Coincidentally, neighbors in Arbor Lodge have been debating the same idea for the past few days. Their idea, however, sounds more like a desire for bike boulevards than the sort of lanes Maus is suggesting—they’d like to explore moving bike traffic to a calmer side street, instead of on busy streets like N Greeley or Willamette.

Here’s a peek at their debate, which started when a house—yes, a house, at N Willamette and Portland Boulevard—was hit by a car at 2:30 am on Saturday. That led to a neighborhood discussion on traffic controls and street engineering. There’s clearly a traffic problem in the neighborhood, as evidenced by this initial comment: “I noticed tonight that the pedestrian crossing sign on Portland/Rosa Parks Way between Denver and Interstate was demolished. It’s lying in the street, apparently mangled by an encounter by some vehicle,” one neighbor wrote. Yikes! That led to talk about speed bumps, three way stops, pedestrian improvements, and finally bike lanes.

I live one block off of Greeley (before and after the addition of bike lanes). Those bike lanes have added a considerable amount of traffic to our street making three streets instead of one dangerous especially during rush hour. I don’t personally want to ride on busy streets even if they have bike lanes. My belief is that bike lanes may be placed better is if they were not on the major streets“¦ like one block off. I would gladly give up one side of my street for a bike lane”¦ I’d ride on it too and it is safer. I think there needs to be a dedicated place for cars.. for rush hour. I also think they should be on roads like Greeley and Denver and interstate and Lombard. I do think there should be more traffic signals and left turn lanes to help pedestrians. I am sure my opinion is not a popularly voiced opinion and I am sure I am not the only one that holds it.

I don't think there's an easy instant answer to the issue at Willamette and Ptld blvd or to the traffic issues on the Peninsula as a whole.

It would be nice to feel that there was some kind of plan that looks ahead about 20 years, rather than knee jerk reactions to immediate problems. The added traffic on the side streets are, in part, due to the traffic pattern changes on Interstate avenue after MAX came in and the crunching to one lane on Portland Blvd. I think the folks who came up with these bright ideas sincerely believed that these changes would mean less cars on the road. That does not appear to be the case.

All I'm asking for is an alternative to speed bumps. Quite honestly, I hate them. They are hard on my car and a street with speed bumps cannot be driven at the posted speed limit, even in a small car like mine. Larger vehicles are even worse. I know they make life difficult for larger emergency vehicles.

I also like your idea of bike lanes on sidestreets - although, I don't know that the Bicycle Alliance is all that excited by being shunted to side streets and they are a well-organized lobby group for the issues that matter to them.

personally I think that the bike lanes off the major highways and thoroughfares is a great idea. The bike alliance may be a strong lobby, but if they are truly interested in their members safety they would like the idea of safe biking. I like it!

The war between cars and bikes has kept me off my bike for a few years.
Everyone says that we need to be able to play together, but it doesn't work that way.
The best way to bike to the Hollywood district is to bike up knott street. A minor, but wide street. I would like to see more streets like that being used for safe biking.