One of the pleasures of my holiday season each year is serving on the panel reviewing presentations at the PBOT/PSU Transportation Class.
It gives me great hope for the future that we are creating a regular stream of transportation advocates who will keep making our streets better and safer. This year is no exception:
- Alexis Gabriel (PDF, 1.6M) wants to revitalize streets, especially in East Portland, as places for people, rather than just cars.
- Blake Goud (PDF, 625K) is looking at the challenging cycling conditions (do you enjoy finding the 12 inches between the storm drain grate and the auto lane) on Interstate Ave.
- Anjala Ehelebe (PDF, 822K) has an interesting take on art as traffic calming, or at least entertainment while in traffic.
- Adrianne Schaefer-Borrego (PDF, 786K) is trying to tame 82nd and Division.
- David Kaplan (PDF, 179K) has looked at every angle on the regulation and economics of electric charging in the right-of-way on residential streets.
- Nic Boehm (PDF, 1.3M) has a bold vision for turning Division into an exclusive transitway and bikeway.
- Melissa Langager and Meegan Watts (PDF, 786K) are keeping the vision of “Lombard Re-imagined” alive, and are starting with a pedestrian crossing of a freeway ramp.
Keep advocating!
5 responses to “The Future is Bright”
I love the idea for Division to be the sole BRT right of way along with a bikeway! City people, if you’re reading this, DO THIS OPTION!
I honestly am somewhat unimpressed. The BRT has stops at SE 37th and SE 39th?
Why not just improve service on the 4 (add more and/or larger buses) and improve the Clinton Street bike boulevard?
The Powell/Division BRT plan so far sounds like a better opportunity to get bike/pedestrian/transit infrastructure out through the corridor than just shutting down Division to all private vehicle traffic. The cars owned by people who live or do business near Division aren’t just going to disappear, they’re going to use other routes through the neighborhood to get where they’re going. That would seem more dangerous for bicyclists and pedestrians than any benefit that this idea would give.
I thought that was why Clinton was made into a bike route in the first place?
Or check out Alex Reed’s post on BikePortland re getting PBOT to protect the Clinton Bikeway from excess motorized traffic. There are no easy lifts!
I really like Alexis Gabriel’s idea for the “dead” part of NE Sandy. It would be a nice opportunity to create three unique triangular buildings around a plaza. If Waterfront Park could grow out of a freeway maybe a small road could make something cool on East Burnside.
The Lombard freeway crossing is, interesting. Between the TC and the Fred Meyer, that area sees plenty of pedestrian traffic and there is a big fancy pedestrian bridge there, and yet I know of very few people that actually use it: the bridge is long, it is steep, and there are sometimes homeless people sleeping on it it. Instead people walk across the freeway onramp, where there are no curb cuts or even a sidewalk: there are often mud puddles and trash instead. I really like the concept of that bridge, but it is a such a demonstration of not getting something quite right and therefore it going completely wrong and nobody using it…