Portland transportation officials released more information this week on its proposal to speed up bus and streetcar lines through congested streets across the city.
The Rose Lane Vision, the name Commissioner Chloe Eudaly’s office bestowed on the transit priority project, will go before the City Council in February for a full vote.
Buses and streetcars are increasingly languishing in traffic alongside drivers in single-occupancy vehicles, and Portland hopes the project will speed up transit and give those riders a faster commute while making public transit more desirable to other commuters, too.
The city focused its proposals on routes that already are significantly delayed, carry more than 1,500 riders every day, and operate with at least four buses an hour in a single direction.
According to a draft map published online this week, the longest projected bus routes bogged down in congested stretches include North Williams/Vancouver, Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Northeast Sandy and Southeast Hawthorne. Shorter stretches being considered include Southeast Tacoma Street in Sellwood, Southwest Capitol Highway near Barbur and inner Southeast Division Street.
According to the project’s website, the city is considering a variety of methods to speed up buses or streetcars. In some places, that could mean a dedicated bus lane, in others, a lane for transit and right-turning vehicles only. Elsewhere, the city could look to give buses or streetcars signal priority at traffic lights or allow buses to jump traffic queues or otherwise get a leg up during rush hour.
A map of the proposed bus projects
All of the ideas are preliminary, and the city stressed that it would approach the projects as a “pilot” if, or when, they begin building in late 2020 and early 2021. It’s unclear how the projects would be funded.
Other proposals, according to the website, could include left-side bike lanes (like those on North Williams Avenue) or shared bus and bike zones (like the new transit lane on Southwest Madison Street on the approach to the Hawthorne Bridge.
The city and TriMet claim those downtown bus priority lanes on Madison and Northwest Everett on the approach to the Steel Bridge are working. They said routes on those streets have all seen faster commute times during rush hour, with several minutes carved out of their downtown commute.
TriMet said those time savings add up once buses move out of the congested central city. For example, the Line 14 bus has seen an all-day time savings of more than 25 minutes, which TriMet and the city attribute to the bus lane on Madison.
Tia York, a TriMet spokeswoman, said the transit agency is “excited by the promise of the Rose Lane Project,” and it’s been providing data to the city showing where its buses are stopped.
“By providing information that shows where our buses are getting stuck in traffic congestion, we help identify priority projects that will keep our buses moving,” she said.
The city also has an online survey about the potential projects.
Here are the upcoming open houses:
· Saturday, Dec. 7, 2-4 p.m., North Portland Library Community Room (512 N. Killingsworth St.)
· Monday, Dec. 9, 5:30-7:30 p.m., White Stag Building (70 N.W. Couch St.)
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-- Andrew Theen
503-294-4026
@andrewtheen
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