PBOT leader says budget cuts contribute to mistakes, urges advocates to not lose faith

“It’s 3:00 am on a Sunday morning and what sounded like a [street] sweeper was not a sweeper — it was a striping crew getting an early jump before the rain and putting in a bike lane on fresh pavement on 33rd with no prior notice or notification. Pause and imagine that moment and imagine the emotions that would bring forth.”

That was how Portland Bureau of Transportation Policy, Planning and Projects Group Manager Art Pearce described the context of what happened when city crews installed a new bike lane on NE 33rd Avenue back in September. Pearce attended a meeting of the PBOT Bicycle Advisory Committee (PBAC) Tuesday night to explain why he decided to move forward with removal of the bike lane. Pearce was at the same meeting last month to explain how PBOT erred when they installed it in the first place and that they’d pause a planned removal to get more feedback from adjacent residents.

At Tuesday’s meeting Pearce shared more about what PBOT staff heard in those conversations over the past month. His comments and a pointed exchange with a member of the PBAC help explain the city’s frame of mind and shed light on their controversial decisions.

“Despite our best intentions, we triggered, I think, emotional harm to the adjacent neighbors,” Pearce told the committee. And then continued a few minutes later:

“We triggered and connected to a perception that Portland is intentionally trying to ostracize and push out certain members of our community through these improvements, and are connecting to a narrative that is not true, that this is all part of the master plan to really disregard the needs of a whole set of Portlanders.”

David Stein, a member (and former Chair) of the PBAC and the PBOT Budget Advisory Committee, responded with frustration. Stein shared that the conduct of PBOT makes it increasingly difficult for him to support the agency.

“It just seems like there are so many ways to get out of building bike infrastructure,” Stein lamented. “And we always talk about we have these plans and policies that are great. And then we have all these great ways of just getting around them, or not handling them in a way in which we can actually build the infrastructure we’re supposed to build.”

“… we don’t seem to have the language, or the skill-set, or something, to the navigate these conversations to build what needs to be built.”

Stein said what happened on NE 33rd is part of what he sees as a troubling trend for projects that end up in controversy and delays when certain voices object (like on North Williams Avenue, 7th/9th Greenway, SW Broadway, NE/SE 28th) then said PBOT’s record these past few months is “wearing on me” as a member of the budget committee who’s being asked to advocate for more city transportation funding. “I have to ask myself, ‘For what?!’… I don’t want the general funding to go into this and then it be used to just circumnavigate any placement…”

At that point, Pearce interjected forcefully:

“PBOT has continued to build a number of bicycle facilities all over the city during the same period that we had process missteps on Williams, and a really challenging conversation around 7th, and now 33rd. I think you’re producing a narrative that is not accurate. So I guess I would caution you from that.”

“I know that this is frustrating. I know that you feel that way,” Pearce continued. Then he shifted to a new explanation for why PBOT is more prone to mistakes in recent years:

“We have 120 Quick Build projects we are frantically working on trying to get ready to deploy and budget reductions have been happening year-after-year on my team. This is what happens when we end up with less staff spread more more thinly across our portfolio while trying to still deliver these projects. There’s a direct connection to your role on the BBAC [Bureau Budget Advisory Committee] and our ability to invest in the amount of process to be able to do city transformation correctly.”

Another bit of new information we learned at Tuesday’s meeting is that PBOT has come up with a new, “middle path” design of the bikeway on 33rd that Pearce feels, “Is the right answer”. The only thing needed for it to be installed is a “real respectful conversation to occur,” and Pearce believes that conversation is impossible as long as the bike lane is on the ground.

“The answer is not putting in bike lanes in the dark of night,” Pearce said.