A sign project becomes the catalyst for larger plans to improve biking and walking throughout the city

Two years ago,

wanted some advice on where to put a series of signs designed to help bicyclists and pedestrians find their way around town.

They got the signs, officially unveiled last week. But in trying to figure out the best locations, the city also got -- courtesy of two volunteers and its transportation committee -- a new master plan on how to better incorporate bicycles and pedestrians into a suburban, commuter lifestyle.

The 113 signs, courtesy of a $50,000

grant, will be placed along bike trails and lanes and walking paths to show riders or walkers the distance to other trails and to direct them to parks, food, shopping districts and other points of interest. The signs are green and 2-by-2.5 feet in size.

Unlike Portland, no one will confuse Gresham as a bicycling city. It is a suburban commuter town with streets and traffic that historically have discouraged other ways of getting around. Numbers show the difference.

A Metro-led count the evening of Sept. 8, 2009, found 19 bicyclists during a 15-minute period on the popular Springwater Trail at Main City Park, the highest recording in Gresham. By contrast, a 15-minute count at 5:15 p.m. Sept. 10, 2009, on the Hawthorne Bridge in Portland tallied 272 bicyclists.

Numbers like those didn't discourage Jeff Corcoran and Greg Olson in 2008, when the city had money for the bike signs but needed help figuring out where to put them. City leaders preferred not to spend money to hire consultants to find the best locations, so they asked members of a city transportation subcommittee if they had any ideas. Corcoran and Olson, both longtime city residents and avid bicyclists, volunteered.

"If somebody who doesn't live in Gresham came up the Springwater Trail and found themselves in downtown Gresham, where can we direct them? What might they want to see," Corcoran asked.

But they quickly found out that picking locations wasn't that simple. First they had to figure out where riders or walkers might want to go. Then, taking another step back, they had to determine what bike lanes already existed and which streets were wide and safe enough for biking.

"The signs ended up being a catalyst for figuring out biking in Gresham," said Corcoran, who works as a design consultant for churches. "The sign project is just the tip of the iceberg."

Work under way on trail section, bridge

Gresham is also working on two other major bike-pedestrian trails.

Paving has started on a two-mile section of the Gresham/Fairview Trail from Southeast Burnside Road to the Springwater Trail at Southeast 190th Avenue. Paving of the 12-foot wide trail is expected to continue to December.

And work has started on the pedestrian bridge that carries the Gresham/Fairview Trail over West Powell Boulevard. The cost of those projects is $3.82 million.

The only paved portion of the multi-use trail is 1.25 miles from Northeast Halsey Street to Burnside. The city is planning the final two phases of the trail, which will extend north from Northeast 201st Avenue to Marine Drive.

When completed, the 5.2-mile trail will connect the Springwater Trail and the Marine Drive Trail and also intersect three other regional trails and one local-use trail.

In addition, starting this summer, the city will begin planning for a new multi-use trail along the MAX light-rail tracks between Gresham Town Center and Ruby Junction. The trail will be no farther than 20 feet from the light-rail tracks, said Katherine Kelly, city transportation planner.

-- Quinton Smith

Corcoran and Olson spent 235 hours riding, driving and walking Gresham's bike paths, lanes and streets. In addition to where the signs should go, they came back with ideas to improve intersections, striping and where bike lanes could be widened slightly as the city repaves roads. Their research and membership on the city's Transportation Committee helped push the committee to include more thoughts about bicycling in its plans.

"This whole thing has caused this big snowball effect," Corcoran said. "Because we're thinking and pushing 'bike-friendly' it changes other approaches as well."

Gresham is trying to take advantage of three large bike paths within its borders -- the popular Springwater Trail on its south, the Marine Drive Trail on its north and the slowly growing Gresham-Fairview Trail that will eventually link the two.

Olson and Corcoran say the key to getting people to move from those three big bike trails is the perception of safety. Serious riders -- a small group -- will go anywhere anytime on anything. But the pair want to attract what they believe is a huge group of people who will ride if dedicated trails or bike lanes help them feel safe.

"As people feel more safe on trails and lanes, then they may feel safer branching out to commuting and daily errands," Olson said.

Both men think the next stage is identifying safe, quieter bike routes through neighborhoods to get people off busier arterials. An example would be someone wanting to ride to or from Mt. Hood Community College. Instead of taking Southeast Stark or Northeast Division streets from 242nd Avenue, a better route could be a bike lane on Northeast 23rd Avenue past Hall Elementary School.

"Use explodes once you build it," Corcoran said. "Gresham doesn't use because people don't feel safe."

While acknowledging that Gresham is no Portland when it comes to bicycles, Katherine Kelly, the transportation planner who organized the sign project, sees more enthusiasm for bikes and to improve facilities.

"I think there's a greater community desire," she said, "to focus on bikes and make them safer."

--Quinton Smith, Special to The Oregonian