That plan set into motion the cycle-track on SW Moody Avenue, all those bicycle traffic signals, bike share stations, the carfree Tilikum Bridge and so on. Pearce said demand for cycling due to the presence of the Tram led to bicycling (and walking) becoming a major priority in the 2009 South Waterfront Concept Plan. “As a planner, seeing this demand reinforced for me that we needed to make the areas around the Tram as high-quality as we can achieve.” “It was a pivotal moment,” Pearce recalled. Instead of fighting against bikes, the City embraced them. “But we ultimately felt like that was the wrong direction to go.” (You can still easily wheel your bike into the pods.) Pearce said the lack of parking caused upwards of 200 people a day to take their bikes inside the Tram pods, which led the City to consider banning them. Almost immediately it attracted hundreds of bike users who parked their steeds to every imaginable surface: fences, trees, benches. When I paid a visit in those first days of the Tram the bike parking situation was clearly a problem. “From day one there were bikes everywhere… the demand surprised even me.” Bikes parked at the Tram the first summer it opened. Pearce said he had to “fight hard” to get 16 spaces. The design manuals called for eight spaces. “As a cycle commuter,” Pearce recalled, “It was literally the wild west down there at the time.”Įven so, Pearce advocated for bike parking at the base the Tram from the start. “At the time, you wouldn’t imagine biking or walking from South Waterfront to downtown. He said the aim of the project was to “knit together” the “island” of the South Waterfront to the rest of the central city. Pearce (who I interviewed before the Tram officially opened in 2006) is now PBOT’s manager of policy, planning and projects. He also confessed that no one expected the Tram and cycling to be such a perfect pair. At a lunchtime presentation in City Hall last week, Art Pearce, the City of Portland staffer who managed the project for the Bureau of Transportation, credited the Tram for putting bicycle access front-and-center in the South Waterfront District. The tram and bicycles were an unlikely couple at the start but in the past decade they have become inseparable. While the Tram deserves all the attention, a big part of its coming-of-age story is the symbiotic relationship it has had with cycling. Seeing how successful this system has been in a transit centric city like Portland provides inspiration for how ropeways can provide safe, reliable, fun transportation in a urban environment.All eyes will be on the Portland Aerial Tram as the beloved transit mode turns 10 years old this weekend. It was an exciting opportunity to be able to work with the City, OHSU and Doppelmayr on this high profile urban tramway system. That way the City could count on the Tram’s reliability as a vital piece of their transportation network. Our responsibilities included performing unannounced (surprise!) and announced inspections to ensure the system was being operated and maintained properly. SCJ was selected to be Portland’s Independent Ropeway Engineer for the aerial tramway. It is also a critical transportation connection to the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) at the top of the hill. During the four-minute ride, the Tram cabins travel 3300 feet from the South Waterfront Neighborhood to an upper terminal with stunning views. Portland’s Aerial Tramway is in the heart of one of the most transportation diverse cities in the country.
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