Oregon Public Broadcasting

Portland would triple the city’s network of bicycle lanes and paths over the next 20 years under a plan released for public comment Tuesday. Rob Manning has more.

Portland has about 300 miles of striped bike lanes and paths for bicycles. The new bike plan would more than triple that -- to 930 miles.

The idea is that if there were a bigger, safer network, then ridership would also triple from eight percent to twenty-five percent of Portlanders.

Scott Bricker is the executive director of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, and a member of the bike plan’s steering committee.

He says some of the bike lane expansion would rub up against parking and traditional lanes of traffic for cars.

Scott Bricker: “In order to provide bicycle access on the main street, compromises will have to be made. That really has to be case-sensitive for each district.”

City staffers are currently using a half-million dollars of regional transportation funds to study two ambitious bike trails.

One would follow I-84. The other would follow the east bank of the Willamette River north from 84.