stop needed too.
Seems like a better solution is more train cars during peak hours. That would benefit all riders crammed in currently.
The steel bridge is basically at capacity. Options for adding trains are limited.
True! Perhaps a round about to cycle more trains? TriMet has millions for free parking. How about a few no-seat MAX cars?
I’d rather see the MAX carry more passengers than more bicycles.
This is an important first step in getting secure 24/7 on demand bike parking on the west side in town.
Sorry still doesn’t change my behavior. Not risking the threat of theft, and the convenience of having the bike with me and the hassle of paying for the privilege.
The funding would be better spent on service expansion. I know that i
No difference for me. MAX is handy for going to the Zoo from either direction by cutting down on the climbing. I am not going to buy and lease space for 2-3 more bikes to get somewhere on MAX.
Time wise I find very little difference in time to and from home to where I am riding to if I ride or take MAX.
MAX just needs to use more cars in the peak commute times. At the same time they could cut down to single car trains in the wee hours. Now that would attract more riders that currently are driving cars.
Why Goose Hollow and not Providence Park? Providence park is the so called “preferred station” and has lots of room and a lot more people boarding. Goose Hollow is too sketchy to ride to. I would use secure bike parking at Providence but not Goose Hollow.
Does TriMet do outreach to riders before they make decisions affecting bikes?
TriMet does ask riders and cyclists! Then they do something else to not help the cyclists. They regard the cyclist as a burdnsome competitor.
Where would the bike parking have gone without interfering with boarding/dispersing crowds after events at providence park or taking up expensive retail spots? The bike parking by the goose hollow stop will be placed on church land (assuming the partnership with the church on this project works out), presumably on one of the grass strips that might look pretty, but probably isn’t all that functional. It’s a third of a mile away, is it really such a big deal?
About time! I would have used this frequently (at least twice a week) when I lived in Portland. It was a lot faster for me to get downtown on my bike than the bus, so I usually did that. But from downtown I rode the MAX (and didn’t need a bike on the other end because my workplace was near the line), so at this point having my bike with me was just a hassle. And afternoon MAX trains were even more crowded, so I almost always ended up biking all the way home. Which I often enjoyed, but would have liked the option to not do EVERY day.
Short version: If I’d had the ability to safely park my bike downtown, near the PGE Park-Goose Hollow area, I’d gladly have done it.
Dear cyclists, does this make up for the substandard bridge crossing and the illegal swing gates and possibly the the zig zag crossings?
If you can make it though all the things we do to make cycling harder, here are some parking spots as a hunger games prize.
Signed,
Trimet management
I doubt this will help much with the crowding on the train, but I can see Tri-Met using this as a pre-empt to banning bicycles during peak hours.
Guess they would have to ban strollers and luggage too since they can also be put in the same spot where bikes normally hang…