Oh please. Which small businesses are on this stretch of Multnomah again? It's just office buildings, parking lots, and desolate sidewalks.

Be glad the cyclists pushed back on the city giving away those lanes as parking spots for the development types.

Multnomah already has bike lanes. The only point to this is to increase traffic congestion...right before the holiday rush.

Oh goodie, just in time for winter biking season!!

Andrew,

But it does look like they are turning the traffic lane into a parking lane. Ought to be interesting with the bikes weaving in and out at every intersection.

What's next, bike lanes & 1 lane of traffic each way on SE Foster? hells bells, 39th, I'm SE Caesar Chavez could use bikes lanes & 1 lane each way too...no sense in stopping there... how about NE Columbia? might as well do MLK & Grand too..ugh

Look at the bright side. At least you guys don't have the hipsters deciding that the project is taking too long and making their own bike lanes, the way they are here:

http://www.kvue.com/news/state/173690771.html

Again, I bike to work every day, and I fight as hard as I can to make sure that bikes and cars share the road on a fair and equitable level. This sort of stunt, though, just makes me want to smack these entitled little brats in the head.

Are they adding on-street parking?

Interesting way to raise revenue for the Portland Streetcar...

I'm generally not in favor of these sorts of projects, but this isn't exactly a congested street except for when all the government employees go home at 5:00 PM and all crowd into their cars and drive home. If the City really wants to encourage bicycling, it should start with its own employees - eliminate ALL parking for city/county/Metro/TriMet employees, force them to bike to/from work (unless they have a disability that does not allow them to bike - and there are bikes designed for those with certain disabilities), and also require city employees either bike or use transit on work related trips around town.

The ONLY exceptions will be for utilities employees that need heavy equipment for their jobs, firemen, and some police officers.

Andrew "Which small businesses are on this stretch of Multnomah again? It's just office buildings, parking lots, and desolate sidewalks. "

Office buildings are where people work, make money and keep the economy going. And the sidewalks are NOT desolate.

Maybe if you got off your confirmation-bias vehicle and looked around you might actually see the world working.

At least from the Bike Portland story (http://bikeportland.org/2012/10/12/pbot-begins-re-design-of-ne-multnomah-now-with-more-protected-bikeways-78743#more-78743) it looks like on street parking is going in only from Holiday Park to 16th, and only on the north side. The first plan, developed behind closed doors by Lloyd property owners and PBOT, had massive amounts of on street parking with triggers that would cause even more on street parking to be put it. (http://bikeportland.org/2012/05/16/pbot-unveils-plans-for-ne-multnomah-road-diet-71776)

Interesting point about streetcar revenue. I know the city splits parking meter revenue with the Lloyd District. Anyone know how much the district is chipping in for streetcar operating costs? If the city weren't so greedy an shared local parking meter revenue with more neighborhoods it'd probably go down easier in places like NW 21st/23rd, but that's a discussion for another day.

I'm also curious to see what they do about bus stops. This looks like just a paint project so no fancy bus stops that would mean buses wouldn't have to dart into the bike lane, but I could be wrong.

might as well add bike lines, bioswales..i mean drainage ditches & 1 lane of traffic each way to SE/NE 82, NE Sandy & SW Barbur too..

Man the office workers should get off the sidewalks and back in those office buildings to keep the economy afloat. Slackers.

But really, the idea that Multnomah is some pedestrian paradise full of charming small shops being driven to penury by the city doesn't pass the laugh test.

Well I used to shop at Lloyd Center...
I guess Clackamas Town Center will get more of my business now.

"If the City really wants to encourage bicycling, it should start with its own employees - eliminate ALL parking for city/county/Metro/TriMet employees"

Ha ha. You jest. THEY don't actually forego cars and live in 300 sq.ft. boxes. They just somehow "know" that there is a huge mysterious contingent who just loves these things though. No, they don't know any personally, but they're out there.

"This looks like just a paint project so no fancy bus stops that would mean buses wouldn't have to dart into the bike lane, but I could be wrong."

Huh? It is going to go: traffic lane, parking lane, bike lane, sidewalk. So the bus is going to have to dart past parking and the bike lane to get to the side walk to drop off/pick up passengers. (Well at the intersection the bike lane darts back out against the traffic lane, so you will have the bikes and bus darting in to each other.)

I plan on going over they and watching it dry.

"the idea that Multnomah is some pedestrian paradise full of charming small shops being driven to penury"

Just what this city needs is more little shops selling trinkets and bicycle shorts.

After walking down there and looking at what has been done I can't figure out how the lanes are going to be configured... It looks like it switches from block to block. I guess we will just have to wait and see how the final paint gets applied. (Assuming it is ever dry enough for them to finish.)

All this silly talk about how the busses will dart in to the sidewalk to pick up and drop off passengers.
The busses will continue to just stop in the trafic lanes and cause more congestion no matter how many pretty lines you paint on the roadway.

The city says it's doing this to turn it into a pedestrian paradise. Which yes, is laughable. It's really just more kissing up to the Bicycle Terrorist Alliance.

Don't worry, it gets better:

The speed limit on Multnomah will be lowered to 20.

There will be physical barriers (tree pots) between the traffic lane and bike lane, so yes indeedy, the buses will be stopping in the traffic lane to pick up and drop off passengers. (Bus passengers will have to cross the bike lane to get to the sidewalk - but that's OK - I'm **sure** that the bike riders will slow down to let the passengers cross.)

All this silly talk about how the busses will dart in to the sidewalk to pick up and drop off passengers.
The busses will continue to just stop in the trafic lanes and cause more congestion no matter how many pretty lines you paint on the roadway.

Which is also a violation of the ADA (since there is no way a wheelchair or scooter can roll from bus to sidewalk and vice-versa); not that TriMet nor the City of Portland has really cared about ensuring that bus stops meet any sort of minimum standard.

I can't wait for the first pedestrian-bicyclist collision and the bicyclists tooting their horn about how they had the right-of-way, and TriMet will of course bow down to the spandex gang and relocate the bus line to a far less convenient street.

I thought that maybe they weren't going to run buses down Multnomah, but the CoP drawings show bus stops on opposite sides of Multnomah just east of Grand - so they are still planning on running buses. East of those stops, nothing - so I see nowhere for the buses to stop other than stopping right in the street.

The CoP writeup of the project does not mention the word "bus", or provide any indication of how the bus passengers are supposed to safely cross the bike lane to get from the sidewalk to the stopped bus.

The plan contains this howler:

"The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) is developing a pilot project with a goal to modernize NE Multnomah Street by creating a “main street” for the Lloyd District, which balances the needs of shoppers, future residents and multi-modal transportation users. The result is anticipated to rebalance and re-energize the Lloyd District and create a vibrant east-west retail spine."

No city in the United States cares so much for "future residents", and so little for current residents.

Another howler:

"Technical analysis indicated that the corridor could be reconfigured from five to three travel lanes without triggering unacceptable backups and traffic diversion."

As if they cared...

Until such time - if or when – bicyclists start paying infrastructure user fees, any road diet is also just adding to a budget diet for PBOT, thereby continuing to shoot themselves in the foot.