The City of Portland has made major progress on what will soon become Portland’s longest protected bikeway. Once construction is completed on the North Willamette Blvd Active Transportation Corridor project this coming fall, the concrete curb-protected bike lanes on North Willamette Boulevard will connect to existing ones on N Rosa Parks Way for a five mile corridor that connects the Woodlawn and St. Johns neighborhoods with a (relatively) safe bikeway.
Since I live in this area and travel Willamette almost every day, I’ve watched with excitement as the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) has embarked on key pieces of the project as they prep for the major repaving work this summer. Before the pavement is poured, all the new intersection changes must be finished. And with this project there are some major intersection changes! I’ve covered the entire project in the past, but today I’ll just share photos from four intersections that have already been transformed: N Chautauqua, N Wabash/Bryant, N Vincent/Saratoga, and N Liberty/Oatman.
N Chautauqua
This is one of the locations where there will new bus stop islands will float between the bike lanes and general travel lanes. You can see one of the new bike paths through the island already built.
N Wabash/Bryant
A similar bus stop design will be built here, and much of the new sidewalk and bikeway work has been done. Eventually the last section of N Wabash where it enters Willamette will be bike only!
N Vincent/Saratoga
These next two are situations where PBOT is narrowing down very very wide intersections. At this location, PBOT has extended the sidewalks where Willamette and Saratoga meet way out into the intersection in order to provide a safety peninsula for walkers and rollers. This neckdown will force drivers to slow down and it will vastly improve safety of the adjacent neighborhood.
N Liberty/Oatman
Another pedestrian safety peninsula thanks to an extremely generous curb extension. I cannot wait to see people hanging out here.
About Rep. Nelson
Some of you might be wondering how things are going with concerns aired by Oregon House Representative Travis Nelson. His concerns are based on how it might create diversion onto other streets and how some folks in the neighborhood might have not been properly notified about it.
According to his office, Rep. Nelson met with PBOT staff last week to learn more about the public outreach process and traffic analysis. An aide tells BikePortland that Nelson is, “still waiting on additional information and data regarding diversion modeling.”
Nelson shared his concerns in a constituent newsletter last Friday. Here’s an excerpt:
“I want to be clear that there is a lot in this project that I think is beneficial to the community. My biggest concern is related to how diversion from Woolsey will impact narrow residential side streets in University Park and Arbor Lodge. PBOT will be providing me with more data on diversion modeling which may help ease these concerns. We also discussed ways the bureau can better engage with the Black community which has faced a long history of exclusion from the process. It’s important we continue the work of repairing harm and rebuilding trust. PBOT has made commitments to better engage with the Black community in the future.”
I’ll continue to follow up with Nelson and will be watching his next newsletter in case he shares any updates. For now, have fun watching PBOT’s progress and please use extra caution in work zones when you are using N Willamette.
Thanks for reading.
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Super pumped about this project… looks like it’s coming along great.
Looking good! Really liking the island bus stops. Very encouraging to see the progress on this every time I go through. Keep up the good work PBOT!
Wish I had this when I was living in U Park, this is awesome to see!
This is going to be great!
I remember along Willamette Blvd (can’t remember which intersection it was off the top of my head), they had that orange construction fence there. But damn this makes a big difference when you look at it, even better to see it in person.
I ride this route regularly too, and I will be honest. I don’t like the curb protected bike lane. People on Willamette still roll their garbage cans out, and the end up here, plus it’s difficult to find a safe way to pass other cyclists in an emergency or in general. Plus, pedestrians won’t look when moving from the bus islands to sidewalks, so yet another obstacle for cyclists to be aware of. My two cents.
I’m with you, Joe, I too dislike these over-engineered treatments that corral bikes into narrow strips of concrete or pavement. Give me a regular “unprotected” bike lane, which allows me to swerve into the car-travel lane as needed, and I’m just fine.
Great! Take Lombard.
Amazing. Well done PBOT!
Much needed eye bleach in these hard times. Good work here
Great project. Willamette has remained in that awkward spot between a key bike/walk route and a has-been stroad for too long.
Why do we continue to treat the black community like children? Is the black community incapable of finding out what is going on in their community on their own? Do they not know how to be proactive and involved or are we supposed to hold their hands?
The answer is of course they can. They are adults.
No one holds my hand and I’m adult enough to find out what projects, transportation or otherwise, are going on around me. If a lazy person like me can do it, others can as well.
Yes, as a black person I am indeed perfectly capable of thinking for myself. Surprise.
It sounds to me like this representative is simply representing the concerns of their constituents and seeking answers to their concerns.
It sounds like you’re hostile to those concerns.
Or just hostile to those expressing these concerns.
I’m not sure which, but I can imagine…
Sincerely,
a 36-year-old child.
What constituents? Who are we talking about here? Nelson didn’t know about a major infrastructure project in his own district, despite a literal half decade of outreach, signs, mailers, and meetings. He found out about it when he was driving along Willamette, and he’s super car-brained so hes upset that he’ll need to slow down.
There aren’t any actual people with actual grievances outside of Nelson. I have no idea why or how this connects to a need to “better engage with the Black community”. Are Black people in particular somehow harmed by this change?
Like you, I do not see why the Black community in NoPo needs special notifications about a bike-ped infrastructure improvement project. Yes, the Black community in NoPo experienced displacement and other harms when an INTERSTATE HIGHWAY was blasted thru their neighborhoods. But bike-ped improvements are nothing like that project. Just b/c your community once experienced wrongs doesn’t give you veto power over all future actions. I’m sorry – it just doesn’t.
Got to love Rep Nelson, who 1) was caught distracted driving a few years back 2) made ridiculous claims about TriMet not being safe, and discouraging his constituents from using it 3) cites car traffic diverting off Woolsey to have a negative impact on side streets in Arbor Lodge….how exactly?
The new sidewalk treatments for the extra-large angled intersections are so rad. I’ll have to ride up there some day.