Last Tuesday at 4:44 pm friends and family members of Austin Miller gathered at the intersection of SW Farmington and Murray Roads in Beaverton to commemorate the loss, and to turn towards the future. The also rolled away the ghost bike that has marked the spot for the past year.
One year ago last Tuesday, on February 11, 2009, Austin was biking home from school when he rode off the sidewalk, into a bike lane and and under a TriMet bus that was pulling into a stop.
This marker, the one-year anniversary of his death, makes us sink with sadness and fear. But it also makes us think back on what we’ve all done in response to Austin’s crash, and what more we should do.
After the crash, TriMet instituted a training program for its bus operators on driving around bicyclists. By last fall, all 1,400 had passed through the two-hour class. When TriMet asked the BTA, “Where else is there bad bike/bus conflict?” the BTA answered, “the Rose Quarter Transit Center.” In September of last year, a bright green bike lane went down there. Green bike boxes were installed at some bus stops around central Portland, and one more (at SE Madison and Grand) is still to come. The BTA taught another 60+ bike commuting workshops last summer, talking directly to that many businesses and about 800 new bike commuters about how to bike around buses (and indirectly, we hope, to their spouses and friends and colleagues). Through a survey to 1,700 metro-area residents, the BTA collected data on where bike/bus conflicts occur and why.
Clearly this is not enough. What more can we do?
Here at the BTA, we’ll work with TriMet and that data we collected to develop better designs for bus stops and bike lanes, and to prioritize changing the designs that are already out there built into our streets. We’ll also be looking at ways to separate buses and bikes, particularly on high traffic, high speed roads. After Portland pilots its first “cycletrack” this year, we’ll ask that it be tested next on a bus route.
We’ll ask that Washington County and the City of Beaverton get serious about low-traffic bicycling routes, with buffered bike lanes or separate paths on major roads, or with connected low-traffic side streets. We’ll look to school districts in suburban areas to change their transportation policies to make walking and biking to school safer for kids.
And we’ll be asking you, the residents, drivers, bikers, students, parents, taxpayers and voters of this region, to do whatever you can, with whatever resources you have at hand, to make this a place where riding a bike to school is nothing to be afraid of.
