(Photo: Betsy Reese)
As of Sunday May 15th, TriMet’s Line 10 has been moved off Clinton Street between SE 21st and SE 26th — much to the pleasure of advocates who have wanted to clear bus traffic from the popular neighborhood greenway route for many years.
The Clinton Street Neighborhood Greenway is the only greenway between Division and Powell Blvd. Without it, people biking would have to go out of their way and cross busy corridors in order to move east-west through the Hosford-Abernethy and Richmond neighborhoods.
This greenway is one of Portland’s most beloved, and many people have pushed for more car traffic diverters to keep driving volumes low so that it can live up to the city’s “low-stress, family friendly” promise.
It’s nearly impossible to meet that expectation when people are sharing the street with large, loud, and toxic vehicles.
Line 10 will now go eastbound from SE Ladd and Division to SE 26th Ave (and vice-versa westbound) and avoid Clinton St entirely.
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(Photo: Taylor Griggs/BikePortland)
Nearby resident and veteran bike advocacy volunteer Betsy Reese notified us of the change. She said she’s been “working to get the number 10 off our greenway for many, many years.” “Thanks to Covid,” she continued, “it has finally happened.”
At the beginning of the pandemic, the 10 bus was rerouted from Clinton St as part of the Portland Bureau of Transportation shutting off car traffic on Clinton between 25th and 26th Avenues as part of their Safe Streets Initiative. As you can see in the photo above taken Monday, the busy intersection has become a carfree plaza with several restaurants teaming up on a Healthy Business permits that has allowed them to make the block carfree.
The plaza is very popular with business owners and many nearby residents. Moving the bus off Clinton not only improves the cycling environment, it makes it much more likely the block at 26th remains carfree forever.
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The #10 will soon be off Ladd Ave as well, as it will be rerouted to run along Division and SE 7th to replace the #2 when it gets “upgraded” to the FX.
Farewell, old friend.
Not to mention that the 10 will supposedly gain weekend service again after lo these many years.
Did they confirm that was happening? I remember they proposed it and were taking feedback, but I didn’t see any confirmation that they are going ahead with it, and it’s not included in their recent summer schedule changes round-up.
Moving the 10 off Ladd seems fine, not to mention adding back weekend service. But I’m bewildered at TriMet’s planned routing of the 2/FX across the train tracks at 8th & Division. (Supposedly that’s why they’re moving the 10, to pick up the old 2’s route.) Did they think the 70 buses getting constantly blocked or rerouted at 11th/12th & Clinton needed some company? It seems like whatever time savings the FX accomplishes will be torpedoed by unexpected lengthy delays at the railroad crossing.
But anyway, glad that Clinton is quieter for good. I hope PBOT makes the carfree plaza permanent (like bollards in the asphalt permanent), and upgrades the construction-zone road closed signs.
The logic of having your premier high-speed bus cross the UPRR tracks is just daffy. It is true that the decision was made at a time when the problem was not as bad as it is now, but there were people in the community who knew the problem was going to get worse (because the UPRR’s consultant told us it would, and why), and TriMet did not want to hear it. TriMet also believed that if they paid for some expensive UPRR switching equipment (which they did), the problem would go away (which it didn’t). When you understand why the tracks were blocked, and what the equipment was intended to do, that never made sense.
The Clinton St. plaza is an aesthetic disaster, so if it is made permanent, I hope PBOT requires it conform to some urban design logic other than “cheap”, and I hope they restrict using fossil fuels to heat the open air.
The ubiquitous use of propane heaters and gas fire-pits are one of the more absurd aspects of “progressive” Portland. I hope they are banned some day.
Honestly I bet the drivers are happy too– that turn from westbound Clinton onto 21st was really tight!
This is great news!
So much for TriMet’s longtime insistence that the #10 couldn’t make the turn on the alternate route… finally.