ALERT! York Street redesign meeting: Tuesday July 15th @ 5PM

[Winston Lumpkins]

Hi folks, 

More than a year after our report on York Street, the city is having a 30% design review public meeting, on July 15th at 5PM.

Portland City Hall Room 24, 389 Congress Street, Portland Maine 04101 

Official Page for the project: https://portland.civilspace.io/en/projects/york-street-pedestrian-and-bicycle-safety-improvement-locally-administered-project-wins-024105-00-and-026280-10

York Street between State and High is one of, or possibly the most dangerous 2 blocks to be a cyclist in the city of Portland, and serves as a critical part of the only real option for cycling from Downtown Portland to South Portland.  

This will be the most critical moment to be present, and the best chance we'll have of pushing for improvements which are possible. Once they get beyond this 30% phase, it's hard to make any changes.  

The diagram from the official page above doesn't answer a lot of questions, which the presentation may answer, but, it doesn't look like they are considering protected lanes and it does not look like what they are doing will make Park and York safe for cyclists, so it will be important to show up. 

Our report does a good job of laying out what we & the Greenway will be pushing for: 

• safety at Park & York (currently the most dangerous intersection in Portland that I'm aware of in terms of consistent bicycle/car crashes re: dot map tool),
  
• Safety at York/State Street (not as dangerous, but 3 recorded crashes and significant risk to cyclists from traffic continuing onto York)
• protected infrastructure for Bicycles entering and exiting the bridge via York Street, and a reduction to 2 travel lanes for York Street: I was very concerned to see an early rendering of York Street in the State and High presentations retained 3 travel lanes, making protected bike lanes probable impossible and eliminating one reason to support the 2 way conversion of State and High.
  
• Traffic entering this network from the Casco Bay Bridge should be subdued and reminded, through clear design choices, that they are entering a dense neighborhood where the right of way is a shared space for a variety of users.

Hope to see some of you there!  

~Winston

Winston Lumpkins IV (he/him/his)

Past Chair, Portland Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee
https://www.portlandbikeped.org/

winston....@gmail.com
207-408-1508

• 
  

[Zack Barowitz]

Thanks Winston. Looks like you are calling for a show of force, or at least a good showing from PBPAC. Is there anything we ought to do to prepare? I can print out a few reports to hand to the consultant (who is the consultant) and other stakeholders.

Zack

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[Emma Holder]

In my calendar. I’ll try to be there -  probably a bit late) 

Emma

Emma Holder

207.415.7204

Http://emmaholder.com

Humankind. Let's be both. 

On Jul 8, 2025, at 07:39, Zack Barowitz <zbar...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/PBPAC/CAE741VC7r5W29dimXMrBi3my0Ztx-Mm8%3DHrVrwghRejRkLP9hg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Christian MilNeil]

On the right side of that webpage, under "supporting documents," you can download detailed engineering plans.

And they look like a *huge* improvement. Some highlights:

• Raised sidewalk-level cycle tracks on both sides of the street. 
• 10 foot travel lanes to slow down traffic (current street has 11-12+ foot lanes)
• A new crosswalk at Park Street with a median refuge island
• A tighter corner at York and Park which should reduce right-hook risks to bike and pedestrian traffic

It also looks like this would be coordinated with two-way State and High Streets, with only one eastbound lane on York Street coming off of the bridge. 

Screenshots:

Christian MilNeil
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

On Mon, Jul 7, 2025 at 6:51 PM Winston Lumpkins <winston....@gmail.com> wrote:

[winston.lumpkins]

So, interestingly, there's a lot more info on that page than there was last night, a lot more.

The supporting documents where not there last night, nor where the pictures below- there was another diagram, which I think was just the scope of the project, which did not seem good at all- it looked like bike painted bike lanes and new sidewalks, with the only changes at Park being ADA sidewalk ramps.  Really worth taking another look: 

https://portland.civilspace.io/en/projects/york-street-pedestrian-and-bicycle-safety-improvement-locally-administered-project-wins-024105-00-and-026280-10

• I still have VERY real concerns about the right hook risk on the inbound section as it goes by Park, (which has happened, that we know of, 9 times since 2010, and I can't find another single point where that many crashes happened in Portland- State and York has 2, High and York 3 for comparison) Park is 3x more dangerous than State and high... 
  Yes, the turning radius is reduced, but, there is insufficient space for a turning car to stop while turning if it notices a bicycle at the last minute without getting rear ended.  A common feature of protected bike lanes is protected intersections- the attached picture is from this web page, which I'm using just for the pic really.  
• I am of the opinion that grade separated bicycle faculties, be they multi use paths or bike lanes like these, should have raised crossings at non-signalized intersections, though, a corner island might be warranted for park and maybe makes the raised crossing unnecessary?  Bikes will be going fast, and have the right of way- the separation is only going to increase bike traffic and make it feel safer.  There needs to be something so that cars chill and don't hurt anyone.  A bit of a jig or Jog like the bike lane in that corner island pic has might help slow bikes too!  
• I don't understand why they are keeping 3 lanes all the way through, swapping them from side to side.  That seems erratic and maybe not a good idea.  I am not convinced they are needed and for one thing, that will necessitate the removal of street trees on York between High and Park. For another, it will require the frequent repaving of another lane width of pavement, which is not free or carbon neutral. 

[John Clark]

Hi folks, wanted to share some notes I took from the meeting last Tuesday, apologies they aren't out further in advance of tonight's meeting: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VPrJvSjKfAvVsvU662S6vBaaTsvLfzo0wNGs2QASnBY/edit?usp=sharing

Overall, the design team seemed to be receptive to the improvements suggested by PBPAC-adjacent folks. The city has opened an online public comment form on the project page for additional comments if people wanted to chime in: https://portland.civilspace.io/en/projects/york-street-pedestrian-and-bicycle-safety-improvement-locally-administered-project-wins-024105-00-and-026280-10