Welcome to being-pissed-off-about-leaves-in-bike-lanes season. Last night I sympathized with my former colleague (now Portland Mercury reporter) Taylor Griggs after learning she took a nasty spill on leaves while using the bike lane on Northeast 7th Avenue (see below). At the same time, I happened to be watching Portland’s bicycle coordinator share an update on bike lane maintenance.
Portland Bureau of Transportation Bicycle Coordinator Roger Geller shared a brief presentation on this very popular topic at the monthly meeting of the Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) last night. He gave an update on the $10 million bike lane sweeping initiative PBOT has been working on. As I reported back in February, PBOT won a grant from the Portland Clean Energy Benefits Fund (PCEF) that gives them $2 million per year for five years to keep bike lanes clean.
That funding is being used to purchase two big-ticket items: a new bike lane cleaning team and tools to do the work. Specifically, those tools include: a new fleet of battery-powered, bike lane-sized sweepers and leaf blowers for those hard to reach places.
Last night Geller said PBOT has hired seven of the eight new staffers. And so far, two of the new e-sweepers — designed specifically to fit inside protected bike lanes — are already here. I’ve seen both of them parked in PBOT’s Stanton Yard, a maintenance vehicle facility on the corner of N Graham and N Mississippi. The cute little sweepers are dwarfed by a massive diesel generator (which I hope isn’t their final solution for charging these babies). According to a slide shown at the BAC meeting last night, in addition to those two e-sweepers, PBOT has purchased two Ford Lighting pickups for all the hand sweeping and more detailed clean-up work a mechanical sweeper can’t do (aka “bunching support”).
So far, the PCEF-funded team has been working on areas with heavy leaf canopy. A map of future sweeping routes is still in the works. A public-facing map and a leaf pick-up request dashboard is also being worked on, but not yet ready for launch. Another slide shown last night included a map of the latest spots that have been swept (see above)
None of these updates are likely to make many Portlanders feel better about the current state of bike lanes — and the vast volume of leaves that have overtaken many of them. “Appreciate your patience, the leaf drop was early this year,” the slide reads.
So for now, take extra caution through the leaves, don’t turn sharply in corners, and hope for the best. If there’s a particularly bad spot, you should report it to 311 so city crews get it on their list.
Thanks for reading.
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Even with those sweepers this will still happen because the city encourages property owners to sweep their leaves into the street. Sure they’re only supposed to do it the day before their leaf day but in reality those leaves are in the street for well over a month before leaf day.
The first leaf day for this section of 7th is only two days away on the 21st. Depending on the weather that means cyclists might be able to enjoy a full week of a relatively clear lane before it fills back up again.The second sweep day is 12/10 by then most of the leaves should be off those trees so hopefully it’ll be good until they cover it all in gravel for potential snow.
The reality is the leaves come down too much too quickly to keep the lanes clear until they’ve all finally come down. I have three large maples at home and my yard can be covered in leaves the day after I fill my compost bin depending on weather. Hopefully the sweepers help with the winter, spring, and sometimes summer months where the lanes remain full of debris.
Hopefully Taylor heals fast and I’m glad it wasn’t worse. Be careful out there folks.
Interesting how this “reality” only applies to bike lanes
Automobiles are heavier, faster, and, let’s face it, more numerous, all of which helps to clear the center of the roadway of leaves or at least make it a negligible traction issue. The same cannot be said for bicycles, so it makes sense that there’s a difference in “realities” here.
Also the drag cross-section is fundamentally different ( ᗒᗨᗕ ), cars naturally funnel some air underneath the chassis. Maybe we all need to start putting upside-down formula-one style front wings on our bikes.
It applies to bike lanes and my yard. Both require weekly and sometimes daily clearing if we don’t want leaves in them. The fact of the matter is the city and I don’t have the time/resources to keep leaves out of either 24/7. So they are a nuisance until they’ve all come off the trees.
The roads stay clear because of cars and the wind. It’s not some conspiracy within PBOT.
As annoying as I find the noise generated by leaf blowers it’s the attitude that blowing everything into the street is an acceptable means of property maintenance.
I see some commercial property owners have contractors blowing everything into the street every morning to make their cleaning somebody else’s problems and neighboring business that do nothing so we get to walk on decomposing leaves/fruit for the next several months.
Embrace leaving the leaves!
Oh I wish but having a rather small yard and three 60 year old maples would mean I’d be swimming in leaves year around. The three additional maples across the street and my neighbors black walnut that overhangs my fence make the conversation moot.
So they are asking to not be held liable? Will Johnny lawman write tickets if I take the lane because the bike lane is unsafe? I’m guessing they’d play dumb and bad mouth me.
I think the law allows you to take the car lane if the bike lane is full of hazards or obstructions.
You should take the lane.
There is no way I will ever ride in a debris filled bike lane.
Bicyclists are allowed to move out of bike lanes when the bike lane is unsafe, but that presumes one feels/is safe in the lane with motor vehicles.
For the huge parts of the city without sidewalks, do adjacent property owners still put out their trash receptacles and debris on the street and in the painted bike lanes?
I have to dodge bins that somebody just stores in the bike lane every day near Tillamook & 82nd. Not a huge deal, though, because just before the bins I have to take the lane to dodge a hedge that grows into the bike lane space as well.
It varies, but I regularly see/interact with cans in the lane in the Rosa Parks, and Cully protected bike lanes
I ask for patience from other drivers as I take up “their” lane.
Both pleas have about the same weight and response.
I gotta say, that stretch of 7th (especially between Broadway and tillamook) has been awful ever since they changed it from a sharrow to a bike lane. The bike lane was dirty when it was installed (you can see on the white line that there rocks down when they applied the paint.) and it has *never* been clean in the two years since. It’s also really slanted and has a few grates and is just a generally terribly unsafe bike lane. Why are cars even allowed to drive north/south on 7th when MLK is a block or two away?
I found myself on this stretch just last week after dark. A combination of poor lighting and someone (who would do this??) piling up leaves in the bike lane made for a very dangerous situation. I didn’t fall, but with the awful lighting, I couldn’t tell I was plowing into a full-on pile of leaves until I was in it. Maybe regular riders know to take the car lane on this stretch, but I rarely travel that route and naïvely thought I could, you know, use the bike lane.
I detour to 16th Ave this time of year.
the entire 7th ave bike route including the Blumenauer Bridge is an abject failure- I am surprised Earl hasn’t asked to have his name removed!
I feel like it’s fundamentally a hard problem. The leaves fall all at the same time (continuously over the course of weeks or months), so without an army of sweepers it just isn’t going to happen.
Not to excuse PBOT from responsibility. They can at least triage popular routes (sounds like they’re working on it!). But there is no avoiding leaves this time of year.
Cars have it different. They move faster and cause more turbulence (and have this nice gutter that we try to ride in), which I think goes a long way to just blowing the leaves to the side. It’s not like the roads have been swept yet either.
But anyway, it’s annoying and dangerous, and I look forward to this new leave crew getting up to speed.
John V- great point- this is a predictable, annual event with a known duration. It is something we can and should plan for, similar to a construction event. If PBOT cannot handle the maintenance, they should be using other tools at their disposable: detours to an adjacent street that is temporarily closed to cars, temporary lane sharing with cars with adequate signs and lighting, close the driving lane temporarily to give bikes a safe place to ride. I am sure their are other options. PBOT just needs to be told that providing bikes safe route is a higher priority than driving lanes and they can figure it out. The fact that cyclists are told to be patient with insufficient and unsafe lanes tells you what PBOT/the City’s priority is: driving. PBOT has become a driving-first transportation organization.
Maybe they should divert cars into the bike lane to sweep away all the debris, and let bikes ride in the center of the road.
Agree that it’s a fundamentally hard problem. I’ve been trying to balance my disdain for leaves in the bike lane against how much I love having street trees.
Also spotted the leaf crew in action on Rosa Parks. They do a great job! I just wish we had a few more.
pathetic response. The City should have 2000 signs reading “yield to bikes using full lane during leaf season” then spend your energy telling drivers to be patient with the lanes full of people biking, scootering and walking until the City can get the leaves picked up form the bike lanes and sidewalks.
Its an ordinance violation to sweep leaves into the street in many parts of this country. Kind of odd the city is spending millions to pick up wealthy home owner’s trash off the street. (yes, if you own property) you are wealthy or if you rent on wealthy owned property.
Seems far simpler to pick up ones own trash, bag it and let the karens report violators of said trash dumping…
But instead we have injured people falling on trash of wealthy homeowners and shilling renters.
“…the leaf drop was early this year.” Why is it always a surprise in Portland when it comes to leaves, or ice, or whatnot? Literally the same story every year, no matter how many bike lane sweepers PBOT has.
They should add a form for people to submit non-city actions that cleaned leaves. I know of some people getting it done without these tools. Having 8 people out cleaning seems like a lot but the task is huge
It’s frustrating to watch Portland struggle with something as basic as keeping bike lanes clear — especially in a city with very high taxes. What stands out even more is that PBOT is relying on PCEF dollars, a fund that was never really intended for core city services,
I’m glad to see progress with the new sweepers and staffing, but it’s hard for residents to feel reassured when the leaves are already creating real hazards and the public-facing tools and routes aren’t ready yet.
Hopefully this new team gets up to speed quickly and we start seeing the basics handled more reliably, without needing to dip into special-purpose funds just to keep bike lanes safe. Right now what I see when I’m out riding are just more reasons for beleaguered Portland taxpayers to move to where they are appreciated and their dollars are put to good use.