Bicycle Transportation Alliance Releases
“Blueprint for Better Biking: 40 Ways to Get There”
Plan to Ensure Portland is America’s Bicycling Hub
In October 2005, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance released its “Blueprint for Better Biking: 40 Ways to Get There” report, listing the 40 projects the group believes would most improve biking in the Portland Metro region.
BTA Executive Director Evan Manvel said, “It’s time to dream of a better region for biking – not just a Platinum-level Portland, but a Platinum-level region. Our Blueprint provides decision-makers with forty achievable, important projects that will provide transportation choices across the region.”
“We must continue to improve Portland’s reputation as America’s bicycling hub,” noted Scott Bricker, BTA Policy Director and the project director of the Blueprint for Better Bicycling. “Ensuring Portland remains America’s number-one bike city will continue to draw creative leaders, and with them, new businesses. These projects are creative, affordable, and proven to increase bicycling.”
Kevin Chudy, owner of Bike ‘N Hike bike shops, noted “Bicycles are good for the area’s economy and local businesses like mine. As the region makes it easier and safer to bike, more and more are people coming in to my shops to buy bicycles. We need more projects to make cycling a safe, healthy choice for adults and kids alike.”
While the projects run the gamut, Bricker highlighted two trends. “First, many of our projects call for bike routes with little or no car traffic – bike boulevards and trails, mainly. Helping people avoid car traffic is a key to safety, comfort, and getting new people to try biking. Second, we have to greatly improve our suburban efforts. With incomplete connections, bicycling safely in parts of the region is incredibly frustrating, if not close to impossible. Even as inner-Portland bike facilities bulge with overcrowding, suburban routes are often underused and disconnected.”
The top ten projects (in no particular order and with links to white papers) are:
- Sellwood Bridge
- Central City Bicycle Plan improvements
- East-west bikeways in North/Northeast Portland
- Highway 43 and the Willamette Shoreline Trail, connecting Lake Oswego, West Linn, and Portland
- Tonquin Trail, connecting Wilsonville, Tualatin, and Sherwood
- Low-traffic Suburban Routes
- Fanno Creek Trail, connecting Portland, Beaverton, and Tigard
- Expanded Low-Speed, Low-Volume Bikeways
- Enforcement campaigns against dangerous road users
- Safe Routes to School programs
The other thirty projects (in no particular order, also with white papers):
The projects were selected through an extensive two-year process that included a survey of over 900 bicyclists, meetings with technical experts, and meetings with bicycle advisory committees. The 40 projects on the list were winnowed from over 400 suggested projects, and include infrastructure projects, improved enforcement, encouragement, research, and education projects.
Last week, Portland was recertified as a Gold-rated bicycling city by the League of American Bicyclists. The City and the BTA are working to make it a Platinum-rated city. In 2005, City of Portland counts indicated more than three times as many bicyclists crossing Willamette River bridges as crossed the bridges in 1992.
For a copy of the Blueprint, click here or call 503-226-0676 x10.
The Bicycle Transportation Alliance is a nonprofit organization that has been opening minds and roads to bicycling since 1990. The organization has 4000 members and ten staff members.
