The East Burnside/Couch couplet has been in operation (and refinement) for a couple of months now, but the official ribbon cutting will be Tuesday at 9AM.
In terms of real change on the transportation system, I hope the new signaling system for bikes as they cross the freeway entrance at Williams on NE Broadway (installed as part of the Streetcar project) will be a big safety improvement. This is one of the scariest conflict points in the City. The exact start of operation is not determined (weather dependent), but it should be this week.
13 responses to “Eastside Openings this Week”
Re: Burnside/Couch Ribbon Cutting
Last week they had signs out indicating that the (final?) paving of Burnside would occur on Saturday the 9th. Those plans were apparently scuttled by weather, and now the signs (as I recall) say the 15th/16th.
That may leave them in the awkward position of cutting the ribbon on an unfinished roadway (short one auto lane and one bike lane). Maybe that’s the only day that Rep. Earl Blumenauer could drop by.
I’m looking forward to the completed project… People appeared to have difficulty adapting to the couplet at first, but now that the 12th/Sandy/Burnside/Etc. mess is finally cleaned up, things are beginning to move in an orderly fashion again, even with the lanes still closed for construction.
As someone who has been hit by a car on my bike at the freeway onramp at Broadway , I give 3 cheers for the improvement !
As someone who has NOT been hit by a car on my bike at the freeway onramp at Broadway , I still give 3 cheers for the improvement!
As someone who has almost hit a bicyclist at the ramp at Broadway, I say “Huzzah!” to this improvement.
Oh, and the Burnside/Couch change on the East Side is awesome as both a local driver, a through driver, and a pedestrian. Access to and from the bridge is a bit smoother, crossing streets (in a car or on foot) is much easier, and overall it seems like a big improvement over what was there.
And don’t forget left turns. Left turns! Hooray for left turns!
Or parking. Not that any of these improvements stopped Lars Larson from claiming the couplet was all about adding bike lanes.
Not that any of these improvements stopped Lars Larson from claiming the couplet was all about adding bike lanes.
And what, pray tell, is wrong with that?
Not that any of these improvements stopped Lars Larson from claiming the couplet was all about adding bike lanes.
A talk radio host not telling the full story?!? Say it ain’t so!!
I’m just glad they untangled the mess that used to be the Burnside/Sandy/12th intersection. Everybody wins.
If the City of Portland was genuinely serious about bicycling they’d employ a battalion of bulldozers and level all the streets in the city. Somebody, somewhere, in some state, must want Mt. Tabor. :-)
Looks like E-bound Burnside will have three lanes for motorized traffic between MLK and 12th. If so, this will have been a missed chance to put the street on a diet and be truely transformative.
Lenny, as a plus it’s still easier to walk or drive across than Burnside used to be. With the light timing and such, three lanes isn’t too bad.
Hopefully the streetcar can do the same for MLK/Grand over there.
Oh, and you can see most of this on Google’s SAT view. Switch to overhead from 45 degree for the latest view.
I will say that it’s not difficult, even for an incredibly intelligent person, to get screwed up trying to get on the Burnside Bridge while northbound on Grand. There is no huge sign saying, “Hey stupid! The bridge is this way!” resulting in said incredibly intelligent person having to go back to Burnside on MLK, take a left, take another left and take ANOTHER LEFT in order to cross the bridge. Obviously, this is a severe design flaw and the whole project needs to be done over.
Other than that, it’s great.