FIRST THE GOOD NEWS: Portland is kicking every other American
city’s ass at bike commuting.
US Census Bureau data released last week shows that Portlanders bike
to work much more frequently than any other major city in the country
and are less likely to drive alone than in the last decade. But despite
being the first major city to be ranked platinum by the League of
American Bicyclists, Portland has spent relatively little on bike
infrastructure in recent years.
The census data shows that 6.4 percent of Portlanders say biking is
their primary mode of transportation to work, up from just 2.1 percent
10 years ago. Of the 30 largest cities in the country, Minneapolis
trailed in second place with 4.5 percent and Seattle ranked fourth with
3 percent regular bike commuters. At the same time, over the past
decade, the number of Portlanders driving alone to work has dropped 4
percent and public transit ridership is up slightly.
The city has invested only 1 percent of its entire transportation
budget, about $2.7 million total, toward building bikeways over the
last seven years. Additionally, the number of bike lanes built in the
city has almost flat-lined during that period. From 1995 to 2000, the
city launched into bike improvements with gusto, doubling the number of
Portland bikeway miles from 114 miles to 222 miles. But from 2001 to
2008, the city has added only 38 miles while the biking population has
more than doubled.
Meanwhile, Seattle is catching up. In 2009, our big sister city only
had 130 miles of bikeways—however, David Hiller of Seattle bike
advocacy group Cascade Bicycle Club explains that since the city passed
a street levy in 2006, the transportation department has poured between
$6-9 million a year (that’s 3-4 percent of its budget) into bikes.
“Our small investment in bicycling infrastructure and education are
paying off in a big way,” Mayor Sam Adams wrote in his press release
applauding the census numbers. But in actuality, it seems more accurate
to say that the small infrastructure investments of city officials 10
years ago are starting to pay off today.
According to Northwest environmental group Sightline Institute, half
of recreational bikers nationwide say they would bike to work if better
lanes existed. Portland’s bike-to-work numbers would likely be far
higher if the city had continued its decade-old bike-lane building boom
at the same rate.
“Should we be spending more on bikes? The answer is yes,” says
Adams’ transportation director Catherine Ciarlo, adding that Adams has
done good work on bike funding. This year Adams created the city’s
first bikes-only transportation fund, which will direct $500,000 into
bike projects annually. While the number of new bike lanes has lagged,
Adams was right on in mentioning education. Since 2005, the City of
Portland has introduced Safer Routes to School, a biking class now
taught to almost every Portland elementary school, and SmartTrips,
which delivers bike and pedestrian maps to Portlanders’ doorsteps.
Recent advocacy is paying off, too. The Bicycle Transportation
Alliance’s 14th annual Bike Commute Challenge boasted 10,553 active
members this past month.
This is a very important article. Thank you for making the point that despite the bragging throughout the city government, much of the work that has been done to get people on their bikes (and on transit) has been through volunteer efforts like Shift, Car-Free Day, Pedalpalooza, etc. There are a few heavy hitters who are (or have been) on the city’s payroll like Mia Burke, Roger Geller, Timo (in the picture), Janice, and Linda. However as you stated, the city still spends 1% on bike infrastructure which leads to conflict points like the Hawthorne Bridge. And in addition there is a sharp dropoff in the bike-friendliness once you get north of Alberta, east of 39th, south of Division, or west of 12th Ave.
Come on Portland, don’t let us fall behind.
I very much agree. People always compare Portland to other cities with regard to its bike-friendliness. And yes, sure thing – Portland’s bicycle infrastructire is unquestionably awesome and fabulous when compared to…uh…. Shitville, Kentucky.
But I don’t live in Shitville, Kentucky. I live in Portland. And the infrastructure here is still, regardess, sucky in its own right.
I think more diversion is the way forward. If 60% of the population say they would bike more, if there was no traffic, then….uh…. invest money in ways to reduce the traffic on certain streets. We’re not seeing this happen enough.
You can’t throw a dart in Portland without it landing on Mia Birk (Alta Planning & Design’s Principle) standing atop a traffic diverter on Lincoln waxing lyrical about how awesome they are. (Traffic diverers are constructed to allow through ped and bike access, but no car access, to bicycle boulevard streets).
But when was the last time a traffic diverter was built in Portland? About fifteen years ago. It’s horribly frustrating, when we could be doing better and putting more of this sort of awesome, bike-friendly infrastructure in. I’d really like to see less talk, more concrete projects like diverters, like bike boxes, like separated bike facilities, like increased bike parking…. on the way.
Well, I can dream, right?
Sigh.
If it helps, much of the recent bikeway miles up here in Seattle are the “Sherwin-Williams treatment” (bike lanes, often in the door zone, and especially sharrows). Our creativity when it comes to other bike infrastructure still lag way behind, our “Missing Link” of the Burke Gilman trail is back in court, and our one short stretch of bike boulevard looks nothing like what you have. And while our ridership is up 30-40% over the past 2 years, we have an attendant increase in bike fatalities, unfortunately.
But hey, if we elect “Mike Bikes” McGinn for mayor this fall, and dodge the deep-bore tunnel calamity, we might actually start gaining on you.
Two points for consideration- 1. Learn from light rail and streetcar advocates. What has been most effective in funding transit infrastructure has been a concerted effort to link transit to land use and economic development. The funding for bicycle infrastructure will never be there until this occurs. 2. Learn from Copenhagen. Back in the nineteen seventies their mode split was comparable to ours. Through a series of policy decisions and smart planning that addressed safety of cyclists in meaningful way, their percentage of cyclist riding is now approximately 40%. Implementing our new bike plan will at best provide a 10% mode split simply because it does not integrate land use in a meaningful way and does not significantly attract additional riders because the network is not safe. To rationalize spending additional money on bicycle infrastructure, we should plan for a system that attracts a 40%-50% mode split. The only way to achieve this mode split is build a Copenhagen-styled system of protected bikeways that connect development centers to development centers. See http://www.ca-city.com/images/news/pdfs/Bi…
ditto what Minty said
Actually the census showed that Portland’s bike-only commuting is at a mean of 6%, up from 3.9% in 2007.
The 2008 data is here.
Oops. It’s table B08301 at the 2008 American Community Survey, http://www.census.gov.
I think its really encouraging to see that Portland is the number one major city in the states with most bicycle commuters. Though I agree that education can only promote this healthy lifestyle. Where I work, I think only 2 of us out of 100 bikes to work. That’s really sad, but I do work in hillsboro and commuting from nobhill isn’t easy. I have to bike 1m to pge station and commute 30 minutes to orenco station, then bike another 2m to the studio. I enjoy the commute even in rain. The two biggest problems for me are the non-frequent trains during rush hour, and there is never enough bicycle racks in the max for all the cyclists. Please, add more bicycle racks in the max! I am doing my part to show my coworkers that bicycling to work is healthy and safe. So please, add more trains during rush hour would be awesome. I hate missing the train and have to wait another 15-20 minutes for one… its ridiculous.
I’m sorry, but my focus is on those that work so arduously to reverse what we’ve accomplished. When one encounters Karlock, Parker and their crew, I think the time for civility is over. We’ve tried that, and for a long time. They’re not harmless. Taxing cyclists is a serious consideration, and it ain’t coming from 90% of the people that live here.
If you found a TEA party digging up a bike path, would you just go around them? That is what Karlock and co. are doing. They can’t take much. Parker’s whole moment of insight was when he had to wait about 7 seconds for a bus to pull away from the curb, stopping traffic in his lane. THAT inspired all his activism. Karlock is certifiably maniacal, judging from his website, http://karlockformetro.blogspot.com .