Credit: That's Lloyd Blvd on the left, intersecting 12th Ave as it crosses the freeway.

Three big bike and pedestrian projects around town are finally rolling forward. The big news last week was that the city got $3 million from the state to help pay for improvements on SE 122nd and Swan Island. The transportation bureau also unveiled details plan to fix the incredibly awkward intersection where NE Lloyd Blvd meets NE 12th Ave.

Here’s the rundown.

NE 12th Avenue
The clusterfuck where 12th Avenue crosses I-84 is reason enough for the cyclist slogan, “Avoid the Lloyd.” It’s one of the five streets slated for bike improvements under the 2030 Bike Plan that City Council passed last year. BikePortland posted a sneak peak of the street changes that will be presented at an open house next Thursday at Calaroga Terrace (1400 NE 2nd Ave). Snapshot:

Thats Lloyd Blvd on the left, intersecting 12th Ave as it crosses the freeway.
  • That’s Lloyd Blvd on the left, intersecting 12th Ave as it crosses the freeway.

I think it looks pretty good… though confusing because the improvements would have cyclists hop up on the sidewalk (which instantly becomes, not a sidewalk, but a “shared use path”) to cross the freeway. It’s something a lot of people already do when they’re riding across the bridge, but I doubt everyone will get it.

Swan Island
The shipyards on Swan Island employee hundreds of people who already get around by bike while on the job—some of the yards ban workers from driving the distance between buildings, so it’s home to this surprising assortment of grizzled blue collar boilermakers biking around all day. We did a profile of two biking boilermakers back in June, here’s the awesome photo:

Dock2-570.jpg

Anyway, the state is covering $2 million of the $2.3 million cost of making the route to the shipyards safer for people on bikes or on foot. The other $240,000 is coming from the city. The project will build sidewalks along the central route the cuts across Swan Island, build a multi-use path down North Going to the island, and turn North Michigan, North Prescott, and North Blandena into “neighborhood greenways” (expect bumped out curbs and speed bumps). Download a pdf map of the project.

SE 122nd Ave
Finally, finally, sidewalks are coming to this long-neglected street. The state grant covers only $870,000 of the $3.35 million project to make SE 122nd safer for people on bikes and accessible for people with disabilities.

The biggest change will be building a mile of sidewalks on both sides of 122nd from SE Holgate to Ramona (check out the pdf map). The project will also makeover 43 corners with ADA curb ramps and install “Pedestrian Hybrid Beacons” (ahem, “traffic lights”) SE Raymond and SE Schiller that allow cyclists or pedestrians to trigger crossing lights.

Sarah Shay Mirk reported on transportation, sex and gender issues, and politics at the Mercury from 2008-2013. They have gone on to make many things, including countless comics and several books.

6 replies on “Fixing Three Bad Places for Bikes and Pedestrians”

  1. Forcing east bound right turning bikes on Lloyd on to a shared use side walk on 12th seems like folks on bikex would lose the ability to turn left at that next intersection.

  3. Sounds good. This is how I get through this puzzle any way, minus the lines. I would prefer a pedestrian sky bridge with a launch ramp speeding me into the underground conveyor driven bike superway.

  4. Yes, I agree RS, that`s after we all get our “rocket packs” installed in our bikes. For real. It will gain speed and momentum.

    Go Aggro or go Home.

  5. I’m all for these improvements, especially the Lloyd District one. One potential problem, though. Looks like they’re removing a lane from Lloyd westbound. So traffic turning left from 12th, then wanting to make a right on 11th – as TriMet line #70 does, will really get backed up. Unless they’ve got something planned for the signalization to get the cars AND bikes through there safely.

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