Today on his website, Mayor Sam Adams announced that he wouldn’t push for the controversial $80 million Burnside-Couch couplet project that would have transformed Portland’s Old Town artery.
Instead, if the city does move forward a plan to rework West Burnside, it will be a stripped-down makeover more in the $18 million range. Adams’ office posted two draft plans for what the street could look like if the plan goes through.
As I reported this summer, though everyone agrees West Burnside is a mess—it’s impossible to turn left, the sidewalks are narrow and there’s few crosswalks, it’s dangerous for bikes—business owners, transportation advocates, and the city are split on how to fix the street that carries 30,000 cars a day.
Specifics on the plans (plus a picture!) below the cut.
The first of the two draft plans calls for removing a traffic lane on Burnside. On the lower section of Burnside, from 2nd Avenue to Park, that extra space would be used to widen the sidewalk by eight feet and add a buffered bike lane (right now if you come over the Burnside Bridge on bike, you’re dumped into traffic when the lane ends at the foot of the bridge). On the upper section, from Park to the 405 freeway, that space would become parking and a turn lane.
Here’s the shots of that plan:
The second concept, called “Skinny Couch” (like Puffy Chair), the streets would become a couplet, with Burnside carrying eastbound traffic and Couch carrying westbound traffic. But the plan would shrink Couch from two lanes to one between Broadway and NW 14th, “preserving the pedestrian-friendly qualities of the street.”
In strangely related news, arts group the Dill Pickle Club is hosting a talk about the history and community surrounding Burnside next week. Here’s the details.
How important is this versus 128 miles of unpaved roads? http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/Blogto…
The is the second time today I’ve heard about the Dill Pickle Club. I may have to go to that event.
I always see the typo just as I click “Post.” Never fails.
If you remove the Burnside Bridge or that overpass over the I-405 those 30,000 cars would have to go somewhere else.
Look at how well that is working with the closed Morrison Bridge this summer.
Nice article, Sarah.
It’s nice to read an update on this. East Burnside is working just fine now.
All West Burnside needs is bigger and better crosswalks. Don’t make it more convenient for cars – leave that to Beaverton.
Azure, Beaverton is terrible for cars. It defies logic that a City with such a small population can have such terrible traffic.
But back to the matter at hand. The Burnside Couch couplet sounds like a great way to spend a whole lot of money to take one street with shitty traffic and turn it into two streets with shitty traffic.
” though everyone agrees West Burnside is a mess”
uh… no. leave it alone. don’t spend a bunch of money that will make no discernible difference in the grand scheme of things. do wee really need to have EVERY street in the city be a paradise for bikes and peds?
better crosswalks? absolutely. the couplet? no fucking way. #7 has it spot on.
Good, because the one on the east side ain’t going so well. I see at least 5 cars a day hanging a right from 12th onto Burnside.
Who said anything about this being done just for bikes and peds? Driving along a couplet is much better than driving down a 2-way street, because: A) you can turn left anywhere (e.g. turning left onto Grand from the Burnside Bridge); and B) the lights can be synchronized to make it quicker. If anything, peds are the ones that lose out, because they’ll have two busy streets to cross instead of one and cars will be moving quicker.
As someone who actually uses it, west Burnside is a fucking death trap for bikes, and considering that it’s impossible to turn left anywhere along it, it should be a priority for motorists too.
No couplet! get rid of all the stupid couplets and one way streets! and if you want to make the roads better for bikes Take all the paint off of them. when people in cars see car-sized lanes painted all over the road, they obviously think that the road is all theirs.
fix the traffic lights so they work sensibly, no greens feeding into reds.
that would help.
do like new york and dc do, all green at the same time.
that’s the major problem i’ve seen over the past ten years.
and put the bike lanes by the sidewalk and parking lanes by the traffic.
The eastside couplet is a joke. The art on Grand and Couch is an atrocity (if you want to call some scribbled on Tyvec art). The traffic lights on EVERY street are a joke, and a monumental waste of tax payer dollars. And why in the world would we widen the sidewalks on west Burnside, so more homeless could lay their filthy blankets out to block my passing by? The sidewalks are fine. Try a left turn lane or two, add some tracks for light rail, and we’re good to go.