Comment of the Week: Gratitude for N/NE Broadway project

Anyone who has traveled from the east side of the Broadway Bridge to the critical Vancouver/Williams bike boulevard — in any mode — knows that this area is a crash waiting to happen. And they happen.

Jonathan was as close to giddy as he gets in last week’s post about proposed changes to this stretch of N Broadway. So was longtime reader and activist Betsy Reese. Both the story and Betsy’s comment marked the years of work by so many people that has culminated in this project. For someone who hasn’t followed the machinations closely (like myself), or is new to Portland, learning the recent history of the streets, their projects, and the people linked to them is one of my favorite reasons to keep reading BikePortland and its comments.

Here’s what Betsy had to say:

After such a long slog of effort by so many people, including advocates, near neighbors, and BOT/DOT staff, to get the incremental changes that have been made to the notoriously dangerous N Broadway/Flint/Wheeler intersection to try to save a life, this long-overdue complete overhaul of N. Broadway is just tremendous. I am so happy that I’ll live to see it done.

I do have a couple of comments I will make, although if others have more recent or detailed information, I would love for you to let me know.

One: If this really is the new Main Street through this fabulous emerging close-in urban neighborhood, we will need much wider sidewalks on both sides of Broadway.
and

Two: ODOT’s Vancouver/Broadway/I-5 Freeway intersection plan for cyclists included a shift of the bike lane from the right side to the left side of the Vancouver across all lanes of motor vehicle traffic as it approached Broadway, and then they funneled cyclists into a “jug-handle” staging area for a right turn from Vancouver to Broadway across the freeway off-ramps. If this has not yet been satisfactorily redesigned already, it is definitely an area for advocates to vigil and speak up about.

To everyone who has had a hand in pushing for improving Broadway for bikes and peds over the last 25 years: Thank you!

Thank you Betsy, and congratulations to everyone who helped make this happen. You can read Betsy’s comment under the original post.