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The Portland Bureau of Transportation is painting the town 鈥� or at least certain street lanes 鈥� red.

PBOT crews began to paint red bus lanes on Wednesday on Southwest Main Street between First and Second avenues.

The project aims to speed buses through traffic. The Federal Highway Administration has given permission for some U.S. cities, including Portland, to use red paint as a signal of bus prioritization.

The red lanes are transit priority routes where other modes are prohibited or limited. Cars, trucks, taxis and services such as Uber and Lyft are not allowed to use the lanes. Cyclists may use the lanes in certain locations, according to PBOT.

In addition to the downtown stretch of Main Street, red lanes will be coming to the intersections of Northeast Martin Luther King, Jr. and Lloyd boulevards, Northeast Grand Avenue and Burnside Street, and Northeast Grand Avenue and Couch Street.

鈥淭hese new red lanes signal our commitment to doing everything we can to make transit an attractive option for more Portlanders and prioritizing tangible climate action in the face of looming climate catastrophe,鈥� Commissioner Chloe Eudaly stated in a news release.

Experience in New York City and San Francisco has shown reduced collisions and lane violations after red lane treatments, according to PBOT.

Portland State University will collect data to evaluate the lanes’ performance. Metro and Portland Streetcar are also supporting the project.

More red lanes will be painted in downtown Portland in 2020, according to PBOT.