2012 conventions 2012 election 2013 session 2013 special election arts arts and culture author ballot measures basketball bomb books boy scouts budget bullying business charlie hales children clackamas climate change coal college courts crime culture culture club democrats drugs economy education environment family film fluoride food gay rights guns handguns health health care health insurance high school history housing immigration international internet kitzhaber law legislature lgbt literary arts living marijuana marriage media medicine mental health military minor parties mohamed mohamud movies music native americans news newspaper obama olympics oregon our town parenting pers photography police politcs politics port portland portland business journal president prevention public safety religion republicans rnc romney rural salem sam adams sandy hook schools science shooting sports suicide supreme court taxes television terrorism theater third parties transportation union university of oregon washington wildfire women

I'm a motorist.  And  Bicyclist.  Which mode of transportation I use depends on where I'm going and what I'm doing.   But I notice two things.

(1) Design standards for car-ways are generally excellent.  When new facilities are built, the surfaces are smooth and quiet, the sightlines are good, and attention has obviously been given to traffic flow.

(2) Design standards for bike-ways are generally poor — even when the bike-way are part of the same project as a new car-way.  Examples are blind corners, sudden narrowing of the bike-way from 12 feet to three feet, right-angle s-bends,  and concrete projections in the bike-way.    This is what I think of as discrimination.

(3) Maintenance of bike ways and bike lanes is abysmal.  This time of year, they are coated with a layer of black slime from decomposing leaves.  They will not be swept until Christmas.  Then we will get an inch of snow one morning, and within hours the city and ODOT will be out covering the roads and the bikeways with loose gravel.  Two days later, after the snow has melted, will they come back and pick up that gravel?    No, the bike ways and bike lanes will be full of gravel well into the summer.   This, also, is what I think of as discrimination.  

(4) The worst vehicular crash that I have ever experienced was on a bike, on a segregated bikeway.  It was directly due to poor design and signage.  The busiest bike-way in the city, the Hawthorne Bridge, is a biking nightmare.

My conclusion: we need to up out maintenance budget, and start treating bicycles as real transportation when we design facilities — just as we do for MAX, cars, and busses.

posted 3 years, 6 months ago
view in context