Easy there. The main road is Tacoma St. Spokane St. is a block north, a neighborhood street, now fairly bicycle-friendly, not a big carrier of car traffic. There are a few intersections to be concerned about, mostly 13th and 17th. But there is a definite need to connect the Oaks Park end of the Esplanade and the West end of the Springwater Corridor for cyclists now that the Esplanade extension, which used to take bikers under the East end of the Sellwood Bridge, and thus avoid Tacoma St.'s incessant car traffic, is closed for some period of time.

Sounds like a much needed bike thoroughfare. So what is the time frame for removing the bike lanes on the adjacent streets to account for the additional car traffic?

Easy there.

You're right, what they did to SW Broadway by PSU is way worse. They took a 3-lane one-way road and when a car backs into a parking space by PSU turned it into a one-lane road right before you get onto I-5.

God forbid, they could've done that one street away where there is less traffic. I keep hoping to find some form of intelligent life in City Hall.

Sounds like a good idea to me. Tacoma isn't good for bike traffic, but the area needs some bike boulevards as an alternative.

So Bike people..lets get serious, just how far do you want to go with all this me, me stuff?

People who have to drive, people who haul the products you need to eat(UNLESS YOU GROW YOUR OWN, AND THAT COVERS MORE THEN FOOD) wonder where are the limits for your needs?

My thinking is, like your electeds, they never saw a tax idea they didn't like, nor a chance to by pass the real transpotation needs a city must have, and not what you want..or demand..GET IN LINE.

PS: Lets stop with these fake handle names..you think it, and believe in it..sign it.

Steve: They took a 3-lane one-way road and when a car backs into a parking space by PSU turned it into a one-lane road right before you get onto I-5.

So you're inferring that when it was three lanes and a car backed into a parking space, there wasn't any reduction in lane capacity?

busby:"Sounds like a much needed bike thoroughfare. So what is the time frame for removing the bike lanes on the adjacent streets to account for the additional car traffic?"

ws:I don't believe there are any actual bike lines on adjacent streets. Even Tacoma -- the main street -- is absent bike lanes for quite a few blocks after the Sellwood bridge.

I'm guessing the homeowners would like a bike blvd moreso than car traffic considering their overly wide road already has speed bumps installed.

People do ride bikes on Tacoma and it's dangerous as hell. It also slows traffic, yes. Having a proper bike infrastructure would actually help control the traffic on that route.

Trucks don't use the side streets, there's no way a big one could even get down one safely. That's a strawman argument.

But what's also not scalable is simply increasing the number of lanes on every street and bridge indefinitely. Due to population growth, the amount of traffic will continue to grow and outstrip demand, period.

Also, many of the people that use this route are people just passing through from areas like Lake Oswego and Clackamas. So do I want to have my taxes pay to help increase vehicle traffic for people just passing through? No thanks. Sellwood should be focused on the needs of the local community, which is very bike focused.

I don't understand how it's "me, me" to save I want my tax dollars spent on the things I value and improving my community rather than subsidizing people using my neighborhood as a race track for point A to point B. People don't "have to drive" as much as they claim and I'm not going to pay for them to do it.

Mitch,

Bless you for defending your neighborhood, but your argument makes no sense. You don't want to spend your tax dollars on streets in your neighborhood because others use them? In that case - you aren't allowed downtown or in NE Portland because you don't live there and you haven't asked to use my streets.

Or did you not know there was a bridge across the river when you moved into Sellwood?

I ride my bike enough that I'm all for peaceful coexistence with cars. But I do wonder about the common sense quotient of the bicyclists. On a Thursday night drive from downtown, I saw four cyclists. Three of them were wearing all black. Stylish, yes. Safe?

Sounds like a good idea to me...encourage bikes to stay off Tacoma...safer for everyone...improve vehicular traffic flow on Tacoma....what's the prob?

"there wasn't any reduction in lane capacity"

Sure instead of 50% reduction a 33% reduction - your point? Do I need to explain the diff between a two-land and one-lane road next?

I think making Spokane a designated bicycle street (which does not ban automobile traffic, it just installs speed bumps and posts signs) is just fine. Better than encouraging the bicycle traffic to use Tacoma.

Now...if everybody is in on this, how about let's do something about the disintegrating bridge across the river that allows everybody to sensibly move about south Portland?

While you're at it...don't be a vector, say off mass transit!

The Tacoma St. bike boulevard is a no brainer, but this quote puzzles me:

"Construction will begin November 16 on a nine-block stretch of S.E Spokane Street from S.E. 19th Avenue to S.E. Sixth Avenue and last several weeks. “We know it’s never fun to be impacted by a construction project, but we’re trying to make the experience as painless as possible,” said Kyle Chisek, PBOT project manager. “We should be out of there before the holidays.'"

What's there to construct? All they do in creating a bike boulevard is paint little white circles on the street (maybe one per block) and pull out some stop signs so the bikes have a non-stop path for several blocks.

We are restricting autos from one street, but aren't restricting bikes from the other. It encourages bikes to stay off of Tacoma, but I'd be willing to bet that there will still be bikes there and traffic won't improve much.

Mike (the other one)

I think you're missing the fact that people in Clackamas county are not paying for the bridge. Take for example the $19 a year car tax levied on Multnomah County residents. So having them tell us how to spend our tax money is infuriating.

Last time I checked downtown is Multnomah county as well, so yeah I do pay taxes for downtown.

Mitch C. is right.

Those Clackamites use the Sellwood Bridge as much or moreso than Multco residents, and they should chip in big time. Either that, or we should build that long-awaited bridge that connects Gladstone and downtown Lake O.....

Anyone?

Guess Gil didn't click the link. There's a green curb extension, a median barrier, some pedestrian refuge islands and some other concrete features on the street.

And I agree that the Sellwood bridge should be fixed now rather than later. I always wonder if it will hold when I drive across it...

"I want my tax dollars spent on the things I value and improving my community rather than subsidizing people using my neighborhood as a race track for point A to point B. People don't "have to drive" as much as they claim and I'm not going to pay for them to do it."

The fact is there are a lot of people who depend on their cars to get around. In this economy you take jobs where you can get them even if that means a commute to somewhere not served (well) by trimet.

Most of us would love to be able to walk/bike/take a short bus ride to work however it does not always work out that way. This hits lower-ncome people harder because they are least able to afford to live in the ped-friendly neighborhoods but are rather stuck in the 'burbs.

When my GF commuted via sellwood from where we lived on SW Barbur Blvd to the old officemax on SE 82nd by Clackamas TC she hated it and would have loved to have a shorter commute.

The city planners need to figure that out and get beyond their cars-bad line of inquiry.

This bicycle infrastructure crap has to stop. Does anyone remember the CB (citizen’s band radio) craze in the 1970’s? Everybody had to have one. The federal government under pressure even opened up more band space for that fad. Bicycling is the same deal. Give five or ten years when the hipsters grow up and young yuppies find another name brand thing to spend their money on bicycling will go away. It will be again for the kids for which bicycling was meant. I mean, come on, is your newspaper delivered by the paper boy on his Schwinn any more?

"I want my tax dollars spent on the things I value and improving my community rather than subsidizing people using my neighborhood as a race track for point A to point B. People don't "have to drive" as much as they claim and I'm not going to pay for them to do it."

Mitch you act like you are the only one who pays taxes. My tax dollar is as good as yours.

Tell me, since you hate the cars racing through YOUR neighborhood, can your local merchants make a living from just you and your neighbor's support? Have you asked them?

Does anyone subsidize any of your activities or are you a wholly self funded man? Did your bike or shoe purchase help build the roads you ride/walk on?

"I think you're missing the fact that people in Clackamas county are not paying for the bridge."

I think you're missing the fact that CoP is doing everything it can not ot pay for the bridge, even though both ends are in Portland. Also, how much is Multnomah paying for Clackamas county bridges Mult residents use?

Does anyone subsidize any of your activities or are you a wholly self funded man? Did your bike or shoe purchase help build the roads you ride/walk on?

Posted by Nick Busby | November 8, 2009 8:05 AM

What nick said!!

So it has only taken 80 years or so to get to the point of arguing about bikes and cars sharing the bridge and its approaches.

Vehicular traffic has priority. Period.
3 lanes each way, side-by-side, top or bottom - doesn't matter
We can spend the next 80 years arguing about which of the 3 lanes to morph into a bike lane once Multco outlaws gas powered cars.

All this time and nobody did a damn thing?
And people wonder why there is an exodus from the center of universal stupidity!