There are extra adjustments afoot on NE seventh as a part of the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s Lloyd to Woodlawn Neighborhood Greenway mission. When PBOT started planning this greenway mission, they determined to construct it on NE ninth as a substitute of NE seventh like many advocates hoped for. However PBOT has made some adjustments to seventh regardless that it gained’t be an official greenway avenue.
After ending up the hotly contested remedies on the NE seventh and Tillamook intersection final fall, PBOT is transferring onto different stretches of seventh. And one of many remedies they’re attempting out in hopes of lowering automotive visitors speeds might increase some eyebrows amongst critics of on-street parking.
With a purpose to scale back automotive visitors speeds exterior Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary Faculty, PBOT has added avenue parking to the west aspect of NE seventh between Alberta and Prescott the place it beforehand wasn’t allowed. On-street parking has been proven to cut back driving speeds by narrowing a avenue — when automobiles are parked on both aspect of a avenue, there’s much less room for by means of automotive visitors to cross, forcing folks in automobiles to decelerate.
However on-street parking creates different issues, too. A line of parked automobiles creates a visibility barrier between folks utilizing the sidewalk and automotive drivers, and extra avenue parking additionally will increase the chance of a motorbike rider getting “doored” by somebody getting out of their automotive. The extra, free parking additionally might incentivize extra folks to drive on this stretch of NE seventh.
These security considerations are particularly pertinent contemplating the proximity of an elementary faculty to this avenue. However PBOT says the extra automotive parking will likely be useful for visitors calming, and the visibility concern gained’t be a problem as a result of they’ve eliminated parking close to the intersections on NE seventh to make sure individuals are clearly seen when on the point of cross the road.
PBOT at the moment has different plans within the works that may scale back on-street parking, just like the plan to construct a protected bike lane on NE Skidmore close to Wilshire Park. They’re additionally an initiative to plant bushes within the curb zone, which has all of the visitors calming advantages of avenue parking with out the automobiles. There are lots of methods PBOT makes an attempt to cut back automotive driving speeds apart from opening up more room to automobiles, so this looks like a missed alternative to strive one thing else.
One other side of this mission is the elimination of the middle line striping on seventh from Alberta all the way in which south to NE Schuyler, simply north of the Lloyd neighborhood. That is one other tactic to advertise slower automotive visitors speeds: analysis has proven that eradicating centerlines makes folks extra hesitant and cautious about how briskly they’re driving.
Based on PBOT, NE seventh will even quickly be outfitted with upgraded lighting at a number of intersections, and new lighting will even be put in at a number of intersections on NE ninth in between Prescott and Ainsworth streets. This will likely be executed inside the subsequent few weeks.
Proper now, it’s exhausting to inform how the adjustments on NE seventh will impression the sensation on the road. Once I rolled over there earlier as we speak, there weren’t a number of automobiles within the new parking lot, so I wasn’t in a position to get a way of how it will really feel if all of the spots had been utilized. However within the locations the place the middle line striping has been eliminated, seventh does already really feel extra like a neighborhood avenue and fewer like a busy throughway. It’s very fascinating how somewhat little bit of paint (or an absence thereof) could make a distinction.
All of that is a part of section 1 of implementing the Lloyd to Woodlawn Neighborhood Greenway mission. As soon as the primary section is full, PBOT hopes to start work on the following spherical of plans for the greenway mission development, however this second section is at the moment unfunded.
Taylor has been BikePortland’s employees author since November 2021. She has additionally written for Avenue Roots and Eugene Weekly. Contact her at taylorgriggswriter@gmail.com
