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Welcome to the Urbanist Update. My job here might be as a tech editor, but I’ve also spent tons of time studying transportation, city planning, and engineering. Here are some of the things I’ve found interesting over the past week related to biking in cities, cycling infrastructure, and urbanism.
What is urbanism? In short, it is the study of how the inhabitants of an urban area interact with their towns and cities. If you care about building sustainable communities that let you live a happy and healthy life, then this is the spot for you. See previous Updates here.
Portlanders stand in front of truck to prevent bike lane removal
(Photo by Craig Mitchelldyer/Getty Images)
Last week, a group called BikeLoudPDX took turns standing in front of a truck set to remove a range of bike lanes in Portland, Oregon. The group of people stood on guard for the day after the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) said the bike lane was “installed by mistake” because they didn’t do enough public outreach. As a result, the group rotated shifts along the bike lane to ensure the city wouldn’t come through the night to remove the lanes.
A recent report from BikePortland says that the removal wasn’t announced publicly and that folks only found out after PBOT staff warned people anonymously. And when BikePortland reached out for comment, their response didn’t mince words:
“This segment of bike lane was installed by mistake and will be removed.”
Further statements from the city in other locations reveal that PBOT says they didn’t do enough community outreach before implementing the bike lanes into a plan, much less go ahead and use resources to paint them in. Portland’s city council voted the bike lane as a high-priority place to implement a bike lane in 2021, though that was before a fourplex building was fully built.
@bikeportland A direct action protest successfully stopped a PBOT order to remove the bike lanes on NE 33rd Ave. #protest #portlandoregon ♬ original sound – BikePortland
Based on the above TikTok detailing BikeLoudPDX blocking the truck, it looks like if people didn’t react nearly immediately to act and save the Portland area bike lane, it would be gone now. And based on what we’re seeing, it looks like it’s only going to get messier.
Where L.A. City Is Quietly Removing Bike Lanes and Adding On-Street Car Parking
(Image: Google Maps)
This isn’t the first time you’re going to see this, unfortunately, and it certainly won’t be the last: cities are trying to remove bike lanes. The Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) has quietly swapped out bike lanes in parts of the city, usually to add parking of some form. The scary part is, as the story from Streetsblog covers, that removing bike lanes and adding parking can be done without public process, both temporarily and permanently.
First, a small background on how a bike lane is typically added. It starts with there being will, usually from the public first (from people advocating for it) and then from government decision-makers. Bike lanes are often added to a multi-year (or -decade!) plan as well. Then there are usually multiple levels of public levels of vetting, several committees they need to go through, and lots of community outreach.
Taking out a bike lane, however? A city or department of transportation can do it without much or any of the above processes, at least shown here.
The story above notes six places where bike lanes have been removed in favor of diagonal parking. Other locations that were slated to receive bike lanes – with federal grants secured for said lanes – have been replaced with parking.
I’m not going to take this time to argue that parking spaces are bad. What I will argue, however, is that once parking spaces are added, they’re nearly impossible to remove. People don’t want to remove an amenity they already have, and if you’ve been to any city council meeting, you’ll know just how much people value their car parking.
The choice of bike lanes or car parking doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive, but it usually is. The difference is that one choice seems to take years or review to form a consensus, while the other can be done without public notice.
2023 was Chicago’s business bikeway installation year ever
(Photo: Chicago Department of Transportation)
Now for something a bit more positive! Streetsblog Chicago (we love Streetsblog!) outlined the city’s impressive progress on bicycle infrastructure in the last year. Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) Complete Streets director David Smith says, “From the infrastructure side, more projects completed than in any other previous year. More miles of protected bike lanes were completed this year than ever before. More Neighborhood Greenways [traffic-calmed side street bike routes, often with contraflow ‘wrong-way’ bike lanes] than any year before..”
That’s a lot of than ‘ever befores!’
It’s one thing to see bike lanes be put in, but how and where they’re doing it is key. Areas with protected bike lanes already received concrete islands to improve cyclist visibility for car drivers as they cross or turn into an intersection. Areas with diagonal parking (like what Los Angeles is implementing) are being replaced with parallel parking that creates more sidewalk space and bike lane space. Speed limits are being lowered in key spots as well to aid comfortability for those not in cars.
Critically, however, the city has used its Neighborhood Bike Network project to focus on underserved communities on the Northwest Side. These areas historically haven’t had much given to them regarding bike lanes. But what the project does is increase opportunities for community planning input and participation. As a result, they’ve received not just bike lanes, but new bike share docking areas and tons of bike racks to park bikes at their destinations too.
While there isn’t yet data available from these new bits of infrastructure, bike share system Divvy notes that they’ve seen their highest ever bike share usage in recent months and years due to the added infrastructure.
We don’t usually think of Chicago as a bike-friendly city, but boy are they working to change that.
Los Angeles Closed Down Part of the 110 Freeway for Cyclists and It Looked Awesome
@fuckthemcarsPEOPLE WOULD RIDE MORE. The worst freeway became the best freeway for 4 hours on Oct. 29th 2023#fuckthemcars #bancars #slowdown #carfreestyle #arroyoseco #pedestrianfirst #ftc #freedom #freeway#trafficviolence #bikeride♬ original sound – Fuck Them Cars
20 years ago, Los Angeles helped to put together an event called ArroyoFest. The first event, which closed down a seven-mile strip of six freeway lanes between South Pasadena and Northeast Los Angeles in 2003, replacing car traffic with people on foot or wheels. Now after a five-year delay, Arroyo Fest is back and the morning freeway closure seems to have been a hit.
According to the organizing nonprofit ActiveSVG, the event aims to promote sustainable, active modes of transportation and improve the health of people of all incomes, abilities, and backgrounds. And based on the videos shared by the above TikTok channel, it seems to be a success.
The most interesting note to me came from the L.A. Times. It wasn’t the bands playing live music on freeway on-ramps and off-ramps. It isn’t the sounds of people laughing, the clop of people on a 10k run, or the birds chirping. Rather, it was the people asking for the next time this would happen. The event provides a glimpse of what a city without freeways looks like, and in Los Angeles, a pause of the status quo.
Here’s an extremely rare sight on an L.A. freeway: lots of people, no cars.
“It makes you realize how much of an open space this is when you see how many people can fit on it, especially versus how many cars,” Highland Park resident Shannon Talbot told me. pic.twitter.com/4fMDWCBg4r
— Ryan Fonseca (@RyFons) October 29, 2023