People hoping to roll through the quasi-public roads in River View Cemetery on Friday were greeted with a “No Cycling Today” sign.
The good news is this is not a permanent closure (although that threat always remains!). The bad news is we can expect more random closures through December and January.
According to River View Cemetery staff that have reached out to BikePortland, various construction projects will require them to close the roads completely to cycling at certain times. At other times, there will be work zone detours that require caution. “Additionally,” the cemetery shared, “weather conditions during the winter may necessitate gate closures if we determine that the roads are unsafe for vehicle, bicycle or pedestrian traffic.”
One BikePortland reader came across the “No Cycling Today” sign at the bottom gate just west of the Sellwood Bridge today.
If you’re wondering why I’m not sharing specific dates and times of the closures, it’s because River View says they can’t provide them. They’re working with an outside contractor, so they’re not always sure when the work will happen and therefore are unable to offer any prior warnings.
In a message posted to the Lewis & Clark Law School bike commuters email group, the school’s public relations director wrote: “Please remember that we are guests when we bike and walk through the Cemetery, and that both Cemetery staff and the teams that will come in to do this project are all trying to do their jobs. Smile! Wave! Be polite! Please do not do anything that puts your safety or their safety at risk. There is enough challenge in operating heavy machinery, and we do not need to add to it.”
River View Cemetery is private property and they permit the public to use their roads because it’s a much safer and more convenient option than Taylor’s Ferry Road or other routes. The relationship between the cemetery’s board, staff, and people who use the road, has been a tenuous one for many years. The threat of losing access to these roads is always present, and we need the City of Portland, the Oregon Department of Transportation, and other government agencies in the area to work together to build a safe route through this area that doesn’t rely on a nonprofit cemetery’s largesse.
So, what should you do if you see this sign? The only feasible alternates I’m aware of are to the north. Only the strong and fearless should even attempt Taylors Ferry (or is that even rideable? I’ve never tried it), so most folks will want to find a way onto S Corbett, Barbur Blvd (OR 99W) or Terwilliger Parkway.
If River View releases a schedule for the closures, I’ll post it here and/or on social media. Please let me know what you see out there so we can help each other stay informed.
Thanks for reading.
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Cool, couldnt see this coming
Taylors Ferry road is one of those places where when I’m driving on it I think, “I’d never bike here, I don’t want to get killed by all the people treating this like a highway”
Looks fun to go down, though I imagine you’d have some maniacs trying to pass you even at the speed limit.
I descend it regularly and yes I’ve had maniacs pass me above the speed limit.
They should take away a lane between Macadam and Terwilliger and make it a bike/ped path. The only reason for that extra lane is so impatient people can rip past and feel like they’re saving a few seconds.
It is fun to descend but there are some large potholes so you have to be more in the middle of the travel lane. I have been close passed there too, not too comfortable at the end of the day
Oh, heavens no. Those potholes are nearly big enough to damage some car tires. I’d never set road or gravel bike tires there and expect to make it to the bottom.
it’s a death trap
Alert! City of Portland and PBOT! ALERT!
The fact that there is *NO* safe and reliable way for cyclists and pedestrians to move between SE and SW Portland is UNACCEPTABLE. The alternative route through the cemetery is contingent upon the whims of a private board who can withdraw their consent at any time, as they have done in this case.
The city needs to build a safe, all-weather route for cycling and walking NOW. Do not build anything else until this route is constructed – and that includes all of the fancy stuff you are building for cyclists east of the river.
Cannot upvote this one ENOUGH. That the city has relied for so long on private property for a vital transpo link is unacceptable.
The climb to Terwilliger from behind Zupans at Taylor’s Ferry is perfectly pleasant and low traffic.
And this is why this kind of private property sucks.
But of a slippery slope there, but I do agree with things like paths and roads…like they have in the UK.
The cemetery is a non-profit established to help people through the grief of death. They’ve been there since before the invention of the safety bicycle and offer us commuting use through what is effectively a sanctuary for mourning – without asking anything in return. Why exactly do they owe you a bike path?
The cemetery doesn’t owe us a bike path, but it could be argued that the city does.
So which kinds of private property aren’t a problem for you?
Cemeteries have been with us for a long time. They’re not going anywhere as long as we have freedom of religion (some religions forbid cremation and require full bodily burial). While it creates an inconvenience that forces people to consider other routes, modes of transportation or even residence locations, the truth is that we cannot currently force the private owners of a nonprofit cemetery to open up an unconditional public passage through the property.
This has been an ongoing issue for *years*. Every time things get calm and the relationship seems to be going well, someone comes along and behaves badly and gets people on both sides up in arms. Then things die down and we get back to some kind of vague status quo. Unless the owners of Riverview decide to sell the property — and I don’t see that happening — people who use the throughway as a commuting route will simply have to be considerate and check any sense of entitlement at the entrance gate.
Those who are especially upset by this situation should take up the conversation with the appropriate state and local agencies about creating alternatives. Riverview is what and where it is, and cannot realistically change the way things are.
I continue to believe that we need statewide regulation that requires public access to any property that is tax exempt. We are all subsidizing the cemetery, cemeteries like this one often take up large swaths of urban land creating difficulties with navigating around the property, we should be getting something for our money. I have similar opinions around timber lands.
There’s some logic to that, but in this case–closing roads for a construction project–it might not make a difference. Even public facilities occasionally close to accommodate construction.
Birds, rodents, insects, pollution filtering, views, theres so many advantages to golf courses and cemeteries that don’t directly benefit you.
The other option is to sell it off for housing. Theres no budget to buy it and turn it into a park.
San Francisco and Seattle’s built up cityscapes have their plus points but green forestey Portland is what I like to come home to.
I think that repurposing it as housing is a great idea, housing would have streets at regular block spacing that would allow through travel and generate property tax revenue. Redevelopment is something that might happen if they were actually paying taxes based on the value of the land.
What are you going to do with all the dead people buried there?
What a ridiculous take. They’ve been there since 1882 and the city has had ample time to figure out and find transportation connectivity around them. The city hasn’t. Not the cemeteries fault. Rather than trying to steal land from the thousands of families that have loved ones buried there, perhaps focus your energy on the city council which continues to refuse to take any meaningful action supporting vulnerable road users.
Cemeteries can be decommissioned, I know that they do it in Singapore. Remains can be cremated or otherwise disposed of. I’m not real worried about ghosts.
No one is worried about ghosts. It’s good to know your needs take precedent over all those families that have family there.
Singapore? I’ve worked over there for a bit. It’s a vastly different culture with great transportation ways of doing things.
For example, the entire dead “population” of San Francisco was relocated to the city of Colma, by force of law, in 1912.
Cemeteries aren’t forever. Ask Paris.
We’re not Paris.
What does this mean? We can’t take lessons from other cities?
I would pay the price of a movie ticket and bring popcorn to watch someone at a council meeting bring a legit proposal that we spend the money and time to create an ossuary under the Portland streets and fill it with the all the bones we can find. It would be a great basis for public art as well, just like Paris of the late 1700s to early 1800s.
https://www.catacombes.paris.fr/en
At least the council could schedule another fact finding trip overseas, sighhhhhh.
This whole idea of getting rid of the cemetery has no basis in reality, I can’t believe people are pushing for it.
But imagine looking across the river from Sellwood park to find–the Hollywood Hills, or what you describe more like South San Francisco– instead of the forested ridge that to me, defines Portland.
It was bad enough when they redid the Sellwood Bridge and put in all that concrete.
I’m not assuming your origins but so many people that moved to Portland, presumably because of the people and places that were already here, then want to drastically change it.
Why?
I’ve lived in Oregon for my whole life which is nearly 50 years now, and Portland has changed in the decades I’ve been living here, for example many of my friends have been forced to move away to cheaper places because they can’t afford to live here because we do things like subsidizing housing for the dead while limiting the construction of housing for the living.
I hope your kind of entitlement doesn’t inspire a permanent closure of bike access through Riverview. And I would not be shocked if permanent closure eventually happens.
I’ve got a few years on you and haven’t been able to live in Portland my whole life. My friends and companions buried at Willamette help anchor me here as the deceased buried at River View help anchor their loved ones.
So because of 30ish years of failed housing policy that built out instead of up you see the only recourse is to throw all those social connections out, magically have the government seize the cemetery, move the remains off to an island (another poster’s example) or cremate whatever remains you find and I can only assume mix the cremains back into the soil (while rewriting federal law to do so) and then build housing over sacred ground. Try to build anything over native sacred ground and see what the reaction is. It’s the same as what you are clamoring for.
All that because local government refuses to pass policies that will bring down the price of housing and cause developers to want to build more and build up?
Well, when it’s put that way you you are probably right. Having sane housing policies to increase density and encourage growth to drive prices down are less likely to happen than the cemetery magically being converted to housing.
Of course, the irony is that any housing built there would still be priced out of reach for most of us.
In all seriousness, I don’t think the cemetery existing is the reason housing is unaffordable.
or they could pay property tax, revenue that could be used to mitigate their impact. Either way is fine with me.
https://oregon.public.law/statutes/ors_97.660 and https://oregon.public.law/statutes/ors_307.150
Those are the laws you want to change; ask your legislator. Good luck!
Could you explain what the impact that tax money would mitigate is? I’ve been trying to figure out what it could be.
If you are against non-profits who don’t pay taxes, should we start taxing these groups as well?
Oregon Food Bank
Friends of Trees
Rose Haven
Street Roots.
Just to name a few.
Golf courses, not cemeteries…right?
I mean, haven’t we all watched enough movies to know what happens when you build on a cemetery?
golf corses are not a net public benefit get a grip
100 times this.
Especially the timber thing. Every inch of forest owned by timber companies should be effectively public land. Or actually public land.
Same with this cemetery. Sure, you can have this huge space (forever?). In exchange you have to allow reliable access to the path through it. It should be more like a public park.
Especially those “leased” by timber companies.
There was a time when the public could access private timberlands. Then the public started hauling there garbage out and dumping it in the forest. And then damaging logging equipment. So up went the gates and then the security patrols. But just like the National Forest you can buy a permit to access Weyerhaeuser lands.
If you want private timberlands (or Riverview) to be public, just pony up the cash.
Let’s just clarify something here: you don’t need to buy a permit to access Federal lands. They have permits to park cars. National Forest lands are free to access and open to all.
Your comparison is false.
And churches.
Having been a contractor and having hired a bunch of contractors. . . this is just the unfortunate reality of getting work done. It’s a bummer not to know where to ride on this vital connection, but keep in mind if it were PBOT or DOT, they’d close the road/bridge/lane for the entire time, regardless of whether or not anyone is working on it that day.
I’ve been riding the cemetery for 20+ years. Sometime in my early years riding through it, the cemetery considered closing it to cyclists. I seem to recall that the cemetery manager was also a cyclist. Instead of closing the route, the cemetery improved the route and signage.
I’m very appreciative of how the cemetery has accepted and accommodated us over the years.
I suggest using LaView as an alternate. I acknowledge it’s no substitute for connecting with Lewis and Clark and the destinations south, but it at least will get you up and down the hill without risking it on Taylors Ferry. Others are right – we need to have a reliable alternative to the cemetery that connects destinations south of Taylors Ferry.
Portland By Cycle map shows this – not great but better than Taylors Ferry.
LaView is my usual commute home from work and I second this. It’s a bumpy little road, but there’s almost no traffic ever.
Finally someone mentioned La View. Steep and narrow with very low traffic and wonderful views of the river.
Yes, a great route is Corbett to Custer, then Brier Pl for an almost private crossing of the freeway. You pop out at Fulton Park, get creative at Barbur.
Ascending Taylor’s Fairy is a no-go; descending is wild and sketchy, puts it all on the line.
No public Terwilliger/Macadam connector has been an issue for decades. The city is drowning in money they can’t manage or spend properly. We’ve built more than one bridge in the meantime to solve lesser problems. Why can’t we get this done?
I might agree with the general sentiment and need for better prioritization of projects, but if you’re referring to PBoT’s budget in specific, it’s certainly not awash in funds.
Other departments might have money, but PBOT is nearly always strapped.
As stated above, i also use Laview up to Barbur as the cemetary bypass. It’s not ideal for commuting with a schedule but fine for riding for fun.
I agree that there needs to be a public route up to Terwilliger that doesn’t use Taylor’s Ferry.
Do the signs really single out cycling? So if you get off and walk (it’s a long walk, but for the sake of argument), that’s ok? What a stupid situation.
Sure, I’m angry at our government for not creating an alternative. But I’m equally angry that this huge property that we treat like a permanent physical barrier, stands in the way of a straight forward solution.
It’s even worse: the fact that the cemetery leaders have *generously* granted access to cyclists has allowed the city to shrug its shoulders and do nothing for 30 years.
They need to start planning a non-cemetery route NOW. It’ll take ten years to plan it and build it.
Actually there are two uphill motor vehicle lanes, so they could put out jersey barriers tomorrow and have a usable route for people outside of cars. They just don’t have the will to do it.
Correct, it would be an easy change. For most of the way down, there are no south side connecting streets to turn in and out of, because that’s the edge of the cemetery. That said, I’d still be worried about descending cyclists speed, given how straight and steep it is, with no curves / switchbacks to slow us all down.
Alternatively, and I’m sure this has been said before, but maybe the city could create something fantastic through Riverview Natural area, which I think falls under purview of Portland Parks and Recreation? Put a nice pedestrian bridge over Highway 43 into Powers Marine park, right there on the river, which has a nice two-way path leading to the Sellwood bridge.
“stands in the way of a straight forward solution.”
To be honest this rationale creeps me out a lot. When I consider the hard and violent decisions my ancestors were faced with I wonder what I would have done had I found myself hungry, desperate and not enough to go around.
Even though there is food and comfort aplenty it’s clear that the old colonizer mindset still holds sway in Portland hearts. I have a difficult time reading that mass desecration and destroying the link thousands have with their deceased family members is justified because the land stands in the way transportation. For a small amount of people at that.
This is the same kind of thinking that desecrated native lands back then that we rightly decry today.
Take a step back and balance your wants with the wants and needs of others and demand and demand the city council focus on Portland for a little bit.
https://www.ohs.org/oregon-historical-quarterly/upload/04_Lindquist_Stealing-from-the-Dead_OHQ-115_revised.pdf
I absolutely agree that the City of Portland and our regional government should have a high priority for connecting bike routes, almost as high as for well located and frequent transit, and transit should especially be emphasized in areas where bike access is limited. If I had a difficult commute in the Portland area I’d probably combine biking and transit but TriMet isn’t always the best partner. It’s comical that TriMet hasn’t seen their way to mounting triple racks, for instance.
I wouldn’t put cemeteries in the same category as Native American land rights. History is important and old cemeteries are kind of cool but honestly, is it a good practice to lace our disused bodies with really toxic chemicals, box them up in durable materials that are then lost to productive use, and plant them indefinitely in little plots of good ground? Ick.
What’s the difference between sacred native burial grounds (which I’m discussing) and our burial grounds?
I’m truly curious.
At the risk of getting my head chewed off, I’d say none.
People are born, live and die. We have buried out beloved dead for millennia. Demanding instantaneous cultural change is insensitive and frankly pointless.
The cemetery has been there since before people started bicycling through the area.
Everyone, please stop blaming this issue on the existence of Riverview Cemetery, and start working really hard on finding alternate routes and solutions, with the agencies and organizations that actually have the owner and means to effect change.
Agree 100% with you! I’m having a hard time believing the idea of building housing over the cemetery is real and isn’t simple trolling. The various proponents of it keep doubling down so it has to be assumed they are serious, no matter how ridiculous the idea is. Losing the route through the cemetery though is not ridiculous so River View needs to know that most of us appreciate what they do and how they do it.
“TriMet isn’t always the best partner”
I looked up how long it would take to ride from here to Lewis & Clark, and it is a long, circuitous, and unpleasant looking trip involving lots of out-of-direction travel, doubling back, and, of course, a big hill climb.
But, shockingly, it’s still faster than taking TriMet would be (and 4x more time than driving).
I’m not holding out TriMet as it exists as the answer, although used strategically on a route without transfers it can be faster than cycling. The potential of transit is great and if it were only up to me there would be frequent service* on OR 43 and Taylor’s Ferry Road with adequate stop platforms and triple bike racks. I’m absolutely in favor of using public right of way to support human power transportation but while we wait for that flower to bloom it’s possible to have a transportation alternative to cars that can serve every person without giving each of them a $10K ebike (which would need to be a tandem for people with visual or other limitations).
*10 minutes or less
TriMet is great on some routes, probably even faster than driving if, for example, you happen to be at Gateway TC and are headed to Lloyd Center or the Moda Center.
I completely support expanding and improving TriMet where it makes sense. Which, we might agree, isn’t every possible trip.
Is someone giving out $10k ebikes?
Cemeteries are by definition unsustainable. Eventually, in thousands or millions of years, the entire planet would be a cemetery.
Robert, mate… so burial grounds only count as sacred if the folks underground come with a tribal affiliation? Bold take. If River View were full of Native remains we’d have a candlelight vigil and a land acknowledgment, but since it’s ‘just’ regular Portlanders suddenly it’s, ‘eh, bit of an ick, let’s repurpose it.’
Careful — that logic is how you end up starring in a History Channel documentary called When Bike Advocates Went Too Far
Stop being dramatic. Requiring private land owners to maintain a path that already exists for public access is not new or scary or anything like colonizing.
The colonizing mindset I mention once is clearly in regards to the contempt settlers/colonizers had for native burial sites and the desecration that was done to the native burial sites. As shown by the link I provided and there are numerous examples that are similar.
The burial sites were desecrated so the settlers/colonizers could build what they wanted where they wanted as they felt their needs were paramount. The desecration at River View would happen if some here got their wishes and moved all the remains somewhere else or just left them in place to build housing or some other concrete jungle over them. Just like the settlers/colonizers did. Hence the reference to the colonizer mindset.
It is not a discussion of a road through the cemetery, seized, donated, purchased or whatever. That is a separate discussion which has its own pitfalls.
This failure of a critical link in human movement is directly the result of the city council over decades not taking cycling/ non-car transportation seriously.
With any luck the current council can focus on creating a viable and safe route for humans to live their lives without taking from a spot that is sacred to so many.
The cemetery should be a destination to people on foot, in cars and on bikes and not a throughway.
I’m not wasting my energy getting mad at the cemetery. I suggest folks call and email Portland city council, your state representatives and senator, and ODOT. It’s frustrating that there isn’t a safe public bike/ped route between SE Portland and SW Portland, Lake Oswego and West Linn.
It would be interesting to see a list of all the proposals the City has made over the years to the cemetery to create official public access through the cemetery–ones that discuss easements, address cemetery concerns about liability, conflicts with cemetery visitors, etc.
I suspect it’s a short list if there has even been any attempts.
Yes, I’m pretty sure the number is zero.
This is one of the very rare times that a completely straightforward solution exits: convert one of the two uphill lanes of Taylors Ferry into a bidirectional MUP. If the road can handle motor traffic adequately with one downhill lane, it can handle uphill motor traffic with one lane as well. I don’t know which jurisdiction owns Taylors Ferry (I think it’s PBOT but it could be MultCo, I’m not sure), but whichever jurisdiction has the road is being grossly negligent.
The standard response might be that there are two lanes uphill because some trucks can’t keep up with traffic going uphill, which is why you see highways in steep terrain (as the highway to the coast) add an uphill lane on steep sections.
But I’ve used Taylors Ferry regularly for years, and slow-moving trucks are almost non-existent. And the ones that are mean it might take an extra several seconds to get up the hill if you’re behind one.
So I agree, and like you said–a MUP so people can walk or even just get to a bus stop without being killed (as happened a few years ago near the top of Taylors Ferry).
My experience also is that loaded trucks isn’t an issue (where would they be coming from loaded and going to)?
But I’m skeptical of a need for a MUP there and against a bidirectional MUP. This route has little potential to ever have much foot or cycle traffic, and there are much better places to direct attention.
Heck, if something were done in this general area, making Macadam more bike friendly would be nice — it’s the only way into town that’s not hopelessly slow.
If all people want is a Terwilleger Macadam connection, there’s a good sleepy feeder road to Corbett which is a way faster/better way to get to/from downtown if you aren’t up for Macadam which requires an especially steely eyed attitude. I take it myself sometimes when I don’t feel like dealing with Macadam.
I agree somewhat. I do think the Taylors Ferry route is doable, because the third traffic lane isn’t needed. But personally, I’d rather see official public bike access through the cemetery.
However, bike access isn’t the only issue. Taylors Ferry is impossible for pedestrians. You can’t walk up, down or across it. That means people living across from the cemetery can’t get to the downhill bus stops, and maybe can’t even wait safety at the uphill ones, and people can’t safely walk across the street from the cemetery offices to the mausoleum. People living near the cemetery who want to visit it or walk in it can’t get to it safely without driving.
So improving Taylors Ferry is needed even if an official bike route through the cemetery is created.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Portland,+OR/@45.4640067,-122.6800033,3a,47.2y,58.66h,80.28t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sYRwE8dsxddpq5mVS2H5CAA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D9.719311733588057%26panoid%3DYRwE8dsxddpq5mVS2H5CAA%26yaw%3D58.65895257877834!7i16384!8i8192!4m6!3m5!1s0x54950b0b7da97427:0x1c36b9e6f6d18591!8m2!3d45.515232!4d-122.6783853!16s%2Fm%2F02frhbc?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MTIwMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
Yeah, this has come up before but there is plenty of space along the S side of TF for an MUP. Maybe the city can work withe the cemetery/abbey for an easement?
Highly recommended — it’s my preferred route in the area. Way faster, and the climb isn’t as bad as people who haven’t ridden it would expect. The descent is a blast and considerably safer than other 40+mph descents in town where you have to worry about nitwits pulling out from side streets, blind corners, and/or dodgier surfaces.
Having said that, comfort with traffic and speed is essential both for enjoyment and for safety. If you ride in the dark, real lights are a must.
I’ve only taken the cemetery a few times, it’s great for a quieter experience. But it’s significantly slower going up and down.
No way I’m going 40mph on my bike that’s insane. I’ve got good health insurance but it ain’t that good.
Most of us who would go that fast, won’t risk our tires on the sizeable potholes there.
My Dad is buried in Riverview as are my grandparents, grand uncles and grand aunts, uncles and aunts, cousins and in-laws. A bunch of my siblings and cousins have plots there as well as my mother. Does this mean I can’t ride my bike to visit them and I can only drive a car to their gravesites?
I have multiple family members there as well. Have you tried emailing the owners? I’m guessing they would tell you that you can access via the upper parking lots, and park your bike there, but you cannot ride (or drive) on the roads that are under construction.
Friendly reminder that Portland Parks & Rec could ask NWTA to build a soft-surface climbing route through Riverview Natural Area that would be amenable to all tire tread patterns right now if they wanted to.
Having lived with RVNA basically out my back door: HECK YES. That would be so awesome.
Yes! Let’s pursue this!
Jonathan! How have you never ridden up Taylor’s Ferry? 🙂 It’s a slog. It is not an “option” for getting up the hill. La view is also not a reasonable option, the grade is over 15% if memory serves. We have no other option than the cemetery to be honest, and it sucks. Now riding down TFerry, that I do regularly. It’s easy since you’re going almost the speed of traffic, and few drivers choose to pass you doing 60. _Few_, not none.
Taylor’s Ferry Rd between Terwilliger and Macadam is just plain dangerous for bicyclists and should not be considered a viable route from the river to SW Portland.
We should consider building a ped/bike route from Hwy 43 to S. Palatine Rd through City-owned public land south of the River View Cemetery. This public property is the River View Natural Area. This route could provide access from the Sellwood Bridge to Lewis and Clark College, Tryon Creek State Park, SW PDX neighborhoods, etc.
I lived for 10 years at the top of Riverview (S. Burlingame & Collins view) and then 10 years at the bottom (Sellwood). I have a couple of less-stressful alternatives to the cemetery. They require harder climbing than through the cemetery. If your destination is Lewis and Clark these will add about a mile to the total trip; if your destination is Hillsdale they might be a little shorter. Here are some Google maps links for the alternatives:
Maybe everyone should call their city councilors and ask that they make the needed MULITI USE improvements to their River View property to allow a safe way for cyclists climb and descend on all tread types… and some descents that are good for knobby tires too… NWTA is ready to help make this happen. The city is the hold up. call your city councilors today.
It seems like the obvious solution to this ongoing problem is to construct a paved path through the Riverview Natural Area (the property that ajoins the cemetery just to the south) from near the lower cemetery entrance up to Palatine Hill Road. I know there’s some folks who regularly advocate for keeping bikes out of this land, but it seems like the safety concerns should trump those complaints.
As for funding, this seems like a perfect use of PCEF money.
There is an alternative route which goes up S Laview Drive to Corbett then up to Barbur and Terwilliger. It’s a public road with not a lot of traffic. Use this route and stay safe.