Neighborhood Greenways means Neighborhood Trees

A new exclusive interview published today on BikePortland.org explains one of the main reasons why the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) changed the name Bike Boulevards to Neighborhood Greenways: trees.

Excerpts from the article:

The main reason for the change is to better reflect what these projects are all about. PBOT realizes that by calling them “bike boulevards,” some Portlanders instantly bristle and come to project open houses armed for battle against them. PBOT hopes the new name won’t elicit such a negative reaction to the non-biking public.

This conversation, according to PBOT traffic safety staffer Greg Raisman, will move PBOT from merely talking about transportation to a more concerted focus on “placemaking and community building.” One way to do that is by making more green spaces on our streets. Raisman says PBOT is working with Friends of Trees to place new street trees along entire routes of new neighborhood greenway projects. On one project in the works, there’s an idea to extend a park completely across the existing street (NE Holman) and maintain a cut-through only for bikes.

In addition to this exciting discussion, street tree policy in Portland is taking shape in accordance with the Citywide Tree Project (CTP) and the Portland Plan, too.

What do we think of combining bike traffic and street trees?

–Toshio Suzuki