Comments

1
Is Vancouver not part of this discussion? I always thought about them as kind of a bike couplet.
2
I drive N Williams every day (in a car). The cyclist are not a problem as much as the idiots who take 10 minutes to try and park their car in a space they can barely fit, or give up and double park. I think the easiest fix would be to limit parking (at least during peak hours). Maybe let cars park only on the West side of the street, and allow cyclists to have the East side. Outside of some paint and a few signs I don't see how this solution would cost enough to be noticed by us tax payers.
3
I say kill the parking, double the bike lanes, and add an underground garage with a park on top for the growing commercial district.

Then, in the most even and polite way possible, remind drivers that there's an adjacent interstate and 4 lane boulevard and roughly 250 other car-designed streets in Portland.

That sounds a little pie-in-the-sky but when someone gets doored and run over and the family sues, the City may say "gee, guess we could've spent those millions on an underground garage instead".
4
I'm still certain that Williams between Russell & Skidmore is where I'll get my first serious cycling injury, so I'm glad to see this being discussed.

(Naito is another leading candidate).
5
@ Michelle, Vancouver (at least the stretch that I ride, from Going to the Rose Quarter) doesn't really have any comparable problems, except for the area just south of Fremont where people have to go right to get on 405.
6
This is my path from house in North to SE and honestly, I've never found Williams problematic. In fact, relative to many, many routes in SE, I feel relieved on my trips home to be at least on a street with a bike lane.

Issues start, and are contained, around the Tasty N Sons/Lincoln/Pix cluster. Monkey Beat nails the big problem. If anything, I like parking only on the west side for that few block stretch. Otherwise, past Shaver, it's not really necessary.

Let me have it, fellow bikers.
7
I've actually stopped taking Williams in favor of Mississippi. Sure there is a big fawking hill, but the traffic is much, much slower.
/NoPo to SW daily commuter

@Commenty Colin - I'm with ya on Naito! There is a stretch there (around the Hawthorne Bridge and a stretch on Interstate (where the lane gets VERY narrow) where I'm sure a truck is going to kill me one day.
8
Re: left-side bike facility, you say bicyclists would have to "ride on what's technically the wrong side of the street." I disagree - according to convention, it's the "wrong" side of the street, but the Oregon Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan acknowledges left-side bike lanes as acceptable on one-way facilities, and the Oregon Revised Statutes require cyclists on roads with no bike facilities to ride as far to the right OR left as practicable on one-way facilities. So, I'd say that it's not the "wrong" side legally or technically.

That said, I do think left-side bike facilities tend to feel less comfortable for bicyclists because we are not used to them, and I wonder if drivers are as sensitized to looking for bicyclists to the left.
9
This is for the 2030 plan, as in any changes will be implemented in 2030? I don't understand this, but somehow I don't think that planners are capable of predicting the vector of bicycle transit growth 20 years out.

I hope that they will improve N Williams in time for their 2015 plan, or even their summer 2011 plan.
10
@Jessica Roberts I agree there's a technical case to be made for left lane biking. But I also think there's a strong case to be made for pushing bikes left in the name of comfort (for all). Sharing a major right side bike lane with a major bus route is insane and I think bus drivers would agree.
11
I think it is passed, not past, eh?
As in, "We seem to have passed the critical point where bus and bikes work together"
12
I bike on all these roads on a daily basis. I think the bigger clusterfuck is the Weidler/Broadway/Vancouver/Williams/I-5 intersection. All kinds off ass-buggery happening to people there.
13
@McAngry I'm with ya on skpping Williams and climbing Mississippi! I use Vancouver to get to NW in the a.m., but take Interstate to Miss on my way back. I've never had a close call on Williams or anything, just got tired of the endles cars and bikes and playing leap frog with the 4 and 44.
14
{engage Snoregonian comment mode}
It's all cyclists' own fault for going through stop signs, like every single one does every time (even at intersections that don't have stop signs), trust me, I saw one once. Tax them, license them, insurance, helmets, scam adams, crime train, job-killing taxes, get off my land, etc.
{disengage Snoregonian comment mode}
15
I'm prepared to bet that the next significant car/bike collision I see will be at the new MLK / Going intersection. There's nothing there to slow cars down; just giving cyclists somewhere to pause halfway across doesn't make it safe if you still expect them to play Frogger.

@Graham - I thought the new bike signal on Broadway at Vancouver was supposed to have fixed that intersection now?
16
@ Graham, I've never seen a problem in the Rose Quarter bike areas.

@ McAngry/Lorenzo - I would cry if I had to climb Mississippi or Interstate every day. Luckily that's the opposite direction from me.

@ Stu - completely agree about MLK/Going. It looks like it was put in to deliberately stoke bike/car rage, and result in copious rear-end collisions between cyclist frogger matches.
17
Interesting.

I much prefer Williams to Mississippi. Slower car traffic but more cars parking, more treacherous bus navigation (busses seem to drive way too fast on that street), more pedestrians, more pedestrians crossing at any point with cell phones in hand. More dick bikers blazing through that 4-way stop at Shaver and Mississippi.

And that hill isn't that bad. Yeesh, ya wimps!
18
If you have the unfortunate opportunity to experience or witness someone on a bike get doored on this road, you'll never look at Williams the same way again. The bikeway itself works great, but for most of the route, the bike lane encompasses the door zone.

If planning bikeway improvements were a sporting event, this is the game I've been waiting for all year!

19
I travel the bike lanes or Vancouver and Williams daily. The scariest moments I have are when cars coming from the south on Williams try to shoot across Vancouver to the hospital parking lots. I have almost been hit by that process more times than I can count. Oh and of course the ramp onto the Fremont bridge should not interact by crossing the bike lane.

Please wait...

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