ODOT Region 1 Director Rian Windsheimer at Metro’s Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation (JPACT) meeting yesterday.
(Photos: Jonathan Maus)

At a meeting of a high-powered Metro policy committee yesterday, the Oregon Department of Transportation was put in the hot seat over their plans to widen Interstate 5 through the Rose Quarter. Peppered with questions from Metro Councilor Bob Stacey, the regional director of ODOT Rian Windsheimer, was forced to came to the aid of an ODOT staff member who was presenting on the project.

Windsheimer’s move demonstrated that sharp criticisms from a gathering storm of activists are gaining strength from elected leaders like Stacey, testing ODOT’s nerves and putting the agency on the defensive. The meeting also made it clear that, while initially sold by ODOT to the public and politicians as a “bottleneck elimination” project, the agency is now reluctant to claim it will lead to any capacity increase.
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A classic urban arterial with the abysmal safety record to match.
(Photo: Jonathan Maus)

(Project area map via PBOT)

The next evolution of 122nd Avenue has begun.

A new planning effort by the City of Portland Bureau of Transportation has the ambitious goal of removing the north-south arterial from the official high crash network.

I say ambitious, because 122nd is arguably the most dangerous street in Portland. It has the dubious distinction of being home to four of the top ten most dangerous intersections and it’s one of only 13 streets citywide that’s earned a “high crash” designation for bikers, walkers, and drivers.

But if all goes according to plan, in just two years 122nd will have a much different reputation.

If that timeline seems optimistic, bear in mind that efforts to improve 122nd Avenue have already begun. In the past three years, PBOT has pumped $4 million into safety upgrades into the street — just half of an $8 million agreement with TriMet wherein the transit agency’s end of the bargain is to implement a frequent service bus line. With the announcement last month that Line 73 will now run every 15 minutes or less, that’s a promise they’ve already made good on.

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Streetview of NE 7th looking north toward NE Knott.

The Bureau of Transportation has kicked off a project that aims to make it safer to travel between the Lloyd District and Woodlawn neighborhoods.

The $552,000 Lloyd to Woodlawn (L2W for short) neighborhood greenway project will utilize either NE 7th or 9th and will stretch from Weidler in the south to Holman in the north. Once completed, the route would connect the buffered bike lanes in the Lloyd District to existing neighborhood greenways on Tillamook and Holman. It would also include a safer crossing of Martin Luther King Jr Blvd.

PBOT has scheduled the first open house for the project on February 27th.
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