Transportation planners in Portland, Oregon are taking their famous bicycle boulevards to the next level. By adding more routes and stepping up the traffic calming treatments, the city is not only making these streets more attractive and usable for cyclists, but also for pedestrians, runners, children, and anyone else who gets around under their own power.
These next-generation facilities have been christened “Neighborhood Greenways,” and by 2015, over 80 percent of all Portlanders will live within half a mile of one. The city is counting on these re-engineered streets to reach its goal of increasing bicycle mode share from eight percent to 25 percent by 2030.
Just about anybody who’s biked one of these routes can testify to the safety and peace you experience. You’ll see scores of families and children riding to school with regularity. At any time of day, there’s a constant buzz of activity, and during rush hours you’ll see many more bikes than cars. As Portland Mayor Sam Adams points out, “They’re on a quiet street, where that bike boulevard is prioritized for the bike, not the car.”
On a final fun note, one day Portland may also be able to lay claim to being the birthplace of the “sharrow flower.” What’s that? You’ll just have to take watch this Streetfilm and find out.
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [00:02] Welcome
to Portland. We’re turning our bike boulevards into neighbourhood
greenways and working to create a citywide system that’s great to
live and play and get around by walking and biking. </font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Mayor Sam Adams:</i>
[00:26] In preparation for our 25 year master plan for biking, we did
a lot of research and we did a lot of focus groups about what it would
take to get from 8 to 25% of all trips by bike. And what we learned
is that bike boulevards, we also call them greenways, is the way to
go. </font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Mike Lear:</i> [00:45]
Over the next five years we’re going to be increasing the percentage
of Portlanders that live within a half mile of a family friendly bicycle
and pedestrian facility from less than 25% to over 80%. The main
tool that we’re using to achieve those outcomes is the neighbourhood
greenway project.</font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Greg Raisman:</i>
[01:00] So right now we’re riding on the Going Neighbourhood Greenway.
One of the things that we do to make these routes pleasant is we make
sure cars are going slow. And we do that by installing speed bumps.
On this route we turned the orientation of 19 Stop signs to make it
a through route for bicycles. In addition, we put in 21 new speed
bumps to make sure that we kept the speed down for cars, and then we
put in some traffic barriers to make sure that there’s not that many
cars here in the first place.</font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Mike Lear:</i> [01:28]
Even in Portland one of the biggest challenges to creating a family
friendly network is getting bicyclists and pedestrians across busy streets.
At this crossing of the Going Neighbourhood Greenway project and Martin
Luther King Boulevard, we extended the median island and allowed pass
throughs for bicyclists and pedestrians. It’s made this project
much easier and friendly and comfortable for people that are crossing
this busy street. </font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Greg Raisman:</i>
[01:52] Behind me is one of our guide signs that we use on our Neighbourhood
Greenway Network to let people know where they’re going. We
show up to three destinations, how far it is and how long it takes to
get there. Our new signs that we’ve started to use, we made
the bicycle symbol a little smaller and the words bigger. This
is a sharrow flower. We use it at the junction of our Neighbourhood
Greenway routes so that people know that they have a decision to make.
We’re standing on the Concorde Neighbourhood Greenway where it meets
the Bryant Neighbourhood Greenway, and this is where they make up their
mind.</font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Mike Lear:</i> [02:22]
A lot of our old bike boulevards have volumes of over a thousand cars
a day. With our next generation Neighbourhood Greenway projects,
we’re trying to get the volume of cars down to below 500, if possible.
We’re also going to be working in the State legislature to create
a 20 mile per hour Neighbourhood Greenway speed designation. If
this passes, we’ll be able to engineer our projects to a slower, more
trail like speed which will increase the comfort and safety of cyclists
and pedestrians. </font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Kiel Johnson:</i>
[03:08] The bike trains are a really great compliment to the bike boulevards
and we’ve been really fortunate for the City’s support in installing
these bike boulevards that really make it safe to ride on, and really
welcoming for kids. </font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Mary Anthony:</i>
[03:22] Last year when Safe Routes to School brought bike education
to the fifth graders here at Beach, I had three children, none of whom
knew how to ride a bike. My fifth grader’s teacher volunteered
to try to help her learn while the other kids were learning bike safety.
They started on Monday, by Wednesday my fifth grader could ride a bike,
by Friday her brother in second grade could ride a bike, and two weeks
later her sister could ride a bike. And my husband got his bike
out of the basement, where it had lived for 20 years, and I got going
on a bike again and we’re all riding. </font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Kris Meyer:</i> [03:50]
You can see all the bike racks we have behind us. They’re all
quite new. I’ve been here for 17 years and we didn’t have
one bike rack when I first started here. So I think the most exciting
thing is that a lot of our kids come ready to learn cos they’ve gotten
fresh air, they’ve gotten exercise, they feel a part of our school
community.</font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Mike Lear:</i> [04:06]
One of the other benefits of bicycle boulevards is using storm water
treatments in the design to not only calm traffic, but to also manage
the storm water that otherwise would be going into our sewer system.</font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Ivy Dunlap:</i> [04:19]
You can see the green street managing storm water. Trees creating
a better pedestrian and bike environment and also cleaning the air and
capturing storm water. Speed bumps slowing traffic. We choose
vegetation that’s low to keep sight distance open. One of our
work core species is juncus because of all of the dense vegetation at
the bottom, it collects pollutants when the water is flowing through
the plants. When you’re in Portland you will see a diversity
of green street projects. You’ll see them being used as traffic
diverters at 33<sup>rd</sup> and Going. You will see a new layout
that we’re using. This is the more traditional curb extension
used to prevent basements who are back ups in little pockets of neighbourhoods.</font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Brett Horner:</i>
[05:05] From Parks perspective we like the greenways because they can
first of all connect existing open spaces or planned open spaces.
But they can also provide a level of service in areas where we can’t
get a park. So if we don’t have land in an area or it’s too
expensive in an area to build a park, we see the opportunity in working
in the streets and are adjacent to the streets in providing a level
of amenity that reads and feels like a park.</font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Brett Horner:</i>
[05:40] We also see some social benefits as well I believe because people
are interacting with their neighbours, they’re looking out for each
other, and they’re exercising.</font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Kiel Johnson:</i>
[05:54] Having been on a residential street where it’s really calm,
it’s a really great like social atmosphere where people can talk and
get to know each other.</font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Abra McNair:</i> [06:04]
When I commute to work down the Going Street Greenway I see people out
walking in the street and like running in the street. People feel
safer and in any sort of transportation mode.</font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Mayor Sam Adams:</i>
[06:13] They’re on a quiet street where the Stop signs are in their
favour, where that bike boulevard is prioritised for the bike not the
car, for the pedestrian not the car. And that it actually in many
cases is the most reliable trip in terms of time travel, is the quickest
trip when you include, you know, the time to park, is the cheapest trip
when you include the cost of parking, and it’s a trip that allows
them to both to get to work and exercise. </font> <br></p>
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