Simmering tensions over the removal of concrete planters on a popular neighborhood greenway in Southeast Portland have reached a low boil. After months of discussions between cycling advocates and transportation bureau staff, the City’s Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) is demanding the planters be re-installed or replaced with something that provides the same benefits.
In September of last year, I reported that some Portlanders who bike on Southeast Salmon Street were dismayed when the City of Portland removed barriers placed on the street in 2021 during the Covid-era “Slow Streets” initiative. Officials from the Portland Bureau of Transportation said the yellow-painted planters were a maintenance liability due to being repeatedly hit and moved by car drivers, and that a 2024 directive from the City Traffic Engineer encouraged them to remove temporary infrastructure in favor of more permanent solutions. PBOT said another reason for their removal was a slew of planned safety updates (speed bumps, new crossings, parking restrictions at corners, and so on) on Salmon and other greenways.
But advocates are unsatisfied and say that PBOT’s plans for the greenways don’t come anywhere close to providing the same benefits that the concrete planters once did. Now they’ve upped their concern with a three-page letter endorsed by the BAC.
“The planters improved conditions for bicycling in ways unforeseen by city staff and their removal has resulted in worse conditions,” states the March 13th letter, signed by BAC Chair Jim Middaugh and Vice-chair Joe Perez (and written by BAC member Gianna Bortoli). “The City of Portland Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) is writing to express disappointment and concern regarding the removal of the concrete planters that established the city’s Slow Streets program.”
The letter lists five specific benefits that have “disappeared” along with the planters:
- Improved intersection visibility and comfort
- Increased left turn calming and reduced dangerous passing
- Indication that “these streets are for biking” and priority is given to people biking and walking
- Improving wayfinding by creating a visible gateway to the greenways
- Signaling to people on bikes that PBOT cares about bicycling and safety
Perez, the BAC vice chair, feels PBOT erred in calling for the removal of the concrete barrels. He believes the engineering directive requires project managers to keep temporary materials in place until updated designs are installed. Perez and others worry that PBOT removed dozens of concrete planters and left nothing of substance in their place.
PBOT says they’ve tried to have removals followed immediately by other planned upgrades, but timing hasn’t always aligned. PBOT also claims that their analysis shows the concrete planters have not lowered driver speeds or the volume of car traffic on greenways. But some advocates claim even if that is true, the planters’ myriad other benefits are lost.
During a discussion about the removals at the February BAC meeting, Perez said (via meeting minutes), “I hope you know, removing planters discourages people from riding bikes. Removal of these planters has discouraged me from biking on Salmon.”
Claire Vlach, a widely-respected advocate affiliated with several transportation nonprofits and who’s also volunteered on several PBOT committees over the years, says the agency’s decision to remove the planters is a red flag. “PBOT’s failure to recognize that people liked the planters and that they provided important safety benefits — both real and perceived — is problematic,” Vlach wrote in an email to BikePortland today. “And shows a lack of understanding of the impacts of their infrastructure on street users.”
Vlach says an easy solution would be to simply bolt the planters to the street, which would make them no longer trigger removal as per the 2024 engineering directive on temporary materials. In fact, Vlach claims she got that idea directly from PBOT Operations and Maintenance Group Director Jody Yates. “The planters would need to be emptied, bolted down, and then refilled, but would no longer be able to be moved out of place by people driving their vehicles into them,” Vlach explained.
Dozens of these planters have been removed citywide (not just on SE Salmon), leaving many folks to wonder why PBOT would downgrade these important bike streets and not replace them with something just as robust and popular. Advocates like Vlach and Perez plan to keep the pressure on PBOT.
“We advise PBOT to do everything within its authority to provide inexpensive, effective treatments that make people feel safer and more comfortable when riding on these bikeways,” the committee’s letter reads. “The yellow planters accomplished that and any replacements need to offer those same feelings.”
(I’ve reached out to PBOT for comment but have not yet heard back.)
Thanks for reading.
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The City Administration* and the Mayor* simply do not care about priority for people biking, wayfinding, or signaling bike infrastructure.
How many times do Portland’s conservative apparatchiks have to remove installed bike infrastructure or attempt to remove bike infrastructure for advocates to understand that the city executive class is not friendly to cycling infrastructure?
* Institutionally regressive executive class that hangs out with and are friends with business executives and the filthy rich
But the city installed new speed bumps with SUV-friendly cutouts on SE Salmon!!! Can’t you whiny cyclists be happy about anything?
I know the neighborhood association is also not happy with they change and I agree they should just bolt them down. Were drivers hitting the planters on Salmon specifically? I bike through quite frequently and don’t think I ever saw one out of place. Baffling that PBOT would remove traffic calming. Then again the monstrosity at 7th and Tillamook proves otherwise.
Does the directive put the SE Lincoln and 50th diverter in jeopardy of being removed as well? It’s only made of planters. Or for that matter, pretty much all the diverters on NW Flanders and the one the cops wanted taken out at NW 20th.
I lived at 20th and Salmon for a year (2024 to 2025) and never saw a car hit the planters there, or any evidence (paint or detritus) that one did. The removal happened right before I moved, and I definitely noticed it feeling worse to cross there – especially relating to the speed of cars turning on/off Salmon. With the planters, everyone slowed down a lot to make sharper turns. Without them, people cut corners at shallower angles and don’t bother slowing down.
Thanks for the perspective. I wonder if there were some squeaky wheels that complained about them making it “unsafe to turn”.
I never heard anything about that, though I’m not sure I would have. I think it was just a bad policy implemented by PBOT to remove all the diverters. And I don’t think there ever were any improvements planned to 20th specifically, but I stopped paying as close of attention once I moved.
Did I miss the “or we will take this action” part of the letter? Can the BAC sue PBOT to reinstall the planters? If they don’t have the funds or statutory ability can another group sue? Let PBOT defend it’s choices in court.
I think they’re giving PBOT the courtesy of warning them that they are pissed about this and that they don’t plan to let it slide. I think how PBOT reacts to this letter is what will dictate the action part. These advocates have very close and productive relationships with PBOT so there isn’t a need to threaten right off the bat. Also FWIW BikeLoud is already in a pretty major lawsuit with them at the moment.
Thank you for the update, I really wasn’t sure how or if a suit would work. It is a little frustrating to watch when the relationship isn’t productive and the closeness of the relationship seems like a detriment. Fingers crossed the letter helps!
Planters generally have an equivalent function of permanent materials. The only thing PBOT should do to the existing planters is adjust their location and/or ad curbs where cars tend to hit them. Of the temporary materials that can be hardened, these planters should be at the very bottom of the priority list. I’m very skeptical of PBOT’s reasoning.
Absolutely ridiculous that pbot removed the planters instead of upgrading them to diverters. If they weren’t achieving lower traffic volumes and speeds, the obvious solution would be to implement stronger impediments to cut through traffic.
I think they were achieving lower volumes and speeds. They were also being occationally hit by bad drivers (IMO is not a reason to remove them): Concrete planters for calming traffic removed after frequent collisions
“tried” is such a mealy mouth weasel word, it’s quite frustrating to have the one on the 50’s greenway removed with nothing in its place (the one by the hospital/advisory bike lane)
The phrase “hit by car drivers” usually means, at least in East Portland (and very likely the rest of the city), that police car drivers were hitting them at night, with their headlights off, moving at 90 mph on non-emergency drives. No one has any idea why police drivers drive 90 mph at night with their headlights off – at least no one is saying why – but in the past PBOT officials have confirmed that it does happen, frequently.
I agree with PBOT’s logic. In fact, as soon as I read this, I took the bumpers off my car and tossed out all my drink coasters. Keeping protective things around when they’re the first things to get damaged is stupid.