Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Portland

Portland Plans to Make Protected Bike Lanes Standard Street Infrastructure

10:41 AM EDT on May 25, 2018

Portland’s goal is to implement protected bike lanes on 450 miles of streets. Photo: Bike Portland

Portland officials have big ambitions for the city's bike network.

In 2015, transportation director Leah Treat called for protected bike lanes to be the default on all major streets. But there hasn't been a lot of progress on that front since then.

The city bureaucracy has been making internal adjustments to standardize protected bike lanes, Jonathan Maus at Bike Portland reports. Now, at least on paper, the Portland Bureau of Transportation is on the verge of a milestone with the release of new bikeway design guide.

Portland bicycle program manager Roger Geller told a group at Portland State University this week that the city has identified 450 miles of streets suited for protected bike lanes. The design guide is supposed to expedite that effort, Maus writes:

The bulk of the guide lays out different street cross-sections and suggests seven basic designs. This is meant to help city staff determine what’s possible given nearly any street configuration they come across — from a 76-foot wide, two way road to a 44-foot one-way road. The final guide will include an online spreadsheet tool that will allow engineers and project managers to plug in a specific cross-section and receive design ideas that will fit.

Let’s say PBOT plans to redesign a 36-foot wide roadway like NW Thurman, which today has two vehicle lanes and two lanes used for parking cars. Project staff could turn to this new design guide and see how to layout the street with six-and-a-half foot bike lanes protected from motor vehicle traffic with a one-and-a-half foot buffer zone that could be filled with a cement curb or plastic delineator wands.

Where designs beyond plastic posts make sense, this new guide will help PBOT determine what to use. It includes guidance on other materials that can be used for protection: traffic separators (curbs), concrete islands, planters, or parked cars.

What will really speed up implementation, Geller said, is funding. The cost of construction ranges from $70,000 per mile for parking-protected bike lanes on a one-way street to $2.8 million per mile for concrete-protected bike lanes on two-way streets, Maus reports.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Want a Better 15-Minute City? Ask Residents What They Really Want

A new study from Bogotá models how other cities can ask a deeper set of questions about how to put essential needs within walking, biking or transit distance.

March 19, 2024

Tuesday’s Headlines Win the Gold

Two articles detail efforts in Paris and Los Angeles to put on (relatively) climate-friendly Olympic games in 2024 and 2028.

March 19, 2024

Monday’s Headlines Drink Your Milkshake

How does a president end wasteful subsidies for the highly profitable fossil fuel industry? Many have tried, but none have succeeded, including Joe Biden.

March 18, 2024

How — and Why — To Start a Neighborhood E-Bike Library

American advocates are loaning out e-bikes to their neighbors — and creating flocks of new riders.

March 18, 2024

What Urbanists’ Doug Burgum Lovefest Reveals About the ‘Why’ Behind Our Advocacy

I am far less interested in talking about Gov. Doug Burgum's politics than talking about his values, and how those values shape his urbanism, and thus the actual lives of the people he governs.

March 15, 2024
See all posts