Portland, Oregon – a bike-friendly city in the US
Few Dutch people have heard of the city of Portland in Oregon, in the northwest of the United States, and yet it has more than two million inhabitants. Portland is unique because it is one of the few American cities that have a fully fledged bicycle policy. For many decades, Portland has therefore enjoyed the reputation of being the best city for cyclists in the US. Soon it will be the first American city with traffic lights, detection loops, and countdown timers specifically for cyclists.
A totally different biking culture
Cycling is something we just do in the Netherlands, like walking and breathing. We don’t spend time thinking about it much, even though it is actually quite special. As soon as you get on a bike in any other country, you’ll notice the biking culture is not like that in the Netherlands with its thousands of kilometers of marked and signposted bike lanes, its traffic lights specifically for cyclists, and its motorists who look out for cyclists. There are places in Europe where you can cycle reasonably comfortably and safely, although few countries compare to the Netherlands. In a relatively young country like the United States, which was weaned on motorcars, biking is seen as a sport at best and as a mode of transport for children and adolescents at worst. The biking culture is totally different from ours. Motorists are not used to sharing the road with cyclists and mutual understanding is often lacking.
Increasing safety for bikers and pedestrians
Portland, Oregon is the exception that proves the rule. Since the 1990s, the city has been working on improving facilities for bikers. Portland is the hub of a regional cycling network that includes bike lanes, mountain bike and nature routes, and separated bike lanes in busy streets. In its Portland Bicycle Plan 2030, the city is now trying to make the bike a fixed component of its urban transportation policy. According to the plan, “Portland will become a truly beautiful city as soon as it sees the bike as an essential part of its transportation system.” In the plan, the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) praises the positive outcomes of biking for climate change and healthcare. Moreover, biking is fun, makes neighborhoods more livable, and is affordable for everyone, according to PBOT. Like many other cities, Portland also takes part in Vision Zero, a national program to reduce the relatively high numbers of road fatalities in the US.
The safety of bikers and pedestrians is therefore an important priority for PBOT. The city has been looking at ways to chart road safety, particularly for vulnerable road users, at a number of busy intersections. A first step is to introduce special traffic lights for cyclists, including countdown timers. Tellingly, these will be the first traffic lights of this type to be installed anywhere in the US.
Dutch traffic technology
The next step for Portland is to inventory the number of road users who fail to stop at a red light and the number of near misses involving bike and pedestrian traffic. Traffic technology to monitor pedestrians and cyclists is relatively unknown in the US. PBOT therefore approached TNL, Technolution’s American subsidiary. Technolution produces a traffic sensor, the FlowCube, which can carry out various tasks. This sensor is essentially an edge computer with artificial intelligence algorithms. Portland will be installing these sensors at a number of busy intersections. They count cars, cyclists, and pedestrians, calculate travel times, and inventory near misses and vehicles that fail to stop at a red light; all of this of course in full compliance with applicable privacy laws. The information acquired in this way can help Portland determine the optimal settings for the new bike traffic lights.
Inspiring example
Portland’s attempts to become a “truly beautiful city” that takes bikers and pedestrians seriously can set an inspiring example for other cities in the United States (and further afield). In adopting this policy, the city is choosing a culture in which all road users, including vulnerable road users, can travel safely and enjoy city life. And it’s great of course that there is a Dutch dimension to all this!
