(Photo: Sarah Iannarone)
Got plans tonight?
We’ve teamed up with our friends at Go By Bike and Better Block PDX to support the Portland Trail Blazers and the Better Broadway project. Join us at the Moda Center for some fun and mingling at Rip City headquarters near the fountain and then ride with us up to Broadway to check out how the street has been transformed. After we learn about the project and experience it first-hand, we’ll watch the Blazers beat the Golden State Warriors in this do-or-die playoff game.
This ride is open to non-sports fans too. We just want to encourage folks to ride Better Broadway and support the businesses along the street who might not think any of their customers ride bikes.
Here’s what to expect:
6:00 – Meet at the new Rip City sign on the south side of the Moda Center (south of the fountain). We’ll hang out and mingle and check the food and drink specials at Jack’s. Get your photo taken in front of the sign just like I did this morning!
6:30 – Saddle up and roll onto NE Multnomah and head over to the start of the Better Broadway project at NE 24th and Broadway. We’ll hear more about the project and chat a bit about it.
7:00 – Ride down Broadway and check out the transformation. We’ll end at Chen’s Dynasty (a Better Broadway sponsor!) where they’ll have cold drinks, good food and the game on TV.
Here’s the Facebook event listing if you’re so inclined.
Hope to see some of you out there!
Go Blazers!
— Jonathan Maus, (503) 706-8804 – jonathan@bikeportland.org
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I did Multnomah, Barbur, Naito, Weidler, Broadway, Tillamook today and back. Barbor drivers yielded as they should with plenty of room. No cars, for a change, tried to cut me off on the Multnomah-Terwilliger bypass.
Naito was clear today. No trucks or cars parked in the bike lane, and the carney trailer was on the grass.
Tillamook was full of bikes from Williams to 24th.
I only saw one other bike on Broadway from 24th to MLK. There were a few blocks where cars were parked in the lane outside of the bike lane. One minivan tried to cut through to the bike lane through the barriers (taking one of them out). She stopped in the middle of the bike lane when I screamed at her from 3 foot away. Almost stopped in front of her to scowel and tell her to backup into the traffic lane and turn where she was supposed to after telling her to read her driver’s manual.
Decided it was not worth it. Some people never learn or read the manual.
Re photo: he is so ripped. 😉
Wait, what’s going on? I just rode down Broadway (8 pm Wednesday) and all the cones were off the street. Is this ANOTHER redesign mid-program? Or is the program ending early?
The project is being scaled down in scope while improving the facilities. I think it’s great that Better Block decided the longer facility wasn’t working so well and decided to make the facility smaller, but higher quality.
Go Blazers.
Last night, walked to NE Broadway and had dinner at Frank’s Noodle House. (Excellent meal!) Was on NE Broadway from 6 ~ 7:30 pm. Saw very few bicyclists and walkers, but saw many cars. Unfortunate odds. Think the decision yesterday to reduce the length of the demo project was prudent. Hope the change leads to greater understanding and maybe even endorsement. Meanwhile, the comments in the nearby neighborhood NextDoor sites keep rolling in… Thanks to the neighbors on NextDoor who are supporting the project. And, of course, thanks to PBOT and the Better Block PDX volunteers.
I live in this neighborhood and I am in support of projects to improve Broadway/Weidler. I was surprised this morning to see everything but a few blocks of barriers and the like. But, I shouldn’t have been. My previous view of it, riding parts of it and conversations with neighbors could be summed up with one word, “confused.” This is not a criticism of Better Blocks or the intentions behind it. It’s just that hardly any street user could figure out what was going on. It appeared that property owners along the full stretch, if not some discrete parts of it, had no idea what was going to happen. If failures in experiments are useful because they inform the next experiment, then there is a great deal to learn from this one. I hope we get another shot at that because Broadway users and the neighbors could certainly benefit.