The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners is considering a Conceptual Plan that includes bike lanes and sidewalks on SW Scholls Ferry Road. This would provide a much-needed biking and walking connection from just north of the Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, to Sylvan.
What you can do to help: Email comments of support to Jane McFarland, Multnomah County Principal Planner, at jane.mcfarland@co.multnomah.or.us
Comments will be presented to the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners at a public hearing expected to take place in September.
Sidewalks and bike lanes along Scholls Ferry will improve access between the Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway and Sylvan Highlands.
In addition to accommodating and encouraging biking and waking, building out this Conceptual Plan would help manage stormwater and make future transit service possible along Scholls Ferry Road, where there is currently no space to provide stops.
Questions and comments can be directed to Jane McFarland at jane.mcfarland@co.multnomah.or.us or (503) 988-5050 x29397.
Thank you for taking a few minutes to help bring more and better bikeways to Southwest Portland!
For more details about this Plan, and about the BTA’s advocacy work on it, keep reading:
Photo by Parametrix
Today Scholls Ferry Road is three lanes wide with neither bike lanes nor sidewalks. Auto traffic is fast – a recent study showed that 15% of autos travel at 45 mph or faster (the speed limit is 35 mph, and the road is curvy). Yet the lack of alternative routes means that Scholls Ferry sees ample, regular bike traffic – on a sunny cold January day this year 90 people were counted biking on Scholls Ferry Road.
Multnomah County, wanting to provide safe and appealing walking and biking facilities on this county-owned road, secured grant money to hire consultants and hold public hearings on how best to improve Scholls Ferry. The BTA was invited to join the Technical Advisory Committee for this project, and we sent BTA member and volunteer (and former professional planner) Ed Abrahamson to represent the organization. (For planning documents and presentations, and the TAC roster, visit the project website.)
The challenge to re-design Scholls Ferry Road for non-motorized travel was immediately clear: Not Enough Room. (Some day it will be Not Enough Money, but not yet – this project is in the planning phase, and no funding for construction has been identified.) The road is constrained on one side by a hill, and on another by a steep drop-off; widening it would require very expensive earthworks and stormwater investments, and might even be geologically unstable in the long term.
A number of creative ideas were proposed to squeeze decent bike and pedestrians facilities on either side of the three auto lanes: an uphill-only bike lane; shared bike and pedestrian paths; downhill sharrows; a raised bike lane on only one side; a cantilevered boardwalk; a sidewalk on only one side; and various combinations thereof.
All of these ideas were good given the constraints, but none provided the standard of non-motorized safety and comfort that the County was aiming for and that community members asked for at project Open Houses.
Abrahamson, Southwest Portland resident Andrew Holtz and other committee members observed that, at three lanes wide, Scholls Ferry Road is today experiencing a speeding problem. They also noticed that the center lane, which is meant for slow climbing trucks, isn’t necessary: the same traffic study that documented the speeding problem also observed that trucks heading uphill generally travel at or near the 35 mph speed limit.
This caused them to urge the County and the consultants to reconsider the assumption that Scholls Ferry Road must have three travel lanes for its entire length. Converting the “climbing lane” to a center turn lane in one small section, and eliminating it in another, would provide enough space for 5-foot bike lanes and 5.5-foot sidewalks on both sides of the road along its entire length in Multnomah County.
With this new arrangement of auto lanes, traffic modeling showed that delays for drivers at rush hour would only increase slightly, and the “level of service” on Scholls Ferry Road (the scoring system that many transportation agencies use to rate auto flow on a road) would not fall. If anything, taking out the “climbing” lane might slow speeding drivers down when they come upon a climbing truck going the speed limit.
In May, the project’s Technical Advisory Committee recommended this plan to the Multnomah County Commission.
I heard a story from a Scholls Ferry Road neighbor that same week about the snowstorms last winter. He told me that the road was full of residents taking full advantage of their temporarily car-free street. People walked with their dogs and their kids and their spouses; they went cross-country skiing; they said hello to one another and stopped to chat; a few even biked in the snow.
The plan for Scholls Ferry Road that the County Commission will vote on next month doesn’t quite transform it to a social, active paradise, but it achieves a laudable middle ground: offering safe and continuous sidewalks and bike lanes, while moving cars and trucks reliably. The BTA is proud to have been part of this excellent planning process, and commends County staff and the consultants for their innovative, modern approach to making this street complete.
I fully support adding bike lanes to Scholls Ferry Road. This will not only improve the connection and safety for cyclists, but will also improve auto safety since the road is currently used as a speedway by motorists. Adding bike lanes will provide a calming and less car-focused use.
Wow! This would address a major gap in bikeable roads between the westside and downtown. Now if only we could do something about Shattuck and Dosch …
Paul – no one thought that Scholls Ferry could ever be improved, and here we are with a workable plan. Shattuck and Dosch are not insurmountable either.
If you have time to submit your comments, please voice them to the county – the county relies on the opinions of residents and citizens to justify funding, plan future improvements, and to gauge the success of its projects. Thanks!
I haven’t seen the plan but the thought of bikelanes on Scholls Ferry is good. I live in Bridlemile and cycle Hamilton, Patton, Shattuck, and Dosch, among others, frequently (especially Dosch). I have braved going up Scholls only once but have been down it multiple times. Traffic is fast and often unpolite. I’d like to see the traffic slowed even with bikelanes in place.
This is great, but what about the lack of good bike lanes east/west in the same area!?! Beaverton-Hillsdale highway does not have bike lanes west of Scholls Ferry. Walker Road has no shoulders in some sections! How does someone get safely, preferably inbike lanes, from SW Portland to the Nike/tech area of Beaverton and Hillsboro?
Doug, that’s certainly a challenge, but not one that can be addressed by Multnomah County. All of the areas you mention are in Washington County or Beaverton jurisdiction, and the best thing you can do is to get involved with the advocacy groups for those jurisdictions. I’m sure that the BTA would support bike lane improvements in those areas (I’m guessing – I don’t work for the BTA), but what’s really needed is people who live and work in the affected areas to agitate for improvements to the city council, county commission, and the bike committees for those jurisdictions.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Once something is started on the local end, it’s a lot easier for the BTA to put its support behind it. (it’s easier to keep the ball rolling that to get it started in the first place)
Hello there, neighbors.
As someone who grew up in Raleigh Hills I’ve seen alot of change over the years. I’m guessing the truck traffic you refer to actually drives in the slower, right lane. I’ve been one to shoot past “slow drivers” going 35 or slower by using the passing lane.
As in the past when one road gets altered (take recent Oleson Road “update” as an example), I’m wondering if we will see another shift to other creative arterials and cutthroughs. I saw LOTS of folks on Shattuck traveling at more than 45 mph during that construction time! And there are leftovers from that!
The bottom line for me is – where will drivers go as an overflow issue once you limit their commute to downtown via Sylvan?
You’ve got a fairly good plan in place. As a cyclist I’ve only ridden down Scholls Ferry, and coming up (in Washington County) simply involves heading through Raleighwood, to SW 70th (the sledding hill) to Laber Street, 72nd and up to Canyon Drive to the cemetary area. Otherwise to go over the hill by bike I use Dosch, , the little known sneak through at Hamilton, or Terwilliger.
I don’t see why “curbing” traffic will get us really what we want. Making a major arterial “share with pedestrians and bikers may not be the whole answer. Keep looking please.
Respectfully, Nancy
I ride 50-100 miles/ week pretty much year-round and because I ride in a legal, predictable manner I almost always get respect from other road users. Scholls Ferry south of B-H is quite rideable and has been for a long time. It would be nice to ride THIS portion of Scholls Ferry once in a while also. Reducing motor traffic to 40 mph wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. We all seem much too “busy” and short of time. This attitude often results in collisions with loss of property and life. Collisions between cyclists or cyclists and pedestrians are usually much less traumatic. Perhaps a change on this portion of Scholls Ferry would allow more folks to ride and get control of their weight and their attitude!
I’ve ridden this section of road many times going up to Sylvan or the Zoo area. This improvement would greatly improve safety and encourage more biking.
You might just want to change this posted article and alert all BTA membership to the fact that unless EVERYONE advocates for sidewalks and bike lanes on the Washington County portion of Scholls Ferry, NO ONE will be able to travel from Sylvan to B-H Highway safely using non-auto space. I certainly hope BTA will be persistent and demanding that the project actually include ped and bike facilities all the way to B-H! Your article continues to be misleading about the scope of the Mult. Co. project.