2022 Archives

Updates on the fatal collision on SE Powell Blvd

View looking north onto Powell from 26th.

Before heading over to the scene for a closer look, I wanted to share a few updates on the tragic death that happened on SE 26th and Powell yesterday.

First, the victim was 50-year-old Sarah Pliner, a well-known local chef and former restaurant owner. Pliner was behind Aviary, a French-inspired spot on Northeast Alberta. Before closing in 2020, Aviary was named Restaurant of the Year by Willamette Week in 2012. In a review from Conde Nast Traveler, the food was referred to as “inventive… that’ll quietly knock your socks off.”

I’m in touch with a close friend of Pliner’s who’s traveling today with her family in California. I hope to share more about her and share remembrances from those who knew her in a separate post. If you knew her, please reach out and share if you are able to.

Advocates have raised red flags about the intersection where Pliner was killed several times. Local nonprofit group Bike Loud PDX held an emergency meeting yesterday to talk about how best to respond this time. Much of the energy thus far is focused on the Oregon Department of Transportation, given that Powell Blvd is a state highway that has years of death and destruction in its past (stay tuned for a post about recent traffic deaths nearby). Many volunteers said they plan to attend upcoming meetings of state and city freight advisory committees.

The Bike Loud board released a letter this morning calling on local policymakers to act to make Powell safer. Board members outline their vision for the corridor:

“We want all people along the Powell corridor to enjoy full lives, free of worry that they will be maimed or killed while crossing the street whether on bike, foot or in a car. We want Powell Boulevard to have slower speeds, bike boxes, safe crossings, mode separation, and daylighting for vulnerable users. Finally, we want Powell Boulevard adjacent to Cleveland High School to be designated a school zone. We need all this now, before another person dies.”

Bike Loud’s letter also said the group will be working with Pliner’s family and surrounding community on a memorial. We’re not aware of any protest actions or mass bike rides, but we’ll share details about the memorial and other actions as soon as more information is available.

Transportation advocacy non-profit The Street Trust also released a statement about the crash this morning.

“The Street Trust is tired of issuing statements and offering condolences for the loss of life and limb due to government inaction on SE Powell Blvd. in Portland and are demanding immediate action – today – from local and state government to prevent future injuries and deaths,” the statement reads. “The Street Trust is demanding that the City of Portland and State of Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) cooperate to immediately physically separate from motor vehicle traffic all vulnerable street users including people on bicycles, pedestrians, and transit riders until a full investigation of yesterday’s killing is completed.” (Emphasis theirs.)

Employees of a nearby Burgerville walked out in protest after seeing the crash Tuesday. In a tweet they wrote, “Workers have walked off on strike at 25th & Powell over safety concerns. After witnessing a child [sic] be killed immediately outside the shop, body in full view of crew, workers demanded the shop be closed for the day. Corporate/HR denied this plea for compassion.”

State Rep. Rob Nosse represents the district where the crash occurred. BikePortland received this statement from Nosse this morning:

“That intersection has been a traffic and pedestrian challenge for far too long especially given that Cleveland High School is right there along with Powell Park. The city and the state have got to figure out a way to make Powell Blvd safer. I have been working with a group of neighborhood activists and leaders trying to figure out how to make a jurisdictional transfer of Powell Blvd from ODOT control to PBOT control or more simply stated from state to city. This tragedy is a call to redouble those efforts to find a way to make a jurisdictional transfer both politically and financially viable. Making Powell a city road rather than a state road gives our community a much better chance of preventing some like this from happening again.”

State Rep. Khanh Pham, who represents the district directly adjacent to where this happened, has made a statement about Pliner’s death. “My heart goes out to Sarah’s family and community. This is the 3rd death on this stretch of inner Powell in the past year. We as a state and city must fund safety improvements and jurisdictional transfer so no one else has to die or be injured,” she wrote on Twitter.

That transfer Rep. Pham refers to is likely going to be the focus of much attention in the coming weeks and months. As I reported yesterday, Powell ranked highest by Metro in a listing of state highway that all parties agree should be transferred to City of Portland ownership. I’ll go further into this topic in a separate post, but suffice it to say there is a ton of political inertia around this idea — especially given the recent precedent of the 82nd Avenue transfer. One little tidbit I’ll share now is that in January 2020, PBOT Director Chris Warner sent a memo to ODOT Director Kris Strickler. Warner seemed a bit frustrated and claimed that ODOT had lowballed an estimate included in a report about what it would cost to bring the road up to a “state of good repair” (a requisite step before it can be transferred). “Portland has hundreds of millions of unfunded safety needs,” Warner wrote, “We cannot accept additional liabilities without weakening our ability to meet the needs on the streets we own.”

Stay tuned.

Sam Balto on how to start a bike bus of your own

Sam Balto at the front of the bus on September 21st, 2022. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Sam Balto is a serial safe streets entrepreneur. His first claim to fame was using cardboard cutouts of football star Tom Brady to slow traffic down outside a school he taught at in Boston, Massachusetts. Then, after he moved to Portland in 2018, Sam’s tactical urbanism went to the next level with the “Red Cup Challenge.” Both of these DIY traffic-taming tactics garnered national media attention.

But nothing Sam’s ever done has taken off like the bike bus. What started as a way to get kids active (he’s a physical education teacher) before school on Earth Day back in April, has become a viral phenomenon. A TikTok video he posted this week has over 1.5 million views.

Sam wants more people to hop on the bus. So before he stops taking my calls, I asked him to lay out all his secrets.

Take it away Sam…

Find your why

The question you need to ask is: why do you want to start one? There are two reasons why you ask this question. First, it helps you focus on the problem you are trying to solve. And second, it helps to remember why you started in the first place when things get frustrating or it’s the middle of the winter and the weather isn’t as pleasant.

My “why” changes depending on the school I have worked at. At Cesar Chavez Elementary School in north Portland my “why” was to build a strong community and revitalize a walking school bus program that had existed in the past. I wanted to provide children more opportunities for physical activity and to support students who didn’t qualify for the bus and didn’t have someone who could take them to school. At Alameda, my “why” to start the bike bus was to reduce car trips at drop-off, which had gone way up during the pandemic because of canceled bus routes.

Build your team

My friend Paul (yellow arrow) helps me corral the crowd. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Once you know your “why,” you should start finding allies. This work shouldn’t be done alone, so find someone who shares your interest in starting a bike bus. I found other champions by hanging out by the bike rack before and after school and talking to parents who were biking with their children. I shared the idea of a bike bus and asked if they wanted to help.

Once you have your team, it’s time to plan the route.

Set up the route

First, find out the catchment zone for your school. Then find the official bus route information. Some school districts have bus routes on the school transportation website and they’re usually easy to find. I take that information and put the bus stops into Google Maps Layers. This gives me an idea where students live and where students take the bus from.

I then mark which bus stops are between 1 – 1.25 miles from the school. These bus stops are bikeable and walkable. If you are a school administrator or staff member, some school districts have lists of which students should get on at each stop. This list gives you great information for families to reach out to and invite to your bike bus or walking school bus.

In Portland we have neighborhood greenways which are the preferred routes for bicycling and walking. They have speed bumps, lower speed limits (20 mph citywide), signage and often traffic diverters to reduce the amount of cars on the road. For our school we have the NE Klickitat greenway that runs east-west and NE 37th/Alameda greenway that runs north-south.

In one of the maps above you can see how student addresses line up with our route. Note how many families live just a few blocks from the bike bus. Families that live four blocks or more from the two main meeting spots have created micro bike buses and they bike together to the main route. Many other families know the route and they just wait on the nearest corner and join us as we roll by.

Our first bike bus ride had a simple route that only used one street (NE Klickitat). That helped establish it, but when we decided to continue the bike bus every week for the rest of the school year, we added another meeting location to include families that live north of NE Fremont, a major arterial.

Spread the word

Once you have a route and meeting times, make a flier and share it with everyone. In 2008 I worked for the Obama campaign in Northeast Pennsylvania. I registered over 2,000 college students and I take that same mindset when talking to people about the bike bus. I will talk to anyone and everyone about the bike bus! Even if they drive every day I still invite them and make sure they feel welcome to join us.

I hope this was helpful. To review, here are the four most important things to remember:

Find another family to do it with.
Make a map with meeting times and share it with everyone. Be inclusive and welcoming.
Be consistent. Our bike bus has had consistent growth because we are consistent and students/families can plan for it.
Just do it. Even if it’s a three-block ride, that is amazing. You have to start somewhere and build support.

Good luck!

For more information, check out these helpful resources:

Columbia Slough and Marine Drive path gaps to be filled with Metro bond funds

Riders sharing a lane on NE Cornfoot Road.

There were a lot of exciting Portland-area active transportation projects up for Metro funding through its 2025-2027 Regional Flexible Funds Allocation (RFFA) cycle, and not all of them were chosen. But Metro has other pots of money to dip into for regional projects, and they just announced how they’ll use $20 million from the 2019 parks and nature bond to fund 12 of them.

The $475 million measure sets $40 million for walking and bike trails. In addition to projects Metro says will center racial equity, the bond measure also prioritizes investments that will make the region more resilient to climate change.

The majority of the 12 projects Metro Council chose to fund this go ’round will fill gaps on existing routes. Three of them are in the City of Portland, and the rest are spread out throughout the metro area.

The three projects Metro chose to fund in Portland are key pieces of our regional, off-highway cycling network that have languished for many years. The NP Greenway Trail project, which recently received Metro funding for a separate gap near the St. Johns Bridge, has been a dream of local advocates since 2005. The Marine Drive path is very popular, but is also very dangerous because portions where gaps exist require riders to share the road on what PBOT considers a “high crash corridor.” As we shared in 2020, this vital path is 75% complete! And The Cornfoot road path will connect to PBOT’s new protected bike lanes on 47th and has been a glaring gap in the network for many years.

Below is a list of the 12 funded projects, with descriptions and dollar amounts taken directly from Metro…

Columbia Slough Trail: Cornfoot Road (Portland Bureau of Transportation)

Grant: $4.6 million (Match: $2.2 million)
At 1.25 miles, this is the longest project to receive funding. This project will fill a major gap in the Columbia Slough Trail near the airport and industrial businesses. The project will move commuters and recreational trail users in this multimodal freight corridor off the busy road and onto a safer parallel trail. It builds on past Metro grant awards. Back in 2016, Verde received a levy-funded trails grant to engage Spanish-speakers in the Cully neighborhood to envision the future of this trail as a safe way to walk between Colwood Natural Area and Whitaker Ponds Nature Park.

Marine Drive Trail: I-205 to NE 122nd Ave (Portland Parks and Recreation)

Grant: $2.3 million (Match: $1 million)

The City of Portland will build a major gap in the 40-Mile Loop, replacing dangerous on-street bike lanes with a separated path, while building on past bond investments. This 0.8 mile trail segment will provide trail users unparalleled views of the Columbia River and Mt. Hood. When completed, trail users will be able to enjoy nearly 14 miles of uninterrupted off-street trail along the Columbia River from NE 33rd Drive to the Sandy River in Troutdale.

North Portland Greenway: Kelley Point Park (Portland Parks and Recreation)

Grant: $1.9 million (Match $800,000)

Kelley Point Park is a historically and culturally significant place due to its location at the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. It is also the future northern terminus of the planned North Portland Willamette Greenway Trail. While much of the trail is already built within the park, there is a 1,400 foot gap that currently forces trail users onto the road. This project will fix this by extending the trail to the 40-Mile Loop and Marine Drive Trails.

Clackamas River Trail (City of Happy Valley)

Grant: $670,000 (Match: $1.95 million)

This 1,450 foot long multi-use path in Carver will provide access to the Clackamas River in a rapidly growing corner of the region. The trail improves connections between a Trimet bus line, housing, and parks and naturals areas along the Clackamas River. It also leverages a nearly 75% local match.

Gresham-Fairview Trail Gap (City of Gresham)

Grant amount: $4.2 million (Match: $750,000)
This project fills a gap in the Gresham-Fairview trail between Sandy Boulevard and Halsey Street, and includes a connection to I-84 Trail. The new stretch of trail expands on past bond investments and will improve safety along a high-crash street and providing commuters an unbroken path through Gresham from Powell to Sandy boulevards.

Sandy River Greenway (City of Troutdale)

Grant amount: $1.95 million (Match $1.6 million)
The City of Troutdale will build a riverfront path connecting downtown Troutdale to the 40-Mile Loop, Thousand Acres Natural Area and a major industrial employment area. This 1,400-foot-long linear park features access to the river and restored riparian habitat along the riverbank. The project is part of a larger urban redevelopment of a former industrial area. The redevelopment area is currently cut off from downtown Troutdale by the railroad, with the only existing non-motorized access following a dangerous roadway. This project offers a safe alternative for vulnerable road users and a more direct connection between major destinations.

Trolley Trail (North Clackamas Parks and Recreation District)

Grant: $658,027 (Match: $538,000)
The six-mile-long Trolley Trail is one of the most successful regional trails from Metro’s 1995 bond measure. As part of the Milwaukie Bay Park project, this grant project will realign and improve a 500 foot section of the trail along McLoughlin Blvd, improving safety and transit access while creating easier connections to the Willamette River.

Crescent Park Greenway Trail and Brookwood Ped Overpass (City of Hillsboro)

Grant: $1,000,000 Match: $176,471
The City of Hillsboro will develop a preliminary design for a pedestrian overpass of Brookwood Parkway and a new section of regional trail that serves one of the region’s major employment areas. This project will plan an off-street connection from Hillsboro’s recreation complex, along the south side of the Sunset Highway, to destinations in the rapidly growing industrial area west of Brookwood Parkway. The Crescent Park Greenway will serve bicycle commuters while offering area employees a creek-side respite for lunchtime strolls.

Emerald Necklace Trail (City of Forest Grove)

Grant: $200,000 (Match: $163,636)
The City of Forest Grove will conduct community engagement and alignment planning for the remaining unbuilt half of an 11-mile loop trail circling the city. The trail follows Gales Creek and connects many of Forest Grove’s neighborhoods, parks and natural areas.

Scott Creek Trail (City of Happy Valley)

Grant: $200,000 (Match: $163,636)
This project includes planning, preliminary engineering and right-of-way negotiation for a regional trail gap and safe crossing of a major arterial road. This 1,800 foot trail will fill a gap in the much longer Scott Creek Regional Trail, connecting Metro’s Mt. Talbert Nature Park to neighborhood parks to the north such as Southern Lites Park and Happy Valley Nature Park. The key feature of this project will be a safer, more direct crossing a Sunnyside Road, a seven-lane high-speed arterial roadway.

Westside Trail: US 26 Bike/Ped Bridge (Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District)

Grant: $1.9 million (Match: $820,083)
Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District will complete engineering for a bicycle and pedestrian bridge over Highway 26 to connect jobs, schools and parks. Once complete, this bridge will provide the only car-free crossing over a six-mile-long stretch of the freeway. The bridge is the linchpin in the Westside Trail, the 20-mile-plus north to south spine of Washington County’s active transportation network, which will one day connect the Tualatin River to Portland’s Forest Park.

Westside Trail: Segment 1 (City of King City)

Grant: $200,000 (Match: $163,636)
The city will design the entire segment of trail within King City, including an enhanced crossing at Beef Bend Road and access to the Tualatin River. King City is in the process of nearly doubling its housing inventory as it expands westward. The Westside Trail project sits at the gateway between the existing part of town and the new growth area. It will serve the recreation needs not only of this rapidly growing community, but also Bull Mountain to the north and Tualatin to the south.

Project construction timelines aren’t clear yet and will vary between agencies. Stay tuned!

Bicycle rider hit and killed by truck driver on Powell Blvd and 26th

Someone has been killed by a truck driver while trying to cross the street near Cleveland High School.

The Portland Police have confirmed that it was a bicycle rider. The collision happened at SE 26th and Powell Boulevard (Highway 26). According to PPB, the victim, “appeared to be a female in her mid to late twenties.” Three blocks of Powell Blvd are closed during the investigation.

According to a photo from the scene, the truck driver appears to have been driving eastbound on Powell. The victim’s bicycle can be seen lodged into the left rear wheels and their body came to rest near the southeast corner of the intersection.

There was a lot of confusion over the age of the victim, with us and many others jumping to the conclusion that it was a student. While the PPB initially said it was a woman in her 20s, they have just released an update to clarify that, “the victim was an adult female in her forties, and not a high school student.”

Former Portland Public Schools Board Member Rita Moore shared on Twitter just now that, “A great many students and staff witnessed it. Happened at the beginning of lunch, so lots of people around. That intersection has been treacherous for years.”

Slide from a 2014 Powell Blvd safety audit by Kittelson & Associates (for ODOT) shows Cleveland students trying to stay out of the street.

We heard from another source who was in contact with students at the school who described a gruesome scene unfold right in front of them.

A BikePortland reader, who I’ll refer to as KM, happened to be at Powell Park across the street from the school immediately after it happened. She walked over to the scene to offer help and said the campus security team and counselors were already there directing traffic around the body. “A person was lying near the SE corner [of 26th and Powell], about 10 feet into Powell, along the eastern crosswalk crossing Powell,” she described.

There was a group of Cleveland students who were also at Powell Park eating lunch when it happened. Teachers asked KM to help direct the kids back to school, across Powell Blvd, which was by that time completely blocked by first responders.

As Rita Moore mentioned above, this is a very notorious intersection. SE Powell is owned and maintained by the Oregon Department of Transportation and there’s a legacy of activism and protest against how they’ve managed it.

Scenes from 2015 protest at SE 26th and Powell. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

The streets outside the school are so dangerous that in March 2018 we reported that the principal of Cleveland High issued a warning to students about it prior to a national walkout protest event. “I do not want any of our students to be hurt or injured as a result of the fast and heavy moving traffic on Powell,” Principal Ayesha Freeman wrote.

In May 2015, Portlander Alistair Corkett was hit by a pickup driver while biking at the same intersection and his leg was torn from his body and later amputated. Just a few weeks after that crash, another bicycle rider was hit and suffered a broken leg at the same location. Protestors showed up to the intersection in large numbers for a rally, with many calling out ODOT directly. “Highway 26 Crime Scene: ODOT Guilty” read one of the signs pulled behind a bicycle rider during the protest.

Three months later, ODOT decided the intersection was too dangerous for bicycling, so they told PBOT to remove a narrow bike lane that used to be striped on SE 26th. Instead of the bike route being on 26th, ODOT insisted that PBOT direct riders to SE 28th where they’d install a new, bike-friendly crossing of Powell. With backing from The Street Trust and outrage from the public on their side, PBOT pushed back and convinced ODOT to give them two years to prove that 26th was the better bikeway option.

As a decision loomed in February 2018, there was another big protest at the intersection by cycling and safety advocates who refused to give into ODOT’s plan. Ultimately, with The Street Trust helping to forge a compromise, PBOT relented and ODOT succeeded in making the driving space on 26th even wider and the official bike route was moved to 28th.

Both ODOT and PBOT agree that, similar to 82nd Avenue, Powell Blvd should be in the hands of the City of Portland — not the State of Oregon. Powell Blvd ranked #1 in Metro’s 2020 jurisdictional transfer study. But before that happens, both sides would have to agree to fund updates to bring the street into a “state of good repair.” In 2017, legislators awarded $300,000 to for ODOT to study inner Powell and come up with a list of projects and a cost estimate. That study was completed in 2019 and found the total cost for the upgrades would be around $31 million.

If someone could come up with $31 million, Powell could be taken away from ODOT for good. That’s less than half the $80 million the legislature gave to 82nd to make that transfer finally happen. It’s worth noting that 82nd jumped the queue only after two people died at the same intersection in less than two weeks. As grim as it sounds, nothing is more effective at breaking bureaucratic gridlock than death.

Bike Loud PDX, a local advocacy group, has announced an emergency meeting to plan a protest. “ODOT must be held accountable,” they said in a tweet.

According to our Fatality Tracker, this is the 42nd traffic death in Portland so far this year.

UPDATE, 10:45 pm: The victim was Sarah Pliner, an accomplished and well-known Portland chef who owned Aviary, an award-winning restaurant on NE Alberta that closed in April 2020.

Policymakers hop on e-bikes for a tour of Portland

Thank you Amit Zinman (Bike Stuff on YouTube) for video coverage we based this story on.

The effort to educate influencers and policymakers is a key strategy of electric bike advocates. Mix knowledge of power-assist with powerful people, the thinking goes, and they’ll assist you in making e-bikes take off faster than a Class 3 model at a stop sign.

As we shared last summer, an assemblage of advocates organized by Forth (a nonprofit EV advocacy group) called the E-Bikes for All Working Group has made it one of their top priorities to inform elected officials, their staff, and other decision-makers about e-bikes and the civic infrastructure that’s built up around them. Their first policymaker ride took place a year ago in Hood River.

The latest e-bike policymaker ride happened on Monday, September 19th. Organized by The Street Trust and hosted by their Policy Transformation Manager André Lightsey-Walker, a few dozen folks met up at the Go By Bike valet under the Portland Aerial Tram in South Waterfront. Their route was a classic central city loop with stops to hear from various speakers along the way.

Two stops seemed particularly notable.

During a stop at B-Line Urban Delivery on SE 7th and Salmon, the company’s Director of Sales & Marketing Phillip Ross addressed the crowd. B-Line currently has 14 employees and over a dozen pedal-assisted delivery trikes that deliver freight all over the city. The trikes can carry about 700 pounds of cargo each. Ross said the building they operate out of, which is owned and managed by environmental nonprofit Ecotrust, has installed a massive photovoltaic system on the roof to power all the trikes. “So you could say that B-Lines trikes are solar powered (in a net metered sort of way),” Ross shared with me after the ride.

The message to the policymakers was (hopefully) clear: Relatively tiny e-trikes can replace trucks for urban delivery with zero emissions and energy from the sun — all while not killing other road users. Hope they took notes.

Then there was a stop at Splendid Cycles where Oregon State Representative Karin Power’s Chief of Staff Carrie Leonard spoke. Leonard is spearheading the effort to introduce an e-bike purchase incentive bill to the legislature next year. Leonard said, “I want it to be a really significant subsidy, not like a paltry $300, because these bikes are expensive. It’s got to be something significant and we’re trying to make it as easy to use as possible.” Leonard encouraged anyone interested in the effort to contact the office of Rep. Dacia Grayber, who will take it over from the outgoing Rep. Power in the coming session.

It’s great to see these e-bike advocacy efforts in action. We need more people in halls of power to realize that the “EV” revolution applies to much more than cars.

Downtown plaza gets federal funding boost as PBOT eyes more violence interventions citywide

Screen Shot 2021-05-28 at 11.04.54 AM — Pride Plaza on New Year’s Day, 2022. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

“Plazas like these will help us make Portland a more inclusive, equitable place, and help grow our small businesses and cultural destinations.”
– Jo Ann Hardesty, city commissioner

When the pandemic threatened to shutter local restaurants that didn’t have the space for patrons to safely spread out while eating and drinking, some were able to move onto the street thanks to the City of Portland’s Healthy Business permit program. Two years later and these plazas are finding a more permanent and wide-ranging role in our city.

On Friday, the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) announced a $1.2 million grant award from the American Rescue Plan to build 32,000 square feet of street plazas to encourage tourism and economic recovery downtown. This is proof that transforming car-dominated streets into people-first spaces is popular enough to outlive the era of pandemic safety protocols – and it’s another step forward in PBOT’s plan to make them permanent.

This federal money will make the temporary “Pride Plaza” on SW Harvey Milk Street between SW 13th and 11th, a permanent carfree zone, dubbed Harvey Milk Plaza, for “community gatherings, business use and public art.” PBOT says it will also create “active, green public space” from the ‘Cart Blocks’ food cart pod on SW Ankeny St between Park and 8th, to O’Bryant Square Park, which the city is working to rehabilitate from its current status as a fenced-off slab of concrete above a defunct underground parking garage.

A map of the downtown plazas funded by the American Rescue Plan. (source: PBOT)

“During this pandemic, we learned how important it is to use our outdoor public space for community members to come together,” Hardesty said in a press release Friday. “We are so grateful to the Biden Administration and our Congressional delegation members for this federal support. Plazas like these downtown will help us make Portland a more inclusive, equitable place, and help grow our small businesses and cultural destinations.”

This new plaza space will be a boon to the ‘Green Loop’ concept and will make traveling in the central city more accessible to people using active transportation. The Green Loop has had some big wins lately, especially as city leaders embraced the project at the carfree Blumenauer Bridge opening. The new carfree space downtown will add more structure to the future project, which is currently fragmented around the city.

“I am very excited to see that the city was awarded this grant. I am really looking forward to seeing an implementation that helps further the Green Loop and sets the foundation to reactivate O’Bryant Park, which has too long sat empty,” Keith Jones, Executive Director of Friends of the Green Loop, told BikePortland. “The next phase of our plans are to extend the Cart Blocks south towards their original home at Alder Street and we hope this grant can play a role in that project.”

PBOT says they’ll start construction on the Harvey Milk Plaza in early 2023, and they expect construction to be complete by next fall.

Plazas and public safety

Commissioner Hardesty (left) dances at the new Arleta Triangle Square in the Mt. Scott-Arleta neighborhood. This street plaza has been credited for reducing gun violence in the area. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

In the past two years, Portland has found that carfree spaces can be more than just places for safe dining and gathering — and that they’re needed far beyond downtown.

Inspired by the success of Commissioner Hardesty’s transformation of Arleta Triangle into a community plaza and its dual-purpose as a gun violence reduction tool, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has embraced carfree spaces as part of his Safer Summer PDX program. Late last month he announced the return of the Old Town Entertainment District and now the Portland Bureau of Transportation is looking to mimic the Arleta approach citywide.

PBOT Public Information Officer Dylan Rivera told BikePortland the city is currently looking at four different areas for similar street transformations in support of the Safer Summer effort: NE 82nd Ave and Milton and others in the Parkrose, Hazelwood, and Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhoods.

Rivera said these changes might include:

Temporary barricades and traffic diversion/slowing for immediate response as identified and agreed upon by the larger community safety team.
Semi-permanent or permanent street improvements (lights, trees, crosswalks) or placemaking projects (like Arleta Triangle) that can be built after a lot of community engagement and neighborhood agreement.

The program has been tasked with building 2-3 projects each summer for the next three years – so, given it’s October, we won’t find out specifics about next summer’s plans for several months.

Rivera wanted to make it clear that PBOT’s work is just one part of a larger effort. “Our work enhances other gun prevention strategies so we aren’t looking to independently solve gun violence in the community.”

PBOT is clearly trying to manage expectations around their work with the mayor’s initiative. That’s probably wise. But there’s no denying the ascendant awareness in City Hall and the Portland Building that how we design and manage streets goes well beyond just transportation.

WashCo Bikes teams up with housing nonprofit for online bike sales

We love a good collab here at BikePortland, so we were jazzed to hear about one that involves a way to buy good used bikes online while supporting a local nonprofit.

WashCo Bikes has a new partnership with Habitat For Humanity Portland. As you might recall, WashCo Bikes has been on the up-and-up since they hired dynamo bike guy and author Joe “Metal Cowboy” Kurmaskie as their leader in 2018.

Joe has managed to tap so many sources of quality used bike donations that hundreds of them sit in various shops and warehouses throughout the west side. In an effort to give some of these special steeds more visibility, and raise a bit of money for good causes, Joe team up with Habitat and their online store. Now you can browse ShopPDXRestore.org and click the “Bikes” category to see what’s on offer. Proceeds from sales of the bikes are split 50/50 between WashCo Bikes and Habitat for Humanity.

“We are so excited about this team up,” Kurmaskie shared with us. He said he’ll make sure the store stays stocked with specialty and high-end bikes, cargo and tandems, custom builds and BMX bikes, “anything that needs a larger audience to see it rather than languish on the floor of our shop for months.” All the bikes have been fully refurbished by WashCo’s experienced mechanics.

Add this to your list of resources for finding bikes for yourself and your friends (we know how folks always ask you for your advice on where to buy a bike).

ODOT wins ‘diversity leadership’ award for I-5 Rose Quarter project

Interstate 5 through the Rose Quarter is a monument to the systemic racism that pervaded the Federal Highway Administration and their enablers at the Oregon Department of Transportation in the 1960s. The path of the freeway cut through the heart of Portland’s Black community like a “meat axe” and displaced hundreds of people. The loss of personal wealth and social capital for Portland’s Black residents was incalculable.

Sixty years later, ODOT wants to make the freeway even wider. But this time around, they’ve received an award for improving the lives of Black people.

Last Wednesday, the Portland chapter of the nonprofit Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) bestowed its 2022 Rosa Parks Diversity Leadership Award to the ODOT Urban Mobility Office for their work on the I-5 Rose Quarter Project. The mission of WTS is to, “Advance both the transportation industry and the professional women who lead it.”

Here’s the email sent from WTS Portland Chapter Vice President Lisa Patterson to ODOT:

I am writing with congratulations – the WTS Portland Chapter selected ODOT’s Urban Mobility Office as our 2022 Rosa Parks Diversity Leadership Award winner. The Rosa Parks Leadership Diversity Award recognizes an organization, project or individual that contributes significantly to promoting diversity, inclusion and multicultural awareness within their organization, the transportation industry, or in a project or activity that supports the goals and mission of WTS. Our Board and awards committee were impressed by the group’s determination to address past harms born upon Black Portlanders by previous government policies and investments and approaches to lead with equity in your programs. Of note was the description of the I-5 Rose Quarter Improvement Project and how your team is using the project to help grow minority businesses, create new civic capacity and deliver a project based upon the vision of the community.

The project director of the I-5 Rose Quarter project is a Megan Channell. She recused herself from voting because she also happens to be president of the WTS Portland chapter.

While critics of this project say it will double-down on the negative community impacts of the initial freeway construction, Channell and her project team say it will enrich the lives of many by “connecting the community” and providing millions of dollars in high-paying jobs. ODOT is promising two million labor hours with up to $150 million in payroll and benefits with a goal of up to 22% of the total project contract value to be awarded to Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs, which must include at least 51% minority ownership).

ODOT has also gone to great lengths to make sure the project respects the lives of Black Portlanders past and present. In September 2020 they shut down the project’s Community Advisory Committee and created the Historic Albina Advisory Board in its place. In April 2021 ODOT launched a full rebranding effort which was revealed back in March. The new logo features the cupola of one of the old storefronts the freeway displaced.

This award comes at a time when ODOT needs good news. Also last week, a judge ruled against the agency in a public records case.

Comment of the Week: The Tillamook traffic circle controversy

“My next-door neighbor bought his house in 1963 after trading the extreme racism of Arkansas for the slightly less extreme racism of 60s Oregon and Portland. Three generations down from him used to come and regularly visit until he died at 96 a few years ago. I miss him…“

Welcome to the Comment of the Week, where we highlight good comments in order to inspire more of them. You can help us choose our next one by replying with “comment of the week” to any comment you think deserves recognition. Please note: These selections are not endorsements.

If you can step back a bit, the current controversy about PBOT’s traffic circle at Tillamook and NE 7th captures Portland in a nutshell. Say you had a friend who wondered what our city was like, Tempers flare around Tillamook Street tree removal as neighbors press for changes would go a long way toward describing Portland to them. Make sure they read the comments!

The 57 comments manage to express most of our simmering tensions, conflicts and biases. They’re hanging out for all to see.

Toward the bottom, one comment stood out to me because it was such a loving description of the neighborhood. That, and a good primer on how markets work. It is easy to get abstract, and to find in every controversy evidence of some larger principle, or the final blow in some long-running argument. Squaremen dropped all that, got specific and personal, and wrote a an even-toned response about why he likes where he lives.

The comment is long, I’ve selected only about half of it, but it is worth reading the whole thing. Here is part of what Squareman wrote:

Sometimes people don’t move. I’m in the neighborhood (7 blocks away) and there are an awful lot of homes on my block that have been owned by multiple generations of NE’ers, a significant portion of those are made up of black families and other POC. Please don’t erase them. And where they’re not multi-generational, they have been occupied for decades. My next-door neighbor bought his house in 1963 after trading the extreme racism of Arkansas for the slightly less extreme racism of 60s Oregon and Portland. Three generations down from him used to come and regularly visit until he died at 96 a few years ago. I miss him, as I used to get some seriously old first-hand Portland history. The house is currently still in the family.
Yes, the values of the homes are still very high in the neighborhood. The two houses to the south of me are owned by an elderly black couple who also live in another home nearby. They took advantage of a real estate investment plan the same way people complain about white people doing it. Their middle-aged daughter lives in one of the homes. I could never afford the house I own anymore if I were to buy it today, but I don’t intend on leaving. It’s what I consider my “forever” home unless something necessitates me changing that. Just because the value is high, doesn’t mean that homes are constantly trading hands. As far as home turnover goes, I usually see the same collection of houses in my neighborhood come and go on the market (i.e., house flippers trading up over and over).

Thank you for your comment Squareman! You can read Squareman’s comment and all the comments in the thread in the original post.

The Monday Roundup: Hope for Beaverton, Critical Mass returns, and more

Welcome to the week.

Here are the most notable stories our writers and readers came across in the past seven days…

Good government: It’s a sign of functional governance when leaders have the ability to force corporations to provide healthy messages alongside unhealthy ones. (EuroNews)

Killing freeways: Recent examples from Denver and Los Angeles show that some cities agencies are willing to scrap freeway expansion plans in the name of smart planning and/or public health concerns. (Governing)

Kabul commuting: Biking is booming in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, but women riders are nowhere to be found. (NPR)

Critical Mass is back! Feeling extremely inspired to see that hundreds of people turned out to mark the 30th anniversary of Critical Mass in San Francisco. Sometimes I feel like Portland could use more rides like this these days. (SFist)

Transportation leadership: I’m still not tired of reading about Boston and what it must be like to live in a city where the most powerful elected official is actually engaged and knowledgeable about the issue of transportation. (Boston.com)

Off-road artists: Don’t miss this fantastic profile of Brandon Semenuk, who many consider the greatest MTB rider of all time. (Red Bull)

Make drivers pay more: While Portland’s plan to increase driving fees sits on a shelf, there’s a serious debate about congestion pricing happening in New York City. (AMNY)

Hope for Beaverton: Carmel, Indiana offers an inspiring example of how a suburb can grow and densify without expanding roads. (The Economist)

Tragic commentary: The killing of an eight-year-old bike rider on a quiet neighborhood street has sparked an important conversation about how police blame victims and how city officials design streets. (Slate)

Thanks to everyone who sent in links this week!

TriMet Draft Service Concept shows potential for 30% more bus service

TriMet has released its Forward Together Draft Service Concept (DSC) based in part on community responses to a survey they released back in March. TriMet says people want the transit agency to “focus on ridership and improving connections to destinations for people with low and limited incomes.”

While the Forward Together service concept includes changes throughout the network, there are a few ‘big ideas’ that impact every area, which include:

Expanding access to opportunity by “making the transit system more useful for reaching jobs and major destinations like college campuses, grocery stores and hospitals, particularly for people traveling from areas with more lower-income residents.”
More Frequent Service – TriMet plans to extend bus lines that run every 15 minutes to “reach more people and places,” including important corridors like Cornell Rd in Washington County, Woodstock Blvd in Southeast Portland, NE Halsey in East Portland and Gresham, and 82nd Drive in Clackamas County.
New Eastside and Washington County grids to make it easier to travel east-west and north-south in these areas.
Better regional links to job centers like Marquam Hill, Airport Way, Troutdale Reynolds Industrial Park, Columbia Blvd, and the North Hillsboro Industrial District.
Expanded weekend service, especially to accommodate workers in retail, service and industrial sectors.
New lines serving areas far from transit today, like like 148th Ave in Portland and Cornelius Pass Rd in Washington County.

According to TriMet, the proposed Forward Together bus service concept would “bring bus service to 50,000 more people, weekend service to 100,000 more and significant increases to frequent buses service to connect people and jobs.”

TriMet says they might be able to expand service by more than 30% in the next few years. But they acknowledge a major hurdle the agency will have to overcome first: their bus operator shortage, which has resulted in several bus lines eliminated from TriMet service this fall. If TriMet can’t hire more bus drivers, it won’t be possible to expand service.

There are a lot of changes encompassed in this concept – almost every bus line in the TriMet’s current roster will be impacted. 25 lines will be discontinued for low ridership or redundant service, and other buses rerouted to accommodate that service loss. Several routes will be upgraded to frequent service, which means they’ll come every 15 minutes instead of every 30 or 60. TriMet has also put forth ideas for more than a dozen new lines to make up for the canceled routes and cover new service areas.

There will be quite a few changes to bus service within inner Portland, but the big focus here is to expand public transit access throughout the farther reaches of the city and the metro area at large. Here are a few big takeaways I gleaned from looking at the concept and hearing the buzz from TriMet aficionados online.

The railroad track dilemma

The service concept includes changes to Line 70 through the Brooklyn and Sellwood neighborhoods, in part so the bus can avoid delays at the train tracks

TriMet has been met with criticism for routing its new Division FX service across the rail line at SE 11th/12th Ave in between Division and Powell, an area frequently clogged by car traffic because of stalled freight trains coming through the area. This has already begun to impact passengers using the closest thing Portland has to “bus rapid transit” service. The new service concept doesn’t address this concern, but it does outline a potential change to another line currently impacted by the train crossing.

If this concept were to come to fruition, Line 70 (12th to NE 33rd) would be rerouted away from the rail crossing at SE 11th/12th avenues. The bus would go southbound from 11th/12th and Hawthorne to proceed south along Ladd before heading east on Division, south on 26th, west on Bybee and south on 13th through Sellwood (and vice versa northbound). All Line 70 service would be moved from 17th to 13th in Sellwood.

East Portland

TriMet wants to create a more connected grid system in east Portland, where there are currently some large gaps that are especially prevalent in lower-income neighborhoods and for communities of color.

“The service concept makes a big investment in historically underserved east Portland, an area of rapid growth and large concentrations of low-income and minority residents,” the DSC states. There is a high percentage of transit users in east Portland, and more investment is necessary to make sure its growing population has access to quality service.

The concept focuses on adding north-south connections in east Portland, which are currently lacking. This would include new lines on 112th and 148th Avenues. TriMet also wants to include new connections north of Burnside and proposes upgrading Line 77 (Broadway/Halsey) to frequent service.

Through this concept, TriMet would also extend Line 4 south to take over SE Woodstock at the end of Line 19. This provides a connection to Lents and the green line MAX stop.

North and northeast

Line 190 will start in the upper north Portland peninsula and continue east

Inner northeast Portland would benefit from the frequent service on Line 77 on Broadway/Halsey. But the big changes across the area will be further north.

The DSC includes a new bus route, Line 190 on Columbia Blvd, to add service from north Portland to the Parkrose/Sumner MAX stop near the PDX Airport. This would serve people across the entirety of far north and northeast Portland, including in the Cully neighborhood, an area TriMet wanted to focus on. It also includes a frequent service line in the Cully neighborhood on Line 71 (60th Ave).

Southwest

— Written by Lisa Caballero

The bulk of the pink “service loss” routes are on the west side. Additionally, a couple of low-service lines which serve riders heading to Lincoln High School will be reduced to operating only during school commute times.

Of SW Portland it states,

SW Portland includes many large areas of very low density and high incomes. These areas are not a priority for service given their low ridership potential and the need to focus on equity.

That is the frankest statement TriMet has made about their plans for low-density swaths of the SW Portland since service cuts began in 2007.

However, the Draft Service Concept goes on to outline a strategy for increasing service frequency to the large employment center at the OHSU/VA complex on Marquam Hill, and also the “high ridership potential” of SW Portland’s major corridors.

Hillsdale and the Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy take center stage, with the extension of frequent service all the way to Beaverton, and an increase of frequency along Capitol Hwy. This aligns well with PBOT’s recent Rose Lane installation, and their traffic calming and infrastructure projects throughout the area.

And if you look closely, there is also some good news for at least one rush-hour only line. The 51 has always run from downtown up to Portland Heights, stopped in the middle of nowhere on the other side of the hill, and returned—kind of like a yo-yo, it never went anywhere. The Service Concept proposes the line continue to Hillsdale, gaining an outbound end-point and destination for the first time ever. This is a small tweak with an outsized impact. It means that riders along this line can transfer at Hillsdale for high-frequency service west, rather than having to go northeast to downtown to make a transfer, and then retracing 270 degrees around the hill before the journey west even begins.

Beaverton and Hillsboro

Like in east Portland, TriMet wants to achieve a continuous grid of frequent service in the Portland region’s westside. Some notable examples of this are in Beaverton and Hillsboro. The draft concept includes five new lines in Beaverton and Hillsboro to build out the east-west/north-south connections. It would also make service more frequent on two popular routes – 52 (Farmington/185th) and 48 (Cornell).

TriMet user and outspoken public transit devotee Ben Fryback, who grew up in Tanasbourne in between Beaverton and Hillsboro, is particularly excited about having more frequent service on line 48.

“Since Line 48 only runs every 65 minutes on the weekends, having reliable transit was always a struggle. At one point, I commuted by bus from Tanasbourne to a place on TV Highway, and the 5 mile trip took over an hour. It was faster to ride my bike,” Fryback told me in a message. “The service increases in this area and in other places on the westside have the power to truly transform people’s lives.”

This is only a small selection of what’s included in the concept – there’s a lot more to look at, so check it out here. And remember, this isn’t final at all.

“It is not a proposal and certainly not a recommendation. We are not attached to it. Its purpose is to start a conversation by giving people something to react to. It *will* change, maybe a lot, based on public feedback,” Transit consultant Jarrett Walker (whose agency worked with TriMet on this project) said on Twitter. “Because it will change based on feedback, we need to hear what you like as well as what you don’t like. If you don’t tell us you like something, the thing you like might change!”

That survey is available here.

Columbia River Gorge car use permit system deemed a success, likely to return

Fewer cars on the Historic Highway means smoother sailing on a bike! (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

“I feel confident saying that we met our goals of improving visitor experience.”
– Terra Lingley, ODOT

State of Oregon officials say a permit system created to reduce car use in the Columbia River Gorge this past summer was a success and is very likely to return in 2023.

The timed-access permit system was required for entry into an approximately nine mile stretch of the Historic Columbia River Highway between Vista House and Ainsworth State Park from May 24th to September 5th. The permits were free at staffed kiosks, but those who got them online were charged a $2 fee. People who used transit or bicycles to access the highway did not need a permit.

The system was implemented to reduce congestion along the popular “Waterfall Corridor.” A draft evaluation of the program was shared at the September 15th meeting of the Historic Columbia River Highway Advisory Committee.

Oregon Department of Transportation Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Coordinator Terra Lingley told the committee that about 130,000 permits were issued. In a presentation to committee members, Lingley said there was a mix of feedback to the program, but overall it worked well. “I feel confident saying that we met our goals of improving visitor experience,” she said.

While there was some confusion about the program and a lot of drivers were rude to State Parks staff, ODOT logged numerous comments from visitors who liked the new system. The permit system received an average of four out of five stars across over 1,700 ratings on Recreation.gov. Car traffic overall was also significantly reduced over previous years.

According to ODOT data, the average daily traffic this year compared to 2017 was much lower. In the eastbound direction at Bridal Veil Falls, for example, there were about 2,200 cars each day in 2017. That number fell to about 850 cars this year. And because a limited number of permits were released each hour, the system leveled out the number of car-using visitors and reduced the problematic peak of years past (see graphics above).

Oregon Parks and Recreation Division Manager Clay Courtright echoed Lingley’s perception of how it went. “I think folks embraced it to a large degree. It did reduce traffic and people were largely happy,” While Courtright said some people were angry that they had a permit but could still not find parking (the permit didn’t guarantee parking), he said, “For the people that could find parking spaces, there was a resounding and repeated message that the visitor experience was very good.”

Courtright and Lingley shared stories about people who disobeyed the rules and/or who were rude to permit staff. “It was rough on staff,” Courtright said. And Lingley said a gas station employee in Cascade Locks was telling people to lie about their plans. Since it’s a state highway, Lingley said, they weren’t allowed to prohibit through traffic. “So some folks would say they just wanted to drive through, but we’d see them park and visit.”

“I feel like I owe Parks staff a free therapy session,” Lingley added.

The program cost the state around $1 million for the three months. Lingley said that’s not sustainable and they’ll need to find a dedicated funding source in the future.

Look for improved shuttle and transit service next year along with a few other tweaks. For more on the program, check out ODOT’s website.