There were a lot of exciting Portland-area active transportation projects up for Metro funding through its 2025-2027 Regional Flexible Funds Allocation (RFFA) cycle, and not all of them were chosen. But Metro has other pots of money to dip into for regional projects, and they just announced how they’ll use $20 million from the 2019 parks and nature bond to fund 12 of them.
The $475 million measure sets $40 million for walking and bike trails. In addition to projects Metro says will center racial equity, the bond measure also prioritizes investments that will make the region more resilient to climate change.
The majority of the 12 projects Metro Council chose to fund this go ’round will fill gaps on existing routes. Three of them are in the City of Portland, and the rest are spread out throughout the metro area.
The three projects Metro chose to fund in Portland are key pieces of our regional, off-highway cycling network that have languished for many years. The NP Greenway Trail project, which recently received Metro funding for a separate gap near the St. Johns Bridge, has been a dream of local advocates since 2005. The Marine Drive path is very popular, but is also very dangerous because portions where gaps exist require riders to share the road on what PBOT considers a “high crash corridor.” As we shared in 2020, this vital path is 75% complete! And The Cornfoot road path will connect to PBOT’s new protected bike lanes on 47th and has been a glaring gap in the network for many years.
Below is a list of the 12 funded projects, with descriptions and dollar amounts taken directly from Metro…
