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Putting Portland’s widest bike lanes in the part of town with the fewest cyclists might seem like something out of Field of Dreams. That’s the intent, anyway, the city’s bicycle coordinator said.

鈥淭he whole Portland story about bicycling has been 鈥楤uild it and they will come,’鈥� Roger Geller said.

If they do come, there will be ample space: Southeast Holgate Boulevard between Interstate 205 and 122nd Avenue now sports two 10-foot-wide bicycle lanes. That’s 20 more feet dedicated to bikes than it had last month.

Portland officials pride themselves on the city’s bike system. They’ve studied how, why and where people cycle, and they’ve taken pains to make those cyclists safe and comfortable.

So why the double-wide lanes, why now, and why Holgate? 鈥淚t’s opportunity driven,鈥� project manager Jeff Smith said. 鈥淲e have a street where we felt we could do it, and could make this change without really messing up the traffic.

鈥淭here aren’t a huge amount of opportunities (around town) to do that.鈥�

Holgate Boulevard is one. The city ranks it as a 鈥渘eighborhood collector,鈥� a minor street just one step above a neighborhood street. Despite this designation, Holgate is a huge expanse of pavement, 66 feet from curb to curb, plus sidewalks.

Before two automobile lanes were re-striped as bike lanes late last month, cyclists used the mostly empty parking lane and sidewalk, occasionally using an automobile lane to circumvent a parked car. A visit last week suggests that the few cyclists on Holgate don’t feel comfortable using the new lanes. In a one-hour afternoon stretch, three cyclists rode by: one on the sidewalk, one in the parking lane and one in the wrong-way parking lane.

Cyclist Jasz Morgen, who lives in the neighborhood, said he understands the intent of the lanes. He just doesn’t like them, preferring to ride as close to the curb as possible.

鈥淚 won’t use them,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 don’t feel safe in them. You see people driving up and down them all the time.鈥�
Smith said he realizes that cars use the bike lanes. They’re as wide as automobile lanes; after all, that’s what they were a month ago.

Narrower lanes might discourage drivers from entering, Smith said, but the current setup makes the best use of the small amount of money available for the project. The only material cost, after all, is paint.

Changing lane sizes would require grinding existing lines, which can be expensive, Smith said. The same goes for adding barriers to keep cars and bikes separated.

The Holgate bike lanes were paid for with a $30,000 federal Job Access and Reverse Commute grant, designed to help low-income people travel to suburban workplaces. The lane striping coincides with the opening of TriMet‘s MAX green line, which has a Holgate stop.

The city will kick in more money 鈥� probably less than $10,000, Smith said 鈥� to add a double line and 鈥渂ike lane鈥� markings that will make the lanes clearer to drivers.

Unlike in downtown, where cyclists are common, drivers on Holgate will need to become accustomed to the new lanes, Smith said. 鈥淭hey have to get over the learning curve, but people will get it,鈥� he said.

When officials first proposed using traditional bike lanes, drivers said they wouldn’t know what to do with them and claimed they would actually endanger cyclists, Smith said. 鈥淏ut we did it, and now people agree that drivers get them.鈥�

The Holgate lanes, along with similar downtown lanes on Southwest Stark and Oak streets, are a sort of experiment, Geller said, although officials haven’t identified other streets for similar treatment. Holgate had a perfect combination of neighborhood support and more-than-adequate driving lanes, he said.

鈥淚t was the neighborhood association that approached us and said, 鈥榃e’ve got this light-rail system on (Interstate) 205 and we don’t have any way to bike there; we’ve got this street at five lanes and it doesn’t need five lanes,’ 鈥� Geller said.

鈥淲e modeled it and, sure enough, it didn’t need five lanes,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t could operate fine with three.鈥�

That’s more or less true, Johnny Karam said while moving plants at his family’s business, Tony’s Garden Center, on Holgate near Southeast 103rd Avenue. The change hasn’t created any traffic jams, he said, but it does cause some inconvenience for customers, nearly all of whom arrive by automobile.

鈥淚t slows in the afternoon, and at five or six or so it will back up,鈥� Karam said. 鈥淚t’s a little more difficult to come in and out of the parking lot.鈥�

By traffic engineers’ standards, however, the street works just fine with two fewer car lanes, Smith said. 鈥淎t the signals, what you don’t want is for someone to come up and stop at a red light and have it go green and not get through on that signal.鈥� That’s not happening on Holgate.

And if drivers can’t go quite as fast on Holgate, Geller said, that’s an added benefit. On what is essentially a neighborhood street, the slower traffic moves the better, he said.

鈥淚f you’re speeding, breaking the law and endangering people, sure, it will affect your travel time,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut if you’re going 35 (mph), no, it’s not going to affect you.鈥�