Feedback re: Payson Park plans

[Christian MilNeil]

Hi Meghan! I think we met a couple weeks ago at the Dougherty Field playground when our friend Rachel Schlein introduced us – I was there with my two daughters. 

I'm writing to thank you for your traffic-calming proposal for Payson Park, which I recently learned about, and to offer a suggestion.

I often use Arboretum Road when I'm riding my bike to connect to the Portland Trails network that begins at the end of Rosedale Street. And when I'm heading north, I admit that I frequently ride the "wrong way" in order to connect to the Portland Trails network at the end of Rosedale Street. The sledding hill is taller and considerably steeper at the northern end of Catafalque than it is at Arboretum, so it's also a way to avoid some climbing. As you're aware, Arboretum Road has no sidewalks, so I often see pedestrians in the roadway as well.

With that in mind, I'd like to suggest that you revise the striping plans to replace the proposed southbound bike lane on Arboretum Road with a "contra-flow" northbound bike lane on the opposite (eastern) side of the street:

This would still allow southbound bicycle riders to "share the road" to get to Back Cove. On such a low-speed, low-traffic street like this one, a separate bike lane isn't really necessary for bikes that are going in the same direction, and roughly the same speed on a slight downhill, as car traffic. This is one spot where I'm perfectly comfortable having my 8-year-old take the entire lane with me – and will feel even safer doing so after you build speed humps. However, a separated lane would be warranted on a street like this for contra-flow traffic heading in the northbound direction. 

With the current plans, the proposed southbound bike lane also conflicts with the proposed parking areas on the west side of the street. Moving the bike lane to the east side would give you the additional benefit of separating bikes from parked cars and eliminate the risks of "dooring" injuries.

For the longer term, I also want to plug an old idea: in 2000, the city commissioned a park master plan that recommended closing Arboretum Road to traffic altogether, consolidating car traffic on Catafalque Drive, and converting the existing Arboretum Road into a narrower, ADA-accessible shared-use pathway. This would not pose any great inconvenience to drivers – in fact, it could eliminate one of the stop signs in the park. It would also reduce the Parks Department's capital and maintenance expenses associated with maintaining a redundant roadway. 

Thanks for your consideration!

Christian MilNeil
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[Scsmedia]

I like this idea.  I would take the speed bump out of the bike lane since it would have the bollards to keep vehicles from chicaning into the lane to avoid the speed bump.

Steven Scharf

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[Aaron L. Rosenblum]

Meghan and Bruce,

I was planning to write with a question about these improvements, as well, and since Christian has started a thread I'll just do so here. Likewise, I wish to start with my excitement for the proposed changes and to thank you for your attention to improving bike-ped access to and traversing of Payson Park!

The packet materials for the S&T committee meeting do not show the intersection of Catafalque and Ocean. Will the southeast-bound bike lane on Catafalque start at Ocean, or will it only begin with the origination of the southeast-bound car/general lane from the entrance to the sledding hill parking area onward? I would strongly argue for the southeast-bound bike lane to start immediately at Ocean, run contra-flow for that brief segment, and then continue on with the two-way roadway as shown in the diagram of lower Catafalque shown in the packet. 

As a bicycle commuter between Riverton and the Peninsula, via Tukey's Bridge, I most often approach Payson Park via the Canco-to-Murray paved cut-through, which brings me to the T at Murray and Ocean. From the stop at the end of Murray, I find it is much safer to make a left onto Ocean and then a right onto Catafalque than to make the right onto Ocean and be caught waiting to make a left onto Arboretum. When waiting to make a left from Murray, there is rarely ever a car behind me, and any such car has the same stop sign I do, in any case, whereas when I am waiting to turn left from Ocean onto Arboretum there is a very high likelihood of traffic approaching me from behind, with no stop sign or other signalization other than my appearance to cause them to slow down, stop, or avoid hitting me.

Using Catafalque in a contra-flow way currently offers the possibilities of taking the grassy shoulder on the near side of the street or taking the paved, but quite-narrow-to-be-shared sidewalk/pathway just on the far side. Taking the paved pathway requires crossing the top of Catafalque on Ocean to access the path and then having to recross just down the hill once the southeast-bound car lane starts, and often involves diverting away from pedestrians. 

As Christian suggests about Arboretum (and I agree there, as well), these are streets where travel with car traffic on the one-way portions without a bike lane feels less dangerous than on open streets. In the case of upper, one-way Catafalque, cars approach Ocean at low speed as they are climbing a hill to a stop sign. This may reduce the need for a separated bike lane in this case, or may reduce the need for the northwest-bound bike lane to continue all the way to Ocean, if there is not room for bike lanes on both sides of upper Catafalque. But in order for the safer means of transitioning from Murray/Canco/northwest to Payson Park to be completely safe and visible, there needs to be a marked southeasterly bike lane of some sort. 

None of the above is meant to displace Christian's recommendations. I would just add to his proposals for Arboretum that if a contra-flow bike lane terminates at Arboretum and Ocean, special attention should be given to signage or other management options at that intersection, as visibility when crossing from Arboretum to Rosedale is more limited going uphill to Rosedale than downhill to Arboretum due to the pillars, a large tree, and Ocean sloping away from Arboretum to the left/southwest. Encouraging cyclists to arrive at the intersection should not leave them at a dangerous crossing if they are continuing straight onto Rosedale or left onto Ocean. 

Once again, I am looking forward to seeing and utilizing the improvements on my commute and when I'm in the area recreating. 

Thank you,

Aaron Rosenblum

Farnham St.  

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