Northeast Halsey Street now has a brand new two-way protected bike lane with bold green and white markings that officially opened tonight. The $X million project, completed over just five days of intensive night work from July 13 through July 17, 2026, transforms a 1.2-mile stretch of road that was previously inhospitable for people on bicycles.
If you’ve cycled on this corridor before and steered wide around car doors or swerved around parked vehicles, tonight marks the shift to a dedicated, raised concrete path that separates you from traffic entirely. The newly painted bike lane runs between the mini-roundabout at NE 81st Avenue and NE 92nd Avenue, creating what the city calls the “Safety and Access to Transit Project.” This isn’t just cosmetic repainting—the green and white markings were adhered using a specialized blowtorch application, a method that ensures durability through seasonal weather changes and heavy use. Alongside the bike infrastructure, the project added new sidewalks for pedestrians, addressing a corridor that previously forced walkers into tight quarters.
Table of Contents
- What Does the New Protected Bike Lane Actually Provide?
- Why Focus on This Particular Street?
- Connecting to the MAX Station and Beyond
- How the Markings Were Applied and Why It Matters
- Integration with the Existing Street Environment
- Painted Color as Urban Wayfinding
- What Happens on a High-Traffic Street Tomorrow Morning
What Does the New Protected Bike Lane Actually Provide?
A protected bike lane differs fundamentally from painted lines on asphalt. This path is raised concrete, meaning it’s literally elevated above the street surface on its own platform. That physical separation—not just paint—is what the word “protected” means. You’re not sharing space with car traffic; you’re traveling on your own infrastructure.
The green markings identify the space as cycling-specific, while white edge lines define the boundaries. The path runs two-way, so cyclists heading northeast and southwest both have dedicated space. This matters on a street like Halsey, which is relatively narrow and carries significant car traffic. A two-way path requires more careful design than a one-way lane because you need to account for turning movements and prevent head-on collisions between cyclists traveling opposite directions—contractors and engineers had to ensure adequate width and clear sight lines. The raised concrete design also reduces the risk of a car driver drifting into the bike lane, either accidentally or while parking.
Why Focus on This Particular Street?
Halsey Street earned its nickname as a “High Crash street,” Portland’s designation for corridors where collisions involving people walking and cycling occur with concerning frequency. Before this project, the street had minimal protection for vulnerable road users. Drivers navigated relatively narrow lanes, encouraging faster speeds, while cyclists either rode in those lanes or squeezed between parked cars and traffic. The infrastructure gap wasn’t a matter of inconvenience—it was a safety vulnerability.
This project directly targets that problem. By giving cyclists a protected path, the city removes the incentive for drivers to cut through the bike lane or create conflict zones. Studies from cities like Minneapolis and Vancouver show that protected infrastructure reduces injury collisions by 40 to 50 percent compared to painted lanes or no markings at all. Of course, infrastructure alone doesn’t eliminate all risk—driver behavior, visibility during rain and darkness, and cyclist awareness still matter. But the physical barrier changes the baseline from “drivers can hit cyclists” to “drivers would have to actively cross a raised curb to do so.”.
Connecting to the MAX Station and Beyond
One overlooked benefit of the Halsey project is its connection to the NE 82nd Avenue MAX light rail station. For someone living in the residential neighborhoods east of 82nd, or working in the business corridor along Halsey, the bike lane now offers a car-free route to rapid transit. This addresses a real gap in Portland’s active transportation network—many residential areas have decent transit access but weak cycling routes to get there.
The mini-roundabout at NE 81st Avenue serves as a pivot point where the path connects to existing bike infrastructure. Rather than dead-ending, the project was designed as part of a larger network. The new sidewalks similarly extend walking routes into neighborhoods that previously had fragmented pedestrian access. If you live three blocks from Halsey but have struggled to find a safe, direct walking route to catch the MAX, tonight’s opening potentially changes your commute options.
How the Markings Were Applied and Why It Matters
The contractors didn’t simply paint lines onto the raised concrete. They used a blowtorch technique to adhere the green and white markings, a more durable application method than standard paint. Blowtorch application heats the marking material to bond it to the concrete surface, creating a finish that resists rain, snow, freeze-thaw cycles, and the repeated wear from countless bicycle tires. Standard paint applications on this type of infrastructure can start peeling or fading within a year or two in Portland’s wet climate.
This choice reflects the city’s commitment to long-term maintenance. A protected bike lane is only useful if people can see it and trust it. Faded or deteriorating markings send a signal of neglect and can reduce adoption. The five-day construction window, with work conducted at night to avoid disrupting daytime traffic, represented a tight schedule. Starting July 13 and wrapping by July 17 means the project was completed during favorable weather, before late summer rain returned.
Integration with the Existing Street Environment
The raised concrete path had to coexist with existing street elements—driveways, business access points, intersections. Where cars need to cross the bike lane to enter driveways or side streets, the design creates a clear conflict zone. Drivers making those movements are required to yield to cyclists on the protected path, and sight lines are intentionally arranged to make turning vehicles visible to cyclists. It’s not perfect—driveways always create risk—but the raised design at least makes the crossing explicit and visible, unlike painted lanes that drivers sometimes ignore.
The new sidewalks alongside the bike lane raised an important design question: how wide should the pedestrian zone be? In commercial areas, sidewalks need space for outdoor seating, sandwich boards, and foot traffic without forcing people into the street. The project team had to balance bike lane width, sidewalk width, and the space needed for planted trees and street furniture. Too narrow and pedestrians feel squeezed; too wide and the project eats into land or requires more right-of-way acquisition. The compromise reached on Halsey reflects those tradeoffs.
Painted Color as Urban Wayfinding
The green markings serve a practical purpose beyond aesthetics. Green is the standard color for protected bike infrastructure in North America, part of a visual language that tells cyclists “this space is for you” at a glance. When you’re traveling at speed, or in low light, or navigating an unfamiliar street, color coding matters. A cyclist from another city who’s never been on Halsey before will recognize the green markings instantly and understand the space’s function.
White edge lines provide contrast that improves visibility, especially in wet conditions or at night. The combination of green and white was chosen deliberately during the design phase. This isn’t decoration—it’s a communication system. And unlike some decorative paint jobs on bike infrastructure, which fade within months, the blowtorch-adhered markings should maintain their brightness for years.
What Happens on a High-Traffic Street Tomorrow Morning
Tonight’s opening happens on a street that remains busy with car traffic. The bike lane’s protection is real, but it doesn’t eliminate the need for cyclist awareness. Buses still use this corridor, and bus stops create transition zones where cyclists and pedestrians interact. Left-turning drivers, checking blind spots, may not immediately adjust to the presence of a new protected lane they’ve never navigated before. The first weeks and months will likely see a learning curve for all road users.
The project is designed to handle this transition. Clear signage marks the new infrastructure, and the physical raising of the path makes it difficult to ignore. But adoption takes time. Some cyclists who’ve been riding in car lanes or on sidewalks may not immediately trust the new path, while some drivers may take weeks to adjust their turning patterns. The five-day painting sprint represents the end of construction, not the end of implementation. The real test comes when tens of thousands of commuters begin using the new infrastructure during regular weekday traffic patterns.
