Bicycle boulevards are lightly-trafficked streets that prioritize bicycles. Although many routes have no bike lanes, bicyclists are free to use the middle of the street, sharing road space with cars. Motorists on these routes expect to see bicyclists and therefore travel with caution. Designated streets should be distinguished with uniformly colored signs and bold pavement markings.

For novices or younger riders, bicycle boulevards provide a transition between bike paths and high-traffic shared roads. But they are also quite useful for experienced riders because of their reduced traffic and connectivity.

The cost of implementing a bicycle boulevard network is significantly less than constructing bike paths or trails.

In Portland and Berkeley, transportation planners have created bike boulevard conditions by diverting automobile through-traffic and slowing down the cars that remain. The resulting bike-friendly corridors are a key component of Portland's strategy to increase bicycle mode share and expand the appeal of cycling beyond the "young and fearless" demographic.

If there was a star at yesterday’s National Bike Summit, it was Portland, Oregon. After Earl Blumenauer, one of the city's congressional reps and a former county commissioner, delivered the morning address, Portland's bike planners and advocates shared their strategies at some of the more urban-focused panels. Portland’s transportation commissioner, Sam Adams -- who is now running for mayor -- was scheduled to deliver a post-lunch plenary, but he canceled with the flu. Instead, a contingent of five other Portland bike luminaries shared the podium.

Two things stood out about the city that has achieved a cycling mode share of six percent and is aiming much higher:

They’re big believers in bike boulevards.

Streetsblog and StreetFilms have covered Portland's bike boulevards before, but I wanted to share some of the reasoning behind them. Portland has essentially set the goal of becoming the Amsterdam of the U.S. (as far as bikes are concerned), and they don’t think that’s possible if they rely mainly on bike lanes on heavily trafficked roads. According to their surveys, only one percent of people making trips (all modes) on Portland streets fall under the category of “fearless” cyclists. The bigger chunk of bike mode share comes from people who have safety concerns, and another huge portion of travelers -- 55 percent -- say they would cycle if conditions were even safer than today.

Their surveys also tell them that what makes people feel safe is biking on low-traffic streets, leading them to convert more streets into bike boulevards. By building facilities where bikes outnumber cars and riders seldom have to stop, Portland’s bike planners believe they can make cycling a desirable mode for trips like, say, taking your kids to the library.

They do intensive education and outreach.

The Portland Office of Transportation runs an outreach program called SmartTrips, which Streetsblog first covered last September. Here's a little more about how SmartTrips operates.

Every year the program selects an area of the city to target for outreach. Beginning in April, they send out information about walking, biking, and transit to everyone in the area, contacting each household at least five times. The first thing they send is an order form, which people fill out to request things like bike maps, a schedule of rides, and leg bands. When the SmartTrips office receives an order, interns deliver the goods by bike within three days.

"People are shocked that interns get there by bike, and that the city is actually doing it," said SmartTrips' Dan Bower. "Every year we get a 8-10 percent reduction in drive alone trips in the target region." Noting that ridership is skyrocketing in Portland despite the fact that the city hasn't built many new bikeway miles in the past five years, he summed up his program's raison d'etre: "If you build something, it's worth your while to tell people about it."

Also worth noting -- this list of “five things you don’t know about Portland,” presented by the crew who spoke at the lunchtime plenary:

1. The growing social acceptance of biking
   Even residents who don’t bike say they like living in a city that is so bike-friendly.
   Store owners are calling the city and asking to have on-street parking removed and replaced by bike parking.
   
2. Financing – they haven’t spent big bucks, yet
   Only one percent of Portland’s transportation budget is spent on bike facilities. Ridership is way up nonetheless. Now that cycling is at six percent mode share, there is talk of allocating funds based on mode split.
   
3. Biking boosts tourism
   According to Travel Portland, being named the nation’s top cycling city has been very valuable for tourism. Portland is now attracting conventions based on its bike infrastructure. The North American Handmade Bicycle Show, a convention that draws 15,000 participants, is a case in point.
   
4. Low-cost publicity and lobbying
   Every year, Cycle Oregon stages a policy-makers’ ride, inviting influential people to get away from their desks and see what’s working for bikes in the city and what’s not.
   
5. The economic development crowd is getting behind biking
   There are now 10-15 bike manufacturers in Portland and new bike shops popping up all the time. It’s a stretch to call this a “thing you don’t know.” Portland’s bike industry has actually gotten national press.

While Portland is, in so many ways, completely different from New York City, these Streetfilms provide a ton of valuable information for anyone interested in improving New York City's bike network and public spaces. What I find most remarkable is the way in which Portland's transportation officials are really working with communities towards broader quality of life goals. The job of a DOT official in Portland is about so much more than just keeping traffic moving.

Clarence has broken down his documentary into a six, bite-size, Streetfilms. And every day this week we will feature one or two of them here on Streetsblog. If you're a glutton for Streetfilms you can watch them all right here.

Portland, Oregon's Bicycle Boulevards
Running time: 3:08 
Download: 12.12 MB

Bicycle Boulevards in Portland are beautiful, safe and tranquil for bicycling. They are also wonderful streets to live on. Mia Birk, former manager of City of Portland's Bicycle Program (1993-99), and Mark Lear of the Portland Office of Transportation explain a few of the many strategies employed to keep thru-traffic off the boulevards and to make the riders using them safe.

You see these purple Bicycle Boulevard signs all over town. Driving, you are constantly reminded that bicycles are present. Cycling, you really get the sense that the city has a well-connected network of bike routes. In addition to the numerous purple street signs, the stencils are absolutely huge.

Berkeley also has extensive traffic-calming measures in place. Motor vehicular through-traffic is discouraged from using quiet, residential streets and Bicycle Boulevards as short-cuts with these heavy planters like these. Cars and trucks are forced to stay on the major thoroughfares. This often made driving in Berkeley slow and painful. But it's great if your priority is high quality of life, safe bicycling and the ability to play touch football on a neighborhood street.

On the main shopping strips there is tons of bicycle parking.

The BART stations also have excellent indoor bicycle parking. I took this photo in San Francicso, however, not Berkeley:

Keep in mind we're talking about a city with an on-street recycling program and a well-developed, 35-year-old environmental consciousness. This ain't New York. Though, I see no reason why we couldn't be doing these things as well.

Check out this un-signalized midblock crosswalk. I was actually a little bit scared to use it. "You mean, cars are going to stop for me without a traffic signal to tell them to do so?!? I think I'll let these guys cross first..." I could see something like this being useful on, 17th Street in Manhattan to connect the northern side of Union Square to the entrance of the Barnes & Noble store. Maybe we'd need a traffic signal in New York, though.

While Berkeley has all of this great bike infrastructure my main observation was this: New York City is still a far superior bicycling town. Parts of Berkeley are extremely hilly and, in general, it still felt like a car-dominated town. It's California, afterall. I see far more cyclists on the streets of New York than I saw in Berkeley. You've got to think that if New York City built bike infrastructure as good as Berkeley's, cycling might really explode here. I think that New York City is naturally, inherently a much more bikeable city. A little bit of encouragement  and good design would go a long way.

The crash took place near an ongoing $25 million DOT street construction project which, incidentally, is narrowing the median on parts of Houston Street, replacing refuge areas for pedestrians with left-turn bays for cars, and doing nothing to make the street safer or more accessible to cyclists.

Gothamist provides a brief recap of last summer's bike fatalities on and around Houston Street and suggests that we might begin calling it the "Bike Boulevard of Death." Gothamist's comments section has erupted in what has become an all too frequent and predictable post-bike-crash online screaming match between commenters who blame the victim and those who argue that New York City needs to do more to help people commute safely by bike.