(Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Study suggests bike lanes do not lead to displacement, gentrification
(Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
research
(Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
PBOT, Oregon State to partner on research into bus and bike lane conflicts
As the City of Portland continues to roll out its Rose Lane transit-priority projects, the transportation bureau wants to push the design envelope beyond what federal guidelines allow.
At Portland City Council this week the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) will seek authorization (via this ordinance) to spend $80,000 on a contract with Oregon State University to embark on research that will test the coexistence of bus and bike lanes. The research will focus on three specific corridors on PBOT’s Rose Lane Project list: SE Hawthorne/Madison, E Burnside, and SW 4th Ave.
Will Portland’s ‘Rose Lanes’ be safe for cycling? New research offers clues
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)
How safe is it for bicycle riders to share a “transit only” lane with bus and streetcar operators?
Blue light for bike riders part of detection research project
(Photos: J. Maus/BikePortland)
Portland State wins $75,000 grant to study bike share equity programs
You can add another bike-related topic that researchers at Portland State University have gained national notoriety for: equity in bike share systems.
PSU’s Transportation Research and Education Consortium (TREC) just won a grant worth nearly $75,000 from the Better Bike Share Partnership. The award, announced today by People for Bikes, is part of $410,000 split between eight projects across the country.
The money will go toward a “national assessment of bike share equity programs.” Here’s more about the project:
Portland State’s research team will document the programs and strategies developed to address equity in bike share across the U.S., and identify the definitions and measures of success for each of these efforts. The result will be a catalog of equity approaches employed, an aggregated summary of key elements of each approach or strategy, and a record of which metrics agencies used to assess if they are meeting their equity goals, along with the various ways agencies are assessing their programs.
Beyond cars: City Council votes for ‘person trips’ to make better planning decisions
A more humane way to plan.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)
When it comes to planning a city, trips matter. Estimates about the amount of trips generated by a transportation project or new development are what dictate not just what our redesigned streets will look like, but also how we pay for them.
One of the ways the City of Portland pays for infrastructure is by charging developers a fee based on the impact their new building will have on the transportation system. These fees — known as Transportation System Development Charges, or just TSDCs for short — are based on a model that estimates how many trips a new development will generate.
There’s just one small problem: The methodology is centered almost exclusively around cars. The Portland Bureau of Transportation wants to change that.
At City Council today commissioners unanimously passed an ordinance (PDF) allowing PBOT to use a methodology that uses “person trips” – meaning trips made not just by people in cars and trucks but also foot, by bike and in transit vehicles.
New Portland study says greenery is the preferred bikeway buffer
Slide from a recent PSU grad’s study of people’s comfort preferences. An “A” score represents the most comfortable biking.
(Image: TREC at PSU)
(Image: TREC at PSU)
What’s the best way to separate bike and auto traffic?
Portland hasn’t built many protected bike lanes yet, but the ones it has include dabbles in every major separation method, from the mountable curbs on Northeast Cully to the plastic posts on the Hawthorne Bridge viaduct to the thick fence on the Morrison Bridge to the big round planters on Northeast Multnomah to the parked cars on Southwest Broadway.
Three non-obvious reasons the Bike Commute Challenge is such a great idea
Who doesn’t like trophies?
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)
Portland’s friendly annual competition among workplaces to see who can log the most and longest bike trips and who can recruit the most commuters starts today. And an excellent new academic paper shows exactly why you should be signing up and nudging your co-workers to do the same.
What makes people stop at red lights? Other people, study finds
Would you stop?
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)
It might be peer pressure. It might be geometry. It’s almost certainly some of each.
But following up on a study that found that (as we reported last year) 94 percent of observed bike users in Oregon stopped for red lights, a Portland State University civil engineering student has also found that every additional person waiting next to you on a bike makes you 78 percent less likely to run the light on your own bike.
Infographic expands on local e-bike research, but the biggest puzzle remains
(Infographic by Portland State Transportation Research and Education Center)
A new poster summarizing research from a Portland State University scholar has some interesting factoids about electric bike users, but it doesn’t answer what’s becoming one of the biggest mysteries in American biking: why haven’t e-bikes taken off yet in the United States?
‘Groundbreaking’ new study gives big thumbs up to U.S. protected bike lanes
Screen grab from the study’s video analysis.
A new study released today, which is being touted by its funders as “groundbreaking,” shows that a sampling of protected bike lanes in American cities have been a resounding success.
The facilities included in the sample — hand-picked bikeways from Austin, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Chicago and Portland — showed a massive increase in bike traffic, received high marks for improving safety of all road users, and have won over the hearts and minds of people whether they use them or not.
Lessons from the Green Lanes: Evaluating Protected Bike Lanes in the U.S. (PDF) was funded in part by People for Bikes and the research was completed at Portland State University’s National Institute of Transportation and Communities (here’s more background on the study).