Re-design of NE Multnomah in Lloyd District to feature separated bikeways

Posted at BikePortland.org by Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor) on October 12th, 2012 at 10:12 am

Physically separated bikeways are coming to NE Multnomah Street through the Lloyd District!
(Graphic: PBOT)

Nearly two years after an effort to improve east-west bicycle access through the Lloyd District shifted from NE Holladay Street, the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) has begun to implement their NE Multnomah Street Pilot Project.

As you can see in this photo (taken today), PBOT has
removed the old bike lane stripe, and is 
prepping for the new buffered bike lane.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

The project is an attempt totransform Multnomah from a sleepy, wide, and typically unexciting car-centric thoroughfare into a vibrant "main street" with protected bikeways and a more human-centered streetscape that will complement future development.

PBOT has changed the plans significantly since they were first unveiled back in May. They received lots of negative feedback that the design did not go far enough to create high-quality bicycling conditions. PBOT spent the summer tweaking the design to reflect public feedback and the desires of Lloyd District business owners and developers in order to reach a compromise that would satisfy everyone.

From what I've heard so far, the new design is much better for bicycling. Instead of the initial designs that forced people on bikes to weave from a few protected segments into many areas with standard, door-zone bike lanes adjacent to auto traffic, the new design offers either physically separated bikeways or buffered bike lanes along the entire length of the project (from I-5 to NE 13th). The final design also includes bike corrals — a feature that was glaringly absent (and only promised for the future) in the initial designs.

A PBOT design document shows one of the key changes from May's design to the one we have now:

To help people better understand what to expect, PBOT has created graphic visualizations showing two types of buffers that bicycle riders can expect to see: "buffer planters" and "buffer delineators".

You can read the rest of the post + comments at BikePortland.org.