Clinton Street rolls with unwelcome wave of traffic, conflict

Its rush hour, and traffic on Southeast Clinton Street is moving slowly. Ahead in the road is a knot of bicyclists riding at a pace to purposely slow traffic between Division Street and Cesar Chavez Boulevard.

Welcome to the front lines of a rolling skirmish among bike riders, neighbors and drivers who use sections of Clinton Street as a cut-off to avoid traffic and construction hassles through Southeast Portland neighborhoods.

An ad hoc group of bicyclists say theyll continue protest rides on the Clinton Street greenway (and others) several times each week  some want to do it every day. Neighbors are worried that months and months of increased vehicle traffic is hurting the livability of their once-quiet street. City transportation officials are stuck in the middle, trying to resolve the traffic issue and clear the way for bike riders who expect to use Clinton Street for a low-stress, low-traffic ride each day.

Its a bikeway, says Jason Johnson, a 43-year-old Portland massage therapist who helped organize about a half-dozen protest rides in the past few months and often peddles his Surley Long Haul Trucker bike at the head of the group of a dozen or so bicyclists. It was designed for cyclists.

The whole reason I do this is I want other people to feel safe when they ride here.

Johnson usually times the rides to slow rush hour traffic to a crawl. The latest was Tuesday evening, Jan. 27. Rides often start at 21st Avenue, travel to Cesar Chavez Boulevard and back along the same route until vehicle traffic thins out.

Johnson grew up in Seattle and moved to Portland 15 years ago. He gave up his car in 2010 and has been riding the Long Haul Trucker for more than four years on Portlands bikeways and streets.

Even though most of the Clinton Street protests have been by a loose-knit collection of riders (sometimes dozen or so people show up at the random events), others in groups like BikeLoudPDX are getting involved. Last fall, activists placed barriers on a section of Clinton Street to divert traffic.

There are probably more like hundreds of Portlanders who are unhappy that Southeast Clinton has so much driving on it these days, says Jonathan Maus, editor and publisher of www.BikePortland.org, a website for bike riders and activists. The protestors represent a lot of people who have been making noise about this for a long time.

Maus says Clinton Streets problems could be just the tip of the iceberg for the citys neighborhood greenways. Similar issues have been raised about a bikeway on Southeast Ankeny Street, where the city is talking with neighbors and businesses about possible diversion or traffic-calming measures, he says.

The bottom line is that the Portland Bureau of Transportation has set aside a network of residential streets that are intended to be low-stress bicycling routes, Maus says. Unfortunately, as other streets have filled up with drivers, some people use these streets as cut-throughs, which ends up making them high-stress.

Disrupting the traffic

Southeast Clinton Street between Cesar Chavez Boulevard and 21st Avenue has been a neighborhood greenway (where bicyclists ride in traffic instead of in bike lanes) for about 15 years. The city has about 320 miles of bikeways, 59 miles in neighborhood greenways.

Clinton Streets greenway includes traffic-calming elements like roundabouts, speed humps and sharrows, those bicycle/arrow emblems painted on the street to indicate that bikes, cars and trucks are supposed to share the road.

When construction began in May 2013 on the $6 million Division Street streetscape and reconstruction project, hundreds of drivers seeking an alternative traveled along Clinton Street as it paralleled Division between Southeast 12th Avenue and Cesar Chavez Boulevard. According 2014 city traffic counts, about 3,033 cars a day used Clinton Street (at 25th Avenue). About 2,790 daily bike trips were recorded at Clinton and 26th Avenue during the summer, according to the city.

The result? Thousands of cars and trucks competing each day with bicycles for space on Clinton Street through neighborhoods not accustomed to that much traffic.

The construction period on Division definitely disrupted traffic in the whole area, says Dylan Rivera, spokesman for the Portland Bureau of Transportation. Thats just part of any construction project.

Most of the Division Street work is completed, Rivera says, which the city hopes means drivers who avoided the area will return to their regular commuting patterns.

It takes months for traffic to readjust after a project like the Division Street work, he says. Theres going to be some change in behavior and traffic patterns. But it will take time before that transition is complete.

Diversion measures

That transition cant come fast enough for residents. The Hosford-Abernethy Neighborhood District Association had a lively discussion of the traffic/bike issue in mid-November, and sent a letter to city officials in mid-December asking that something be done to relieve the pressure because the street was bumping up against accepted upper limits of daily car traffic on a bicycle boulevard/bicycle greenway.

We fear that inaction will heighten the risk of accidents, or worse, wrote Susan Pearce, HAND chairwoman.

In a Dec. 22 letter to city transportation officials, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance expressed similar concerns and reminded PBOT Director Leah Treat that the city promised to keep tabs on Clinton Streets traffic just in case drivers used it as an alternative while Division Street was torn up for sewer work and repaving.

It is clear to us at the BTA that diversion onto Clinton is occurring today as a direct result of traffic changes on Division Street, wrote Carl Larson, the alliances engagement manager. We must again recommend that the Portland Bureau of Transportation examine and implement traffic calming or diversion measures on Southeast Clinton.

Pearce says city planners will meet with the neighborhood group in February to look at the problem and consider a solution. Traffic is still bad, even though most of the Division Street work is finished, she says.

I am watching to see what patterns evolve as people develop new habits and preferred routes now that the street construction and striping is completed on Division and the sewer work on Clinton is drawing to an end, Pearce says.

The citys Bicycle Advisory Committee also plans to discuss ways to improve neighborhood greenways at an upcoming meeting, says Chairman Ian Stude.

Rivera says any discussion of possible solutions will have to include not only bicycle riders, but also several neighborhood groups and businesses along Clinton Street.

Weve heard from the bike community that they feel there are concerns about safety there, he says. And we want to get to the bottom of it. But we also have to understand the concerns of neighbors and the business community. There are all sorts of things to consider before we take action.

Dont happen overnight

Talk isnt going to cut it for bicycle riders who feel unsafe jockeying for space on Clinton Street among cars and trucks, Johnson says. Frustrated drivers sometimes buzz close to bikes on the street, he says, making it even less safe for everyone.

Some drivers are angry, Johnson says. Im not trying to bring in a car-versus-bicycle war. Im just trying to bring people together who are afraid to ride their bikes every day and help them to see that they can be safe.

Whats Johnsons solution to the problem? I think it would be nice for the city to step in and take responsibility and take cars off there, he says. Theyre not going to do it, so were going to have to do it.

These things dont happen overnight. Its been two years. Its time for something to happen, and if it takes a bunch of bicyclists to ride every night until the city takes notice, then thats what well do.

kharden@portlandtribune.com

503-546-5167

@theportlandtrib