Neighborhood Notes

Bike boulevards are great, but the process to designate them needs to be sensitive to local neighbor impacts and other traffic/transit/bike projects that may push local neigborhood streets to the tipping point is terms of serving the needs of local residents versus those of out-of-neighborhood bike (and other) commuters. This is especially true the closer you get to downtown and in old neighborhoods designed around streetcar service instead of autos. I point to the Eliot neighborhood and a proposal to designate NE Rodney as a bike boulevard as an example. Eliot has a total of 4 north/south streets to serve its population. Two of these (Williams/Vancouver) have already been modified for bikes (by eliminated the resident's on-street parking). MLK isn't appropriate for bikes as currently configured (it might be if it has Streetcar on it!). That means, Rodney is the only remaining north/south street to serve local residents with both access and on-street parking. It is a narrow street and adjacent homes are streetcar-era homes mostly without any off-street parking or very narrow driveways. Designating it as a bike boulevard would create all kinds of hardships for residents and hazards for bike riders whowould have to navigate around residents trying to park and enter/exit from blind driveways. The need for such a designation when there are dedicated bike lanes a block away escapes me, but the City is pushing for it anyway.

I think the city is doing a great job with selecting bike boulevards. Regard the prior comment, I ride up Vancouver/Williams frequently and see street parking along almost the entire length of the road. Not sure where the parking was removed. Either way, there appears to be plenty of unused parking. Also, according to the last census (which is somewhat outdated), over half of the households in that neighborhood don't own vehicles. Providing safe and comfortable bike boulevards for those people who don't feel comfortable in narrow bike lanes is appropriate. Additionally, bike lanes are more appropriate for commercial streets as the last leg of a trip where bikes need access to storefronts whereas bike boulevards provide trunk-line access for major travel patterns and local access to non-commercial trips (ie. visiting family and friends, recreation, etc.) I'd welcome bike boulevards AND bike lanes in my neighborhood (Center).. Over here PDOT!