So much good stuff in latest North Portland in Motion project design reveals

Major neckdown at N Fessenden near Peninsula Crossing Trail would make dramatic difference in safety at what is now a wide and stressful intersection.

The Portland Bureau of Transportation is putting finishing touches on their North Portland In Motion (NPIM) plan and they’ve just released the final online open house.

NPIM aims to improve the future of biking, walking, and transit on Portland’s peninsula from I-5 between the Overlook and Kenton neighborhoods, west to Pier Park in St. Johns. It launched in 2021 and will likely be adopted by City Council in early 2024. These planning processes (similar ones have been done for east and southwest Portland) are important because they result in a prioritized, clearly-defined list of projects that are shovel-ready and primed for funding. In some cases, the process validates current PBOT planning and they’re able fund and build the projects before the plan is adopted by Council.

These “In Motion” plans have been popular with both PBOT and Portlanders because they add transparency and predictability to the planning process. They also take a network-level view of what needs to be done to make the system (not just one location) safe, which makes each project easier to justify in the case of pushback (as in, “I hear you, but this is part of North Portland in Motion, which went through a comprehensive outreach process and was adopted by City Council, so we’re going to do it even if you don’t like it.”)

As we’ve shared in previous NPIM updates, PBOT gathered community feedback and categorized projects in three different types of projects: neighborhood greenways, corridor improvements, and “plazas & places to connect.” Each set of projects is then prioritized into tier 1 or tier 2.

This week PBOT released detailed, updated project overviews and drawings for seven greenway projects and nine corridor projects. You should definitely check the online open house and click through each one. And/or you can check a few highlights below:

Circulation changes at St. Johns Bridgehead: This project would prohibit and divert some traffic on bridge frontage roads in an effort to drastically reduce cut-through traffic. This would have a major impact on bicycling since so many people use these roads to get on and off the bridge.

New greenway on N. Burr: This project would create a north-south connection from Willamette Blvd (at Cathedral Coffee) all the way to George Middle School on Columbia Blvd.

Kenton Park: As part of an extension of the greenway network, PBOT wants to expand the existing median island at the junction of N Kilpatrick/Halleck streets and N Delaware Ave and prohibit drivers on the slip lane at the southwest corner of the park.

Strengthen N Ainsworth greenway: Already a very popular bike route, PBOT knows there are way too many drivers on Ainsworth between Vancouver and Willamette. They’re considering two diversion plans to force drivers off Ainsworth and onto larger streets like Rosa Parks Way and Killingsworth. The first option would extend the parkway on N Omaha across Ainsworth and create a new culdesac that allows only non-drivers to pass through. The other option would create alternative one-ways for drivers on Ainsworth, but maintain bi-directional bike lanes.

Bike access to Cathedral Park: PBOT wants to make it easier to access this popular park from Willamette by striping 9-inch buffered bike lanes on the uphill directions of N Richmond and Baltimore and eventually make bike-friendly changes to N Crawford where it goes through the park near the Willamette River.

Cross-section of N Willamette between Ida and Richmond.

Protected bike lanes on N Willamette: PBOT has a major, federally-funded plan for protected bike lanes on Willamette from Rosa Parks to Richmond. But since it won’t be done until 2026, they want to get bike lanes on the ground next year where they don’t exist today between N Ida (Fred Meyer turnoff) and Richmond. The lanes would be 8-feet wide (five for riding and a three-foot buffer) and would take the place of existing on-street car parking.

Safer Fessenden: PBOT wants to neck down the wide intersection at N Fessenden and Wall and reduce the crossing distance by 75%. This safer design would calm traffic and make it much safer to access the nearby Peninsula Crossing Trail.

New bike lanes on N Alberta over I-5!: From PBOT: “This project will redesign the layout of N Alberta St to provide a separated, comfortable bike lane connection between N Interstate Ave and the N Michigan Ave Neighborhood Greenway. Furthermore, this project would add bike boxes and no-turn-on-red at the signalized intersection at N Interstate Ave to reduce conflicts and improve pedestrian and bike safety.” Boom! Yes!

These are just a sampling of the intriguing projects that are part of NPIM. Please visit the online open house and let PBOT know your feedback. They are accepting comments through January 31st.