(Photos: ODOT)
A new grocery store opened in North Portland’s University Park neighborhood today. Unfortunately customers who arrived by bike saw their new bike lanes full of cars.
Late last fall the Oregon Department of Transportation striped new bike lanes on North Lombard, a rarity for a state highway. ODOT told us at the time that the major catalyst for the project was the new New Seasons Market that opened today at the corner of Lombard and Westanna. Officials felt the new market would attract a lot of traffic and many people would bike there (New Seasons has an excellent reputation as a place that welcomes bike riders). With no dedicated biking space on Lombard they feared conditions would be unsafe without a bike lane.
Turns out that, so far at least, it’s unsafe with a bike lane.
Based on a report and photos we’ve received from ODOT, it appears that many people think the bike lane is a parking lane. Either they are ignorant of the bike lane or they just plain don’t care that parking on one is dangerous, rude, and illegal.
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This isn’t the first time New Seasons customers have parked in bike lanes. In 2011 we reported that people parked in the bike lanes on North Rosa Parks Way while shopping at the Arbor Lodge neighborhood store.
There are several things that could be done to avoid this. A more robust bikeway design with some sort of protective barrier would keep people from parking in it. So too might additional signage and/or more generous pavement markings. New Seasons can also educate their customers inside the store. I’m sure they use their in-store PA system to warn people who have left their lights on or who are blocking one of their food delivery trucks — perhaps they could also do the same to people who are blocking the bike lane. In Portland, that might result in enough shame and embarrassment to really change behavior.
As for ODOT, one of their staffers told us today that right now they just want to spread the word about the problem while they work to get some parking enforcement out on the street.
UPDATE, 3/24 at 12:00 pm: New Seasons spokeswoman Claudia Knotek called us and made the following statement via voicemail:
“We had no idea that this was going to be an issue. We should have known that the way the signage is presented it could be confusing for customers who don’t konw at what point the bike lane starts.
We are in contact with the city right now to see how fast we can get additional signage – whether it’s on the road itself showing another bike or signage on the side. In the meantime, New Seasons Market will go ahead and have signs made that we can post along there informing shoppers that this is indeed a bike lane and they cannot park there.
We really appreciated your help [getting the word out]. We are sorry this has happened and will make every effort to rectify it as soon as possible.”
— Jonathan Maus, (503) 706-8804 – jonathan@bikeportland.org
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Perhaps a few no parking signs might be in order. Not one is visible in those pictures. (not my hood so I haven’t seen it first hand).
It took the death of a bicyclist (and years of advocacy by her husband) to get these popular bay area bike lanes marked, and within a month they were getting parked out (despite being bright green) by local hikers and patrons of a local farm.
http://bikesiliconvalley.org/2013/10/alpine-road-goes-green
#IParkedInABikeLane
http://iparkedinabikelane.bigcartel.com/product/i-parked-in-a-bike-lane-sticker
I rode by there the other day and there was a large delivery truck using it as an unloading spot. I’m going to guess that we can expect more of that as well.
I would encourage you to leave a note or comment with the store manager. At least at other stores within the company, the management has worked with vendors and delivery drivers to inform them of unacceptable and/or unsafe practices when concerns are voiced.
Which is why a standard bike lane is obsolete, and it’s insulting to see any agency continue to apply these without any protection, let alone ODOT.
Yep, protected bike lanes would make this a non-issue. ODOT seems to only learn things very very very very slowly.
This bike lane needs some type of signage. I ride miles of bike lanes all over the metro area and almost never see cars parked in bike lanes. You can’t paint a white stripe that leaves a wider than usual lane on a street that used to have curb parking and still doesn’t have bike lanes anywhere else.
Blame for this falls on ODOT for making the bike lane too wide, the stripe too narrow as to be mistaken with a parking lane line and no other signage regarding its no parking designation. Honestly this area shouldn’t have a bike lane to begin with, much safer routes in the area available to invest in bike infrastructure.
Its only a paint stripe and there is plenty of wasted space on Lombard through here, this is not a serious investment nor a wasted investment.
Also as a resident of St. Johns – we are happy to have New Seasons in the neighborhood!
Perhaps they should put out a couple of signs that remind the owners about how much it will cost to recover their cars out of the impound lot might do the trick.
You can’t use the barrier-protected bike lane on Multnomah half the time because someone is using it as a loading/work zone. I don’t see why repeating that failure on Lombard is going to be any better than paint.
This parking in the bike lane has been happening at the Clackamas Costco for a long time. There’s an adjacent sidewalk leading to the front door, so drivers prefer to park in the bike lane rather than pull into the large parking lot. Sometimes a dozen cars are lined up in the bike lane on SE 84th Ave. They put in a prominent bike lane sign, but drivers park right next to it!
I’m assuming the cars were promptly ticketed and towed. No?
I was told Police took down license plates numbers and issued warnings.
PPD Non-emergency, 503-823-3333
They WILL come out and they WILL ticket the offenders.
Call it in. Don’t be shy. Enforcement will make this stop.
I like the idea but, my experience with parking enforcement is that they aren’t very effective. This is especially for anything that looks like a delivery vehicle or a work-truck.
Exactly right. Over in Bend, there is a restaurant that is very popular in the summer, to the point that as many as 20 cars will be parked in a very popular bike lane. I called traffic enforcement, and they were out there ticketing everybody. Problem solved….temporarily. Within a few months, it starts again. The main problem is that the restaurant keeps expanding, has inadequate parking, refuses to spend the money to buy and pave a useless piece of dirt right next to its building. So, I probably need to call the restaurant, tell them that I am not doing to stop calling, and they need to do something.
Looks like revenue – another tax on the ignorant, careless and thoughtless. Better them than me.
The only way to stop this type of car-entitlement syndrome problem is to tow the cars. I actually doubt if more than two or three would have to be towed before the other narcissists came running out and moved their cars. The simple fact is, we never tow and we rarely issue tickets, so it’s worth the risk for the lazy.
If we ever want to move out of single digits, we’re going to have to successfully support what is now considered extreme enforcement of our traffic laws. I’m old enough to remember when enforcing traffic laws wasn’t considered extreme. Coincidentally, enforcement was pretty common during the last bike boom of the ’60s, ’70s, at least in places where riding bikes was popular.
Some yellow curb would help.
Waste of money. Bike lanes themselves should be obvious enough.
I just stopped in to my (new) New Seasons at 8:15 p.m. and this was still an issue. I pointed it out to an uniformed Portland PD officer, but he seemed to have little interest in anything beyond the hot plates in the prepared foods section. While checking out, I asked the cashier if the store was aware of the illegal parking and she told me it had come up repeatedly, and that management would be calling ODOT tomorrow.
There is currently nothing distinguishing the bike lane as being such besides a basic lane stripe. Before we jump to talking about grandiose ideas of protected bike lanes on an ODOT roadway, we need to start by getting them to install basic sharrows and “no parking” signage.
The lane stripe should be enough.
Plant a sign and when that doesn’t work people will be saying we need X and Y to get people to follow the rule they should already be aware of.
Completely disagree. Bike lanes that are 6ft+ wide need to have bike symbols in them. Otherwise there is nothing to distinguish them from a shoulder. Add a few bike symbols and then you can ticket anyone that parks there.
Not to be rude, but in Oregon a bike lane is striped with an eight inch solid white line and a shoulder is marked with a four inch solid white line. A motorist who cannot distinguish the difference shouldn’t be behind the wheel. A motorist who is ignorant of this fact also shouldn’t be behind the wheel.
So we really need redundant symbols everywhere? Shall we put explanatory signs up with the traffic signals as well?
You might want to take a look for yourself. Without some additional markings, I can see why there is confusion. Especially when it’s a one block bike lane in an area full of street parking.
What about drivers who are not from Oregon? The standard in California is completely different (and yes, we still have the problem down here). I haven’t been by here recently enough but if it’s not marked as a bike lane, the first step should be standard pavement stencils, at least at the beginning of the block(s).
Ignorance of the law has never been an excuse for breaking it.
You’ve probably broken a few laws* without ever knowing it. Ignorance of the law is an excuse for breaking it.
*The Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the possession of feathers belonging to a native or migratory bird, such as crow feathers. I bet everyone has broken this at least once in their life
Ignorance may be a reason for unintentionally breaking the law, but it rarely gets one off the hook if caught. In that sense, it is not an excuse that lets one escape consequences.
True, but is the goal here to create a constant supply of illegally-parked vehicles for police to ticket–many of whom might never intentionally block a bike lane–or to have a bike lane not clogged with parked cars?
Pete–good timing with your comment. I just drove from Seattle to Portland today, with a wide (8″ to 10″) solid white stripe alongside me the whole way. It was marking the outside of the travel lane, not a bike lane.
That’s a harsh stand. As I replied to you earlier, the Oregon Driver Manual says nothing about 4″ or 8″ lines. It mentions “solid white lines” being used for several purposes other than bike lanes, and “wide solid white lines” as also being used for purposes beyond just bike lanes.
Even more specifically, it states that a bicycle lane is designated by a “wide solid white line WITH a bicycle symbol or bike lane sign”.
So a driver diligent enough to look up “bike lanes” in the ODM would find that, while bike lanes include “wide” (not defined) solid white stripes, they are not bike lanes unless they also include signs or symbols. A wide stripe alone does not create a bike lane, according to the ODM.
And the signs or symbols that you call “redundant” are actually so important that the lane doesn’t meet the ODM’s definition of a “bike lane” without them.
This is exactly why I brought this up. When I moved to California there was little in the driver manual about bicycling, let alone bike lane widths. Turns out that I learned there was, in fact, a standard by working with city and county engineers giving feedback on some projects. We also saw more than one case where bike lanes were not properly striped by the contractors, despite the planners and project managers knowing how wide the lines were supposed to be (and actually line width was the least of the problems).
More importantly, if you’re going to rely on line width to communicate to drivers (and bicyclists) of all origins and ages (read: eyesight levels) where they should be on the road, expect to be disappointed with the results.
Unfortunately most of lombard does not have bike lanes and parking is allowed, it is just this two block section that now has bike lanes. I think people might be confused by the new striping. It’s funny that they striped just this little section that doesn’t even go to the intersection at wall/lombard, most people who live in this part of town (I’m a 16yr resident) just ride one block south on Bowdoin or on Oberlin.
According to the Oregon Driver’s Manual, the stripe isn’t enough. It states that a bike lane is “identified by a wide solid white line with a bicycle symbol or a bike lane sign”.
Plus, it’s pretty clear it’s not enough, unless you believe all the cars parked in the bike lane know it’s a bike lane and are parking there intentionally.
And if you do believe that, the signage has the benefit of taking away any thoughts they have that if they get a ticket, they can claim they didn’t know.
There’s some sniping at NS in this thread, but they are a better than average company and I won’t be surprised to see them fix this; they’ll probably spend their own money to do it if the city sits on their hands too long.
The city seems to be awfully stingy with paint. Bike markings, “no parking”, green lines – all of those should be used here. I’m irritated at the drivers but probably most of them genuinely don’t know the white life designates anything special.
Not city, ODOT has jurisdiction over this street.
It’s hard to tell from the photos whether the bike lane has bike stencils in it.
If not, it will need them. One, even two per block.
BikeLoudPdx, do you copy?
Well, that’s what happens when you have no physical barrier in your bike lanes…
Really?
I daily ride miles of bike lanes that don’t have cars parked in them…
The issue here is that it is a new change to a small portion of a road that is mostly free of bike lanes. You can’t put a single white stripe along a couple blocks of what used to be car parking at a width that allows a car to fit in it and expect people to magically know it is now a bike lane.
Overall having a bike lane here makes no sense, but thank you for your anti bike lane snarky input as usual.
I think New Seasons did a nice job with bike signage and facilities at the Williams store. I’ll bet they’ll get this straightened out.
Do the shame right. Get them linked-up to get the registrant’s name from the DMV and announce that with the plate and vehicle description “you’re parked in the bike lane” over the PA.
But in general, institute a bounty for the tow truck drivers? $1000 is reasonable, because the jerk who parked in the bike lane is paying. If I’m riding in the bike lane, I don’t want it gone “soon”, I want it gone 5 minutes before I get there.
I hate to say it, but from the images above almost makes it look like the white stripe is intended for cars to park there. I would never ride my bike on Lumbard and I imagine cars driving up to NS probably think the same. Without markings, drivers may not even see this as a bike lane…
Fair enough. But they’re still parked on/over the line. So even if they think it’s a parking spot, they surely know they’re parking job would be illegal anyway, right?
Ehh they may think it’s just poor planning or meant for “compact cars” but will park in it anyway (see trucks and SUVs squeezed into compact parking lot spaces). Being a cyclist myself I would assume a marking like this is for parking if I just happen to be riding by it. I am having a hard time thinking of an example where a storefront curb is directly adjacent to a bike lane, most of the time I expect to see Curb, Parking, Bike Lane (if there is one), Vehicle Lane outside of storefronts.
*** Hi Matt. Your comment has been deleted because I do not appreciate inciting violence in any way. — Jonathan***
This is sort of like the old mind game where one is directed to “Don’t think of an elephant”. Where the subliminal is inserted to direct an outcome opposite of what is said. It sort of sucks when the subliminal message is to cause property damage.
Drivers will reap as they sow. They behave, then other people will behave.
Drivers who surmise that cyclists are vandals will have a diminished opinion of all cyclists. I would rather not have vandals representing me as the ambassadors of the “cycling community”
The idea that people who bike should be “ambassadors” for the “cycling community” is demeaning. I’ve never noticed anyone calling for pedestrians to be “ambassadors” for the “pedestrian community”.
Demeaning eh? One could just as easily say one is naive to think that cyclists are not bundled as a group and judged on the behavior of members of that group.
Well, anyone who puts for that rebuttal should understand that confirmation bias ensues by the in-group regardless of how many good actors exist in the out-group. That’s sadly where the logical conclusion of social theory dead-ends. There is no need to become a vigilante OR ambassador. Be you. The natural cross-section of cycling participants’ vigilante-ambassador bell curve is what it is.
Bravo, Soren. “Respectability politics” has a proven negative track record.
Didn’t work for Jews in Europe 75 years ago, either.
Do you think that all automobile operators are murderers just because some of them kill people with their cars? Or maybe have something to say about all members of an ethnic group or gender? Why would you apply that kind of thinking to people using bikes?
I would only apply that kind of thinking to motor vehicle operators. 45 years of cycling have taken away any notion I may have ever had that we remain fully human when we are operating one. A human being and a motor vehicle operator are two different critters. At this point in time my thinking on this is beyond any notion of changing it.
BTW, a wise cyclist who has outgrown their naivete will treat all motorists as potential murderers.
Then the victims will behave, and so on, and so forth.
I wouldn’t hesitate to call the police on a vandal slashing tires.
I also wouldn’t hesitate to confront, follow or subdue a vandal destroying private property.
You put a little twig or pebble in the valve cap and screw it back on. It releases the air slowly but still gets the job done. I’ve done this on the rare occasion I see a maniac I may have a close call with park. Or to cars parked on sidewalks.
A line of cars with flat tires would get the police out there quickly.
I wouldn’t hesitate to call the police on a vandal slashing tires.
I also wouldn’t hesitate to confront, follow or subdue a vandal destroying private property.
You don’t have to slash tires or destroy anything to flat a tire.
True. Matt’s suggestion to slash tires is what I was responding to. Sorry. And I have let the air out of bike tires for cyclists that lock their bikes up poorly, so I guess I can’t be too offended.
Wow. Seriously?
Hope none of those wheels belonged to riders who ended up stranded on the Springwater trying to fix their flats.
“I also wouldn’t hesitate to confront, follow or subdue a vandal destroying private property.” – Mike
Personally if I came across someone bleeding tires at the rack, they’d get a little wake-me-up from my tazer.
Wow, I hope you don’t come across me replacing the CO2 from one of my flatted tires with air from a borrowed pump!
Unfortunately, the lack of “no parking signs” or bike lane paint makes it fair game for cars. Once again, ODOT demonstrates that it is incompetent working in an urban environment.
some green paint would solve this
I used to think NS was amazing and special, but more and more I see it for what it is, another opportunistic developer dropping new stores everywhere with the promise of somehow needing less parking when we all know the reality is these stores generate a ton of traffic and parking headaches for neighborhoods.
But, it’s worth it when your apples are only 3.99 lb….
I bought a bag of organic apples at New Seasons yesterday for $1.99/lb.
It’s probably linked to their sale that’s going on right now because of the opening of University Park. I’ve shopped their for years, I’ve tracked the prices. You can always get Golden Delicious for 1.99 lbs. Rarely do they have other brands of apples this cheap unless you buy the 3 lb. bags which come out to about 1.99 lb., but they’re usually Fuji…
I value NS for what they do with their profits and how they treat their employees, but don’t kid yourself, they are a corporation looking to expand all over the West coast.
I didn’t realize how passionate I am about the price of apples…
New Seasons is infamous for it’s anti-labor policy, union-busting, safety issues, and food labelling dishonesty. I really do not understand why people in Portland are so blind to the problems with this company. I should note that this is not true elsewhere — a possible Seattle NSM was vociferously protested by labor groups and activists.
Umm…. infamous for all their bad business practices?
Yes they certainly are unpopular in Portland aren’t they….
Soren wrote “I really do not understand why people in Portland are so blind to the problems with this company.”
You wrote “Yes they certainly are unpopular in Portland aren’t they…”
Blind indeed.
I bought a 5 pound bag of apples at Winco for $.99 a pound. hand selected and very good.
Winco is employee-owned. I support this kind of corporate structure!
They also hire in the neighborhood, provide jobs above min wage with benefits. We don’t need more of those……
My roommate has worked there for 8 years and is stuck at $12.75/hr. Granted it is more than minimum wage but that ain’t livable! Even with those high markups. NS could do with a little more competition on this front.
They need to ask for a raise. I worked there in 2008, started off at 11. Left after a year making 12.35. Granted, it was housekeeping, night shift.
Seems to me that NS goes way beyond most grocers in ensuring that their stores are located in areas of town that are walkable and bikeable. Plus, they’re really great at providing amenities for cycling, like lots of racks and places to store gear while shopping.
So if their customers are still deciding to drive despite their efforts to help provide travel choices, how is this NS’ fault? I’d say that it’s a reflection that we still haven’t made bicycling a more attractive – or at least equally attractive – choice as the car.
I go into NS and end up walking out w/o buying a thing on principle due to prices. I see NS as a force for gentrification.
My wife and I are frequent NS customers. I challenge New Seasons to have an employee place leaflets on bike-lane-parked vehicles and photograph their license plates the first time–and stickers on the windshields the second. Maybe even hire a River City Bicycles employee to design some ads reminding New Seasons customers what a bike lane is for.
Random ticketing blitzes for a month. Like shooting fish in a barrel. And once all these drivers get their tickets, they’ll hopefully be less likely to repeat their mistakes.
One of a 100 examples that I see every day that indicate that automobile drivers just could not care less about the lines in the road.
Start ticketing for this already.
Jonathan, have you told New Seasons about this article? I think they would be more inclined to participate in alerting their customers not to park in bike lanes at their stores if they were aware that they were getting press from BikePortland. Please let me know if anyone has told them about this already. If not, I’d be happy to give them a call.
I don’t see anything in the pictures that suggests “bike lane”, but I see a line of cars that says “parking lane.” If I were driving, I might park there too. I’m thinking that’s not a slash-my-tires level of mistake. So yeah, more signs and maybe a double line so it doesn’t look just like the parking lane boundaries on the streetcar lines.
Thanks ODOT for bringing this to people’s attention. Now, any plans to do anything about the issue? Did you call Parking Enforcement? Any plans to change the infrastructure (signs, fire lane red curbs)? Or is this just the bare minimum required to make an attempt to seem like ODOT cares?
Sadly–like everything in Portland–New Seasons is not the store it once was. For instance, it is NOT locally owned, but rather, is mostly owned by an outside investment firm; hence why it’s yuppie tentacles are so rapidly spreading. This “bike lane” is also a farce. It is probably a hundred yards long, extending from the Peninsula Crossing Trail, to this new New Seasons on Lombard; it abruptly ends after both of these landmarks. It is hard enough crossing Lombard at the Peninsula Crossing trail with the unyielding traffic, much less riding on it via this “bike lane,” which was only installed to serve New Seasons. One would be better off supporting one’s local coop food market, or shopping at the local Farm markets out here in St Johns, than going to New Seasons, and supporting their gentrifying ways.
I have no idea why this thread got turned into a New Seasons bash.
The company is locally owned. If you don’t want to shop there, fine, but why spread falsehoods about the company?
The company is barely locally owned. They were purchased by an investment firm, similar to the company who bought and eventually destroyed Haggens. I still like the store but it’s not the quaint little chain we have come to love. It’s just a matter of time before they sell it to another big firm and cash out.
The majority owner lives in Portland. The investment firm is based in Portland. What is your point?
Investment firms care about the return, not about how good the food is. Their passion is making money, not running a great store. There is a difference. Ask the owners of Haggens, GI Joes, and others.
Of course they do, so do the owners.
How about you stop posting stuff that is not true on the internet?
What have I posted that is false?????
You said the owners and investors are not local. That is not true.
Their lead investor is based in Seattle:
http://www.endeavourcapital.com/ec/stephen-babson/
The majority owner lives in Portland. The CEO lives in Portland.
All decisions are made here. I know the owner, so stop…….
Who do you consider to be the owner?
Engineers expect drivers (and cyclists) to know the difference in meaning for 4-inch-wide white lines and an 8-inch-wide white lines. My guess is that very few do. Maybe this theory is flawed.
Most of the commenters on this forum are better educated about traffic laws than your average cop.
The Oregon Driver Manual states, “Bike lanes – Identified by a wide solid
white line with a bicycle symbol or a bike lane sign”. It also states that wide solid white lines are used in several situations other than as part of the stripe/symbol/signage combo that designates a bike lane. And “8 inches” isn’t mentioned.
Where’s the little bike sign that should be painted on there?
If there’s no signage or bike lane markings, I don’t think ticketing will solve anything, because the drivers would then be able to say, “I didn’t know it was a bike lane, it wasn’t marked”, and get out of the ticket.
The bike lane markings have to be baked into the road surface and I know some road workers don’t like to do it so it doesn’t get done.
Bike lane markings, signs on the street and a sign when you enter the door of the NS that there is no parking allowed in the bike lane (include the pictures used here!) will probably go a long way to solve this problem. Then ticket the scofflaw drivers who still park there.
Too bad people in this state generally seem to lack the ability to read or truly follow any road rules. I drive and cycle regularly and every time I am out I encounter a constant barrage of people doing whatever the hell they want. It’s as if the vast majority are unaware they aren’t the only people in existence, the entitlement that exudes with such attitude. This includes; driving or parking in cycling lanes, running stops, red lights, suddenly stopping dead to turn, or turning without looking, and whatever is with this 10 to 15 miles an hour under the speed limit. In the 15 years I have been here I have never encountered such a ridiculous amount of people not paying attention and just being absolutely stupid on the road. I’ve driven in many states and several countries and Portland at this rate is one of the worst I’ve encountered. I am amazed by the sheer volume of people that I’ve seen dicking around with their phones (as an example) but who can’t comprehend the use of a blinker or realizing they aren’t actually alone on the road. Every single day I have this issue. Every day. Driving is not complicated but does involve paying attention and being aware. Driving is also a privilege, not a right. I sincerely hope something is done. I’ve been hit on my bike twice in a bike lane by drivers ‘not seeing’ me in daylight WITH all my bright colours. I’ve been hit in my car pretty badly by someone turning into me ‘not seeing’. Perhaps getting the police to actually enforce instead of… Well I’m baffled to what anyone actually does anymore. The bottom line is that the longer people get away with their antics, the larger the problem becomes.
Before you throw everyone under the bus, you might want to checkout the circumstances. One block only bike lane. No signage, just paint on the ground. Cars parked against the curb on the block before and block after. I think the idiots who set up this circumstance should have to answer for this. I don’t blame the drivers and I don’t blame the cyclists. I blame the fools who set up this circumstance that was doomed to fail.
It’s not hard to set up a bike lane but these fools figured out how to screw it up.
I’m sure people have posted this in the above comments (TLDR), but from those pictures I don’t see any “No Parking” signs, driver’s are going to park anywhere that isn’t marked for no parking, they don’t think that they shouldn’t park curbside because of a bike lane. There have to be signs there indicating that it’s a no parking zone.
How do drivers know not to park in the main lane?
I’m still in favor of allowing budding Danny Macaskils and street BMX riders “practice” on cars parked in bike lanes. I posted a video of Sagan parking a bike on top of a car a few weeks ago…
Part of the problem here is that the bike lane exists for one block only…in front of the store. not the block before, not the block after. This block only. While I don’t think anyone should park here, we shouldn’t be surprised when bike lanes are installed in a half-ass manner.
Oh, and there is street parking on the block before and after the store but a bike lane on this block only. Again, it’s a total mess.
Giving people big tickets for parking in a bike lane that isn’t clearly marked is a great way to turn them against bike lanes foreverafter. They may not park in one again (except if it’s confusing again) but then they’ll never vote for them either. Once the markings are clear, then of course ticket them.
I also don’t think it’s fair of ODOT to install a bike lane that isn’t marked well, because it puts the store in the position of enforcer–having to constantly inform customers they can’t park there, and also risking losing customers who associate their last trip to that store with getting a big fine. Again, once the markings are clear, the store should have no hesitation about telling customers who selfishly park there to quit it.
These arguments of course are on top of the main unfairness, which is to cyclists.
An eight inch white line is a pretty clear and unambiguous way to mark a bike lane in Oregon. A four inch wide white line would means something different. Maybe motorists should learn the relevant laws if they want to drive.
Portland also uses solid white stripes to designate parallel parking areas on streets. I didn’t know that those are 4″ and bike lane stripes are 8″ until I read your comment. I don’t think most drivers know it. Solid white lines are used for several other purposes, also. I don’t think not knowing that one thickness means something different than another thickness shows any shortcoming in drivers.
If anything, a line/symbol system that has a 4″ line designating parallel parking between the line and the curb, and an 8″ line the same color in the same location designating NO parallel parking, is a poor system, especially if there isn’t good signage accompanying it.
If the goal is to snare violators and punish them, so they’ll be angry about bike lanes forever afterwards, and guarantee that the problem remains ongoing, then stick with the current 4″/8″ line system. If the goal is to keep the bike lane clear, then there should be clearer signage and striping.
I just read the Oregon Driver’s Manual and there is nothing about 4″ or 8″ lines. It mentions “white lines” being used for several purposes other than bike lanes. It mentions “wide white lines” as designating bike lanes. What’s the difference between a white line and a wide white line? The ODM says nothing. Is an 8″ wide line “wide”? Well, the solid while lines that designate crosswalks, which are a foot or more wide, are called “white lines” not “wide white lines”. So by logic, a “wide white line” should be wider than that.
It also states that a bicycle lane is designate by a “wide solid white line WITH a bicycle symbol or bike lane sign sign”. Therefore if there is no visible symbol or sign, it is not a bicycle lane according to the ODM. In fact, if a bike hit a parked car in that area, and the only symbol was the line, a driver could argue that the bike was at fault–maybe stupid, but technically not a bad argument.
My point is that when the ODM is so vague, it’s not fair to blame drivers for being confused, and a better approach than fines and shaming would be to make the signage and symbols clearer.
Why not just deploy a few traffic cones? Problem solved, at least transitionally!
Maybe we are all looking at this wrong. If this is literally a one-block long bike lane, is it possible that ODOT just painted it and left it for the future? Maybe they don’t want it to be a bike lane? What use is a bike lane for one block?
So they can say that the road has a bike lane on it?
It’s likely that it was a negotiated transportation improvement for approving the new season development there. They have to make investments to accommodate new trips to their store, and in this case, it includes bikes. Unfortunately you can’t really make private developers pay for improvements that are not directly related to the impact they are creating (hence ODOT can require them to stripe a bike lane for a block or two, but not all the way to a trail per someone’s earlier suggestion). This process can make improvements happen haphazardly – it’s the same reason often there are gaps in sidewalks. BUT hopefully having something here makes a stronger case for extending the bike lane length in future TSP projects and incorporating it into a network. That’s my guess. Anyway, some paint and signs along the stretch would go a long way to making this look less like a parking strip.
Dead on.
“Unfortunately you can’t really make private developers pay for improvements that are not directly related to the impact they are creating…”
As someone who rides daily in the narrow, pothole-ridden, construction-plagued excuse for a bike lane outside of Apple’s new HQ, and previously commuted via the Class I bike trail adjacent to Levi’s Stadium that’s now frequently closed for 49’ers games (thanks to a bullsh!t EIR), I can attest that you can’t even make developers pay for their direct impact either.
The lane is marked for bike use and runs from N Wall to N Ida on Lombard, though the lane does disappear on “The Cut” overpass.
The original New Seasons, in Raleigh Hills, often has the cargo truck entrance blocked by automobiles.
This is what tow trucks and licences for legal auto theft were made for, along with the $250 tow charge for illegal parking.
Still the tow trucks I have watched can pick up a car and be gone in 30 seconds. I have seen them in groups make off to 6 different yards and clean out a block in 3 minutes. Most charge $200 per mile and they will tow to Milwaukie.
Heard from New Seasons. Here’s their statement:
This happens to literally every single painted bike lane in the history of painted bike lanes. Of course it’s going to be an issue. At any rate, you can’t really hold New Seasons accountable, as it’s not their responsibility to cover for ODOT’s poor design.
They aren’t Parked on the sidepath. Side paths are bike paths. Use em. Asphalt with stripes is for cars. That’s the way the real world works. Austin figured this out and put down curbs.
The paint fantasy needs to die.
This problem still happens on the PSU “protected bike lane”; how long does it take people to figure it out? What more signage could there be?
In the case of the PSU bike lane, I’d love to see some red-on-white circle-slash-P stencils interspersed with more frequent (instead of just start-of-block) bike stencils. Would that work?
It happen at psu because the lane is designed as a half measure. The is no follow through and the city is afraid.
Like I said, Austin Texas figured it out.
Completely agree. There are even designated areas for people to park buses and cars inside the PSU “protected” bike lane. Instead of having cars and buses pick up and drop off to the left of the protected bike lane, the city actually encourages vehicles to block bike traffic unsafely.