BY KIM MOORE | RESEARCH EDITOR
BY KIM MOORE | RESEARCH EDITORThe Portland Bureau of Transportation is seeking input from businesses on a $5.5 million initiative to create a network of biking, transit and pedestrian trails within Portland’s central city.
BY KIM MOORE | RESEARCH EDITOR
BY KIM MOORE | RESEARCH EDITORThe Portland Bureau of Transportation is seeking input from businesses on a $5.5 million initiative to create a network of biking, transit and pedestrian trails within Portland’s central city.
The Portland Employer Bike Summit is an event of Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oregon and is co-sponsored by the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, GoLloyd, and the Portland Bureau of Transportation.
The Central City Multi Modal Safety Project will focus on creating a network of biking and pedestrian trails that connects Portland State University, Oregon Health & Science University and the Central Eastside quadrant. By 2035, 35,000 jobs are expected to be created in this section of the city. The bureau wants these new employees to get around by bike, walking and public transit.
The city has good reason to promote alternative forms of transport for Portland’s growing population. It estimates it will have to build more than 20 major new highways by 2035 to accommodate the expected growth in people commuting to work by car into Portland’s city center.
“The rate we are growing we will have to build 23 more Powell Boulevards to accommodate automotive trips,” said Margi Bradway, Portland Active Transportation division manager at the Portland Bureau of Transportation. “Our goal is to get one out of four people on bikes to avoid those Powell Boulevards.”
Portland’s population is expected to grow by 280,000 in the next decade, creating a transportation headache for city planners. Most of these new people are aged 25 to 35 and are highly educated. The city ranks no. 7 in the nation in the number of millennials that live here. Start-ups that are setting up in Portland say young employees want to come to Portland because “they want an active lifestyle in the heart of the city,” says Bradway.
Although Portland has hundreds of miles of bike paths and one of the highest rates of bike commuters, the city center still has a long way to create safe biking routes. Many families that have young children choose to avoid biking with their kids in the city center because of traffic congestion. Bradway says these people want bikeways that are completely separated from cars.
Corrections:
This post has been amended to reflect the following changes:
The Portland Employer Bike Summit is an event of Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oregon and is co-sponsored by the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, GoLloyd, and the Portland Bureau of Transportation.
The Central City Multi Modal Safety Project will focus on creating a network of biking and PEDESTRIAN trails that connects Portland State University, Oregon Health & Science University and the Central Eastside quadrant.
