Outer SE Portland Sidewalk Projects Open House

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

5:30-7:30 PM

Ron Russell Middle School Commons Area,

3955 SE 112th Ave

The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) and the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) are both hosting open houses on seven upcoming sidewalk projects in  East Portland on Wednesday, June 5, 2013 at Ron Russell Middle School.

The PBOT open house will cover the following sidewalk projects: 

The Bureau will also build new curb ramps and rebuild driveway aprons to make these new sidewalks accessible to all. Together, the projects will fill more than seven miles of gaps where sidewalks are missing.

Please come to the open house anytime between 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. to see plans and maps, learn more about construction, talk to staff, and provide feedback.

See the Open House Flyer here.

ODOT - Outer SE Powell Safety Improvement Project (SE 116th Ave - SE 174th Ave)

ODOT is concurrently hosting a pre-construction open house for the Outer Powell Safety Improvement Project, also at Ron Russell School. This event is open to the public and will provide updated information on the project prior to the construction phase which kicks off in July of this year.

For more information on the PBOT sidewalk projects:

www.portlandonline.com/transportation/sidewalkprojects

April Bertelsen

503-823-6177

April.Bertelsen@portlandoregon.gov

For more information on the ODOT Outer SE Powell Safety Project:

www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/REGION1/Pages/outerpowellsafety.aspx

Shelli Romero

503-731-8231

shelli.romero@odot.state.or.us

Background:

This week, we provide a snapshot of the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) Active Transportation Division’s work in 2012. Previously we recapped the Division’s work on safety and bicycling.

PBOT is a dynamic partner in planning, building, maintaining, and managing the transportation system with hundreds of businesses, community organizations, governmental agencies, and Portland residents.  This past year, PBOT’s Active Transportation Division worked with over 500 governmental, faith-based, private, and non-profit organizations to move Portland towards a safer, healthier, and more equitable and responsive transportation system. 

Sunday Parkways
Sunday Parkways is Portland’s signature active transportation event. Approximately 103,000 Portland area residents and visitors walked, biked, jogged, and rolled during the five Sunday Parkways in 2012. PBOT relies heavily on its sponsoring partners, such as Kaiser Permanente, Universal Cycles, 565 individual donors, local businesses, community organizations, and individual volunteers to help fund, promote and execute these major community events.

The five events required significant volunteer support on the day of the events as well as organizing the community prior to the events. Sunday Parkways engaged approximately 886 volunteers with 4,773 volunteer hours. This represents a jump of 36% volunteer hours over the previous successful year.

Volunteers are recruited, managed and trained by Good Sport Promotion, Inc. in close coordination and with resources from Active Transportation. Other businesses and community organizations provide a significant number of volunteers for activities in the parks and along the routes. These volunteers are not included in these estimates of volunteers who make Portland Sunday Parkways a success. For more information, see the full 2012 Sunday Parkways Final Report.

Safe Routes to School
PBOT’s Safe Routes to School advocates for and implements programs and projects that make walking and biking around Portland’s neighborhoods and schools fun, easy, safe, and healthy for all students and families. Now working with 80 schools in the greater Portland area, Safe Routes to School educates students on safe walking and biking skills and works with parents and school staff to implement activities that encourage safe and healthy transportation habits. 

Safe Routes to School leverages its work through partnerships with parents, teachers, schools and community and health organizations. These 105 partnerships include:

• Partnering with parents to encourage walking and biking activities at schools – Safe Routes assisted parents with sustaining and/or creating approximately 27 groups of students and parents that either walk or bike to school on set days from designated spots. These walk and Bike activities are parent led and take place throughout the school year.
• Partnering with schools to educate students on safe walking and biking skills.

Safe Routes to School partners with 40 schools a year to provide hands-on, on-the-street training to 2nd and 4th/5th graders on how to safely cross the street and navigate their neighborhoods by bike. Over 5,000 students benefited from these trainings in 2012.

• Celebrating Walk/Bike Challenge Month and International Walk and Bike to School Day  – In conjunction with the Safe Routes contractor, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, 42 Portland elementary schools participated in the 2012 Walk/Bike Challenge Month. This statewide challenge encourages students and parents to walk, bike, skate or roll to school during the month of May.  For the eighth year, Safe Routes and the BTA assisted parents and schools take part in this international event held on October 3, 2012. Over sixtyPortland schools participated in International Walk+Bike to School Day.
• Bike Rodeo for youth in outer east Portland – Safe Routes teamed up with the Rosewood Prosperity Initiative to provide this free, fun event to increase bike riding skills.
• Active Transportation Education – Safe Routes partnered with the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability to lead an Active Transportation workshop at  Self Enhancement, Inc. Safe Routes staff helped SEI families identify the barriers and possible solutions to increase walking and biking trips within their families.  
• Summer bike camps for 4^th – 6^th graders – Safe Routes partnered with SUN Schools in the David Douglas andParkroseSchool Districts to run five summer bike camps.  The two-week camps offered 16 hours of instruction to 50Portland youth from underserved communities on safe bicycling. In addition, Safe Routes to School employs two high school interns through the Mayor’s Summer Works program to assist with the summer bike camps.
• Making bike riding accessible to youth at Sunday Parkways – Safe Routes teamed up with Legacy Trauma Nurses Talk Tough (LTTT) to distribute approximately 100 bike helmets to youth in need at three Sunday Parkways events. In partnership with Africa House, Asian Family Center, El Program Hispano and We All Can Ride, Safe Routes provided bikes for loan to be used during Sunday Parkways. Bicycles were provided for the event, and PBOT staff fitted each participating youth rider with a bike helmet donated by LTTT.

Local businesses
A robust active transportation network helps provide economic opportunities by activating street life in commercial corridors.  In 2012, PBOT developed a pilot program, Street Seats to permit businesses to build a temporary platform in the on-street parking lane. The Street Seats program allows sponsoring businesses to use these platforms to add additional outdoor seating along the street, allowing Portlanders to enjoy a meal or a drink outdoors, while further activating the street and supporting economic development.  Community and business response was overwhelmingly positive: 90% of surveyed businesses believe that the Street Seats program would benefit neighborhood businesses, and 80% nearby residents surveyed felt that the project improved the commercial streets’ vitality.

PBOT continued meeting business and resident demand for high-quality and ubiquitous bicycle parking.  In 2012, PBOT installed 593 bike racks, including 17 on-street bicycle corrals. Bicycle parking increases access to jobs, goods, and services while bolstering the capacity for commercial corridors handle higher volumes of vehicles without increasing congestion.

SmartTrips works with Portland residents, commuters, and employers to encourage more people to get around by walking, bicycling, riding transit, carpooling, and car sharing. Through a combination of materials, maps, events, activities and personalized information, SmartTrips has decreased single occupancy vehicle trips while helping Portlanders reduce their transportation expenses.

PBOT continued to partner with local businesses to encourage residents to use active forms of transportation. PBOT conducted two coupon promotions with local businesses in 2012 to tie healthy transportation choices to a healthy local business climate. Any resident that ordered free active transportation resources, such as a neighborhood walking map or transit information, received a coupon book to local businesses as part of the order. Sixty-four businesses offered a coupon through promotions, which reached over 5,000 Portlanders.   In addition, 115 local businesses requested and received transportation options resources for their employees and customers through the SmartTrips Business program.

Other projects
In 2012, PBOT worked with the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles to show safety videos on the televisions at each Portland office.   The partnership model, which ODOT is following to roll out similar campaigns across the state, is an example of how PBOT is able to leverage its leadership in transportation issues to reach more people and reinforce key City priorities.

Read the other progress in our 2012 recap series:
2012 Progress Report: Safety
2012 Progress Report: Bicycling

Background:
This week we provide a snapshot of the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) Active Transportation Division’s work in 2012. The next post will focus on our partnerships.

Portlanders who live in neighborhoods with safe and convenient bicycle facilities are more likely to choose the bicycle as an option for their daily trips. The Portland Bicycle Plan for 2030 identifies the bicycle as a preferred mode to single occupancy vehicles for trips three miles and under. Biking to work, school, and to meet daily needs, improves air quality and cardiovascular health while decreasing the risk of obesity and heart disease. The Active Transportation Division’s coordinates the planning, outreach, funding and implementation of bicycle projects.

2012 Bicycle Projects
Bicycling is one of the most cost effective ways for Portland to manage its increasing travel demand.  Improvements to bike facilities and increasing bicycle network connectivity are two key ways to make biking more attractive to residents. 

Key to increasing the number of Portlanders bicycling is creating comfortable, direct routes for people less comfortable bicycling near automobiles. While Portland’s growing network of neighborhood greenways provide low-traffic, low-speed bike connections on local streets, destinations in many of our commercial and employment centers require bikeways on higher trafficked streets.

PBOT employs buffered bicycle lanes and separated bicycle lanes (also known as cycletracks) to provide a more protected and comfortable space for cyclists than a conventional bike lane. Portland now has 7.25 center line miles of these enhanced bike lanes with 2.3 center line miles of physically separated lanes. In 2012 projects PBOT added separated or buffered bikeways to NW 16^th Avenue between NW Thurman and NW Lovejoy, NE Multnomah between 1^st and 15^th avenues: the eastbound lane of the Hawthorne Bridge viaduct, SW Barbur Boulevard between Caruthers and Sheridan, the northbound lane of the NE 12^th Avenue Overcrossing between NE Irving Street and NE Lloyd Boulevard, and improvements to the SW Stark and Oak Green Lanes.

Some other the key bike projects that PBOT built in 2012 include:

• The Going to the River project, a multi-modal and demand management project in North and Northeast Portland that expanded the active transportation network by 2.8 miles and connects to Swan Island, one of the region’s largest work force centers.
• The 80’s neighborhood greenway, a low-stress, low-traffic route that parallels SE 82^nd Ave from SE Flavel to SE Powell Blvd that connects directly to several parks, schools, and business districts.

Safe Routes to School
Finding opportunities for youth to incorporate physical activity into their daily lives looms as significant health and economic challenge for the country.  Portland is making significant strides towards “thriving, educated youth” as the Portland Plan calls for, by building a safe active transportation network and successfully encouraging students and their families to use it.  Last year's surveys of more than 2,000 parents at 50 schools showed that more than 43% of student trips to school are by walking and bicycling.  Walking trips make up 33% of student trips to school and bicycling accounts for over 10% of student trips - more than 10 times higher than the national average (1%).

American Community Survey
In 2011 (2012 data is not yet available), Portland’s bicycle commute modes share increased to 6.3% of the all commute trips in the city (see, Chart 1), up from 6% in 2010 and 1.8% in 2000.  The Portland Plan calls for bicycle trips to make up 25% of all commute trips by 2035. 

Portland Bicycle Count Report
Each year since the early 1990s, the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) has counted bicycle trips at various locations throughout the city. The majority of these counts have been conducted manually by volunteer counters and City staff standing at street corners and on bridges during the two-hour rush (“peak period”) counting bicycles that pass. In addition to the overall number of trips, PBOT also records the gender of each person and whether they are wearing a helmet.

Most counts are still conducted in this manner, though in the early 2000s PBOT added a number of 24-hour automated "hose" counts (pressure-sensitive pneumatic hoses) on some bridges and trails. These counts, while they do not record gender or helmet use, provide a more precise record of the ebb and flow of bicycle traffic over 24-hour periods. In August of 2012 Cycle Oregon donated to the City of Portland an automated 24-hour bicycle counter to the deck of the Hawthorne Bridge. This counter, known as a “bike barometer,” records bicycle activity every day and around the clock.

The 2012 count demonstrates a continuation of the two-decade upward trend of bicycle use in Portland. Of 150 locations that were counted in both 2011 and 2012 (including four of the bicycle-friendly Willamette River bridges and trails), 67 locations showed a decrease compared to 2011 while 79 locations showed an increase (and four locations showed no change).  Overall, bicycle use increased approximately three percent compared to 2011. The split of male to female cyclists also remained essentially steady since 2003, with 69 percent of cyclists identified as male. 

The table below compares the 2012 bike counts to both 2000-01 and 2011 count locations.

The complete 2012 Portland Bicycle Count Report can be found here.

See the 2012 recap of the Active Transportation Division’s safety work here.

Read the other progress in our 2012 recap series:
2012 Progress Report: Safety
2012 Progress Report: Partnerships

Background:
This week we provide a snapshot of the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) Active Transportation Division’s work in 2012. Later posts will focus on bicycle ridership and partnerships.

Every person deserves to get to their destination safely.  No person should have a higher likelihood of being involved in a crash because of where they live or how they travel and no person should limit their travel due to concerns over safety.  

Pedestrian Safety
PBOT prioritizes pedestrian connectivity in neighborhoods and business corridors.  Safe mobility for all travelers is PBOT’s highest priority and safe pedestrian mobility serves as a primary performance indicator for Active Transportation in Portland.  Investments in the pedestrian network make getting around by walking and rolling a more attractive travel option and provides Portland residents with safer access to jobs, goods, and services, while increasing their physical activity. 

Some of the key pedestrian projects PBOT built in 2012 include:

• The SE Stark sidewalk infill project built four blocks of sidewalks on SE Stark between 126^th to 130^th avenues, providing a critical connection for Menlo Park school students and safe, convenient access to transit for residents in the neighborhood.
• PBOT installed six rapid flash beacons in conjunction with crossing improvements.  Rapid flash beacons bring attention to pedestrian crossings and create more awareness for people walking, rolling, and driving.

Severe pedestrian injuries and fatalities are shown in Table 1.

* Number of crashes that involved at least one severe pedestrian injury
Injury data source: Official crash record, State of Oregon (query includes “Pedestrian Injury crashes” AND “Injury A crashes”)
Fatal data source: Portland Police Bureau

High Crash Corridors 
To maximize return on investment, PBOT has prioritized safety improvements, outreach, and enforcement on 10 main arterials, designating them as High Crash Corridors (HCC).  HCC are roadways that have exceptional concentrations of crash activity. Identifying HCC helps the City target limited resources for improved safety.   State, regional, and City partners have adopted a metric to track progress on reducing fatalities and severe injury on all roadways (see Table 2).  The City is currently on pace to meet the goal set forth by the stakeholders in 2012 to reduce fatalities and severe injuries on roadways by 50% by 2035.

Injury data source: official crash record, State of Oregon
Fatality data source: Portland Police Bureau

The High Crash Corridor program employs a comprehensive strategy to reduce severe injuries and fatalities that include educational opportunities, engineering improvements, and traffic safety enforcement actions in partnership with the Portland Police Bureau. 

Some examples of 2012 High Crash Corridor work:

• In partnership with Portland Police Bureau, High Crash Corridor staff conducted eight crosswalk enforcement actions, resulting in 184 traffic citations or warnings for road users failing to obey crosswalk laws.

• Installed four different transportation safety messages on over-the-street banners at six locations.
• Enhanced pedestrian crossings by installing six rapid flash beacons, one HAWK signal, one full traffic signal, two pedestrian islands, and multiple curb extensions; as well as making upgrades to three existing median islands.

20 MPH Speed Limits on Neighborhood Greenways
In 2012, PBOT made a significant investment in the health of residents who travel on Portland streets by reducing the speed limit on 70 miles of neighborhood greenways from 25 to 20 mph. 

Reducing traffic speed, even by only 5 mph, can have a tremendous impact on the health and safety of the transportation system’s most vulnerable users. PBOT chose to lower the speed limit on its network of neighborhood greenways, low-traffic, low-speed, local streets where walking, bicycling, and neighbors are prioritized.  PBOT sees neighborhood greenways as the backbone of the City’s growing active transportation network, connecting people to places they want to go, such as schools, parks, and area business districts.

Photo courtesy of Greg Raisman, flickr.com/gregraisman

Bicycle Safety
Portlanders who live in neighborhoods with safe and convenient bicycle facilities are more likely to incorporate biking into their daily lives.  Biking to work, school, and to meet daily needs, improves air quality and cardiovascular health while decreasing the risk of obesity and heart disease.   Improvements to bike facilities and increasing bicycle network connectivity are two key ways to make biking safer and more attractive to residents. (See our upcoming post on 2012 bicycle projects and ridership for more information).

Helmet use in Portland has been trending steadily upward since the early 1990s. In 1992, only 44 percent of Portland cyclists used a helmet. Helmet use has been at or near 80 percent since 2008, and in 2012 citywide helmet use remained unchanged from 2011 at 80%. Helmet use is highest in Southwest Portland at 90 percent and lowest in East Portland at 63 percent. Though lowest, helmet use in East Portland showed the highest one-year growth.

As has been the case in every year since 1992, women wore helmets at a higher rate than men. In 2012 approximately 86 percent of female riders wore helmets compared to 76 percent of men.

Table 3 compares citywide helmet usage for 2011 and 2012 and at different locations throughout Portland. Table 4 shows severe bicycle injuries and fatalities from 2008 to 2012.

Helmet use is recorded as part of PBOT’s annual bicycle count process. Staff and volunteers counted helmet use at 216 locations between July 20 and September 30, 2012 during peak commuting hours.

Fatality data source: Portland Police Bureau
Injury data source: official crash record, State of Oregon

Read the other progress in our 2012 recap series:
2012 Progress Report: Bicycle projects and ridership
2012 Progress Report: Partnerships
 

We all want to get from here to there safely. But do you know the Oregon crosswalk laws? Are you aware of your responsibilities as a pedestrian? Do you know when and where most pedestrian fatalities occur in Portland?

Take the Portland High Crash Corridor Pedestrian Safety Quiz to test your pedestrian safety awareness and know-how at www.lookbeforecrossing.org.

The first 500 Portland residents (16 years and older only please) that complete the quiz will receive a FREE tote bag featuring bold safety reflective material. Limit 1 per household.

Be proactive in your safety whenever walking, rolling or driving in Portland!