Advocates with local nonprofit BikeLoud PDX say city traffic engineers repeatedly shared concerns about removing traffic diverters in northwest Portland with other city officials, but a decision to remove them still moved forward.
The organization released documents today received through a public records (see below) request that show exchanges between transportation bureau staff and Portland Environment Management Office (PEMO) staff. “These communications show the hidden process city leaders used to try to remove these diverters against the guidance of PBOT’s lead traffic engineer,” BikeLoud asserts. Below is more from a statement about the records just released by BikeLoud:
“A series of internal memos from the city traffic engineering and operations teams put it plainly.
Jan. 13: “We cannot remove these planters — they are addressing bike crashes that were occurring at this location.”
Jan. 29: “I have revisited this location with the Traffic Engineer and this diverter cannot be removed for safety reason.”
June 18: “The diverters are in place for good reason.”
These messages complicate the claims in City Manager Michael Jordan’s Aug. 11th letter on the subject. His letter said that PBOT “ultimately recommended” removing the diverters. But the only public record of this decision is from June 25th, which says, “It has been determined that the diverters will be removed. ETA TBD.” Decided by who? And how did they come to that conclusion?”
In a statement about these revelations, BikeLoud Chair Eva Frazier and Vice-Chair Kiel Johnson said,
“We understand the rationale of PEMO [Public Environment Management Office, the city office that spearheaded the removal plans] to work quickly to take care of community concerns and allow small adjustments to happen. But as people who rely on a safe bicycle network, it is frustrating to feel once again let down by our city’s leadership… After reviewing the City’s communications, we are concerned about our current leadership’s ability to execute council-approved policy with transparency and integrity.”
It’s been nearly three weeks since Mayor Keith Wilson announced a pause in the City Administrator’s plan to remove two sets of diverters in Northwest Portland that create one-way traffic for drivers. When the plan was first exposed on August 1st, the community quickly rallied in support of the traffic calming devices due to their importance in creating safer neighborhood greenways and the fact that they were both installed as recommendations of a multi-year planning process.
The Portland Police Bureau and City Administrator’s office say NW 20th (at Everett) and NW Johnson (at 15th) must be returned to two-way auto traffic so that police officers can more effectively fight crime. But despite Central Precinct Commander Brian Hughes and City Administrator Mike Jordan issuing memos to lay out their arguments, Mayor Wilson has apparently stopped them from moving forward with the plans.
The City of Portland’s bicycle and pedestrian advisory committees have both issued statements opposing the diverter removal plan. The Pedestrian Advisory Committee letter stated, “We are troubled by the lack of transparency and engagement apparent in the process to arrive at a proposal removing this infrastructure,” and requested any movement of diverters be brought to their committee beforehand. And the Bicycle Advisory Committee penned a city council resolution stating their opposition to removing the diverters and said any plan to do so must go through a transparent, data-driven process.
At an August 20th meeting of the PEMO “Problem Solvers” network, PEMO Director Anne Hill attempted to dismiss concerns about the diverters. When several concerned Portlanders showed up to talk about the issue, she said the meeting was not the correct venue to discuss it. “If folks want to have a big discussion about bikes and how we patrol… You can have that meeting. That’s not what this meeting is.”
Hill went on to say, “I understand there’s a lot of misinformation. I understand that diverters became the name of what that was… it wasn’t diverters.”
I asked Director Hill via chat in that meeting to clarify why she didn’t think the meeting was the correct venue to express concerns about the diverters (since those meetings are where the diverters were initially discussed) and if she could expand on the “misinformation” allegation; but neither she nor anyone on her staff have bothered to reply.
