Just a few of the people riding on the Esplanade yesterday. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Yesterday was one of those days where it felt like everyone was out on their bikes. The weather, the day off, is was glorious!
I went out to check on a few things downtown (including the newly finished loading platforms on SW Broadway) and on my way home I spent time observing the Eastbank Esplanade. I find busy bike traffic days very life-affirming and they help restore my optimism for Portland. And yesterday was no exception. Despite the doom-and-gloom and last week’s terrible incident on the nearby Springwater Corridor, the path just south of the Hawthorne bridge was teeming with riders, walkers, and rollers of all types.
Here are some of the folks who passed by my lens.
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So many different types of people and bikes out for a spin. Isn’t it beautiful?! For more People on Bikes galleries, see the archives.
Walton working the crowd at a 2019 bike ride. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Bill Walton passed away on Monday after a battle with cancer. He was 71 years old.
Walton was one of the NBA’s greatest ever players and the leader of the Portland Trail Blazers during their 1977 championship season. His collegiate career at UCLA under coach John Wooden is a thing of legend and if not for his knee injuries, the 6-foot 11-inch, quintessential “big man” would have reached even greater heights.
Walton’s free-wheeling and full embrace of life made him perfect for Portland. The fact that he loved bicycling was icing on the cake.
In 2010 the Trail Blazers asked him to record a message for our Bike to Blazers event and he waxed poetically (as he often did whether you were talking to him privately or during his memorable broadcasting gigs) on what it was like to ride to Memorial Coliseum from his home near Northwest 23rd Street.
Rolling down Broadway.
“There is no greater moment than when you’re on the road and you’re coming to the temple, the mecca, the shrine,” Walton began. “I would come on my bike down from Northwest Portland and our fans knew when I was coming so they would get out on the streets and they would be cheering and yelling, “Here we go Blazers!”
Walton said he’d ride east on NW Everett to the Steel Bridge and then roll right into the parking lot where a valet would take his bike. “I live to ride, I ride to live,” continued his promo. “You should too. Get on that bike and come on down. We’re here to play, how about you?”
A year or so after that, Walton called me. He wanted to do a big ride. I assumed he meant some sort of charity or promotional ride; but no. He just wanted to get out on some open roads. I passed him along to Jeff Bernards, a friend who worked at a bike touring company and was the biggest Blazer fan I’ve known. They did a big ride in the Gorge, and afterwards Walton rode out to the Oregon Coast because he wanted more miles.
“He can hardly walk, but he can ride like crazy,” Bernards recalled.
The next time Walton and his bright lycra showed up in my life was in 2019. The City of Portland planned a Sunday Parkways for downtown and partnered with Walton and the Blazers for a pre-ride as part of the team’s 50th anniversary season festivities. Over 40 years after Walton brought us our only NBA title, a huge crowd gathered to meet him outside the Coliseum. And the “Big Redhead” did not disappoint.
In a red Blazers bike jersey, rainbow biking shorts, bike gloves and Nike tennis shoes, Walton lit up the crowd. He signed autographs, posed for photos, and before hopping on his Grateful Dead-themed custom carbon bike he grabbed a mic and was in his element as the crowd encircled him.
“When you get confused, ride your bike and listen to the music play,” he boomed, in a mash-up of Grateful Dead lyrics and his own spin on the moment. “The first days are the hardest days, don’t worry about it no. What I want to know is, can you ride your bike? Are you kind? And will you come with us? Here we go!”
Rest in peace Bill! And thanks for being such a champion for cycling and for our city.
I think I found a perfect comment. Twenty-six other people liked it too, not to mention it received a COTW nomination. It’s short, sweet, and even manages to have some narrative structure. Here’s DW’s take from the day after the election:
I was feeling some dread over seeing the results of the vote on this particular issue. That was unfounded, and I think a result of just reading too many dumb comments on Reddit and Willamette Week.
Some coworkers and I were talking about the results of the election this morning. When the topic of the gas tax came up, I was low-key prepared to go on the defensive. Despite all of them exclusively driving to get around, they voted for it. Every one of them shared some project the city did that they liked – a new crosswalk in their neighborhood, speed bumps on their street, or a repaving project. One even said they like when the city stripes bike lanes because it makes people go slower. Keep in mind, these are people who never ride bikes and only walk occasionally for recreation.
I think the lesson for me here is that I need to get off the internet and talk to people in real life more.
Yep, DW might be on to something there.
In case folks missed the election followup, these results didn’t come in on some sliver of a low-turn out. No, at 36% Multnomah County had a strong showing for a primary election, especially given that it didn’t benefit from the boost of competitive presidential or gubernatorial races. I’ll go out on a limb, maybe all the talk about charter reform over the past couple of years, and the large numbers of candidates running for city council in the fall, has given voters a bit more awareness of elections.
Thank you for your comment, DW, and also thank you to everyone who has shared their election thoughts over the past few weeks. You can read DW’s comment in context of what everyone else said under the original post.
This week’s Roundup is sponsored by Gorge Pedal on June 15th. Discover the Gorge and the Historic Columbia River Highway in style on this annual ride organizers call “one of the happiest rides in Oregon.” Tickets and info here.
Welcome to the week! Hope you enjoyed Memorial Day and found time to remember the people who sacrificed their lives for our country. Here are the most interesting stories our community has come across in the past seven days…
Don’t ask: When it comes to parking reform, you might want to think twice about getting advice from a traffic engineer. (Strong Towns)
The fountain of youth: A new study found that older people who bicycled regularly were over 20% less likely to have knee pain or osteoarthritis, proving once again that riding is a wonder drug. (NPR)
Your brain on bikes: On a related note to the item above, 23-year-old Connie Hayes is a bike racer with dyslexia, dyspraxia and autism who says cycling is a “lifeline”. (BBC)
Work(out) from home: How many of you would jump at the chance to use a desk that allowed you to use pedal-power to generate electricity needed to run your work-from-home setup? Check out the PedalPC. (The Guardian)
Record ride attempt: Ultra-distance cyclist Lael Wilcox has embarked on an attempt to circumnavigate the world in world record time. She expects to ride 18,000 miles in 110 days for an average of about 170 miles per day. (Velo)
Speed governors: A step forward in speed reduction that would be baked-into cars by way of a visual and audible signal when someone drives over the limit has been passed by the California Senate. (SF Gate)
Safety disconnect The post has since been deleted, but Texas police officers shared a photo of themselves on social media next to a ridiculously oversized truck patrol vehicle as part of a seat belt safety campaign. It was an example of how many in the “public safety” field still don’t see these vehicles as inherently unsafe. (Fast Company)
E-car safety risks: Researchers have found that EV cars are much more likely to hit people on the street than gas-powered cars. It might be because of how quiet the cars are, the demographics of the drivers, and swift acceleration. (The Guardian)
Bikes and Blumenauer: Portland’s bike-loving U.S. Congressman Earl Blumenauer has always been optimistic about the future of bicycling in America and says once he leaves office he’ll have more time to do something about it. (Streetsblog USA)
Parking informants: There’s a growing cadre of San Francisco residents who are sick and tired of some drivers who think they can park wherever they want without consequence. It’s one way to fight back against the scourge of Big Auto in our lives. (San Francisco Standard)
Big investment: Portland-based Ride With GPS landed a $3 million infusion to help it grow, marking the company’s first-ever outside investment. (MSN)
Another notch in the growing enthusiasm around this year’s Bike Summer (a.k.a. Pedalpalooza) festival happened in southeast Portland last night. Fans of the three-month-long cycling smorgasbord rolled into a parking lot off Southeast Belmont and 34th for the first ever Bike Summer Merch Pick-up Party.
DJ Ninety6Vino set the mood with chill tunes while flanked by colorful balloons, vendors shared their art, and lots of great folks got together with a shared eagerness to adorn themselves and their bike with Bike Summer pennants and shirts.
The event was held in the parking lot outside Rendered.co, the screen printing company responsible for Bike Summer’s posters and other items. They were helping folks print their own free, custom-designed bandannas. Also on hand was Nia Musiba, the 2024 Bike Summer Artist and a bunch of other cool people.
Armando Luna, the “Bike Fun Mayor of Portland” shows off his free bandanna!Vin on the turntables.Christian, Ernesto, and Esteban.
I chatted with Musiba, Bike Summer Director Meghan Sinnott, and several ride leaders and Bike Summer superfans in the video above. Watch it here or over on Instagram.
Traffic on the St. Johns Bridge. View is looking east toward Forest Park. Note that the sidewalk width of five feet does not meet standards for a “shared-use” facility, which means bicycle riders have less legal standing to use it. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
The St. Johns Bridge should have bike lanes. And it could have, if advocates nearly two decades ago chose to sue the Oregon Department of Transportation when the state agency completed a major renovation and failed to seize a golden opportunity to provide adequate bicycling access.
I recently spent time observing traffic on the bridge and came away even more shocked at how unacceptably inaccessible the bridge is for everyone not inside a car or truck. When I first shared images from that day over on Instagram, the response reminded me how many people share my concerns for what this bridge is like today, and my dreams for what it could become in the future.
Before I share some of those responses, let’s recall our history…
Four lanes for drivers in 1931. Four lanes for drivers in 2024. Maybe time for an update? (Library of Congress)
In 2003, ODOT began a major rehabilitation project. They spent $38 million to replace and repave the deck, repaint the towers, upgrade the lights and so on. But before ODOT re-striped the lanes with the same four lane, 40-foot wide cross-section the bridge had when it opened in 1931, they considered an alternative plan. ODOT put together an advisory committee (that included representatives from a bike advocacy group, TriMet, freight business owners, and so on) and commissioned a report from an engineering firm to analyze options and inform the decision.
In 2003, David Evans & Associates published that report. And guess what? They determined there would be, “No capacity constraints or operational flaws on the bridge that would prohibit the implementation of any of the striping options.” Central to this finding was that all roads that lead onto the bridge have just one lane in each direction and are controlled by traffic signals. Their analysis showed that while travel time across the bridge would increase (exact amount I’m not sure of), traffic would only slow and there would be no congestion on the deck.
But despite that study, despite clear concerns about safety and demands for bike lanes that bubbled up during the City of Portland’s 2004 St. Johns/Lombard Plan, and despite grumblings from the nonprofit Bicycle Transportation Alliance (now The Street Trust) and other bike advocates, ODOT caved to pressure from freight advocates and re-striped the deck exactly as it had been for the previous 74 years.
Families headed home from Forest Park and a multi-day ride in Washington County, negotiate the lane.(Photos: Jonathan Maus)
ODOT’s final decision on the striping plan came just one month after I started BikePortland, and I haven’t done the research to fully understand what happened. But I do know how it made me feel. My first post on the subject on May 12th, 2005 was published a few days after I heard the news and you can sense my anger from the get-go.
The Street Trust also objected to ODOT’s decision, saying in an op-ed published to their website that, “Under pressure from special interests, ODOT simply ignored the facts at hand. The result, if it is allowed to go forward, is a bridge that will continue to be unsafe for the quarter of the area’s residents who cannot drive.”
Portlanders tried to object. Letters were written to the Oregon Transportation Commission, there was even a naked bike ride protest, but ODOT ignored it all. They claimed a minor widening of the existing sidewalk and larger alcoves were “bike safety improvements,” but the truth was then — and remains today — that the sidewalk is not even technically wide enough for bicycle riders to share with walkers and riding a bike on the bridge is a harrowing experience.
ODOT installed sharrows seven years later. While I appreciate having my legal right to the road reinforced, those tiny patches of paint don’t do much for my blood pressure when drivers are bearing down on me at 35-plus mph.
Scene from the Mitch York Memorial and Protest Ride on November 3, 2016. Ghost bike for Mitch York. (Photos: Jonathan Maus)
Garrett’s contrition validated for me why many of us felt The Street Trust should have sued ODOT for failure to comply with the Oregon Bicycle Bill that requires the agency to build adequate bike facilities whenever a road is reconstructed. I never learned exactly why they didn’t file that lawsuit, but I recall hearing there was some concern they might lose on a technicality and the precedent would end up weakening the Bike Bill in the future.
I can’t change the past, but I’ll never forget ODOT’s role in making us so unsafe on this bridge that I love and hate with equal passion.
Cross-section concepts by Ben Guernsey. (@benguernsey)
“Even with good skills and being comfortable at speed in traffic,” wrote Portlander Ira Ryan in an Instgram comment. “I still feel like each trip over the bridge could be my last… It only takes one glance at a phone by a driver to kill a human on a bike. Terrifying.”
Another commenter who walks across the bridge four times per week said, “I have long wished for a protected bike/ped lane on each side… I wait for a truck mirror to hit my head.”
One reader, Ben Guernsey, even created a conceptual design of how he’d change the lane configuration to be safer for everyone.
While I think Ben’s idea should be given serious consideration, the ultimate solution is to get freight traffic off the bridge entirely. These large, loud, fume-laden trucks should have a bridge of their own so they aren’t routed through downtown St. Johns and dense residential areas. And that’s exactly what is recommended in ODOT’s Westside Multimodal Improvements Study that wrapped up late last year.
Whatever steps we take next can’t come soon enough. As these photos show, there’s clear demand by non-drivers to use our beautiful, iconic bridge without fearing for their lives, shouting to hear companions over the traffic noise, or breathing toxic exhaust. Surely we can re-imagine this bridge before the its centennial celebration in 2031.
It must include these vital connections… Anything less would be yet another missed opportunity at a time where we cannot afford them.
– PBOT Bicycle Advisory Committee
In a strongly worded letter to Portland Bureau of Transportation Director Millicent Williams, the city’s Bicycle Advisory Committee has called on PBOT to expand the scope of its 4th Avenue Improvement Project. The May 16th letter urges the city to fill a “critical gap” in the connection to downtown from the south — and from OHSU — and lists further improvements that should be completed “within the time frame of the current SW 4th Avenue Improvements Project.”
The BAC effort stands in contrast to the curious episode earlier this month when the Portland Metro Chamber (formerly the Portland Business Alliance) thrust the 4th Avenue project into the news with a letter to Commissioner Mingus Mapps calling on him to cancel it. Mapps and city staff have since assured the community it’s moving forward as planned.
The BAC’s letter focuses on an area south of the project boundary and is a follow-up to a committee discussion we covered back in March about how to get bicycle riders from SW Terwilliger/6th over to the new infrastructure coming to SW 4th. The BAC wants the 4th Avenue project expanded and says its current scope is “missing a major opportunity.”
Here’s an excerpt from the letter that lays out their argument:
With SW Broadway improvements ending at SW Clay Street, and SW 4th Avenue improvements currently planned to end at SW Sheridan, neither project fills the critical gap to Terwilliger envisioned by Southwest in Motion [an already-adopted PBOT plan] to connect a neighborhood with 10% of the city’s population and a major medical service provider and Portland’s single largest employer to the Central City. This represents only one of three feasible routes to the Central City; the other two involve cresting the West Hills or surviving Barbur Boulevard which is a high speed High Crash Corridor owned and largely ignored by ODOT.
Specifically, the letter urges PBOT to include the following additions to the 4th Avenue project:
Add a right turn bike box on Terwilliger/6th at Sheridan to prevent congestion queueing in the existing bike lane
Bike lanes on both the left and right sides of Sheridan from 6th to 4th Avenues to maintain the existing right-side bike lane for people turning right to go south on Barbur, while also empowering people on bikes to cross over at either 6th (or 5th with a full intersection bike box) and then stay on the left side.
Move the existing bike lane on 4th between Sheridan and Caruthers to the left side to avoid conflicts with the bus and other vehicles (and will encourage a turn from the new left lane on Sheridan) and continue the left-side lane over the freeway overpass to match the rest of the SW 4th Avenue Improvements Project. Add pedestrian signal actuation for left-side cyclists at 4th and Caruthers.
Add a bike signal cabinet that attracts northbound bicycles on Barbur using the right-side bike lane to cross over diagonally to the new left-side bike lane on 4th.
Also, to complete the connection, fix the gap where the bike lanes drop off at SW Sam Jackson and Terwilliger. Extend the northbound lane on Terwilliger through the intersection with a turnaround where bikes can use the pedestrian phase to cross (and make the response immediate).
Fill the gap for the eastbound lane on SW Sam Jackson by bringing cyclists up onto the path (with separation from pedestrians and in a way that maintains the historic lighting) through the intersection.
Graphics from Southwest in Motion Plan (project RP-02). Image on right shows possible bikeway on SW Sheridan. (Source: PBOT)
The idea for improvements along SW Sheridan Street originated as project RP-02 in the Southwest in Motion plan. PBOT, in a recent SWIM “Implementation Update,” added the design of RP-02 to its list of feasible projects citing recent project budget changes that made its inclusion possible.
As PBOT’s Communications Director, Hannah Schafer, told BikePortland last month,
“Because SW in Motion has limited funding opportunities at this time, PBOT staff are exploring the feasibility of including RP-02 Terwilliger to 4th Connector as part of the larger capital project to save on costs and increase the benefit of the SW Fourth Avenue Central City in Motion Project for people biking from SW via Terwilliger.”
But the BAC suggestions go beyond the north-side bike lane the Sheridan project originally envisioned and even though the BAC says it will work to help PBOT secure additional funding to meet their requests, it’s unclear if PBOT will be willing to oblige.
The BAC noted in its letter that “The quality of bicycle facilities are defined by their weakest link.” In southwest Portland, that weakest link often seems to occur where the going gets toughest. With this letter, the BAC is trying its best to prevent yet another dicey spot in the network arising between differently funded projects, in this case, Southwest in Motion and its better-funded cousin, Central City in Motion.
BikePortland has reached out to PBOT for a response to the letter and will update this story when we hear back.
Riding next to geese is a quintessential Portland experience. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
It’s almost the weekend and we’ve got another wonderful menu of things to do on your bike.
But first, a big “Thank you!” to this week’s Event Guide sponsor and local pedal-assist electric bike company, Vvolt. They not only design and sell great bikes right from their showroom in inner southeast Portland, they’ve also stepped up to be a BikePortland advertiser. Give them a click and support the companies that support us.
Friday, May 24th
Tina Turner Celebration Ride – 7:00 pm at Colonel Summers Park (SE) We lost this magnificent singer one year ago, but her music and voice will live on. Come out and enjoy a high-quality mobile sound system playing Tina’s greatest hits, with a focus on her work with Tibetan chant master Dechen Shak Dagsay. More info here.
Saturday, May 25th
Warpaint Gravel Social – 9:00 am at Thurman Gate Forest Park/Leif Erikson Road (NW) A chill, intro to the unpaved realm awaits you on this BIPOC-only ride through Forest Park. No one gets dropped and led by fine folks. More info here.
Tigard Murals Ride – 9:30 am at Tigard Library (West Side) Join the inimitable Shawne “Mural Mondays” Martinez for an exploration of public art in Tigard and environs. More info here. https://vvolt.com/
PSU Farmers Market Ride – 10:00 am at SE Clinton & 41st (SE) Join a merry and social crew for this weekly jaunt from inner southeast, across the Tilikum Bridge, and into downtown to purchase and peruse wonderful food and other items at the market. More info here.
Pedal Prehab – 2:00 pm at Laurelhurst Park (SE) Bike Summer is soon upon us and your bike isn’t the only thing that might need a tune-up. This ride will be led by two PT practitioners who will start with a pre-cycling stretch and help you get your body ready for the season. More info here.
Sunday, May 19th
Clever Cycles Parking Lot Sale – 11:00 am to 5:00 pm SE Hawthorne & 10th (SE) It’s the first annual blowout parking lot sale from Portland’s OG cargo and family bike shop. Save loads, carry loads, have loads of fun. More info here.
Ride + Cocoon = Joy – 2:30 pm at Cathedral Park (N) Experience the undeniable attraction of entering into an enclosed fabric cocoon with friends and/or strangers and allowing the love and proximity of other humans to help you heal your mind and heart. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. More info here.
Sunday Social – 10:00 am at Gateway Transit Center (NE) Bud Rice from the Portland Bicycling Club will lead this 20-30 mile ride through the city. Expect an intermediate pace of 13-15 mph. More info here.
Note: The guide initially included a “Sunrise Coffee” event for Saturday morning; but that event will happen next Saturday, June 1st. I regret the error and any confusion it might have caused.
— Did I miss your event? Please let me know by filling out our contact form, or just email me at maus.jonathan@gmail.com.
Design concept for Heights Bike Garden on Mill Plan Blvd in Vancouver. (Jonathan Maus / BikePortland)
Vancouver’s first-ever traffic garden will open in June.
According to the City of Vancouver, The Heights Bike Garden will, “Provide a fun, community-serving space at the site of the former Tower Mall.” The location — a large development site bordered by Mill Plan and MacArthur boulevards — is about two miles north of Portland’s Marine Drive (as the crow flies over the Columbia River) and about a six mile bike ride from the Kenton neighborhood in north Portland.
The Bike Garden will be a space off the street where kids (and I assume, people of all ages) can learn basic rules of the road and get experience with cycling and traffic rules without the dangers posed by car users. Often referred to as “traffic gardens” these spaces have been common in Europe since the 1950s. BikePortland first reported on one in Utrecht in 2009. Since then, gardens have sprouted throughout Portland and Washington County. In 2020 we shared how the onset of Covid boosted interest in the concept and at that time there were nearly two dozen traffic gardens on the map.
Vancouver’s Heights Bike Garden is taking advantage of an empty parking that will someday be the Heights District, a mixed-use neighborhood currently in development. The design was created by First Forty Feet (with help from Discover Traffic Gardens) the firm behind the Heights development. According to the City of Vancouver, this is the largest traffic garden the firm has ever worked on.
If you’d like to help paint the design and make the vision a reality, the City of Vancouver is looking for volunteers for two events on the weekend of June 1st and 2nd. Fill out this form if you’re interested.
The City will host a grand opening celebration on June 8th from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm at 5411 Mill Plain Blvd. Vancouver Anne McEnerny-Ogle and other members of city council will be in attendance and local nonprofit Bike Clark County will provide bike safety lessons.
Rose City Recreational Trail Proposed Trail Sections for Schematic Design Analysis. (Source: City of Portland)
Turns out cycling access might be a larger part of a major trail project at Rose City Park and Rose City Golf Course than city staff initially let on.
Two weeks ago we shared concerns from off-road cycling advocates that Portland Parks & Recreation had launched the $4 million Rose City Recreational Trail planning process in a way that ignored cycling. The park and golf course bordered by residential areas and 82nd Avenue, was recommended as a location for unpaved cycling access in the city’s Off-road Cycling Master Plan (ORCMP). That plan reflects a top priority of Northwest Trail Alliance, a nonprofit, to give Portlanders more opportunities to ride off-road in the urban context.
But despite the master plan’s recommendation, Portland Parks staff chose to exclude cycling from the current user survey and framed the project at a public launch meeting last month as a walking trail. Half the project funding comes from a Metro grant that clearly includes off-road biking trails as one of the eligible uses of funds. However, a Parks slide made it appear as though a “Metro grant requirement” was that the project result in “pedestrian trails.”
And when asked at the meeting if bikes would be allowed on future trails, a Parks project manager told a member of the public, “We’re not sure yet.”
After a Parks spokesperson stopped answering my emailed questions about how they treated cycling in this project, I reached out to Parks Commissioner Dan Ryan’s office.
Ryan’s Chief of Staff for Parks Kellie Torres got back to me yesterday and said via email the project is still evolving and that, “In fact, there is an upcoming survey and community meeting in which feedback is being sought— which includes questions and opportunities for cycling.”
Then Torres shared a map with four different trail segments (above), two of which she said could be open to bike riders.
Here’s what Torres wrote about the trails:
Red Trail: Currently does not exist. Looking at a paved ADA accessible Multi-Use paved pathway with soft-surface shoulder(s) potentially for bikers. East-West connector
Green Trail: Currently exists, 3’-4’ Wide Nature Trail. Community feedback was this trail was too narrow for both bikes and pedestrians. We will improve/enhance soft surface trail.
Orange Trail: Currently exists, 6’-8’ gravel shoulder along NE 72nd St. PP&R worked with PBOT to create a one-way only for cars from the north to the south and bike/pedestrian access in 2 directions. We will enhance consistency and safety, and potentially provide opportunity for Off-Road Cycling.
Yellow Trail: Currently does not exist, and it presents slope, access, and golf challenges [Which she defined as, “The proximity of fast-paced bikes to errant golf balls.”] We would build soft surface “Nature Trail”.
Red Circles indicate connections and opportunity zones. Orange Box is exploration of creating “Safe Routes to School” corridor for children walking to Roseway Heights Middle School.
Torres also shared that a second community meeting will be held in mid-late summer and there will be a forthcoming survey to garner feedback on cycling.
I’ve also heard that advocates with NW Trail Alliance are actively engaged in productive discussions with Parks surrounding how this project evolves.
Stay tuned for more opportunities to provide feedback and attend future meetings.
Portland bicycle riders doing their part to raise PBOT revenue. Just kidding. This photo is from a protest against oil companies in 2012. (Jonathan Maus / BikePortland)
Commissioner Mingus Mapps and leaders of the Portland Bureau of Transportation can breathe a sigh of relief this morning as their 10-cent per gallon gas tax was approved by voters last night.
Known as Fixing Our Streets, the program will now pump an estimated $70.5 million into city coffers over the next four years. While its success was never seriously in doubt, there was mild consternation given the extremely sour mood of some voters and a popular narrative that Portlanders are feeling overburdened with local taxes.
Last night’s election results show Measure 26-245 with just over 70% support. This is the third time Portland’s local gas tax has won the favor of voters. In 2016 it squeaked by with just 51.3% of the vote (thanks in part to organized opposition from gasoline retailers) and in 2020 nearly 77% voted to increase the price of their fuel to help PBOT pay for road projects and maintenance.
PBOT toyed with increasing the tax to 15-cents per gallon, and making the tax permanent, but those options didn’t poll well so the agency opted for caution and stuck with the same formula as 2020. The revenue will be evenly split between three categories: paving on on busy and local streets; traffic safety infrastructure on school routes, busy streets, and neighborhood greenways; and something PBOT calls, “community street services” which includes responding to pothole repair requests, fixing streetlights and signals, and so on.
PBOT rank-and-file should feel better about last night’s election too. A recent slide shown by one of PBOT’s financial experts at a meeting of their budget advisory committee earlier this month said the Fixing Our Streets revenue will help the bureau pay for 45 positions over the next four years.
The current cross-section with five lanes for car users was established in 1996.
The stars are aligning for inner Northeast Broadway to become a true main street where people are prioritized over cars. In the coming years we could see a major transformation of this key east-west corridor as a mix of federal funding and a local paving project create a golden opportunity for a redesign between the Broadway Bridge and NE 24th.
As BikePortland reported back in March, the Portland Bureau of Transportation won a $38 million federal grant to create a “civic main street” on Broadway between the bridge and NE 7th. Conceptual drawings of that project shared publicly in September show cross-sections with wide, physically-protected bike lanes, narrower general purpose lanes, a dedicated streetcar lane, and two lanes for driving cars instead of the three that exist today.
Now there’s another opportunity to extend this cross section further east to NE 24th. Sometime this year PBOT will begin formal design and outreach for a project to repave NE Broadway from 11th to 24th. As BikePortland reported in 2022, the project is on PBOT’s paving list and planners have just enough funding (an estimated $300,000) to install new pavement and then paint new lane striping.
PBOT slides first shown in 2022.
As we’ve seen with other “pave and paint” projects, PBOT will have a clean slate and will have the option to repaint the lanes in a new configuration. Since NE Broadway is classified in Portland’s Comprehensive Plan as a “Major City Bikeway” and with funding already secured for the project on the inner portion of the street to the east of this paving project — the odds are very good a new configuration could be in the works.
In a PBOT document that lists all paving projects for the five years between 2023 and 2027, the NE Broadway project is in the “calendar year 2024” category. In a column labeled “Bicycle improvement opportunities?” PBOT wrote: “Potential to remove a travel lane and enhance the bike lane. Needs planning and project development work. Consider extending west to 7th Ave.”
That “consider extending west to 7th” was written before PBOT had won $38 million to upgrade the bridge to NE 7th, so it’s very likely the “pave and paint” project will extend west from NE 11th to connect to NE 7th.
And an update to the design would almost certainly result in less space for using cars and more space for bicycling, walking, and transit.
Rendering of NE Broadway by illustrator Owen Walz for The Street Trust in 2014.
Efforts to make a better bikeway on NE Broadway have been around for at least a decade. In 2014 the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (now The Street Trust) made bike lanes on NE Broadway one of their main priorities. Staffers worked to garner feedback from business owners and educate the community on why it was needed in addition to the existing neighborhood bikeway on NE Tillamook.
But while many Portlanders are eager for a new design that vastly improves bicycling, local business owners and other area interests might have different ideas about the future of Broadway. That 2016 Better Block installation is remembered by many local advocates for how it backfired after some local business owners weren’t on board with the idea.
Members of the Sullivan’s Gulch Neighborhood Association have been meeting as a “Broadway-Weidler Working Group” since last fall to strategize on how to get changes over the finish line. They want fewer cars on Broadway because they know it will lead to a safer environment and more travel capacity overall. According to meeting minutes, their ultimate goal is to decouple Broadway and NE Weidler, make Weidler a quiet neighborhood street, and then re-introduce two-way traffic onto Broadway. (According to sources, PBOT estimates returning Broadway to two-way traffic would cost over $10 million and there are no current plans to move forward with that idea.)
Currently, the section of Broadway between 7th and 24th is 56-feet wide and has five lanes for drivers and a narrow, door-zone bike lane. There are three general travel lanes and two on-street auto parking lanes. The bike lanes were installed in the late 1990s and have never been updated. With reductions in driving since the pandemic, three lanes for driving on this section of Broadway seem like overkill.
If PBOT chooses to, there is plenty of room to reduce space for car users and add a wider, physically-protected bike lane, a dedicated mass transit lane, and medians for safer crossings. They don’t currently have any extra funding in the “pave and paint” budget, but they could lay out the striping today and identify more funding later. With the $38 million in federal funds, they’ve got bureaucratic inertia to shake more funding from the trees.
This section of Broadway would be a very important link in the bike and transit network. It would connect to busy north-south bike routes (like the NE 7th Greenway), several TriMet bus lanes, and the Portland Streetcar.
While PBOT hasn’t begun official public outreach on the project, we expect that to begin soon. Stay tuned.
