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Efforts to encourage cycling in Portland have been so successful that city officials now face a familiar problem: traffic. Cycling more than doubled in three years, from 2006 to 2009, on North Vancouver and Williams avenues, for example, while the bike lanes have remained the same.

City officials have issued a request for proposals asking a consultant team to figure out how to make bicycle routes that are safer and more comfortable than traditional bike lanes. They’ve selected five bikeways in North and Northeast Portland, including Vancouver and Williams avenues.

Creating more room for cyclists means something has to give, said Ellen Vanderslice, project manager for the Portland Bureau of Transportation. “Our preliminary analysis shows that most of Williams could get by with one lane of auto traffic, as long as we split out some of the turn-lane movements,” she said.

“You have to take from somewhere,” Vanderslice said. “In some areas, parking is very important, and we don’t want to take away the sidewalk. That pretty much leaves the space open to motor vehicles.”

Bicycling has helped spur development along Williams, with businesses catering to cyclists, said Thad Fisco, partner in Adaptive Development. “When (partner Jon Kellogg) and I first went into that area, that was one of the first draws of it, that it’s not just a motor-vehicle corridor,” Fisco said.

“All those bikers need services.”

Fisco doesn’t see parking as a huge concern for Williams. In fact, Adaptive Development successfully lobbied to remove parking spaces to install bicycle corrals.

“Some people worry about losing some parking, and parking in the area is getting tougher than it was,” he said. “But there are still options there.”

With the cycling reputation of Williams Avenue established and growing, Fisco said he doesn’t know whether improving the bicycle route will make much of a difference. “The question,” he said, “is: Will going through all that make more bike ridership in the area?

“I think it will make it easier, but I don’t know if it will cause people to jump on their bike who weren’t riding before.”

That’s exactly the hope of planners, Vanderslice said. “What we’re doing is driven by the desire to make bikeways that feel comfortable to people,” she said.

“Someone who’s less comfortable in a high-traffic setting is using Williams with others who are more experienced, more familiar, and are passing them,” she said. “That’s not comfortable.”

Options the current project looks at include , wide bike lanes and contra-flow lanes. All are in limited use elsewhere in Portland. Cycle tracks physically separate bicycles from cars and contra-flow lanes allow two-way bicycle traffic on one-way auto streets.

The wide bike lanes category includes , which use as much roadway as an automobile lane.

The current city request asks proposers to determine which option would work best on five routes: Williams Avenue, Vancouver Avenue, Northeast Holladay Street, Northeast 12th Avenue and North Willamette Boulevard. Proposals are due by 4 p.m. on May 21.

“They’re not yet ready to be projects where we say, ‘Let’s go implement them,’ ” said Rob Burchfield, Portland city traffic engineer. “They’re complex enough that we need to develop alternatives, figure out the best way to make streets work for all users and see if we need more public involvement and outreach.”

City officials have some money in place, but not enough to build all the bikeway improvements identified. In addition to the five potential projects, the city’s request identifies three other areas for feasibility studies: downtown, Northeast Glisan Street and the Interstate-405 area.

“We’re going to have to learn which of these projects we think has the most merit, which comes through the public process as win-win projects,” Burchfield said. “Those would move to the top of the list for projects.”