Remember the Rose Lane Project? What started as a grassroots call for bus-only lanes in 2017, then launched as an official City of Portland project in 2019, and was adopted by City Council in 2020 — the project was supposed to result in a network of dedicated bus (and sometimes bike) lanes criss-crossing the city.
Of the 70 total identified projects where the Portland Bureau of Transportation and TriMet team up to make bus service faster and more efficient, only about half have been built in the past seven years. And it’s been a full two years since we’ve heard even a peep about them. By my count there have only been four significant Rose Lane projects implemented in the past three years: SW Alder, NE Couch, SW Hillsdale, and E Burnside. A combination of the Covid ridership decline, changes in political leadership at City Hall, and a triage budgeting environment have likely put the Rose Lanes on the shelf to gather dust.
“The Rose Lane Project was a big deal before Covid hit and we are deeply concerned that it has been deprioritized.”…