It’s brutal out there. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
The gravel put out by PBOT to help cars and trucks get around for a few days during the storm, has created a massive and dangerous mess citywide: Bike lanes and road shoulders are a mess and millions of tiny little pebbles are creating slip hazards for bike tires. As we work to convince everyday folks to give biking a try, these conditions work against our transportation goals by telling Portlanders, “We don’t care about people who use bike lanes.”
Tired of waiting for the city to do its job and concerned about the safety of cyclists, this is the year Portlanders are taking matters into their own hands when it comes to getting the gravel out of bike lanes. Thanks to an innovative product and can-do attitudes, local bike advocates are leading the charge.
Since we shared in August that nonprofit advocacy group BikeLoud PDX would partner with California-based Bike Lane Sweeper creator Pierre Lermant, the two have become close collaborators. BikeLoud’s “sweeper” Slack channel has 44 members and it’s active with feedback and knowledge-sharing that appears to be pushing the product forward.
(Photo of Nic Cota by Jenna Phillips)
It works! (As evidenced by the bag full of gravel.)
Strip of smoothness. (Photo: Joe Perez)
(Photo: Nic Cota)Lermant and his design and engineering partner Cedric Eveleigh have moved onto Version 2.0 and are currently designing V3. In late September, Lermant and BikeLoud Vice-chair Kiel Johnson met with PBOT Bicycle Coordinator Roger Geller to discuss ways the city could help. They agreed to do run a trial where volunteers leave bags full of gravel along streets, then city trucks come through and pick them up.
Even with new commitments by PBOT to get it cleaned up within a month, Portland’s impressive corps of citizen volunteers has directed their energy to making it happen even faster. After the big ice storm earlier this month, the BikeLoud Slack channel picked up steam and volunteers say the sweeper works great.
Photos shared by users of the sweeper attest to the rave reviews — often showing a lane full of gravel become perfectly smooth in the wake of the sweeper’s spinning brushes. Overlook neighborhood resident Nic Cota shared in a BikePortland comment today that he got a chance to use the sweeper on Sunday. “I got about 5 cargo bikes full of gravel on the small, but critical bike lanes on Killingsworth between Interstate and Michigan yesterday. Easily 1,000 lbs of gravel all said and done. Its amazing how much was in the bike lanes alone!” Cota wrote.
One of the limiting factors is the sheer weight of the gravel and need to off-load it as pick-up happens. That has led to ideas for new versions that sweep gravel to the side, for pickup later by larger vehicles. It’s exciting to see this product working as intended, while its creators collaborate with local advocates to make improvements.
What seemed like a novel little idea when I first reported on it two years ago, now appears to be a legitimate product that could spur a revolution in bike lane maintenance.
There’s a spreadsheet where volunteers can sign up for sweeper shifts. If you’d like to learn more or get involved, check out BikeLoud’s website for links to join them on Slack.
