The City of Portland recently shared information about six projects under consideration by Oregon Metro to receive its Regional Flexible Funds Allocation (RFFA). The regional government will distribute federally sourced funds through a competitive grant process for transportation projects across the greater Portland area. One project under consideration would reorganize travel lanes on NE Glisan Street from NE 82nd Avenue to Interstate 205, promoting better safety and comfort for non-motorized street users by adding protected bike lanes, wider sidewalks, and enhanced crossings.
As the project sponsor, the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) requested $7,732,932 from Metro’s distribution of Federal funds to cover a majority of the NE Glisan Street improvement costs totaling $8,618,000. The proposed project, Northeast Glisan St: 82nd Avenue Multimodal Safety and Access, plans to construct new separated bicycle lanes from 80th Avenue to 102nd Avenue along NE Glisan Street while building enhanced crossings at NE 84th, 90th, and 92nd Avenues. Funds would also cover Glisan sidewalk widening from 92nd Avenue to the I-205 overpass. The project would upgrade the existing Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon (RRFB) protected crossing at NE 87th Avenue and create better configurations around the freeway entrances to protect people walking and rolling past those conflict points. Not only could this work reduce dangerous driving on a High Crash Corridor, but it also intends to improve transit flow when approaching 82nd Avenue.
Designs for these proposed updates to NE Glisan came from work started years ago creating the East Portland Arterial Streets Strategy (EPASS) report, where staff conducted a safety analysis of the major roadways east of 82nd Avenue and examined how changes to street design could positively impact safety for all people using those routes. Work east of I-205 is already underway and near completion as part of the East Glisan Street Update: NE 102nd to 162nd Avenues project. If Metro awards funding, this new work will address many safety deficiencies on NE Glisan Street west of the freeway that PBOT identified in EPASS. It would also better align with the travel lane configuration on this street west of NE 80th Avenue, which reduces to a lane in each direction with a center turn lane. The primary difference is the addition of dedicated bicycle space on the outer edges of the street east of NE 80th Avenue. This space currently has street parking on both sides in specific sections that double as additional travel lanes at certain times of the day. That outer lane’s modal switch from parking to travel often discourages people from parking there, fearing damage caused by an inattentive driver missing the change and colliding with their parked vehicle. Simplifying traffic patterns here could also help people crossing NE Glisan who currently must wait for five vehicle lanes to stop before crossing, often with obscured views from the hilly terrain.
During this cycle of grants, Metro received 24 applications requesting a little over $140 million in total. The PBOT application for NE Glisan Street is among 19 projects requesting federal funds to support construction between 2028 and 2030. However, available funds are limited to around $42 million, so not all project teams will receive the money they requested. To help decide what projects are a priority for residents, Metro is accepting feedback through Wednesday, April 30th. People interested in commenting can go online to the Metro Survey. Respondents can read each project’s factsheet and add comments in the Step 2 Survey (English or Spanish). It is a map-based interface where users can zoom into their area to select applicable projects or use the left-hand navigation to search by county for projects of interest. People add comments to a project by clicking on the chat-bubble icon below the project description or the blue button at the bottom left of the page.
Update: This article was updated with additional links and more information about providing comment.