Portland’s snow plows and protected bike lanes

(Photo: Taylor Griggs/BikePortland) (Photo: Taylor Griggs/BikePortland) (Photo: Doug Hecker) (Photo: Doug Hecker)

We’ve been tracking how the City of Portland maintains bike lanes during and after winter weather events for many years now. Our recent snowstorm has revealed yet another wrinkle on this issue that deserves a closer look.

At many locations around the city, we’ve noticed walls of snow placed across protected bike lanes. The shape of the wall and the placement of them caught our eyes. It’s clear that they were left by Portland Bureau of Transportation plow operators who were running plows along the curb, then swung their vehicles out into the street as a plastic post or curb of a protected bike lane approached. As they make that swing, the remaining snow in their plow slides off and is left right at the entrance to the bike lane.

Given all the bike lane maintenance problems with have in this city, it’s a bummer to see this happening. The good news is that we know what’s causing it and hopefully PBOT plow operators can adjust their technique to prevent it. We are also happy to report that upon sharing these photos on Twitter yesterday, PBOT replied to us:

Our crews have begun picking up these types of snow piles as well as gravel in bike lanes by addressing reports as they come it. Please help them out by submitting reports via pdxreporter.org with specific locations.

(You can also call the maintenance dispatch hotline at 503-823-1700 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to report these issues.)

It’s nice that PBOT is able to respond to these requests, but we really need to get a more comprehensive and efficient solution. We’ve had protected bike lanes for many years now and it’s unfortunate that PBOT still doesn’t seem to have a protocol for keeping them clean and maintained without relying on conscientious people to report problem spots (not to mention that complain-driven systems like this are inherently inequitable and many people will simply never do it).

This isn’t a new problem and there are solutions to snow removal on protected bike lanes used in other cities that PBOT could adopt and use here.

Will you be calling in any locations (or have you already)? How do the bike lanes look in your neck of the woods?