“You should… take some streets out of service.”
– Mitch Green, Portland city councilor
Portlanders have heard for years that our transportation agency cannot keep pace with required road maintenance. As our pavement buckles under the pressure of an ever-increasing number of cars, no one wants to pony-up the funding it takes to keep roads smooth and safe. Something’s gotta’ give.
What if instead of playing catch-up, we reduced the amount of lane miles we maintained, thereby lowering the city’s overall financial burden? That’s an idea I’ve heard in activist circles for years, but closing streets to motor vehicle access to save on maintenance costs had always seemed like a fringe notion. Today it was thrust closer toward the mainstream by a Portland city councilor named Mitch Green.
Speaking at a meeting of the city’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee this morning after a presentation on what Green called the “dire” financial state of the Portland Bureau of Transportation, Councilor Green said, “Every mile of road is a liability in terms of unfunded, ongoing operations and maintenance, which will then be always costlier in the future.” Then, speaking directly to PBOT Director Millicent Williams and Deputy City Administrator of Public Works Priya Dhanapal, Green continued:
“You should work with and have some conversations with the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability and talk about opportunities to take some streets out of service. Turn them into superblocks, turn them into cul-de-sacs, turn them into plazas… Community gardens even. Because if we do that, I think we can lower our expenses over time. I think we can create more buildable land, create more housing density, which will then allow us to have a transit and active transportation-forward city, which is always going to be less costly than continuing to rely upon vehicular lane mileage.”
Surprisingly, PBOT Director Williams said her agency is already considering the idea. “Our planning team is actively engaging in that conversation,” she replied. “There are a number of projects that are underway that speak specifically to what you’ve outlined.”
I’m still working to get more details from both Green and PBOT (to clarify what exactly Director Williams was referring to), but it’s worth noting Green’s inspiration. Before being elected to city council in November, he was an energy economist for the Bonneville Power Administration and previously taught economics at Portland State University. He also believes addressing climate change is, “the most pressing issue of our time.” It’s the twin emergencies of PBOT’s fiscal cliff and the very real impacts of climate change that are behind Green’s comments.
Councilor Green, a Democratic Socialist, is also an avid BikePortland reader who very well might have perused our recent guest opinion from Sam Balto that advocated for creating more cul-de-sacs throughout Portland as a way to improve quality of life.
Either way, given that PBOT is on the ropes in the fight for a balanced budget, it’s the perfect time for bold, out of the box thinking. And if you consider that PBOT already has mature street plaza, neighborhood greenway, and road diet (or what they call “lane reconfiguration”) programs; decommissioning even more lane miles in order to reduce financial liability and get closer to climate and transportation goals doesn’t really seem all that fringe anymore. (Also worth noting that PBOT has a lot of experience in this realm, like when they’ve partnered with folks to create “play streets.”)
The PBOT 2025-2026 budget proposal is expected to be released at the end of this week. The Transportation & Infrastructure Committee will then make a recommendation to the finance committee. There are more conversations to be had before Councilor Green’s idea is one of them, but at least the conversation has begun.
UPDATE, 4:30 pm: PBOT Communications Director Hannah Schafer has clarified their position on Councilor Green’s comments:
“Because we are investing so little in the maintenance of our streets right now, this wouldn’t actually create any significant cost savings, but it would reduce our risk and potentially add a small amount of savings to our overall $6B in deferred maintenance.
Today, we approach this work through the reallocation of lane space – i.e. changing the way we use our existing roadway space by allocating more pavement from heavy vehicles to less heavy uses such as bikes that will impact our assets less over time. Our street plazas are another example of reallocating pavement for public use. We are also partnering with organizations like Depave to transform lane miles to places through co-investment with adjacent businesses and community, but that is not representing any significant savings at this time (though there are certainly other important benefits!).”
In related news, tonight (Monday, 2/24) is the Streets of Possibility: Well Beyond Cars event hosted by the PDX Design Collaborative as part of their City of Possibility event series. More info here.
Thanks for reading.
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This man is a genius!
Super Blocks for the win !
Let’s start in SE !
Let’s create modal filters in clusters to create super blocks on neighborhood greenways.
Human Scale. https://vimeo.com/282972390
Will all the City Council members who volunteer the street in front of their home to be taken out of service please say “aye” . . . . crickets I bet . . .
I volunteer and I am not even a city councilor. Heck, I’ll tear the street up, plant a hardy ground cover, some trees, and maintain the trails for the whole block myself.
Given where Green lives, he might not have a paved street. Another D4 councilor, Eric Zimmerman spoke at a council meeting a few weeks ago about his graveled street, and how he puts out gravel where a sidewalk should be.
Be careful what you wish for… The streets that are most likely to be given over to neglect are those with little traffic, which are often those that are the best to ride on.
If the street is “best to ride on” it’s unlikely to be put into a state where it would be worst to ride on. Don’t forget that, unlike with driving cars, encouraging more cycling is actually a primary goal of PBOT and the city of Portland.
Also, these plazas won’t require zero maintenance, especially if it’s already in poor condition when it’s closed off. BUT the amount of maintenance a paved surface requires is directly related to the weight of the things on top of the surface, which is then multiplied exponentially by rotating objects as speed increases. So, a lane mile of interstate highway designed to be carrying hundreds or thousands of 18 wheelers going 70 mph is going to cost a lot more to maintain than a surface city arterial with fewer vehicles traveling at 40 mph, which will be much more expensive in turn than a multiuse path limited to feet, strollers, and bicycle wheels going, at most, 20-25 mph.
I’d guess that local access would be maintained in these plazas, particularly for emergency services. If local access is maintained, that probably means resident parking, too. So, if you ask me whether I want my street closed off to anyone other than firemen and my immediate neighbors, that that meant that my street would develop potholes more infrequently, my taxes would either be used more effectively or possibly even go down, and that my only cost would be a slightly less direct route to and from my house, I’d say, “Where do I sign?” Bonus points for ending the cut through traffic on my street between 82nd and 92nd. 😉
Your taxes will not go down.
Super Blocks do not prevent bicycle/pedestrian movements.
Super Blocks should encourage people to walk and ride bicycles.
Before after image shows paths for people walking and riding in green, cars in black. drivers can still access all driveways, just not all intersections.
We’ve seen how PBOT “encourages” cycling. Besides, their idea of good bike streets differs from mine. I find I often prefer riding parallel to greenways.
The streets with well connected home owners will get closed to thru traffic, the streets where apartments dwellers live will get the traffic.
Most people want their street closed off but they drive elsewhere in front of other peoples residences. Traffic flows somewhere, someone decides that.
I am pretty sure Mitch Green will get his road closed.
My favorite implementation of this is something like NE 16th and Tillamook. Existing streets would probably have to be something more like just concrete barriers without planters to stay narrow.
All that said I think there would have to be significant coordination with trash companies, fire departments, etc.
I’m all for this project, and it would address the annoying cut through traffic my street gets, but looking at services and emergencies makes it a lot more complicated than just adding barriers.
One of the most inspiring BP articles that has got my brain spinning over the last few years is „the Passoire filled Portland“, and now it has circled back around with Sam Baltos “Cul-de-sac” article last week. A bit of a long term idea related to this – would it be possible to incentivize housing density with Cul-de-sacs? – I would LOVE to live on a road that dead ended in one of these, and I would imagine it would also increase property values (which could help increase YIMBYism). What if the City said – Ok, if a street gets its density to X value, then you get one of these installed. Perhaps you would see a city block coming together and making a plan to densify – So-and-sos house becomes a fourplex, and then 5 ADUs, 4 basement remodels, and a 6-unit condo later and voila! We live on a cul-de-sac. You would have more neighbors (more cars parked on the road and people walking), but less traffic, which seems like a great tradeoff.
In related news today, bikebuspdx asked the city council to make a resolution to redefine neighborhood greenways by limiting cars to 500 max per day, as Vancouver, Canada has done. They recognize greenways shouldn’t be just a theoretical line on a map, but a functional part of a car-free, low-stress network that is accessible by kids.