Last week’s post about PBOT’s newly released design for 82nd Avenue brought out an interesting bunch of comments. I liked reading all of them, I think because they were so authentic. Not too much internet grandstanding, mainly just people sharing their thoughts. Altogether a “no drama” group of responses.
There was one calm comment which has kept worming its way into my mind over the past few days. Clearly this commenter hadn’t yet picked up that confident and commanding internet “voice.” The comment’s lack of bombast was endearing, even kind of soothing.
Here’s what a commenter named “E” had to say about bike riders on 82nd:
I live near 82nd closer to the southern city limit and drive on 82nd often for groceries/shopping. I see more people biking on 82nd (they have to use the inadequately narrow sidewalk to do so) than on some other commercial streets in Portland. Whereas I would never want to bike along that street in its present form, my guess is that a lot of people are forced to bike on it to get to businesses that serve their basic needs or to and from work. At the same time, I think these folks are hardly going to participate in PBOT’s outreach sessions and take the time to fill out surveys or make their voices heard. I think that there is a real need for bike facilities along 82nd, which would most likely not be reflected in PBOT data.
Thank you E for contributing to BikePortland. If folks want a recommendation for a comment thread to read, I’d pick this one, there are some neat ideas in it, and it doesn’t get bogged down with arguing. You can read E’s comment directly in context with others here. Enjoy!
Thanks for reading.
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I want 82nd to be one car/truck lane and one bike/scooter lane in each direction.
Cars and trucks that need a faster route can take I-205.
This is true in many places in so many cities all over America. I guess I’ll have to hand-wave and say this all goes back to the contradiction of putting all the non-home destinations, i.e. focusing public life, onto car-highways via … I guess a combination of non-planning and bad planning?
When I ride places I prefer to stay off these roads as much as possible, even when going to destinations right on them, for obvious reasons… but I’m a nerd that pays attention to “bike news” and has a map in my head of how all the back-roads routes fit together. When I’m on these roads (by whatever mode) I see people riding on the sidewalks.