I’ve been really into my feelings lately. For a lot of reasons, I’ve been thinking a lot about the last 20 years of BikePortland and what the hell comes next. I’m not ready to talk more about all that yet, but one thing I’ve been doing as part of this emotional ride I’m on is to look back at the 28,320 front page stories in the archives.
I don’t have a plan for a series of history posts or anything, so I’ll probably just share interesting things I come across. Like when I searched back on this week in 2006 I stumbled on a story I did about Portland’s bikeway network signs.
In February 2006, these green signs that give mileage and timing information about key destinations were a big deal. As per usual back then, Portland’s transportation bureau was a national leader in doing cool stuff for cyclists. Our guy with his hands on the bars back then, Roger Geller (who remains PBOT’s bike coordinator to this day), was big into pavement markings and network signage. His little, round bike markings with arrows were an early innovation that sprung up before we started putting shared-lane markings (called “sharrows”) on the ground.
The signs emerged from a federal grant PBOT was awarded in August 2005.
Geller and PBOT were building America’s best residential bikeway network and they wanted to make the routes as legible as possible. It’s still a work in progress (today Geller laments that this amazing feature of our city’s cycling infrastructure is hidden from most Portlanders), but the combination of thousands of sharrows and these green bikeway network signs are — in my opinion — one of the best things about biking here.
Beyond the sheer utility of knowing where you are, where you can go, and how long it will take to get there (based on a bicycling speed of 11-12 mph), what I like about these signs is the respect they give to cycling. I’m big on respect. If a government demonstrates through its infrastructure that your mode of travel is respected enough to deserve cool innovations and bonus features, that says a lot about where you live. It sends a signal that bicycling is expected and honored.
Today when I see these signs it feels like I’m in the right place. A sense of being at home in the city. And when I’m on one of these routes, I know that Geller and his team at PBOT have done more than put up a sign. There’s a very good chance they’ve added safer crossings, a 20 mph speed limit, speed bumps, and maybe even some diverters to keep car volumes down.
You ever notice these signs. Do you use them? What do you think about them?
Thanks for reading.
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We at the Bicycle Advisory Committee in Beaverton have been working to bring similar wayfinding to our city. A lot of the work has been done, but it has stalled in engineering, and finding the money to pay for the signs may be a hold-up. One thing I like about the Portland signs is the time estimate, but as we went through iterations of designs for the signs here, everyone seems to have agreed that it is not very inclusive of different riding styles, and design guidelines for wayfinding from the usual agencies have all said not to have the time estimate going forward. I get it and ultimately agree from an accessibility standpoint.
Yet I think it helps me feel more connected to my destination. Telling me something is 5 miles away can feel far, but if you tell me that’s just 30 minutes, it feels much more doable. I can’t really explain why, but it is something I will miss if and when the ‘Tron ever gets our wayfinding.
I like the signs. But I think they are sometimes located too far before an intersection. When I get to a bikeway intersection, I want to know which way to go (because many of our bikeways are meandering and confusing). I look up to try to find a sign to help me, and I see none. So I guess which way to go, often wrongly. All the while, there was a wayfinding sign half a block back that I never even saw, because I wasn’t looking for directions until I got to an intersection.
Yes I hear you. I’m biking with Roger tomorrow and I’ll mention that to him.