Let’s play a sport: Take a look at the Metropolis of Portland’s idea for the way forward for 82nd Avenue within the picture above and attempt to discover a bicycle. I’ll wait.
Each mode moreover the bicycle is clearly represented within the drawing, however it’s worthwhile to look very intently and use x-ray imaginative and prescient to see a couple of bikes hidden behind a tree within the heart left. In the meantime, the Portland Bureau of Transportation is so keen to point out that automobile customers will nonetheless have entry to all 5 lanes they positioned three drivers in “Bus Solely” lanes. Sigh.
This drawing is from PBOT’s Constructing a Higher 82nd Avenue Plan that was unanimously adopted by Portland Metropolis Council on December 4th. We knew PBOT wasn’t going to incorporate devoted bike amenities on 82nd Avenue. We first reported that truth nearly two years in the past and followed-up again in August with a narrative that made it official. The council listening to two weeks in the past was one other alternative for PBOT to clarify their rationale, and for Portlanders and metropolis council members to weigh in.
In a presentation on the plan, PBOT Planner Julia Reed instructed Mayor Ted Wheeler and the remainder of council that bicycle use on 82nd is a decrease precedence than different makes use of on account of its decrease classification in comparison with different modes in our Transportation System Plan. Even so, PBOT thought of it. They ran the visitors numbers on changing the outermost lane to a protected bike lane and located it wasn’t workable, on account of transit delays and vehicle diversion. So the PBOT plan will focus as a substitute on biking enhancements on close by neighborhood greenways, then make sure that there are secure crossings and entry factors throughout and onto 82nd.
PBOT calls their biking method a “bicycle ladder” technique. Think about the perimeters of the ladder being bike-friendly streets on both aspect of 82nd, with the rungs of the ladder being the crossings.
“We explored the potential for incorporating devoted protected bike lanes,” Reed defined at council. “However modeling confirmed that might outcome within the Line 72 bus [the busiest line in Oregon] dealing with main congestion — a greater than 50% journey time delay.” Within the plan itself, PBOT says their modeling confirmed the set up of a protected bike lane would additionally “result in important vehicle diversion.”
Listening to PBOT so clearly pit transit towards bicycling (an unforced error in my view) was music to the ears of Commissioner (and council member-elect) Dan Ryan. “I’m having fun with this!” he exclaimed at one level whereas clarifying with Reed that there can be no devoted bike entry on 82nd Ave. Ryan has lengthy advocated for getting bike customers off main roads. He sees streets much less as community-builders and extra as corridors for commerce and believes it was a mistake for PBOT to put in protected bike lanes on SE Division and infrequently cites enterprise homeowners who agree with him.
“I believe generally in Portland we attempt to put too many modes of transportation in a small area,” he stated earlier than voting “aye” on the plan. “And we’re not linked to the fact of the significance of arterials to maneuver items and providers round which everybody needs. So I believe you’re placing a very nice stability.”
Thomas Ngo, board chair of The Road Belief, additionally expressed help for the plan throughout his invited testimony. He spoke about how he lives close by and the way harmful it’s to cross 82nd or entry its transit stops. He made no point out of the bicycling difficulty.
Two leaders from Bike Loud testified on the council assembly and expressed robust disappointment within the plan. Bike Loud Vice Chair Kiel Johnson stated, “We’re involved that this plan fails to fulfill our most elementary transportation priorities,” he stated. “What you’re being requested to approve at the moment doesn’t embrace a plans to have a steady ADA compliant sidewalk, or any bicycle amenities, or a avenue format that can create the secure, vibrant Essential Road the east Portland group has been asking for.” Johnson stated if PBOT actually needs to avoid wasting lives and attain its transportation objectives, they need to “repurpose automobile lanes”. He likened this chance to the selection former Oregon Governor Tom McCall confronted within the Nineteen Sixties when he determined to take away Harbor Drive and create Waterfront Park. “All of the transportation planners instructed him eradicating the freeway would result in ‘carmageddon’… however they determined to buck their very own transportation planners and take away the freeway, as a result of it was the best factor to do.”
Kiel and Bike Loud Chair Aaron Kuehn each testified that the lane cross-section outlined within the 82nd Avenue Plan doesn’t adjust to Oregon’s Bike Invoice, which requires transportation businesses to offer enough biking amenities every time a significant street reconstruction or repaving mission takes place (and which they know one thing about as representatives of plaintiffs in a pending lawsuit towards the town for not following it).
Kuehn says the plan replaces 82nd Avenue with basically the identical cross-section it has at the moment. In any case, he believes 82nd ought to have a shared bike/bus lane. Kuehn needs a devoted bus lane on your complete seven-mile hall and an express acknowledgement that bicycle riders are permitted to trip in it in the event that they select (very like riders do on present Rose Lanes on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and elsewhere)
Kuehn factors to present Biketown knowledge that exhibits a major quantity of individuals utilizing bikes and electrical scooters on 82nd (and its sidewalks). He needs to see the road re-classified as a Main Metropolis Bikeway within the TSP to deliver it as much as par with different modes. Kuehn has sketched out two cross-sections displaying how bike riders might be accommodated on 82nd: One exhibits the shared bus lane, the opposite exhibits a motorcycle lane that’s shielded from automobile drivers by a bus lane buffer.
The way forward for the bus lane remains to be up within the air. There’s a separate course of at present underway to find out precisely what sort of transit facility 82nd will get.
Oregon Walks Govt Director Zachary Lauritzen is intently tied to this mission, having obtained sizable metropolis grants to arrange help for brand new sidewalks. He didn’t take a place on whether or not or not 82nd ought to have bike entry, however he made it clear he’s disillusioned PBOT isn’t opening up the dialog concerning the lane configuration. “The group actually needs to have that dialog [about lane dedication],” Lauritzen stated. “They wish to know what the way forward for 82nd Avenue appears like. They need it to be slower. They need there to be fewer automobiles, they usually need it to be safer.”
Reed emphasised that there’s nothing within the adopted plan that dictates the kind of bus lane that’s finally constructed on 82nd Avenue, or whether or not or not we enable bike riders on it. I’m reminded of a dialog I had with TriMet Planner Michael Kiser about this topic again in June 2023: “I’d wish to say, ‘We did Division, now let’s go larger’ However we don’t management the right-of-way and wish to work with our companions.” These companions on Portland Metropolis Council shall be a lot completely different beginning January 1st. Whether or not or not they’ll be prepared to have this dialog stays to be seen.
