I’ve been an advocate for safe and efficient active and public transportation in the Portland metro region since I moved here from Alaska in 1985. I’ve also tried to walk my talk. My “receipts” can be found in my bio and among the thousands of photos I’ve taken in the metro region at street level. I’ve also worked as a teamster, as did my father for 50 years, and owned automobiles since I could legally drive.
Putting my bona fides aside, after I read a few recent articles on BikePortland, I was curious about the current state of PBOT’s Outer Division Safety Project. That led me to take two bus rides to SE Division and then do a long photowalk to see firsthand what others were saying online. Following is a copy of a post I made on BikePortland. I’ve included my verbiage for convenience and the link to the thread for context.
9/13/2023 BikePortland post
Although this discussion seems to be over, and it’s possible you won’t see my comments, I can offer an anecdotal perspective. Yesterday (9/12), I did a photowalk from SE 181st West to 75th Ave. I walked on both sides of SE Division and crossed the street many times. I crossed at intersections with traffic signals and intersections that had call beacons. Based on a similar photowalk I did many years ago, prior to the latest infrastructure improvements, I can say without hesitation that I felt much safer yesterday.
I assume BPOT took counts of pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists before their treatment. Assuming they take counts after they’re done with the project, I'd be interested in knowing whether and when the mode share shifts. Meanwhile, during my three-hour walk, I only counted seven (7) bicyclists using SE Division. By comparison, although I didn’t count, I estimate I saw hundreds of motorists. That included many motorists doing U-turns at the meridians. Some were successful in their first attempt, while others had to make two or more attempts.
Thanks for the link. I went over there and read a fair number of comments.
A classic was by somebody named Rick Jasperson, who dragged in “local fake news creator Andy Ngo.” I guess Jasperson thought those 100-plus nights of rioting in 2020 were actually peaceful protests. I guess that fence that is still surrounding the federal courthouse is an illusion.
What does Ngo have to do with medians on Division? This is how politicized everything is in progressive Portland.
Like you, I use various modes of transportation (walk, bus, car). Have you by any chance taken a course at Portland State University called Portland Traffic & Transportation? It’s a credit class for PSU students but free to community members.
The course has been offered since 1991. At the time I took it, classes were coordinated by Rick Gustafson, former Metro executive officer. It included fascinating history, but more than anything it was training ground in how to be a neighborhood activist for a particular mindset.
There were many guest speakers, including then-City Commissioner Steve Novick and then-PBOT Director Leah Treat.
Novick boasted to the class, “We may become the first city in America to raise money for transportation … with an income tax.”
He joked that someday the city council may have to decide each year which street to preserve: “We can only preserve one street in Portland … which street will it be? Burnside?”
A young woman asked if Portland had considered “reducing the auto network” and letting streets turn to gravel.
Treat said it has been discussed. Texas, she added, is letting some of its streets turn to gravel. She said her department receives about 2,000 requests a month for service, such as potholes. Want to get rid of potholes? Turn the streets to gravel. For more: https://www.heldtoanswer.com/2015/01/charlie-cagers/
It’s something to keep in mind now that Novick is being talked about as a potential candidate for the new City Council.
An update to my earlier post (when I was heading out the door, I was actually heading to the UK for a month of trekking and traveling). I ended up pulling my thread about the declining bike share mode downtown. However, here is one of the similar posts I mentioned:
RE politicization: Agree. For the record, I’m a recent D --> NAV. I’m largely off social media now, although I recently included some “what I really see and think” Portland metro snaps with narrative on my Flickr account. I figure “a picture is worth…”. Some of my photos are intentionally nondescript. Here is a thread that pertains to the declining bicycle mode share downtown:
You’ll find similar posts in my photostream over the past few weeks. Also, check out Thomas Hawk’s photostream. He’s been covering events in San Franscisco.
RE PSU Portland Traffic & Transportation: No, I haven’t taken the course. I considered taking it when I was a PBOT Transportation Ambassador and also active in active transportation organizations in Portland. I recognize the names you mentioned.
I think many Portlanders are willing to sacrifice some speed and ease of using cars for improved walkability and bikeability in Portland. I hope we don’t get too extreme on “cars are the only way” pushback. I think the main issue here is that the businesses did not feel heard and were not involved in the process.
The Netherlands pivoted from being car centric with great success. There it was a grass roots movement led by and supported by the people to make roads safe and improve livability. Worth the read.
I'm with Ollie and Richard. To which I'd add that cars have another very nice feature, which bikes and public transit don't, called a door lock. Admittedly, locks aren't perfect, and didn't keep that nice young bridesmaid from taking a pesky bullet to the face while driving along D-street last year. But locks do generally save one the inconvenience of carjackings and other forms of involuntary "shared" transportation, such as when the fentanyl rays from Alpha Centauri tell the guy on the corner to steal your bike.
Which brings us to perhaps the niftiest benefit cars have over public transportation, which is that, at least speaking for my own car, they guarantee a drive that is free from meth and fentanyl residue.
If Portland "leadership" (I use the term loosely and throw up in my mouth a little when I do) wants citizens to be excited about sharing transportation with fellow citizens, it should perhaps cultivate a citizenry that's a little less druggy/rapey/murdery.
The fact is that many Portlanders aren't willing to sacrifice "some of [the] speed and ease of using cars for improved walkability and bikeability in Portland." That's obvious to anyone who drives.
Also obvious is that the people who do use bicycles are not a representative cross-section of the city's population. They skew much younger and are probably concentrated in close-in neighborhoods. It would not be surprising if they shared similar political and cultural outlooks.
Cars do not just provide speed and ease, neither of which should be discounted. They also provide safety in traffic and shelter from Portland's notoriously rainy weather. The conventional wisdom is that in Portland it's a matter of when, not whether, a person who commutes by bike will be involved in a collision with a motor vehicle. Seniors and parents with children are two demographics who are unlikely to consider bicycles an acceptable substitute for cars.
It is not clear that the Netherlands ever was car centric, and certainly not to the extent that the US was and is. First, it enjoyed and still enjoys far better public transportation than can be found in most American cities. Secondly, the lower standard of living there, especially after WWII, made it difficult for most people to afford motor vehicles. Old photos of Amsterdam in the 40s and 50s show an abundance of cyclists.
A more significant difference between Portland and the Netherlands is that in Portland "the people" are not leading or supporting a grass roots movement to make roads safe, improve liveabilty and get people out of their cars.
The young, educated ideologues in the Portland Bureau of Transportation and the anti-internal combustion engine activists at BikePortland aren't leading the people at all. Their goals and methods are far ahead of public opinion. Instead of listening to and learning from the public, PBOT imposes its vision on neighborhoods whether they agree or not. In the meantime, BikePortland snarks about the unenlightened populace who don't know what's good for them.
Can we please stipulate that Portland is not a very small, very old, very different nation in Europe? Cities in Europe are based on medieval plans...Portland is a modern-day sprawl (thus the infamous growth boundary--which is one of the drivers of the supposed "housing crisis); the east side laid out according to city "planning" ideas of the '50s, now passe but frozen in time.
Sorry, Javier--we make lousy Dutch people. (And even the Dutch are having a few problems with the jolly new tyranny of Green.)
Portland is being lectured and hectored by an anti-car clutch of true believers who really think we should all be on the bus or the inflexible and dangerous rolling insane asylum called MAX.
People who drive? The new enemies. It's too...too...individual. Hell--they get to pick when to go, where to go, what route to take...anathema!
Agree that we are not an ancient European city but there are cities developed in our time frame that are safer for all transportation modes and more livable (Vancouver, BC for example). There, they actually do seem to have reasonable levels of public safety and decorum on their public transit making it an attractive and efficient option for many.
Clearly we're not all going to be taking the MAX, buses and/or riding bikes but to just continue to push high speed single occupancy vehicle transportaion as the goal seems outdated. Look at our traffic death and injury rates in Portland….setting records. A LOT of that is due to the lack of enforcement and enabling of criminality that we have in Portland, but that doesn't mean we should not also try to design and build out safer systems of transportation. It needs to be a pragmatic multi-pronged effort to improve safety in Portland. Enforcement of our traffic and anti-camping laws needs to happen ASAP but we also need to involve the community and imagine, design and build infrastructure improvements
Two other important aspects of “Zero Vision” are economic and environmental. I brushed off my math education and performed a “Fermi calculation”, a kind of math designed to get one near to an answer that is useful but not precise. The question? What is the annual economic cost of the program? Assuming the average distance traveled is 1/3 of the length of the city, I was able to calculate that each five mile per hour decrease in travel speed might cost the city a BILLION dollars in productivity a year, because travel times on average would increase 20%. Further, each vehicle is operating for 20% longer. resulting in a 20% increase in vehicle emissions. Moreso, there are public health consequences for some people with higher emissions. Lastly, the best speed for economy for most vehicles is about 32 miles per hour. Above that, parasitic air drag begins to manifest. But most of the speed limits are below that.
I for one am sick of PBOT experimenting on me and my car. SE Division, once an important thoroughfare, is now a place to be avoided. The city could have just installed more lights and limited some left and right turns. PBOT is more properly called the Department of Traffic Jams.
Well, we need to enforce out traffic laws somehow. Right now people know there is essentially no traffic enforcement in Portland and drive accordingly. We definitely need to fully restore our PPB traffic division but just allowing anarchy on the roads is not working well for Portland. I'm all for cameras in ADDITION to police enforcement.
I’ve been an advocate for safe and efficient active and public transportation in the Portland metro region since I moved here from Alaska in 1985. I’ve also tried to walk my talk. My “receipts” can be found in my bio and among the thousands of photos I’ve taken in the metro region at street level. I’ve also worked as a teamster, as did my father for 50 years, and owned automobiles since I could legally drive.
Putting my bona fides aside, after I read a few recent articles on BikePortland, I was curious about the current state of PBOT’s Outer Division Safety Project. That led me to take two bus rides to SE Division and then do a long photowalk to see firsthand what others were saying online. Following is a copy of a post I made on BikePortland. I’ve included my verbiage for convenience and the link to the thread for context.
9/13/2023 BikePortland post
Although this discussion seems to be over, and it’s possible you won’t see my comments, I can offer an anecdotal perspective. Yesterday (9/12), I did a photowalk from SE 181st West to 75th Ave. I walked on both sides of SE Division and crossed the street many times. I crossed at intersections with traffic signals and intersections that had call beacons. Based on a similar photowalk I did many years ago, prior to the latest infrastructure improvements, I can say without hesitation that I felt much safer yesterday.
I assume BPOT took counts of pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists before their treatment. Assuming they take counts after they’re done with the project, I'd be interested in knowing whether and when the mode share shifts. Meanwhile, during my three-hour walk, I only counted seven (7) bicyclists using SE Division. By comparison, although I didn’t count, I estimate I saw hundreds of motorists. That included many motorists doing U-turns at the meridians. Some were successful in their first attempt, while others had to make two or more attempts.
Ref: https://bikeportland.org/2023/09/01/protest-planned-in-opposition-to-medians-on-se-division-379049#comment-7505528
Thanks for the link. I went over there and read a fair number of comments.
A classic was by somebody named Rick Jasperson, who dragged in “local fake news creator Andy Ngo.” I guess Jasperson thought those 100-plus nights of rioting in 2020 were actually peaceful protests. I guess that fence that is still surrounding the federal courthouse is an illusion.
What does Ngo have to do with medians on Division? This is how politicized everything is in progressive Portland.
Like you, I use various modes of transportation (walk, bus, car). Have you by any chance taken a course at Portland State University called Portland Traffic & Transportation? It’s a credit class for PSU students but free to community members.
The course has been offered since 1991. At the time I took it, classes were coordinated by Rick Gustafson, former Metro executive officer. It included fascinating history, but more than anything it was training ground in how to be a neighborhood activist for a particular mindset.
There were many guest speakers, including then-City Commissioner Steve Novick and then-PBOT Director Leah Treat.
Novick boasted to the class, “We may become the first city in America to raise money for transportation … with an income tax.”
He joked that someday the city council may have to decide each year which street to preserve: “We can only preserve one street in Portland … which street will it be? Burnside?”
A young woman asked if Portland had considered “reducing the auto network” and letting streets turn to gravel.
Treat said it has been discussed. Texas, she added, is letting some of its streets turn to gravel. She said her department receives about 2,000 requests a month for service, such as potholes. Want to get rid of potholes? Turn the streets to gravel. For more: https://www.heldtoanswer.com/2015/01/charlie-cagers/
It’s something to keep in mind now that Novick is being talked about as a potential candidate for the new City Council.
An update to my earlier post (when I was heading out the door, I was actually heading to the UK for a month of trekking and traveling). I ended up pulling my thread about the declining bike share mode downtown. However, here is one of the similar posts I mentioned:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/memcclure/53311997407/
As I said in this post, I've only got a tiny soapbox online, but I do talk to lots of folks on my photowalks throughout the metro region.
Thanks. A quick reply before I head out the door.
RE politicization: Agree. For the record, I’m a recent D --> NAV. I’m largely off social media now, although I recently included some “what I really see and think” Portland metro snaps with narrative on my Flickr account. I figure “a picture is worth…”. Some of my photos are intentionally nondescript. Here is a thread that pertains to the declining bicycle mode share downtown:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/memcclure/53224204221/
You’ll find similar posts in my photostream over the past few weeks. Also, check out Thomas Hawk’s photostream. He’s been covering events in San Franscisco.
RE PSU Portland Traffic & Transportation: No, I haven’t taken the course. I considered taking it when I was a PBOT Transportation Ambassador and also active in active transportation organizations in Portland. I recognize the names you mentioned.
I think many Portlanders are willing to sacrifice some speed and ease of using cars for improved walkability and bikeability in Portland. I hope we don’t get too extreme on “cars are the only way” pushback. I think the main issue here is that the businesses did not feel heard and were not involved in the process.
The Netherlands pivoted from being car centric with great success. There it was a grass roots movement led by and supported by the people to make roads safe and improve livability. Worth the read.
https://www.distilled.earth/p/how-the-netherlands-built-a-biking
I'm with Ollie and Richard. To which I'd add that cars have another very nice feature, which bikes and public transit don't, called a door lock. Admittedly, locks aren't perfect, and didn't keep that nice young bridesmaid from taking a pesky bullet to the face while driving along D-street last year. But locks do generally save one the inconvenience of carjackings and other forms of involuntary "shared" transportation, such as when the fentanyl rays from Alpha Centauri tell the guy on the corner to steal your bike.
Which brings us to perhaps the niftiest benefit cars have over public transportation, which is that, at least speaking for my own car, they guarantee a drive that is free from meth and fentanyl residue.
If Portland "leadership" (I use the term loosely and throw up in my mouth a little when I do) wants citizens to be excited about sharing transportation with fellow citizens, it should perhaps cultivate a citizenry that's a little less druggy/rapey/murdery.
The fact is that many Portlanders aren't willing to sacrifice "some of [the] speed and ease of using cars for improved walkability and bikeability in Portland." That's obvious to anyone who drives.
Also obvious is that the people who do use bicycles are not a representative cross-section of the city's population. They skew much younger and are probably concentrated in close-in neighborhoods. It would not be surprising if they shared similar political and cultural outlooks.
Cars do not just provide speed and ease, neither of which should be discounted. They also provide safety in traffic and shelter from Portland's notoriously rainy weather. The conventional wisdom is that in Portland it's a matter of when, not whether, a person who commutes by bike will be involved in a collision with a motor vehicle. Seniors and parents with children are two demographics who are unlikely to consider bicycles an acceptable substitute for cars.
It is not clear that the Netherlands ever was car centric, and certainly not to the extent that the US was and is. First, it enjoyed and still enjoys far better public transportation than can be found in most American cities. Secondly, the lower standard of living there, especially after WWII, made it difficult for most people to afford motor vehicles. Old photos of Amsterdam in the 40s and 50s show an abundance of cyclists.
A more significant difference between Portland and the Netherlands is that in Portland "the people" are not leading or supporting a grass roots movement to make roads safe, improve liveabilty and get people out of their cars.
The young, educated ideologues in the Portland Bureau of Transportation and the anti-internal combustion engine activists at BikePortland aren't leading the people at all. Their goals and methods are far ahead of public opinion. Instead of listening to and learning from the public, PBOT imposes its vision on neighborhoods whether they agree or not. In the meantime, BikePortland snarks about the unenlightened populace who don't know what's good for them.
Can we please stipulate that Portland is not a very small, very old, very different nation in Europe? Cities in Europe are based on medieval plans...Portland is a modern-day sprawl (thus the infamous growth boundary--which is one of the drivers of the supposed "housing crisis); the east side laid out according to city "planning" ideas of the '50s, now passe but frozen in time.
Sorry, Javier--we make lousy Dutch people. (And even the Dutch are having a few problems with the jolly new tyranny of Green.)
Portland is being lectured and hectored by an anti-car clutch of true believers who really think we should all be on the bus or the inflexible and dangerous rolling insane asylum called MAX.
People who drive? The new enemies. It's too...too...individual. Hell--they get to pick when to go, where to go, what route to take...anathema!
Agree that we are not an ancient European city but there are cities developed in our time frame that are safer for all transportation modes and more livable (Vancouver, BC for example). There, they actually do seem to have reasonable levels of public safety and decorum on their public transit making it an attractive and efficient option for many.
Clearly we're not all going to be taking the MAX, buses and/or riding bikes but to just continue to push high speed single occupancy vehicle transportaion as the goal seems outdated. Look at our traffic death and injury rates in Portland….setting records. A LOT of that is due to the lack of enforcement and enabling of criminality that we have in Portland, but that doesn't mean we should not also try to design and build out safer systems of transportation. It needs to be a pragmatic multi-pronged effort to improve safety in Portland. Enforcement of our traffic and anti-camping laws needs to happen ASAP but we also need to involve the community and imagine, design and build infrastructure improvements
What are you willing to pay for socialized transit? Portland is now one of the heaviest-taxed cities in the country. Get out your wallet.
Max, the light rail that goes to places no one lives.
Jeff,
Did you know Millicent Williams is a convicted felon? No joke.
https://www.oregonlive.com/commuting/2016/12/portland_transportation_bureau.html
Well, then she is tractable.
That's the problem when we hire people for their identity instead of their ability to do a job. Williams was an identity hire.
Two other important aspects of “Zero Vision” are economic and environmental. I brushed off my math education and performed a “Fermi calculation”, a kind of math designed to get one near to an answer that is useful but not precise. The question? What is the annual economic cost of the program? Assuming the average distance traveled is 1/3 of the length of the city, I was able to calculate that each five mile per hour decrease in travel speed might cost the city a BILLION dollars in productivity a year, because travel times on average would increase 20%. Further, each vehicle is operating for 20% longer. resulting in a 20% increase in vehicle emissions. Moreso, there are public health consequences for some people with higher emissions. Lastly, the best speed for economy for most vehicles is about 32 miles per hour. Above that, parasitic air drag begins to manifest. But most of the speed limits are below that.
I for one am sick of PBOT experimenting on me and my car. SE Division, once an important thoroughfare, is now a place to be avoided. The city could have just installed more lights and limited some left and right turns. PBOT is more properly called the Department of Traffic Jams.
Well, we need to enforce out traffic laws somehow. Right now people know there is essentially no traffic enforcement in Portland and drive accordingly. We definitely need to fully restore our PPB traffic division but just allowing anarchy on the roads is not working well for Portland. I'm all for cameras in ADDITION to police enforcement.