Alberta Co-op Grocery

Holman, Coming and Going

Posted May 5th, 2010

ACG may soon find itself neither between Scylla and Charybdis nor a rock and a hard place, but between one bicycle boulevard to the south, Going Street between Williams and 72nd , and another bicycle boulevard to the north, Holman Street, between MLK and 42nd.  The Going Street project is underway.  The Holman project is at an earlier stage but appears to be . . . coasting.

A bicycle boulevard is a street where bikes have priority, with few stops and where moving cars are relatively scarce and travel relatively slow.  Amenities to encourage bikes include stop signs on feeder streets, designated bike crossings, and speed bumps to discourage cars.

The Going Street project should be completed in May, and even without boulevard status, Holman is already a nice, quiet ride carrying a pedalist past Concordia University and Fernhill Park, locales far more shady with trees than . . . characters.

This brings up at least two considerations, perhaps minor, regarding some bicycle boulevards:  1.) many were already decent bicycling streets before becoming boulevards and  2.) they segregate bikers from drivers, allowing drivers to forget the many (and sometimes committed) people making a real difference.  Would it not be better to simultaneously encourage bikes and, at the same time, put a bit of progressive pressure on drivers?  For example, a bicycle boulevard for Ainsworth, a unique and almost grand residential street with a wide, tree-lined median, was considered for boulevard status instead of Holman.  But while Ainsworth (especially from MLK to 37th) would make a splendid pedalway, boulevard status would interfere with its rather heavy volume of cars both parked and moving.  It is already acceptable to infringe upon drivers through insurance and licensing fees, gas prices and taxes, speed limits, mass transit access, and parking restrictions, but to irritate drivers by encouraging them to “share the road” and “save the planet”?  For that to happen it appears we must all travel that too slow boulevard of progress.

The Project Manager for Bicycle Boulevards is Kyle Chisek, 503-823-7041 email hidden; JavaScript is required

Other bicycle boulevards: http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=50518&

Sewers vs. bike boulevards: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/03/portland_city_council_likes_20.html

Tags: bikes, sustainablity, transportation
Posted in General Information