Eyes on the Street: How are ‘Slow Streets’ working?

The picture of Bryant shows exactly what we don’t need.

It just so happens that in nonpandemic times, I walk or run across the exact section in the photo minimum 4 times daily.

Recently, I’ve been avoiding Bryant completely unless it’s especially early, late, raining, etc because there’s not enough clearance — particularly if there is any oncoming traffic (vehicular or active).

People treating the streets like a park is not a good thing, especially if they act like they’re the only ones out there.

Fortunately, none of the streets near Bryant have this issue. So while it does feel like there are more people riding than usual, they tend to stay on certain corridors, Bryant being one of them.

NE Going looked glorious this morning! COVID or not, it’s really amazing to have a little breathing room (off sidewalk) for runners, strollers, and walkers.

There is also a really nice perspective you get from being in the street compared to the sidewalk. A fuller view of the neighborhood, and even some views to the Cascades and Tualatin Hills.

Sorry, this is slightly off topic of slow streets but does respond to the question of whether more folks are riding: My observation is that there are more cyclists, pedestrians, skateboards, runners, elliptigoers, out and about. The load on the Springwater trail has been much higher than usual, especially the last 3 weekends. Weekday traffic may be a bit down as there are fewer commuters. Here’s a time-lapse from Saturday May 9, noon-2pm. https://www.instagram.com/p/B_-25l8AtZL/embed/?autoplay=1 Of note, not really a great place to go if you are following distancing protocols, some narrow spots and lots of people without masks.
At times there is a steady line of people coming and going, lots of groups, and lots of families. It’s always busy out there on Mother’s Day weekend but it’s still definitely above normal levels.

i’ve yet to encounter one closed off street!

In Bend, on the Safer Street near me, I notice no discernable increase in bike traffic. It is a little used route anyway. On streets in general, possibly a tiny increase in cyclists. Out on training rides in the country, hard to tell, because this is usually the time when tourists flock to Bend and ride the popular routes. Not a dramatic increase, if any, in my unscientific survey. One note, I was in a new/used shop yesterday, and the manager said they sold through all their mid-priced mountain bikes, and are getting very few consignment bikes. Normally, they would be receiving many this time of year.

I think its making a difference on the greenway I live on in between Fremont and Prescott. We have a lot of families on bikes and joggers and from what I saw on yesterday it looked like there was much less cut through traffic. I’m glad PBOT finally got this because I’m seeing weekend levels of use during weekdays and weekends are at Sunday Parkways level of use.

In theory a great idea but question the practice. I live on one of those streets. What I’ve seen is people riding and walking as if the streets are closed off like a Sunday parkway event without any regard for safety which is disappointing. While I rarely drive since the lockdown began have now gotten the evil eye for just driving to my house from the grocery store. There are plently of cut threw drivers (all going too fast anyway) coming off Sandy who just ignore and go around anyway.

I went for a ride in NW on Saturday. NW 24th had the “local traffic only” signs at NW Thurman – and they seemed to make no difference at all. NW 24th has the sharrows painted on the street, but otherwise it’s a wide-open, straight-line street that looks a lot like an arterial. It seemed to have the same amount of car traffic as other streets in NW – though much lower volume than on a typical, non-covid Saturday. Didn’t see many other cyclists on the street.

My conclusion about what the new signs are doing? Not much. But good try, Portland.

My anecdotal view of using them this weekend was positive, though about the same amount of people and traffic as before the cones and signs were put out. I will say when crossing 53rd over I-84 into a zone Safe Streets area there was a car behind me and he was being very patient. Not sure if the signage was an influence or just a courteous individual. Curious how this will develop long term, but so far positive.

This comment is not an attack on particular ethic group, but is based on repeated observations while driving the legal speed limit on N.E. Sacramento street on the north side of the Rose City golf course. Yesterday, while driving east on this street I had to slow down because there were two white woman walking right next to each other in the street obstructing the traffic. There is a well worn path to walk on off of the street that the women had chosen not to use. Upon hearing my car behind them, the women turned around and looked at my car and then continued to walk in the street blocking the traffic lane. I had to drive in the opposite traffic lane to pass these “entitled ladies” and as I commented to my wife about their rudeness, she sighed and only said two words, “white people.” I laughed so hard for the next three blocks home. Oh yes, I too am a white person. Have a very pleasant day.

Yesterday I used SE Central, SE Woodward, SE 52nd and SE Sacramento neighborhood greenway streets.
It felt better where the signs & barrels were placed directly in the road. This maybe accounted for half of the barriers I saw.
From what I could tell it was working. It seems like there could be at least twice as many.
When is the next phase planned to launch? Any word?

Minneapolis is doing a very similar experiment on about 20 miles of streets, starting about a week and a half ago. A large portion of the routing incorporates existing bike boulevards. Our signage is a little different, with each block having an 8′ wide barricade (just barely enough to drive around), each barricade festooned with a large yellow bike/pedestrian diamond-shaped sign and a smaller square sign advising 10 mph for cars.

I’ve ridden about 2/3 of it, parts of it multiple times. While it is not as heavily used as our immensely popular parkway system along our waterways (which have largely been closed to car traffic, with the former roadways reserved for pedestrians, in addition to the separated feet vs wheels paths we already had), I am definitely see a bunch of people using them, including parents with very small children riding bikes or scooters in the middle of the street. Kind of like Sunday Parkways without as many people, or the need to clear off the street by midafternoon and wait another year before going out again.

In other words, great. So far I haven’t seen any fast-driving behavior, though some confusion on the part of motorists. I think the local residents get it, and drive their cars in and out as needed. The confused people are ones who don’t live on the street in question, so if these are keeping them out, great.

One thing I wonder if is the tactic of marking too many streets as “local access only” may backfire.

My guess is that compliance is decent if these situations are uncommon enough. But if people encounter them too frequently, they’ll systematically ignore them as they do with “Children at Play” signs — a situation that’s gotten so bad that both federal and state authorities recommend avoiding using them.

I’m unimpressed with the management of this project. Some friends on SW Miles Pl., which is part of the Willamette Greenway Trail, and already sees lots of people walking and biking, asked if I could contact PBOT about the lack of social distancing on the street.

I’d seen the street was marked as one of the “neighborhood greenways” on this project’s map, so I asked the project manager if PBOT could put up a couple of its social distancing signs it’s been using for the project, but somehow overlooked putting on Miles. I got a reply that Miles isn’t a neighborhood greenway, so didn’t get any signs. I had to reply that Miles was on PBOT’s project map as a “neighborhood greenway”, it’s part of the Greenway Trail, it’s a Major City Trail, it’s much more crowded that other streets that did get the signs, etc.

He replied that OK, I was right, but not all streets in the project got “local access only” signs, so that’s why Miles didn’t get “local access only” signs. I had to reply that I didn’t expect Miles to, because it’s a dead end so is already obviously local access only. I had to repeat my request for a couple “social distancing” signs that PBOT created for the project. Since PBOT encouraged more people to use the street, asking for the same signs other, less crowded streets got seems reasonable. I haven’t heard back yet.

This is a small issue in the scheme of things, but at the same time I’ve been defending this project to people, so it would be nice if a request for two signs didn’t require several emails just to tell PBOT what its own maps says, and what signs its own project has.