The upcoming Portland-Milwaukie light rail line project is a perfect opportunity to make bike improvements around the new stations in the area. There is a Portland Planning Commission meeting on April 13th. We are looking for people who ride and/or use transit in SW or inner SE, particularly people who ride in the Sellwood area and other more southern reaches, to join us for the meeting.
The Federal Transit Administration is gathering comments on extending the “bicycle catchment radius” around transit projects to 3 miles. The radius usually considered today is 1500 ft, or about a quarter of a mile, a distance catching walking more than cycling. The expanded radius would allow for many more improvements proposed in the 2030 Bike Plan for the area to be considered related to the transit development.
The 3-mile radius would encompass essentially all of SW and SE Portland, but some particularly notable areas are the Sellwood/Springwater area, Reed College, Woodstock, and Clinton. If you would like to see bike improvement in that area, especially if you would appreciate having good bike connections to the new line, then you can attend the Planning Commission meeting and state your support for bicycle improvements and for the increase in the catchment radius.
The goal of having testimony at the meeting on the 13th is to encourage the Planning Commission to recommend to City Council that the City ask TriMet to include some of the planned bicycle improvements in the around the LRT stations in the project to build the light rail line so they would be eligible for 50% or 40% Federal match, which would make it a lot more likely that they might be built (and built sooner).
The meeting will be on April 13th from 12:30pm to 5pm at the Planning Commission’s regular meeting place in Room 2500A at 1900 SW 4th Avenue (SW 4th and Harrison).
If you are interested, please get in touch with our rockstar volunteer Alexis Grant.
