Good urban planning means the average person traveling around a city doesn’t need to know anything about what went into designing it – they can just get around intuitively. Peter Koonce, who manages the traffic signals and street lighting division at the Portland Bureau of Transportation, is keenly aware of this. Koonce and his team … Read more
A barn dance will be held at Portland’s first-ever Barnes Dance. Let us explain.
The signal is in violation of two national standards but Portland installed it anyway.
One of Portland’s most unusual bike-lane intersection treatments seems to be working.
Download Episode Portland’s traffic signal guru, Peter Koonce, in our podcast studio.(Photo J.Maus/BikePortland) When you change something about a traffic signal, people don’t notice. They simply obey. Well, mostly. Maybe that’s why signals have quietly become one of the most important and unique ways that Portland has made itself a better place for walking, biking … Read more
New research suggests that interminable red lights are a particular burden on new bike riders, because pavement markings aren’t easy enough to understand.
Screenshot from NACTO website. The National Asssociation of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) released their Urban Street Design Guide yesterday. The new guide is being hailed by its creators as, “a blueprint for the 21st century streetscape” and it couldn’t come at a better time for Portland.
“I respectfully disagree with you on the topic of traffic signals and support the dialogue on speed limits.”— A good opening line to a blog comment. I say it a lot in private conversations, but perhaps not enough here on the Front Page: I believe the most valuable part of BikePortland isn’t the words and … Read more
The new signal makes it easier for this person to merge left over two lanes of traffic.(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland) The Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) activated a bike-only signal yesterday at the northwest intersection of NE Lloyd Blvd and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
One smart light.(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland) One unsung area where Portland is doing some very cool stuff for bicycling is with traffic signals and “ITS” — which stands for Intelligent Transportation Systems. The field of ITS encompasses all sorts of high-tech ways to make our streets smarter. From sensing vehicle patterns with RFID, to software … Read more
PBOT crew at work this morning.(Photos © J. Maus) A Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) signal operations crew was out at the new Broadway/Williams bike signal this morning. The new signal was installed on October 13th to try and decrease the amount of right-hook collisions that have plagued the intersection for several years. After over … Read more
Comment of the Week: The role of socializing and culture