PBOT’s maintenance woes aren’t just a problem for people who travel by car. by Taylor Griggs

In the bike-friendly cities of Northern Europe, a phrase is sometimes used to lightly chastise those who are intimidated to cycle in the rain: “You’re not made of sugar.” That is, you can get a little wet—you won’t melt. 

But not all rainy cities are created equal. The “sugar” sentiment is easier applied in places like the Netherlands and Denmark, where people on bikes dominate the streets all year long, even in the cold, wet months. The bike capitals of the world, many of which are hardly tropical paradises, were purposefully designed to treat people traveling outside of cars as worthy of quality amenities. And a lot of that comes down to the state of the pavement. 

Here in Portland, our streets—including the bike lanes—could (surprise!) use some work. The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) has a roughly $6 billion maintenance backlog, mainly consisting of unmet pavement needs on busy and local streets, which has failed to be adequately tempered by funding sources like the gas tax. And as Portland’s street maintenance needs have become more apparent, gripes about PBOT’s priorities have gotten louder. 

“There are potholes everywhere, and PBOT wants to build a new bike lane?” is the common refrain from armchair urban economists. It’s a talking point that’s parroted by people who should know better, too. One example: A questionnaire to 2024 City Council candidates written by reporters at the Oregonian and OPB asks people to decide whether to prioritize “creation of more protected bike lanes and priority bus lanes or improved surfacing of existing degraded driving lanes.” 

The implication contained in this false dichotomy is that protected bike lanes and priority bus lanes—and the people who use them—are frivolous compared to the potholes car drivers have to deal with. But even stranger is the implication that people who bike, walk, or use public transit aren’t impacted by the city’s street maintenance problems. In fact, those who get around without a car often face the brunt of PBOT’s maintenance backlog woes, especially during the winter. 

Take the ubiquitous bike lane puddles. These puddles proliferate during the late fall and early winter, after most of the autumn leaves are off the trees and clogging up the gutters. Unfortunate topography and storm drain placement has resulted in some puddles that remain landmarks on Portland’s streets all winter, like the notorious “Lake Blumenauer” on the north side of the car-free Blumenauer Bridge across I-84. 

These puddles might not seem like a big deal, but believe me when I tell you that riding through one of them can temporarily make you question your will to live. Fenders and rain pants can only do so much to protect you from six inches of grimy water and whatever might be floating in it. 

Then there’s the gravel. After major winter weather events, like the ice storm early this year, PBOT spreads gravel and road salt on the roadways so vehicle traffic can get by. That’s fine, but after the ice melts, tiny pebbles end up piled in the bike lanes, creating treacherous conditions for riders, and they often stay there for weeks or months. 

I can give the city some grace: PBOT has $6 billion of maintenance work on its hands, so it makes sense that some needs fall to the wayside. This would be a more acceptable situation to me if the proliferating narrative wasn’t that bike riders are preventing the city from getting its basic maintenance work done. 

The truth is that bike advocates are some of the most dedicated street maintenance wonks in the game, often taking the responsibility of keeping the streets clean into their own hands. After January’s ice storm, members of bike advocacy group BikeLoud PDX took to the streets with a bike lane-size sweeper, picking up an impressive amount of gravel in the process.

More recently, PBOT has said it will purchase a sweeper for protected bike lanes, as larger street sweepers are too big to do the job. This is a good step, but the sheer novelty of it indicates how far behind we are from some of our international bike city peers. 

So, no—we’re not made of sugar, and Portland’s rainy and cold winter weather is not necessarily prohibitive to mass adoption of biking as transportation. But we have quite a bit of work to do to get to where we need to go. However, though the road ahead is lined with gravel, we are armed with volunteer street sweepers.

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