[9/8/09 update: The BTA has submitted formal comments on the Draft Circulation Plan, largely echoing the themes of this post, and has asked to be involved in discussions about the design of Main St.]
One month ago the City of Tigard held an open house to give residents a peek at how the downtown core might grow and change over the next 50 years.
Around the same time, the City was getting ready to break ground on a new Burnham St. – and decided to rebuild it without bike lanes (at least, they said, for the time being).
The north part of Burnham may resemble the cross section above. Click on the image to enlarge.
Tigard neither borders undeveloped land nor contains much undeveloped land within its boundaries. As a consequence the city has to look at expanding up, rather than out, to grow as a community, and this has formed the basis for their Downtown Redevelopment strategy.
To go along with this development strategy, Tigard is working on a Downtown Circulation Plan. Today there are only six streets in downtown Tigard; in this plan, there would be a dozen or more, plus alleys and walkways. At its core the plan will be about creating a denser urban environment, which will naturally encourage more biking and walking.
The Downtown Circulation Plan is in draft form right now, and is shown as two different alternatives (though elements from each of them could be mixed-and-matched). The major difference between them is the connection of Main St. to Highway 99E. Some of the other differences then flow from this one large change.
In Alternative 1, Main St. and Scoffins St. connect cars to 99W [corrected per comment below]:
Draft circulation Alternative 1. Click on the image to enlarge.In Alternative 2, Main St. ends at Scoffins St. for cars, a bike and ped connection to 99E is maintained, and a new road is added to get cars from 99E to and through Ash St. and downtown:
Draft circulation Alternative 2. Click on the image to enlarge.
To view all of the street designs that go along with these alternatives, download all the maps and street designs (PDF, 32 MB).
Neither of these two alternatives is better or worse for bike access on their faces. The small differences between these alternatives – and some elements that aren’t included in either of these alternatives – will likely have a bigger effect on how many people feel comfortable biking downtown.
On my way to the Downtown Redevelopment Open House I walked down Burnham St., which is today a wide, patched-up road without sidewalks. I was passed by seven people bicycling, mostly teenage boys probably on their way to the skate park. I tried to catch a few and ask them if their parents would let them ride on this road if they were sharing a lane with cars, instead of off to the side or in a bike lane, but they didn’t hear me or followed their parents advice to not talk with hollering strangers.
When Burnham St. is rebuilt shortly, the northern half will be narrowed down to one auto lane in each direction, with stormwater collectors sticking out between parked cars; the southern half will have three auto lanes, but still no bike lanes.
At the Open House and since then, the BTA has shared the following ideas and concerns with Tigard staff:
Burnham St.
In discussions about Burnham St., I often heard about what “The Bicyclists” would be comfortable with. We would prefer if Tigard stopped thinking about what “The Bicyclists” want and start thinking about what the people who are not bicycling today would need to give it a try.
To that end, Burnham St. really needs some kind of bike facility. The justification for having none is that bicyclists should feel comfortable taking the lane and sharing it with cars; but for the vast majority of people (or, in the case of teenagers, for their parents) this is very uncomfortable. City staff explain that the Burnham St. project will include stormwater basins that leave little space in the middle of the road for anything but two auto lanes, and that it’s too late to change it; the southern half will have a center turn lane for cars, but still no bike lanes.
We’ve recommended that the northern half have, at the very least, sharrows showing people where bikes can be expected to ride on the road. Tigard staff has so far been receptive to the idea. We will also recommend that the southern half have bike lanes instead of a center turn lane.
Ash St. and the Fanno Creek Trail
The closest connection from the Fanno Creek Trail to downtown would be via Ash St. – but in neither of the alternatives does Ash St. have a bike facility. The trail is envisioned as a major conduit to downtown for people on bikes so there absolutely must be a bike lane, trail or track from Fanno Creek into downtown. Ash St. could be a gateway, not a barrier.
Main St. Green Street
Main St. has not yet been designed, but its major feature is already evident – it will be a green street. And as we’ve seen with Burnham St., green stormwater treatments can sometimes get in the way of green transportation facilities. The other competing needs on Main St. are car parking and left turn lanes. Fitting all these elements into Main St. will take some creativity, but we’re sure it can be done. Tigard staff are working on it now, and the BTA has asked for a seat at the table. After all, no street could be “greener” than the street that lets people leave their cars at home!
Little alleys and bike- and walkways
Click on the image to enlarge.
Either alternative could include a network of little alleys and bikeways and walkways. If built out, these will be great places for kids to play on their bikes downtown, and for people to make that last-block connection to their destination by bike (perhaps avoiding a busier street or a left turn). If there’s any one thing that will make Tigard biking and walking friendly in the future, its a high degree of street connectivity, and these would provide it.
More trails
Both alternatives show a new trail along the WES and freight tracks that bisect town, a bike- and pedestrian-crossing over the tracks just southwest of Main St., and completion of the Fanno Creek Trail. Trails are one of Washington County’s major active transportation assets, and the geography of Tigard makes them particularly enchanting. We can’t imagine anything better than these three off-road improvements in downtown Tigard. And with a supportive City Council, and growing regional enthusiasm for trail investments (Tualatin Hills and Metro both succeeded in passing bonds recently), it might not take that long.
Five years, ten years, fifty years
The development that would make this Circulation Plan possible may be five, ten or fifty years away. And the little alleys and walkways (and yes, even the trails) might get built last, or not at all. Instead of looking at facilities that might get built in 50 years as the bike routes, and therefore building the larger streets in the next decade without bike lanes, the BTA recommends that Tigard make simple investments in downtown bike connectivity right at the beginning – on Burnham St., Main St. and Ash St. – to create the backbones of a comfortable, attractive bike network.
What can you do?
If you’re willing to invest in the future bikeability of Tigard, there has never been a better time to sign up.
The City is working on a local bike map right now, and they need help ferreting out the good back routes and secret connections that make Tigard an even better place to bike. Once that project is done, they’ll set up their first Bicycle Advisory Committee (which has been in discussion for a year), to advise the city on bike planning and programs and to help with future projects.
To get involved in the BTA’s advocacy in Tigard contact me (at michelle[at]bta4bikes[dot]org or 503-226-0676 x13), or to help directly with the city’s bike projects, contact Mike McCarthy (at mikem[at]tigard-or[dot]org or at 503-718-2462).
One small nit to pick:
It’s Highway 99W that runs through Tigard. Hwy 99E runs through Oregon City and Canby.
As for the rest of it: I’ve emailed Mike McCarthy, and dropped off a typed and signed letter at City Hall regarding Burnham St. I volunteered to be on the City’s fledgling BAC, and Mike accepted my offer. I haven’t heard anything about any meetings or anything, so don’t know what’s going on with it. I’m glad to see the BTA stepping up to help out other cities besides Portland, and I’d love to help out as well.
Burnham, while have a really crappy surface, isn’t that bad to ride on as far as traffic goes. It’s easier to turn onto Burnham from Northbound Hall because of the traffic signal, and the traffic speeds aren’t too bad. Commercial, further North, is a better street surface, but hard to turn left into from Hall. Both streets are posted 30mph, I believe.
I’ve never been on Scoffins by bike, but I have by car and it’s currently quite twisty and therefore traffic doesn’t move too fast.
The problem with Tigard’s downtown core is that a huge number of people use Main St as a cut-off from sitting in traffic up on Hwy 99W. That means that all the feeder roads to Main St also see large traffic loads, because people are trying to get around the congestion on Hwy 99W.
I see this City as having the potential to be quite liveable and bikeable… connecting the bits and pieces of the Fanno Creek Trail is a good thing, but creating shoulders or bike lanes on the rest of the streets in the city, especially streets leading from neighborhoods to arterials and on the arterials that don’t have them– that would go a long way to making Tigard outstanding.
Connectivity!!!