Welcome to being-pissed-off-about-leaves-in-bike-lanes season. Final night time I sympathized with my former colleague (now Portland Mercury reporter) Taylor Griggs after studying she took a nasty spill on leaves whereas utilizing the bike lane on Northeast seventh Avenue (see beneath). On the similar time, I occurred to be watching Portland’s bicycle coordinator share an replace on bike lane upkeep.
Portland Bureau of Transportation Bicycle Coordinator Roger Geller shared a quick presentation on this very talked-about matter on the month-to-month assembly of the Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) final night time. He gave an replace on the $10 million bike lane sweeping initiative PBOT has been engaged on. As I reported again in February, PBOT gained a grant from the Portland Clear Vitality Advantages Fund (PCEF) that offers them $2 million per 12 months for 5 years to maintain bike lanes clear.
That funding is getting used to buy two big-ticket gadgets: a brand new bike lane cleansing crew and instruments to do the work. Particularly, these instruments embody: a brand new fleet of battery-powered, bike lane-sized sweepers and leaf blowers for these exhausting to achieve locations.
Final night time Geller mentioned PBOT has employed seven of the eight new staffers. And to this point, two of the brand new e-sweepers — designed particularly to suit inside protected bike lanes — are already right here. I’ve seen each of them parked in PBOT’s Stanton Yard, a upkeep car facility on the nook of N Graham and N Mississippi. The lovable little sweepers are dwarfed by an enormous diesel generator (which I hope isn’t their last answer for charging these infants). Based on a slide proven on the BAC assembly final night time, along with these two e-sweepers, PBOT has bought two Ford Lighting pickups for all of the hand sweeping and extra detailed clean-up work a mechanical sweeper can’t do (aka “bunching help”).
Thus far, the PCEF-funded crew has been engaged on areas with heavy leaf cover. A map of future sweeping routes remains to be within the works. A public-facing map and a leaf pick-up request dashboard can be being labored on, however not but prepared for launch. One other slide proven final night time included a map of the newest spots which have been swept (see above)
None of those updates are more likely to make many Portlanders really feel higher concerning the present state of motorcycle lanes — and the huge quantity of leaves which have overtaken a lot of them. “Respect your endurance, the leaf drop was early this 12 months,” the slide reads.
So for now, take additional warning by means of the leaves, don’t flip sharply in corners, and hope for the most effective. If there’s a very unhealthy spot, you must report it to 311 so metropolis crews get it on their checklist.
