Undeterred by a steep drop in transit use during the pandemic, the Portland Bureau of Transportation launched an online open house and survey for the Rose Lane Project on Thursday.
With the open house comes the release of 25 new project proposals — that’s in addition to the 18 projects already funded or in progress and the 16 that have been completed since the initiative launched in 2019. The aim of all these projects is to make transit faster and more reliable, especially for Portlanders of color and those with lower incomes. According to staff from Commissioner Chloe Eudaly’s office, the Rose Lane Project is, “an effort to redistribute our right-of-way with a priority around racial equity, climate justice, and direct community benefits.”
Transit trip times have slowed in Portland in the past decade as our streets have become overrun with single-occupancy vehicle users. The number of drivers on our roads have risen sharply since 2010 and transit, biking, and walking rates have flatlined and/or decreased.
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Armed with confidence from data that shows getting car users out of the way of bus operators speeds up service, PBOT is making it clear that transit-priority lanes, traffic signal updates, and other measures are a key agency priority.
Among the today’s releases are an interactive Rose Lane project map and in-depth fact sheets on eight TriMet bus lines. PBOT offers details on each proposal, including how the lines might/might not impact bicycling. In places where no existing bikeways are in place, PBOT has launched a research project with Oregon State University to understand how to manage bus and bike operators in the same lane.
Take a look at the online open house and project fact sheets, then take the survey. PBOT needs to hear from bicycle riders so we can help these projects reach their full potential.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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