The last three years have been a roller coaster for the bikeway on Broadway that runs through Old Town and Southwest Portland. In September 2023 we learned the city hatched a secret plan to remove the bike lane protection and revert the design to an older version. Three days later, after widespread community outcry, those plans changed and the bike lane was ultimately saved.
In 2024, the Portland Bureau of Transportation completed upgrades to SW Broadway that included better signals and loading platforms. And then yesterday, PBOT announced even more upgrades they say will make Broadway safer to use and to nicer to look at (see design below).
Starting tomorrow, PBOT crews will install dozens of planters and concrete traffic separators (a.k.a. curbs) in the buffer zone between the existing bike lane and car parking spaces. According to a statement from PBOT, “The improvements will reduce ongoing maintenance and improve aesthetics on the highly visible downtown corridor.”
The first phase of work will will focus on SW Broadway between Oak and Yamhill. PBOT wants to get this section done by mid-May so the street can be part of the 2026 Bloom Tour, an annual event where creative flower displays take over the central city (think of it like the Winter Light Festival, but flowers instead of lights). Later this year, the new planters and curbs will extend north from Burnside to NW Glisan and south from Yamhill to SW Clay.
When PBOT first shared the plans for this project, it looked a bit different (see comparison of initial and final design above). Initially they were going to install one larger median “end cap” at the beginning and end of each block. The end caps would have one planter each and there would be nothing added to the buffer zone along the bike lane — even the existing plastic wands would be removed (likely because they look terrible). The final design cancels the end caps and replaces them with short concrete curbs and planters lining the entire length of the bike lane.
When PBOT brought this project to the Bicycle Advisory Committee last month, one member scoffed at the planters and relatively small curbs, saying drivers hit and push them out of place (the large planters on NE Multnomah are regularly hit and moved around by incompetent, reckless drivers). PBOT staff said their engineers are confident the planters will stay put thanks to input form Maintenance Operations staff who said each one will be installed with a concrete curb right next to it.
I reached out to PBOT to better understand their decision to switch from the larger end caps to the planter/curb design.
PBOT Communications Director Hannah Schafer explained that they opted for the curbs/planters option for a few reasons. First, members of the Central City in Motion Working Group expressed concern that the initial design would have no protection in the buffer zone. PBOT also heard from “stakeholders on the corridor” (which I always hear as “business owners”) that planters would be considered an upgrade from an aesthetic standpoint and that, in general, folks wanted to see more planters in general. Schafer also added that if they had a larger budget for the $550,000 project (which is being paid for with General Transportation Revenue made up of state Highway Fund and local parking , they’d keep the larger concrete end caps and do the planters and curbs.
Other than these changes to the bike lane and a small change in parking availability between NW Glisan and Burnside (which will move from a “No Parking” zone from 6:00 to 9:00 am to all-day parking) this project won’t impact the way the street operates.
For more on this project, visit PBOT’s website.
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Amazing! Well done PBOT! Time to start expanding this across the river on Hawthorne and NE Broadway.
Will these be pre-fab curbs which are bolted down? Or will they be poured in place with rebar down into the asphalt? Or just set on top of the asphalt?
Will the planters be bolted down or just held by their own weight?
Will certain hotel and business owners, plus certain business associations, complain again? Will PBOT have to move planters and prefab curbs several times at taxpayer expense due to these complaints?
Sounds great but.. can we get a protected lane that extends past 7th to Williams and the Broadway bridge? This is the sort of incomplete upgrade or installation people talk about when it comes to the question “what should we be spending limited funds on?”
Sounds very nice but will the plants actually be cared for and the planters not just left to be weed containers and canvases for graffiti? It’s hard to have nice things in current day Portland.
https://www.wweek.com/news/2023/08/09/trees-planted-by-the-city-in-east-portland-two-years-ago-are-dead-because-the-city-didnt-water-them/
This is great question- in the past, PBOT has explicitly walked away from their landscape obligations citing a shortage of maintenance money (see NE 102nd/Weilder, for example:https://maps.app.goo.gl/Q7cGeXCPrZU3PAHY9). I love plants and welcome more beauty to the streetscape. However, I am surprised to see PBOT take on something that requires so much maintenance. These small planters will need to watered 1-3 times weekly from June through September and be weeded, trimmed and replanted occasionally. Plants installed in the ground can become established and required little/no water, but these containers are way too small. PBOT also does not allow irrigation in the R/W, but maybe they are maying an exception here? I have a lost of questions- hopefully we will get some great news that PBOT has a plan for taking care of these. At a minimum, it looks they will preclude the Benson from using the buffer as a temporary parking space for sports cars!
There are a lot of planters downtown that seem to manage fine. I suspect the Clean & safe crew (or whoever is watering the sidewalk planters) may be able to help with the bike lane foliage.
I’m not saying it is impossible, but it does cost quite bit. This is an expensive choice for PBOT and I question their commitment. Maybe they got the Downtown businesses to chip in? I would like to know more about their plan to maintain these and what the budget it. It might be worth it, but I would still like to know
Wow, I wonder if planters and trees are different things? I guess your irrefutable evidence of Portland’s dysfunction, a WW article from 2.5 years ago, will just have to stand as proof that we shouldn’t bother putting planters down.
Can’t even be bothered to reference the planter protected bikeway on Multnomah? I recall them being fine, but occasionally damaged or moved into the bike lane. Seems more relevant than yet another article just sort of vaguely referencing poorly run programs as evidence that we can’t do anything and shouldn’t try.
Fixed it for you:
Minor annoyance: the watering trucks tend to water during peak commute hours and always block the bike lane.
Blumdrew logic: ‘It happened before, so it’s irrelevant.’ Meanwhile, lessons from past mistakes are apparently optionaL
More limited funding being spent on cosmetic improvements to an already established and safe bike lane instead of addressing hundreds of miles of disconnected and dangerous bike facilities. Urbanists and their real estate speculator friends love the “placemaking”* (⬆⬆⬆real estate valuations), however.
*”activation”
While I tend to sympathize with your general sentiment of prioritizing important connections to NW/SW Broadway, I’m not sure I would describe this project as “cosmetic.”
Upgrading plastic wands to planters and concrete separators is generally a result of PBOT’s year long endeavor originating from the hardening memo to remove things like plastic delineators, which require frequent maintenance/replacement. This might be aesthetic/marketing in part, but the upgrade is well worth the $500k.
Quick-build protected bike lane on Sandy or a bunch of projects that make oh-so-not-controversial business-friendly (FIRE $$$) improvements to already quite safe infra?
If the goal is to create infrastructure that is ready for the next recession (likely cause of 2009-2015 bike boomlet in PDX) or oil crisis (80s boomlet) then it might be a good idea to prioritize a useful network.
– It looks like the poured concrete curbs/islands shown in the initial design have been removed in the final design, and movable planters and short curbs are added. I like the physical blocking off of the bike lane mid-block, but am concerned that less permanent structures are being used.
– And maintenance IS an issue. – I can think of many examples of serious lack of vegetation and tree maintenance all over town with different types of transportation infrastructure projects that started out good. Maybe the adjacent property owner should be responsible for this, as is the case with park strips. They are getting what could be a really lovely addition of planters to embellish their front entrance, so they can keep them planted, watered and weeded.
– One other thought/question – especially because this is in a very high pedestrian traffic area in front of a hotel and restaurants: What ideas could be incorporated to remind people on foot not to stand around in the bike lane or cross it without looking for bikes coming? I experienced that conflict there just this past Saturday night, and have experienced it in a very similar treatment in Seattle. Ideas or examples to remedy?
Betsy great points. Based on the hardening memo, this stretch had both maintenance and protection needs. Because of the enormous discrepancy between the cost of poured concrete and planters (likely more than double the cost), I think this is a great sign that PBOT is being flexible in using cheaper materials that are both long-lasting AND functional (i.e., effective at physical separation). This also means that the lane can be expanded easily given a higher demand. Signs like this might be helpful, although I think it takes time for people to adjust culturally. NYC has put up delineators/fencing to limit pedestrians from using the bike lane in places with high ped traffic.
Why here? This already feels like the lowest-stress part of my commute down Vancouver across Broadway into SW.