The city likes Better Naito.
Two years after a scrappy, volunteer-led effort convinced officials to close down a single northbound lane of Naito Parkway for a couple weeks, the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) is about to make the endeavor hardier than it's ever been.
Rather than using "candlestick" traffic cones to transform part of the major North-South route into a bike and pedestrian path this summer, PBOT is planning to install white plastic bollards for three months, according to a March 31 memo. Those are the same barriers that, for instance, wall off cyclists from cars on the bike lane east of the Hawthorne Bridge.
The lane closure is set to begin April 28, and the posts can be removed when it ends September 30. While the project is up and running, though, they're less moveable than the old cones.
The Better Naito idea was conceived in 2015 by the transportation advocacy group Better Block PDX as a way to help people navigate around the festivals that block off Tom McCall Waterfront Park in the summer. What began as a two week experiment the first year morphed into a three month "pilot project" collaboration between PBOT and volunteers last summer. Now PBOT's taking the reins completely.
"After two seasons of volunteer-led effort, Portland City Council designated funds and directed the Portland
Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) to implement Better Naito," reads the PBOT memo. "To this end, PBOT will install removable white plastic posts to delineate one northbound motor vehicle lane on SW Naito Parkway, converting it to open space for the public to walk and bike and roll safely to Waterfront Park’s festivals and community events."
For a few days roughly a year ago, it seemed like the Better Naito idea might become a permanent thing. As part of his ill-fated call for a raise in business taxes during last year's budget talks, former Mayor Charlie Hales suggested spending $1.5 million to turn one northbound lane into a protected bike lane.
That proposal, and many others associated with the tax increase, died when no city commissioners would buy into the plan.
Still, it's clear PBOT is planning to make the lane closure a yearly thing. And because the city can hear you screaming about traffic from here, it will once again be monitoring travel times on the road.
A year ago, PBOT suggested travel times for the first year had increased "between 45 seconds and one minute" during peak travel. In its memo this year, the bureau says: "Previous analysis, including independent analysis by The Oregonian, showed that the average increase in travel time for people driving northbound was less than 2 minutes during the busiest times of day."
You can read the full memo here (PDF).