People don't take kindly to having their preferred safe route home from work closed during their commute. Early this morning, an incident under the Burnside Bridge brought to light just such a situation. Like many parks, Waterfront Park, along the west side of the Willamette River in downtown Portland, is closed to the public between midnight and 5am and so, it seems, is the multi-use path that runs through it. Technically, riding a bike through Waterfront Park at 1am is trespassing.

The details of this morning's incident or the fact that users of this facility are hardly ever cited for after-hours use are beside the point. The BTA feels strongly that safe, direct, and popular transportation routes through our cities should remain open and legal to pass through at all times. Waterfront Park, just like the Eastbank Esplanade, the Springwater Corridor, and 82nd Avenue, is an important transportation corridor. Unfortunately, unlike the latter three, Waterfront Park is not required to remain open because it was not built with federal transportation dollars. The federal government, it seems, has higher standards for multi-use trails than Portland does.

The BTA encourages Portland Parks to recognize paths like those through Waterfront Park, Laurelhurst Park, Gabriel Park, and Irving Park as more than just scenic recreation corridors for daytime strolling. They should be treated as safe and healthy routes around our city no matter what time it is.

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