The Portland Bureau of Transportation says what transpired on Northeast 33rd was “an embarrassing public mistake” and they are in the process of cleaning it up.
Their planned removal of two blocks of bike lanes on 33rd was met with a direct action protest that prevented crews from completing the job. Then a PR debacle ensued.
I had a phone call today with the PBOT communications director and the high-level staffer who’s taking full blame for the situation (no, it was not PBOT Director Millicent Williams or Commissioner Mingus Mapps). I learned more about PBOT’s version for how it all went sideways. I’ll have that story up soon, but wanted to share something I just received a few minutes ago from someone who lives on NE 33rd where the bike lane was installed.
On Tuesday morning, residents along the two block stretch of 33rd between Holman and Dekum received a letter on their doorstep. It said, “beginning Wednesday, November 1… PBOT will deploy contractors to remove lane striping in this section and return this section to its original condition.”
Today, those same residents received another letter from PBOT. Below is the text of that letter (emphasis mine):
Dear Northeast Portland Neighbor,
I am writing to follow up on the recently installed bike lanes along NE 33rd Avenue. The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) installed bike lanes on NE 33rd from NE Holman to NE Dekum streets at the beginning of October, effectively removing on-street parking for these two blocks. PBOT did not give adequate notices to the adjacent residents, and we immediately heard concerns from residents with hardships presented from removing the on-street parking.
PBOT continued to communicate with the concerned residents and ultimately decided to remove bike lane striping in this section and return it to its original condition with on-street parking. Contractors started to perform this work on November 1st. However, work was stopped when protesting in the streets made it unsafe to continue the work. At this time, there is no schedule for the removal of the bike lane striping to continue. We recommend not parking in the bike lanes, but at the same time we do not plan to issue tickets with fines.
We would like to take this time to continue our conversations with directly impacted residents to ensure access and safety needs are being met before we continue with any additional action. We are also having conversations with area cyclists that support the bike lanes. If you have a concern you would like to share with PBOT, please call, email, or set up a time for us to meet in person. We will continue engagement and notify the community before taking any further action.
An extant bike lane that won’t be legally treated like one, is a really awkward — and potentially dangerous — situation. It sets people up for verbal or even physical interactions on the street — in the form of both potential traffic collisions and potential disagreements between how the road should be used.
This situation underscores what a mess PBOT finds themselves in for the second time in the past month or so.
From what I heard from PBOT’s Policy, Planning & Projects Group Director Art Pearce today, the city is in a really awkward position too. “It’s an uncomfortable moment for me,” Pearce shared with BikePortland in a video call a few hours ago. “This mistake happened under my watch.” Pearce is taking full responsibility for what happened on 33rd. Now it’s his job to clean up the mess before it gets worse.
Stay tuned for a recap of that conversation. And be careful biking on 33rd Avenue until this all gets sorted out.