Some Portland weirdness

Oregon cyclist Hal Ballard posted this picture in a Facebook group. (You may or not be able to see the original post). You may click on the image for a larger view.

Stott and 26th NE, Portland, Oregon

Knott and 26th NE, Portland, Oregon

Here is a Google Street View from before bicycle markings were painted:

Portland, yet! Well, Portlandia.

Often, flubs like this result from a construction crew’s having its own ideas about design, as in “oh, there’s a ramp from the sidewalk and my 5 year old rides on the sidewalk.” I don’t think that you would find this in the design drawings. Portland traffic engineering has its ideas about bicycle facilities which I may or may not agree with, but leading a bike lane extension into the curb when there is a shared-lane marking in the next block isn’t one, or at least that seems very improbable to me.

it is distressing that this happened, and that the city didn’t immediately correct it.

About jsallen

John S. Allen is the author or co-author of numerous publications about bicycling including Bicycling Street Smarts, which has been adopted as the bicycle driver's manual in several US states. He has been active with the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition since 1978 and served as a member of the board of Directors of the League of American Bicyclists from 2003 through 2009.
This entry was posted in Bicycle facilities, Bicycling, Bike lanes, SLM and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

5 Responses to Some Portland weirdness

  1. Roberta says:

    Looks like they did the same thing on the other side of the street, too. On a residential road that narrow what’s the point of the fancy green paint at all? Put a sharrow in the lane before the intersection so the cyclists don’t hug the curb, and leave it at that. Very weird.

  2. Rik says:

    These are actually intentional. They are calling them “cross bikes”. There’s a good summary on Bike Portland here: https://bikeportland.org/2016/08/02/say-hello-to-crossbikes-portlands-latest-bikeway-innovation-188841

    • jsallen says:

      Uh, yes, but this one dives into the curb. Others point toward parking lanes. Most in the photos on BikePortland.org are too far to the right for a consistent, predictable line of travel, but this one takes the cake.

  3. Jon Niehof says:

    The stop line placement also encourages cyclists to wait for cross-traffic while blocking the crosswalk…

  4. Bruce Epperson says:

    Huh. A traffic control device that doesn’t control anything. So much for the communicative signal to noise ratio. They should try yellow diamond-shaped signs that read “SIGN”.

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