Portland Bicycling News/Discussion

[deasine]

Out of curiosity, does Portland have any "raised bike lanes?" It would be nice to see the city have a mixture of raised bike lanes (good for inexperienced bikers) and regular bike lanes.

[zilfondel]

Portland has some bike and ped only off-street paths, which provide pretty decent commute paths for the neighborhoods they run through. There are some community plans to expand them by several miles in key areas:

-NoPo/UP area that bypasses Swan Island
-I-84 path to I-205 to reach outer eastside neighborhoods

But no, we don't have raised bike lanes. If I understand you correctly, they wouldn't work here, as our blocks have cross streets every 200'.

[JordanL]

We've done a bang-up job of learning from outside the country how to run a sustainable city, and experimenting with new ideas ourselves.

But one thing that I think Portland should go for, that perhaps only Portland has the ability to succeed at, is making a commuter bike highway. The cost, relative to trains, busses and cars per mile of right-of-way would be very small, as the road doesn't need to supprot as much weight or endure as much wear. It wouldn't even necessarily be out of the question to cover parts or all of such a highway, increasing the appeal of biking to more people.

Lots of people in Portland bike as a matter of lifestyle, but the bike is a great way to transport yourself too. It just lacks adequate infrastructure.

What do you think? Should Portland be investing more in bike infrastructure?

[jaxg8r1]

I've always thought this would be relatively easy to institute. Just pick the cooridors and do some sort of grade seperation and promote it. Especially if there were things like overpasses/underpasses at intersections to keep things speeding along....

[Okstate]

Looking at google streetviews newly updated Euro cities is frustrating. Click on any COUNTRY road in the Netherlands & you will find separate bike roads. It's disgusting. <Kidding...not really.

[NJD]

^ Remember that Holland has never given up the bicycle. It is and has been a part of their culture for a long, long time. We Americans "gave up" the bicycle in favor of the automobile culturally for the past 50 years.

It will take time and a cultural shift to bring back bike infrastructure as a priority, and that shift is happening now. Take, for example, the replacement of 3 auto parking spots with the installation of 50 plus bicycle parking spots in front of PNCA last week. It's a far cry from Amsterdam's rail station parking garage, but its a start...



traveljournals.net

Also; an on-street cycle track is being installed on the park blocks right now, NE Cully Blvd is being rebuilt with a raised cycle track, and there is an interstate bicycle plan being created by Congress that may get passed as soon as next year (new 100' ROW crisscrossing all 50 states, not a freeway add-on like I-205).


American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials

What do you think? Should Portland be investing more in bike infrastructure?

The answer is "Yes"

[JordanL]

NJD: The US is the fourth largest country in the world by area... it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why we "gave up" the bike. We just did it too hastily.

[EastPDX]

... the I-84 Corridor is being looked (talked about) for a bikeway from the Willamette River out to I-205 (there is a bikeway on most of Eastside I-205 since day one for some of you that don't step over the River ).

It's a easy one for right of way, I grant you that. But it is a start.

Ep

[Okstate]

Originally Posted by NJD

1-Take, for example, the replacement of 3 auto parking spots with the installation of 50 plus bicycle parking spots in front of PNCA last week.

2- an on-street cycle track is being installed on the park blocks right now, NE Cully Blvd is being rebuilt with a raised cycle track

1- I thought the PNCA already had replaced some parking with bike parking? Is this in addition to that?
2- Interesting. Do you know of any more raised cycle tracks that already exist/being planned?

[urbanlife]

I could see this happening on a much smaller scale, which would make sense to have a bike right of way be much more human scale than something like a current highway.

I think Portland will see small bike garages in the coming future that will happen more at focal points that people bike to. PNCA could easily end up doing something like this....PSU would be amazing to do something like this in the coming years as well.

[NJD]

1- I thought the PNCA already had replaced some parking with bike parking? Is this in addition to that?

Yes, in addition, a total of 4 parking stalls turned into bike parking:

bikeportland

2- Interesting. Do you know of any more raised cycle tracks that already exist/being planned?

The Cully project is the first of its kind in Portland, it is similar to those found in Copenhagen, Paris and Amsterdam. This is the PBOT's pilot project for cycle tracks, so if it goes well we may end up seeing more of them...

[Okstate]

I wonder if it (cully) was chosen as an area with the highest potential, thus the pilot project?

[Snowden352]

I hate to always be so negative, but I have to ask: is everyone sure this is a good idea? I mean, there was a study released by ODOT or some agency that listed Portland as having around 80+% of all people commuting by car; only around 7% commuted by bike, the rest by public or other. I mean, what level of change in commuting patterns is acceptable in order to build this? 5%? 3? Only 1%? Just how effective would this be? How many people would use it?
I know I'm in the minority on this website, but I think these questions need to be asked and answered. Or at least they deserve an intelligent critical response.

[electricron]

Originally Posted by Snowden352

I hate to always be so negative, but I have to ask: is everyone sure this is a good idea? I mean, there was a study released by ODOT or some agency that listed Portland as having around 80+% of all people commuting by car; only around 7% commuted by bike, the rest by public or other. I mean, what level of change in commuting patterns is acceptable in order to build this? 5%? 3? Only 1%? Just how effective would this be? How many people would use it?
I know I'm in the minority on this website, but I think these questions need to be asked and answered. Or at least they deserve an intelligent critical response.

A typical bike path is usually 10 to 12 feet wide, so it'll cost less than building a single lane of a street or road, which is usually 10 to 12 feet wide. It'll be cheaper because it doesn't have to be built to carry the weight of automobiles and trucks.

There are twice as many bikes in Holland than cars, almost one bike per person. The terrain is flat, and there are bike paths separated from traffic.

What works in Holland could work in specific cities in America where the terrain is flat, like Gulf Coast cities and Florida. I don't think bikes will ever be as popular where there are hills and mountains to climb.

[NJD]

I wonder if it (cully) was chosen as an area with the highest potential, thus the pilot project?

They are using NE Cully because they already have a dedicated project budget/ timeline for a complete redo (new subsurface, surface, curbs, sidewalks) and the street is 'abnormally' wide for its traffic counts. From what I remember they are also implementing 'green' features for stormwater.

[Okstate]

Maybe we need bicycle subways to tackle the terrain!

[Pavlov's Dog]

Originally Posted by Okstate

Maybe we need bicycle subways to tackle the terrain!

or escalators. Check out this simple solution

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryCWIjdVF0g

[zilfondel]

I dream of the day I can ride my bike on bike paths from Eugene to Seattle... off-street.

[JordanL]

Right.

I'm talking dedicated right of way. No crossing streets, no pedestrians. A dedicated, graded, right of way for bicycles.

Even putting some kind of roofing over the entire path wouldn't be as expensive as pavign streets for cars.

They probably have the space on the East side to run one along the MAX tracks (or over the MAX tracks if they're really ambitious) all the way to the steel bridge.

They wouldn't even need to be concrete... they could probably construct them out of preconstructed segments using a lightweight material.

I'm much more sceptical about "public spending" than most here, but I see a LOT of benefit to the economy and to the people from a real bike transportation plan.

Portland is already known in the US as having the most bike commuters out of any American city... why don't we actually support it as a form of transportation instead of painting some lines on the asphalt?

[Okstate]

I would personally advocate for ideas like that in SE or NE connecting to the Max lines but not running parallel to them.