Flawed Burnside crossing may have a fix

Cyclist offers a solution that city engineer likes

Tim Slevin-Vegdahl was crossing West Burnside from Southwest 18th last summer when a car in the position of the one behind him in the photo turned into his path. Photo by Walden Kirsch

Bicyclist Tim Slevin-Vegdahl was the victim of a “right hook” collision on West Burnside Street, but he didn’t get mad. Instead, he envisioned the incident from the driver’s point of view.

Slevin-Vegdahl went back to photograph the confusing bike lane markings. He produced a video to further explain the situation, sketched out a simple remedy and asked the Portland Bureau of Transportation to consider it.

A PBOT engineer was impressed with his assessment and recommended it be adopted.

“Thanks for the video,” responded Alex Garate, who works on safety projects for PBOT.

“I am going to recommend widening the existing [crossing] to better accommodate bicycle movement through the intersection,” he told Slevin-Vegdahl.

PBOT spokesperson Dylan Rivera said the suggested widening, along with concrete traffic separators is “expected to be installed when funding becomes available.”

Not bad for an amateur transportation adviser.

“I speculated about the point of view of the car driver,” said Slevin-Vegdahl, who then tracked down that driver and learned that his assumptions were correct.

The disjointed intersection forces northbound riders to turn right from Southwest 18th before picking up the bike lane crossing Burnside. The motorist thought Slevin-Vegdahl had turned right onto Burnside (which technically he was forced to do to reach the Burnside crossing) and therefore felt it was safe to also turn right onto Burnside.

Slevin-Vegdahl, who is a member of the Goose Hollow Foothills League board, said his first encounter with the driver could have been worse.

“I was knocked to the ground from my bike and scraped up my hands pretty good, but nothing required major medical care,” he said. “I got pretty lucky, as I was actually moving pretty fast when the car turned in front of me.”

Arrow shows the route Tim Slevin-Vegdahl was taking when a car on his left cut in front of him in the middle of West Burnside Street.