The painful rule of thumb is this: Everyone who rides a bike in Portland will crash once on the streetcar tracks. Just once, but always once. After that, you approach the tracks with caution. (My own wipe out occurred at rush hour in the Pearl and garnered genuine looks of horror from passing shoppers. NEVER AGAIN.)
The streetcar is usually lumped in with bikes as alternative transportation that people who want more and greener options for getting around the city should support. But as streetcar loop construction begins this week in the Lloyd District, disrupting major bike routes on Broadway and Weidler, some bike activists and riders are bringing up the point that laying 3.3 more miles streetcar tracks will turn 3.3 more miles of roads into hazards for bikes. Should people who get around mostly by bike be against streetcar expansion?
The streetcar is usually lumped in with bikes as alternative transportation that people who want more and greener options for getting around the city should support. But as streetcar loop construction begins this week in the Lloyd District, disrupting major bike routes on Broadway and Weidler, some bike activists and riders are bringing up the point that laying 3.3 more miles streetcar tracks will turn 3.3 more miles of roads into hazards for bikes. Should people who get around mostly by bike be against streetcar expansion?
On the one hand, the streetcar makes neighborhoods better for walking, which can slow down traffic and make streets safer for bikes. It also keeps some people from driving for short trips, which means less cars on the road. On the other hand, the tracks! The terrible tracks!
Earlier this month, fledgling local transit advocacy group Active Right of Way (AROW) put together a list of immediate requests to fix safety problems for bikes on the new streetcar loops, including lack of signage of track-crash potential on the new NW Lovejoy tracks and that the new Eastside tracks will lead to wheel entrapment and slipping.
Maps of the bike detours for streetcar construction and more thoughts on this below the cut!