On Wednesday the Portland Mercury blog reported that some TriMet operators have released a petition calling for a reconsideration of bike access in the Rose Quarter. (Also see the BikePortland.org story on the operators' concerns.)

Bus operators' concerns about sharing Wheeler St. with bicyclists - as well as MAX trains, pedestrians and other buses - are absolutely legitimate, and I don't have any doubt that they are acting out of concern for everyone's safety. Since the death of Austin Miller in a crash with a TriMet bus early this year, the agency and operators have made a very strong push to improve operations around bicyclists and to reduce points of conflict where such a crash might tragically occur again.

I also know that, because it is illegal to ride a bike through the Rose Quarter Transit Center today, and because there is no designated bike lane or signal on NE Wheeler, those bicyclists who do ride through the Transit Center add an element of unpredictability that compromises any operator's power to be careful and prevent a crash on that street. Rampant jaywalking by pedestrians hurrying to make a train must be similarly frustrating and scary for operators. And surely those pedestrians are themselves sometimes scared by a bicyclist appearing unexpectedly or riding on the sidewalks.

Operators see people do crazy, reckless things every day, so I am sure that they can imagine such bad behavior increasing, not decreasing, if bicycle passage is allowed through the Rose Quarter Transit Center. And for those operators who do not ride a bike in Portland, it may be hard to imagine that just 1.5 blocks of bike lane could be very important to a great number of people.

But making a bike connection among the Springwater Corridor, the Central Eastside, the Lloyd District and routes to North Portland (where the number of people biking has been increasing faster than anywhere else in the city) is a very high priority for the BTA and has been for years (see our 2005 Blueprint for Better Bicycling).

Why? Because the two existing routes from the Esplanade to N Williams are awful. They don't serve anyone but the hardiest, nerviest Portlanders, in a place where tourists, young people, old people, timid people and families should have safe and easy connections to the city's attractions.

Northwest on Interstate, then northeast on Multnomah, then north on Wheeler

For northbound bike traffic, besides being indirect and uphill, which are minor concerns, this route involves multiple acute-angle track crossings, and requires people to merge across two lanes of car traffic and then wait with their left arm stuck out (but not too far, or someone's side view mirror will whack it off) in the middle of the intersection to make the left turn off Multnomah and on to Wheeler.

For southbound bike traffic, the same route requires people to bike hurriedly in the crosswalk (where they are legally required to proceed at "walking speed") across Interstate and then back themselves and their bicycles up into the Interstate bike lane just as the traffic light turns green and car traffic surges around - and hopefully not into - them. Attempts to evade this awkward, dangerous and inadvertently illegal part of the route leads bicyclists into a bird's nest of MAX tracks.

The crosswalk-trap on the southbound Rose Quarter bike route

Few people are comfortable making the kinds of maneuvers by bike that this route requires.

East on Oregon St, north on 1st Ave, then west on Multnomah
This route is even worse, and only goes northbound. It offers no bike lanes at all, and two left turns with cars in double left turn lanes. It also includes an acute-angle track crossing (where MAX tracks go into the trolley barn) and a merge with fast exiting freeway traffic.

A major crossroads in the Portland bike network should not be challenging and unsafe for bicyclists. It should be intuitive, easy and welcoming.

TriMet engineers and operators, city planners, representatives from the Lloyd District TMA and BTA staff worked together in the spring of this year to develop a solution that would allow safer bicycle passage through the Rose Quarter Transit Center.

It includes:

–Engineering changes (such as striping, painting, curbwork, additional train crossing signs at bike-height, and lengthened signal times)

–Bus route adjustments (removing most of the current bus routes from Wheeler and putting them on Multnomah)

–Planned enforcement and educational efforts to accompany implementation, so that everyone starts off on the right foot

We are confident that this solution will normalize bicyclist behavior and create a more predictable operating environment than operators are currently faced with in the Transit Center. It will also bridge an unacceptable gap in Portland's otherwise good network of bicycle routes, by connecting N Portland, the Lloyd District and the river more safely and comfortably than ever before.

We are very grateful to TriMet for working with us on one of the biggest physical barriers to bicycling in Portland. TriMet staff have been creative and cautious in their planning of the current solution, and they've demonstrated a powerful interest in making these streets work safely for all people whether they are on a bus, a bike, in a car or on foot.

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