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Monday, August 31, 2009

Bikes City Installs First Cycletrack

Posted by Sarah Mirk on Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 11:46 AM

Portland takes another step toward becoming the Amsterdam of the West today, installing Portland's first cycletrack downtown. Adams promised to install one of these special bike lanes in his 100 Day Plan and today he's christening the stretch of SW Broadway near Portland State University that has cars parking on the outside of the bike lane, creating a buffer between cyclists and moving car traffic.

The future! Parking on the outside, bikes on the inside.
  • The future! Parking on the outside, bikes on the inside.

These blocks of Broadway are a relatively easy place to install a cycletrack because no one can turn right along that whole stretch—all the intersecting roads are one-ways going left. Regardless, in the 10 minutes or so I stood photographing the cycletrack on Saturday, I saw not one, not two, but three cars pull into the bike lane and either park there or hang out for a while unloading people (including one in the photo above). The track could certainly use better signage to get Portlanders used to the idea.

 

Comments (16) RSS

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1
So, pretty soon we'll get "coffee" shops and red light districts?
Posted by dmitrir on August 31, 2009 at 12:16 PM · Report
2
People are used to parking next to the curb. It's going to be a real challenge to educate them otherwise, especially when there is only one cycletrack in the whole state, as fas as I know.
Posted by ujfoyt on August 31, 2009 at 12:23 PM · Report
3
Far, dammit.
Posted by ujfoyt on August 31, 2009 at 12:24 PM · Report
4
put some cement barriers there, you know, the ones that say STORIE on them. That will keep the cars out.
Posted by v.renwick on August 31, 2009 at 12:30 PM · Report
5
That buffer zone with the diagonal lines should be red or something more visible. But having it be the same color as the lines they routinely cross while driving is going to cause some problems.
Posted by Dave J. on August 31, 2009 at 12:36 PM · Report
6
I'm a cyclist and an advocate and all that crap. The paint job for the cyclo-track is awful. They've got these things all over NYC and no one knows how to use them correctly. There needs to be some sort of physical barrier in the buffer, like those zebra bumps you wrote about a couple of weeks ago.
Posted by Graham on August 31, 2009 at 12:40 PM · Report
7
I agree with all the comments about the vanilla white paint, but the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) may have been weary about using different colors as it may conflict with future standards and guidelines set by AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials).

Can we get a PBOT representative?
Posted by Thomas Le Ngo on August 31, 2009 at 12:55 PM · Report
8
I know paint is cheaper, but a series of short cement pillars or half poles would be a big improvement.
Posted by penthesilea on August 31, 2009 at 1:42 PM · Report
9
Agree that this needs to be demarcated a lot better. Hell, people still routinely drive on the MAX tracks here.
Posted by DemonJuice on August 31, 2009 at 1:45 PM · Report
10
AASHTO has no guidelines for this type of facility much less paint colors for this type of facility.

I think they're trying to see how cheaply they can make something that's still effective. As long as they watch it carefully and nobody gets hurt as a direct result of these modest designs, I think it's great if they can put in a cheap cycletrack. That'll mean we can afford more of them. I rode on this one today. It's great!
Posted by Carl on August 31, 2009 at 3:45 PM · Report
11
We've got one of these in Baltimore with a barrier, and people still park and drive in it.
Posted by gofreescout on August 31, 2009 at 3:55 PM · Report
12
I came down to PSU an hour ago and checked it out. Cars were parked in their new spots wonderfully, which I got some photos of.

Sarah, what's the story on the miniature green bike box left turn thingy in the middle of the intersection?
Posted by jacob.s on August 31, 2009 at 4:03 PM · Report
13
Jacob,

Dan Anderson of PBOT says:
That is where a cyclist should wait to make a "two-stage left turn." They don't want you to just cross three lanes of traffic. Ride from the cycletrack into the box, wait for the light to turn green and then turn left.

also, he says that they cannot install any zebra dividers or other cement dividers because this is a "demonstration project" and they want to keep it as flexible as possible.
Posted by s.mirk on August 31, 2009 at 5:00 PM · Report
14
Does PBOT have any plans of educating cyclists as to the details of exactly what is two-stage left turn? I mean, you just told us, but I was effing perplexed looking at those hieroglyphics painted in the lane.
Posted by jacob.s on August 31, 2009 at 8:20 PM · Report
15
Has anybody noticed how the visibilty for pedestrians has been affected? I'll give you a hint, it's gone. If all of the parking spaces are full as they were this AM, pedestrians can no longer be seen by cars while waiting at cross walks. Hope people stop running red lights!
Posted by DisaffectedWalker on September 1, 2009 at 7:47 AM · Report
16
Missing an "i" in there. Couldn't see it because of the cycle track.
Posted by DisaffectedWalker on September 1, 2009 at 7:49 AM · Report

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