PORTLAND, Ore. - Tight curves that drivers and bicyclists have to navigate on the new Burnside-Couch couplet are raising safety concerns, and the city admitted Tuesday that a mistake was made.
Cars and bikes coming down the hill have been surprised to see not just one curve but another immediately after it within 200 feet, making it difficult to stay in the correct lane.
It turns out crews accidentally painted one of those lanes 2 ½ feet too narrow which has pushed cars too close to the bike lane; additionally, a stripe in the bike lane is so slippery some cyclists wrecked at the spot.
Carissa Mylin was one of those bicyclists who ate it in the curves last Friday.
“The minute I crossed the vinyl strip between the traffic lane and the bike lane, the bike just flew out from under me,” she said.
A cyclist who was behind her was not as lucky.
“(She) broke her arm in a few places,” Mylin said.
Michael O’Leary with the Bike Transportation Alliance photographed the crashes and sent them to the city to alert it to the situation.
“There were skid-marks on the road where cars had to come to a screeching halt to avoid running over the cyclists,” he said.
The Portland Bureau of Transportation made emergency fixes which included grinding down and repainting the stripe. Soon, the bike lane will be a foot wider and with a buffer zone to keep cars and bikes from mingling.
“That solid line will have the bumps in it so you can feel if you were driving and happened to go over into the lane,” said Dan Anderson with PBOT.
O’Leary said he’s happy the city is making the changes but said he’s still worried about the entire stretch of Northeast Couch because it is narrow with a lot of parked cars, three lines of bus stops and no bike lane until sixth.
“It’s basically encouraging cyclists to take the lane, which is legal and rad if you’re bold, but on the other hand, it’s not really kid-friendly, mom-approved,” he said.
Once the potential for conflict is eased at the curves, many said they hope the city looks at other engineering alterations to make sharing the new stretch of road easier.
The lights on Couch are timed to around 12 mph to help slow traffic into the curves but the BTA says that increases the chances of those right-hook crashes that can be dangerous.
As for the buffer, the city wants to get it in now but needs to wait for the weather to become drier. The new surface won’t stick if it’s raining.
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