At their meeting Wednesday night, the Downtown Neighborhood Association voted to send a letter to the Portland Bureau of Transportation and Multnomah County that includes a formal request for a lane reallocation (a.k.a. road diet) on SW 3rd between the Morrison and Hawthorne bridges.
“This eight-block section of 3rd is one of the few remaining streets in all of central Portland to have three, one-way lanes,” reads the letter, which is signed by DNA President LaJune Thorson and DNA Vice President Xavier Stickler.
The current cross-section of 3rd (which is a one-way street southbound) between SW Harvey Milk and Madison is three general travel lanes and two parking lanes. Stickler told BikePortland this morning that, “There’s simply no reason this eight-block stretch needs to be three lanes wide. More to the point, it’s time we close this gap in the network.” The DNA wants a new bike lane and one less driving lane.
The genesis of this request dates back to the “Better 3rd” project undertaken by tactical urbanism group Better Block PDX in 2014. That’s the project that resulted in Ankeny Plaza near Burnside (Voodoo Donuts) and the bike lane on 3rd Ave that PBOT striped in 2015. (Unfortunately, the existing bike lane ends abruptly at SW Harvey Milk and thrusts bike riders back into lanes shared with car users for eight blocks before a bike lane reappears after SW Madison St.) Nearly 10 years later, when a steering committee formed to discuss a plan to reimagine Burnside during the impending closure of the Bridge Bridge, the bike lane gap south of Harvey Milk was identified as a priority. Stickler took the nudge from Better Block and got the DNA to support the idea.
The DNA strongly supports PBOT’s major bikeway project on SW 4th Avenue, but they think now is the time to finish what was started on 3rd. PBOT has framed Broadway as the bikeway couplet, but Stickler and the DNA think a high-quality bikeway on 3rd would, “create a more adjacent and logical couplet with 4th when it opens.”
In their letter, the DNA says PBOT and the County should work together and make these lane changes as part of the Earthquake Ready Burnside Bridge project. “By implementing lane consistency with that already in place on 3rd Ave. north of Harvey Milk St., the City will improve pedestrian safety, close a notable gap in the Central City’s active transportation network, and facilitate the safe detour of people walking and rolling to the Hawthorne Bridge during the closure of the Burnside Bridge.”
The DNA says the new bikeways on NW/SW Broadway have resulted in safer conditions and they want the same treatment on SW 3rd. Here’s more from their letter:
“We believe the existing road format utilized north of the Morrison Bridge and south of the Hawthorne Bridge–consisting of 2 lanes of parking, 2 vehicle lanes, and a bike lane–strikes the appropriate balance of mode dedication between all users. This reallocation will provide tourists, drivers, people walking, bike riders, and business patrons with an intuitive, safe, and human-scale streetscape.”
I’ve asked PBOT for comment and will update this post when I hear back.
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Yes! This will improve my commute 200%! (well, somewhere between 2% and 200%, but noticeably)
As someone who uses this often, I’d totally support it! Particularly if I’m trying to make a left, it can be daunting/hard to gauge safety taking those turns with so many car lanes. Big thanks for the Downtown Neighborhood Association for instigating this effort.
Bear in mind, these are the same folks whom opposed removing driving on a few of the park blocks because the people “riding bikes would be too loud”. In another universe, that might be funny.
Is it the actual same people? Or the same organization made up of different people?
Bit of a Ship of Theseus situation, isn’t it?
I don’t know. I’m unfamiliar with the make up of DNA. If downtown residents were unhappy with decisions of past board members (e.g., their stance on the Park Blocks), and then actively sought to replace those members to take stances such as the one in this article, then I don’t think we should judge the current DNA members based on the actions of other, past members.
What in general is DNA’s relationship with the downtown business associations and chamber of commerce? Do they generally get along?
Just block whole streets off. What downtown is becoming is stressful: there are so many unintuitive and inconsistent street treatments partially blocking off roads in new and strange ways (to those not reading this blog).
Its primarily done with paint so that if your eyes aren’t good or your thinking not fast, you’ll invariably make a boo boo and feel stressed, old or stupid.
This and the shocking level of car-window replacements (my last one cost me $700, 1/4 of what I sold my car for) make downtown a place to not take your car to.
Which means people just won’t go.
Is downtown gonna rely only on the inner East Side crowd? This crowd makes it a point to signal disdain for the West Side and Lake Oswego immediately upon moving to Portland. Nah, they’ll stay in Buckman or Irving Park checking each other’s wedge haircuts out.
Brilliant !!
Well done Xavier Stickler and DNA !!
Last time I rode downtown, I came off the Broadway Bridge going to the DMV. Forgetting the exact count, at least three right hooks stood in my way. That’s well above my quota for the year in a single trip. I was furious.
One place I never stressed about that was in the middle of those three lane, one-way streets. The signal timing, the visibility, the predictability… maybe it doesn’t work for other folks, but I felt extremely safe in that herd, flanked by moving cars for protection.
Consistency is nice, and maybe helpful with the protected lane issues I’ve run into, but so far most of these upgrades have felt like the opposite.
Huh?
Champs is just saying what a lot of us are thinking! It’s always been pretty nice to ride down the middle lane. No turning traffic to block your way, a green wave of signals timed for bike speed, pretty easy. A downside of bike lanes on the left or right, protected or not, is it introduces a right or left hook crash risk. On the other hand, obviously many people prefer to have their own bike lane. So it’s a tough one to weigh the pros and cons. But it’s okay to acknowledge that there are pros and cons.
Only in places where it’s still a debate like in Portland. Most places with any basic level of separated cycling infrastructure already accept that if we want to allow access to people with disabilities and learners, for example, separated infra is the norm. It’s basically saying, my personal opinion trumps the needs of any lesser-abled riders, the potential for growth in ridership, standards used in a lot of other cities around the world, as well as the research on safe infra.
Can we at least agree that we should only implement protected bike lines if they actually provide the same or better safety than reasonable alternative solutions? And that actual safety is more important than perceived safety?
Yes, 100% agree. Sadly, PBOT is taking that option away, street by street.
These should be either curb-protected or parking-protected bike lanes. This is a totally inappropriate location for buffered bike lanes or any sort of painted bike lanes.
Yep, far cry from Leah Treat’s all new bikes lanes will be protected as a standard practice.
I disagree. Broadway and 4th will offer the option of parking-protected bike lanes, which have their own challenges and not what all of us would prefer. Those are also very expensive to do well, with signal changes required, platforms at hotels, physical curbs, etc. Why not have 2nd and 3rd be just low-cost buffered bike lane options? The 3rd Ave bike lane is already just a buffered bike lane replacing one of the travel lanes, and the simple thing would be to just extend it and be consistent. As far as 2nd Ave goes, the curbside bike lane is a disaster, with terrible pavement and poor sightlines. I’d rather it too was just a buffered bike lane. We should have options, not one size fits all.
I wouldn’t like that here. The section of road is slow enough that it’s not much effort to move with traffic and catch the green wave. Painted lanes work well here. Hiding cyclists behind parked SUVs and trucks will only increase the risk of getting hooked. Curb or parking protected lanes make left turns too slow and difficult.
That would be great! Whenever I ride down 3rd, there’s barely any cars on it anyway. I’m always for more safe bike lanes downtown