UPDATED 8/3/2011
Bicyclists do not always stop at the two stop signs on Ladd Avenue at either end of Ladd Circle. Some continue pedaling into the tightly curved circle and into traffic.
Over the years, solutions to get bicyclists to stop at the signs and make the area safer have been batted around, such as increasing enforcement, structurally changing the curve, or mounting an education campaign.
Energy to tackle the issue has renewed recently. On Tuesday, June 28 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA), Abernethy Elementary School parents, and other members of Hosford-Abernethy Neighborhood Development (HAND) will conduct a “pedestrian safety action” along Ladd Avenue.
Participants will wave Burma Shave-style signs to passing bicyclists and motorists reminding them of the state’s sidewalk laws. “Whenever you see a street corner, the direct routes to the other side of either street form legal crosswalks, whether or not there is paint on the ground or not,” says Carl Larson, the BTA’s Walk + Bike ambassador.
The BTA has been holding similar safety actions throughout the city at busy intersections in order to remind cyclists of crosswalk laws. That the action is happening at the same time HAND members are beginning to discuss safety issues at the intersection again, Larson says, is a coincidence.
“It’s a mutually beneficial situation,” Larson says.
The HAND board discussed the issue at its board meeting on June 21. Various solutions to the safety concerns have emerged, including asking the city to post yield signs and asking the Portland Police Bureau to step up enforcement of traffic violations.
“I keep hoping we can find a ‘middle way’ through this, but people seem fairly entrenched on theses issues,” says Linda Nettekoven, the HAND board’s vice chair.
Mia Birk is an Abernethy parent, bicycle advocate, as well as the city’s former bicycle coordinator. She has started a “yield to pedestrians” campaign to raise awareness of the issue. Part of the campaign will involve asking the city to post yield signs and make other signage changes.
“We are also hoping the City will make some changes to the signage and markings to reinforce this message,” Birk wrote in an email to numerous Abernethy parents (she did not respond to Neighborhood Notes’ call for comment). “We hope that these changes and outreach efforts will increase sensitivity to those on foot while continuing to embrace those on wheels.”
Jonathan Maus, bicycle advocate and editor of BikePortland.org, refers to Ladd Circle as an “infamous traffic circle,” and he thinks Ladd Circle will have to be structurally changed to make it safer.
“The solution is to change engineering. That’s pretty clear,” Maus says.
A 2007 memo from the Portland Bureau of Transportation says, “[PBOT] feels that more is needed to make Ladd Circle operate safety than just changing the STOP signs to YIELD.”
To structurally change lane sizes, reconstruct lane entries, and make other engineering changes could cost as much as $160,000.
Depending on how Tuesday’s action event goes, Birk and others may continue increasing awareness and holding such actions throughout the summer and into next school year.
Maus guesses that Birk’s involvement may mean that some changes will come to Ladd Circle this time around. He also calls HAND “one of the most powerful” neighborhood associations in Portland because it has a large number of involved, “very engaged” residents.
“They know how to turn the screws at City Hall, and they’ll make stuff happen,” he says. “If they have an issue that bothers them, the city pays a lot of attention.”
UPDATE 8/3/2011: "Neighbors, Bike and Pedestrian Advocates Creating Ladd Circle Survey"
By Amanda Waldroupe, NeighborhoodNotes.com
A little background about the video. It's an edited compilation of clips, not a single video segment, that is intended to illustrate the issue and provide a reasonable representation of bike behavior. While I was photographing a resident of Ladd's Addition was also shooting video to document the behavior. He said that he is actually in favor of replacing the stop signs with yield signs, but the fact that most bicyclists don't stop really annoys him. A second resident who lives right at the intersection said that with two people video taping the intersection more bikes than usual were slowing down. He said that on a typical day more bikes go through without slowing. Both residents asked to remain anonymous. What do you think? Should the stop signs be replaced with yield signs to allow all vehicles to cautiously enter the circle without stopping?
What really ruffles my feathers as a bicyclist who rides through Ladd via Ladd Ave pretty often is: when I'm slowing down for the stop sign and another cyclist behind me passes me and "blows" through the stop sign without seeming to look and cutting me off. I too see disrespect for pedestrians approaching the crosswalk, at the same time I agree the stop signs are the incorrect solution. Unfortunately if the stop signs are changed to yield signs, the particular cyclists who do not currently slow down appropriately will slow down less, which doesn't help the pedestrians. Also cars also fail to stop. And pedestrians tend to walk around in their own world not paying attention to traffic around them. it's not all on the cyclists, and it's not every cyclist either.
I'm a Ladd's resident and I ride bikes and walk to get around, including through the circle a few times a day. I think that yield signs would be entirely appropriate on the circle, and that this video shows that stopping is not necessary for safe traffic interactions. However, I'd also love to see big "Yield to Peds" signs and, if necessary, enforcement for failure to yield. Overall, though, I think that the circle is very safe and I'm glad to live near it, regardless of how it is marked.
I've walked, jogged, biked, and driven through Ladd's Circle on a daily basis for the past five years. Coming to a complete stop on a bicycle at these intersections is absurd (and in general I'm an advocate for abiding the stop sign laws while biking). You can see whether there are cars coming long before they reach, and the circle is wide enough to accommodate a car alongside cyclists riding two-abreast at LEAST. You can enter the circle even if there IS a car coming and still have plenty of shoulder room to feel comfortable. And these aren't blind corners; peds are in plain sight too. I've never had a close call with either a cyclist or a car as a pedestrian here, but the only remotely sketchy situations come when cars coming behind you and turning OFF the circle in front of you, as either a ped or cyclist. I generally avoid Ladd's altogether in a car because it's such a bike thoroughfare. *Driving* is by far the most nerve wracking way of traveling through the neighborhood because I'm afraid I'LL hit a *cyclist*. Yield? Yes, please, always. Stopping makes more sense for cars, but if it has to be one way or the other yield signs are the way to go.
Not that I advocate people running existing traffic controls, Ladd's Circle is currently not up to code by having stop signs in the first place. Give it time and the roundabout will be brought up to code (which would involve replacing the existing stop signs with yield signs; see chapter 3 of the US Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices).
Structural change? Hell yeah! One that limits cars.
There is a series of two-lane alleys already weaving most of that neighborhood, which lead back to resident garages, parking spaces, and backyard entrances. Maybe, where those exist, we limit car passage into the circles for that block. What say we go all the way and ban cars from the circles, and they become what they look like they were intended for -garden gathering spaces, and pedestrian and bicycle and traverses.
Let the kids and parents feel safe this summer; let the kids run across the street to the park with the dog, no cars, no problems. Maybe even *just* for the summers.
Then the bicyclists that pass through would have themselves trained to go slow there, and the sign waivers will be able to stay home in the rain this winter.
I totally trust the cyclists in Portland to pull back on the gears in pedestrian-only residential areas.
Pretty sure "yield to pedestrians" sign would be a misapplication of signage since there's already a marked crosswalk. If people aren't doing the right thing, more signage won't fix that: Enforcement will.
Am I the only one who noticed that more bikes than cars actually stop in that video?
Hi David, There were cars that did stop at the stop signs, but they were in clips that did not make it into the final video. I don't want to misrepresent drivers behavior, but the subject of the story was bikes so that's the emphasis of the video.
That seems disingenuous and belies an attitude that may be incompatible with your neighborhood. If you don't like bikes in your neighborhood, why do you live on the intersection of three major bike boulevards?
I've biked, walked, and driven through Ladd's Addition almost daily for much of the last fourteen years. I echo the comment that expecting cyclists (and cars, for that matter) to come to a complete foot-on-the-ground stop (absent pedestrians) at these two STOP signs is ridiculous given the geometry of the intersections.
Reengineering the circle to be more like a proper European roundabout is a nice idea but unnecessarily expensive. I can think of many, many other places in the city that could more urgently use $100,000+ of reengineering help.
I'd vote for the obvious change of replacing the STOP signs with YIELD signs, adding some clear "Yield to Pedestrians in Crosswalk" signs for good measure, and running an occasional random police sting focused on those cyclists and drivers who still fail to yield when needed. (I'd also vote for doing the exact same treatment at the Joan of Arc circle at 39th & Glisan, but that's another issue...).
are there any suitable routes around Ladd's? i am not familiar with the area, I go thru there once in while.
I agree that there are some people on bikes who do not stop at the stop signs. But I find it sort of odd that (as someone who bikes through Ladd Circle twice a day) that this article is only about BIKE RIDERS not stopping. I see just as many car drivers fail to stop and fail to yield to pedestrians as bike riders in Ladd Circle.