The City of Portland just confirmed changes to the neighborhood greenway route on NW Overton.
As we reported last week, the transportation bureau had second thoughts about their design on Overton between 9th and 10th just over one month after it was first installed. Local businesses (especially Ovation Coffee & Tea) fumed about the removal of on-street parking spaces that came with addition of new bike lanes and first responders said the traffic diverter at the NW 9th/Overton intersection made it hard to turn. Many drivers also chose to ignore the westbound prohibition — especially when traffic backed up due to the busy railroad crossing nearby.
PBOT’s new plan will remove the bike lane, add back most of the auto parking, and add shared-lane markings to the block. They’ll move the eastbound-only, one-way driving configuration two blocks over.
In the graphic sent out by PBOT today, the new plan drawing didn’t show cars parked on the street. They haven’t said how many spaces will be returned, but we can expect to see them on both sides of the street except for the ramp into the Encore Condominium building, near the corners, and at the southeastern corner where the bike lane will remain.
“As a result of both communication with area stakeholders and on-site evaluations, the project team will be moving the NW Overton traffic pattern change from NW 9th Ave to NW 11th Ave to improve traffic operational issues. The revised design will improve access to NW Overton Street, particularly for freight vehicles and during train events, while reducing cut-through traffic on the NW Pettygrove/NW Overton neighborhood greenway,” read a PBOT statement released earlier today few minutes ago. Here’s more about the changes (taken directly from PBOT):
- NW Overton Street between NW 11th and 12th avenues will become one-way eastbound only for auto travel to discourage cut-through traffic on the NW Overton-Pettygrove Neighborhood Greenway.
- A section of bollard-protected bike lane will remain on the south side of NW Overton Street approaching NW 9th Avenue to allow people biking to bypass vehicle queues.
- No changes will be made to the current amount of on-street parking on NW Overton Street between NW 12th and NW 11th avenues. No changes will made to NW Overton St between NW 11th and NW 10th avenues.
- On-street parking on NW Overton Street between NW 9th and NW 10th avenues will be restored on both sides of the street, except where the short bike lane will remain.
The changes will be made as soon as weather allows and PBOT says once the new configuration is in place they’ll monitor traffic for six months to determine if any changes should be made. But of course they said that the first time and only waited about five weeks before making major changes, so we’ll have to wait and see how this all plays out.
This work is part of the NW Pettygrove Neighborhood Greenway project, a key part of the city’s Northwest in Motion Plan. Learn more about the project on the official website.
NOTE, 6:59 pm: This post was originally published with a doctored image. I thought it was silly that PBOT didn’t add the car icons to their conceptual drawing of the new plans, so I added in a bunch of my own. I shouldn’t have done that, because it’s misleading. I replaced that image with the original and regret any confusion.