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Section 4: Recommended Design

Information

PBOT has developed a concept for NE Broadway that addresses community concerns and supports a vibrant, safe, and accessible main street. 

Annotated rendering of a future NE Broadway with the design features described below View full size image
The rendering above of the intersection at NE 22nd Ave and NE Broadway provides a sample of improvements that will be implemented across the corridor, including: a wider buffered bike lane with protected intersections, pedestrian refuges that shorten crossing distances, new pedestrian crossings with median islands, and slower speeds and right sized travel lanes.

Through a bundle of lower cost improvements, this design provides more space to people walking and biking while also lowering speed and supporting adjacent businesses. In order to make space for these improvements, we recommend reducing the number of travel lanes from three to two. Our technical analysis showed the street is overbuilt for automobiles even at the busiest time of day. 

 

Diagramatic map showing an overview of the changes to NE Broadway and their locations that are discussed below in greater detail View full size image
A map of the entire project area shows the locations of improvements between 7th and 26th avenues, including enhanced pedestrian crossings at 11th, 13th, 19th and 22nd avenues; bus stop improvements at 16th and 21st avenues; and a wider buffered bike lane with concrete protection at intersections from 7th to 26th avenues.

Full Project Benefits:

  • Five new pedestrian crossings
  • New median refuges at crossings
  • Two bus stop improvements 
  • Reduced speed limit to 25mph
  • A wide buffered bike lane with concrete protection at intersections

Impacts

Parking

The project will involve some changes to parking along the project extent. On the northside of Broadway there will be limited parking removal to make space for pedestrian crossing islands and improve visibility at intersections. 

Total parking impacts averages out to about about one or two spaces per block. The addition of more efficient angled parking in the project's eastern half will actually increase parking supply in that section of the project. 

A full breakdown of the parking impacts is provided below. Overall, the northside will lose 24 spaces while the southside will gain 13 spaces for a total loss of 11 spaces or 4% of existing capacity.  

Graphic showing some parking removal on the northside of Broadway and slightly less parking being added on the southside of Broadway View full size image

Traffic and Diversion

Our traffic counts confirmed that NE Broadway is overbuilt for automobiles. As a result, the proposed lane reduction from three lanes to two is expected to result in only minimal delay. Our technical modeling found a trip along the project corridor with all the changes implemented would only take seven seconds longer than it would today. 

Because the traffic impacts are minimal, that also means that the diversion impacts are also small - we expect some local traffic to shift to NE Multnomah St and NE Knott St (likely no more than 50 cars per hour in the peak, which translates to less than one additional car per minute).

Design Details

Different road characteristics along NE Broadway led to different concepts between the eastern project section from NE 17th to 26th Ave and the western project section of 7th to 16th Ave. 

NE Broadway (East Section): NE 17th Ave to NE 26th Ave 

Rendering of NE Broadway and 22nd after the proposed project changes including a protected bike lane, new crosswalk, and median islands for pedestrians View full size image

Broadway is wider in the east project section so the design includes angled parking on the south side of the road. This more efficient design will increase parking supply along this portion of the corridor, while have the huge benefit to making pedestrian crossings easier. Between the proposed median islands, the crossing distance will be shortened from 56ft today, to roughly 22ft in the future.  In addition, there will be a wide buffered bike lane, new marked pedestrian crossings, and bus stop improvements. 

Full eastern section improvements include: 

  • Angled-in parking on south side of the block
  • A wider buffered bike lane with concrete protection at intersections.
  • Bus stop improvements at NE 21st Ave
  • New pedestrian crossings with high visibility crosswalk markings and median refuges at:
    • NE 22nd Ave, NE 19th Ave, NE 17th Ave.
  • Also includes a connection to the 20’s Bikeway at 26th Ave

View the Proposed Design from NE 17th Ave to NE 26th Ave

NE Broadway (West Section): NE 7th Ave to NE 16th Ave

Streetscape Rendering of Broadway - Looking west at NE 15th Ave View full size image

Due to a narrower curb to curb distance the west section of the project will have parallel parking on both sides of the street and slightly wider travel lanes relative to the rest of the project. Like the east section however, there will still be additional marked pedestrian crossings, bus stop improvements, and the same extra-wide buffered bike lane. 

Full west section improvements include: 

  • Parallel parking on both sides of the street
  • A wider buffered bike lane with protection at intersections.
  • Bus stop improvements at NE 16th Ave
  • New pedestrian crossings with median refuges at:
    • NE 13th Ave and NE 11th Ave.

View the Proposed Design from NE 7th Ave to NE 16th Ave

Click here to continue to the next page of the online open house

Contact

PBOT's NE Broadway Pave & Paint Project team

BroadwayPave@portlandoregon.gov

Topics

Transportation and roads

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