Advocates and Planners Debate the Oregon DOT's Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan

"Staff from bike advocacy groups, from the Metro regional government and from the Portland office of the Oregon Department of Transportation are all pushing for significant changes to a document that will be the foundation of bicycle planning for the next quarter century," reports Michael Andersen.

The outpouring of concern is directed at the Oregon Department of Transportation's (ODOT) draft Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan, which recently closed a public comment period. "Among the points of contention: the plan doesn’t explicitly say that the state should be putting complete biking and walking facilities on highways like Southwest Barbur, Southeast Powell or Northeast Lombard," according to Andersen.

The article goes on to detail the comments of concern voiced by both advocacy groups and elected officials from the Portland-area regional government, Metro. Among the talking points in the debate is how the new plan compares to the previous state plan, approved in 1995. Critics of the new plan say it falls short of the standards established by the 1995 plan. ODOT Transportation Planning Manager Amanda Pietz is quoted in the story touting the new plan's attention to specific projects—something she says the 1995 plan lacked. The in-depth article includes a lot more detail about the plan and the debate that ensued during the plan's public comment period.