Last week the Portland Bureau of Transportation opened the SW 4th Avenue Improvement Project. It’s the most substantial investment they’ve made in the bike network in many years and it’s the most ambitious project yet to come out of the 2018 Central City in Motion Plan.
When we first began talking about that plan in 2013, I said it was a “golden opportunity” that we could not afford to pass up. Of course, back then we had a downtown bicycling mode share of 11% (according to a survey from the Portland Metro Chamber). It feels like everything has changed in the past 10 years, but our need for a high-quality, north-south bikeway and better bus service on SW 4th remained. From what I’ve seen, experienced, and read (from all your messages), this new bikeway has lived up to the hype.
In this video, you will see the entire facility from SW Caruthers to SW Taylor. What really stands out to me — beyond the smooth new pavement and generous width that allowed me and a friend to ride and talk side-by-side with plenty of room! — are the signals. They’re all optimized for bike users on a level that’s very rare to see in the United States. In a few spots, a detector embedded in the pavement mid-block senses your presence and turns on a flashing yellow warning light.
PBOT just raised the bar for what we can expect from bikeways in Portland. I’d love to know what you think about it so far!
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I’m a little concerned about the turn conflicts. After watching the video I’m still having a bit of a hard time understanding at what points there might be turn conflicts.
It looks like when you have a green signal the drivers will always have a red light preventing them from turning into you with the only exceptions being those two points with the flashing yellow lights plus a few driveways. Does that sound right? Or maybe drivers can make a left on red in some circumstances?
Another question is, even if drivers legally cannot make a turn that would lead to a conflict with a biker, how big a risk is it that they _illegally_ make such a turn? Rare?
Absolutely love it! Congrats to everyone involved in this outstanding project!
Looks promising. One question: do all of the bike loop detectors in the pavement pick up carbon bikes? I shelled out to get a carbon gravel/rain bike to save weight, but it is unfortunate when traffic infrastructure turns my bike into a stealth machine.
Haven’t ridden it yet but the signals look hecka confusing – for bike riders and for drivers. Looks like you’ve got about four different signal configurations (left-turn signals, flashing turn signals, flashing warning signs etc). Inconsistency of traffic infra in Portland is a HUGE problem (try teaching your kids to drive here), and this project only adds to it.
Someone has apparently tried to design away any possible conflicts.
New motto: “PBOT bike infrastructure. Designed by lawyers!”
I’ve driven SW 4th in my car and noticed the new left turn signals immediately. They were intuitive… to me at least. I’m glad to see the new lanes, because after years of driving this road, it was obviously under-utilized by cars.
Awesome recon, it’s not always intuitive, so I love to have some clue what to expect before tackling a new “bike friendly” route.
Y’all really need to get out more (i.e. leave Portland and visit other cities.) Philadelphia, Seattle, Charlotte, DC, and many other cities have had these for years now – Portland is actually quite far behind the curve now – and DC even put in a Dutch-style bike lane (sidewalk, trees/grass, bike lane, more trees/grass, parked cars, traffic lane(s), median, traffic lane(s), parked cars, trees/grass, bike lane, trees/grass, sidewalk.)
So the northbound is done, what about southbound? Is that scheduled for 2038?
I don’t know if it is just a learning curve for the drivers but I see the buses trying to turn left at Mill street having trouble doing so. They are needing to swing fully into the next right lane to make the turn without hitting the new concrete barrier. It’s kinda funny but also not.