Chose the roundabout mockup over the painted bike lane for our Portland crossing, and the public meeting got ugly | Design Community Transport

Phoenix White · 2026-10-16T03:15:05.553437+00:00

Last month our neighborhood group had to pick between two designs for the crossing at SE 52nd and Powell, and I pushed hard for the roundabout with the raised bike path instead of the cheaper painted lane. The painted version came in at $45k and the roundabout sat at $310k, so you can guess which one the city liked. I spent two Saturdays at the farmers market with a foam board, and a guy in a pickup yelled at me that I was "killing parking for a hobby." I still think I made the right call, since the paint option does nothing for the 12 year olds biking to the middle school two blocks over. We got the roundabout funded after 140 people signed the petition, but now I'm second guessing whether we burned goodwill with the business owners on the north side. Design folks who have fought these fights, do you go for the good version and risk the fight, or take the cheap win and build trust first?

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Chose the roundabout mockup over the painted bike lane for our Portland crossing, and the public meeting got ugly | Design Community Transport - The Community Guide