Transportation System Plan: 2023-25 Update

Expanding the Functional Classification System to all Transportation Methods 

The City of Milwaukie is updating its Transportation System Plan (TSP) to include a functional classification for all methods of transportation, including walking, cycling, public transit, freight, and automobiles. 

What’s a Functional Classification?

A functional classification is a way to organize streets and pathways based on their intended purpose within a larger network. For example, some streets are designed to accommodate high volumes of traffic, while others are intended to provide access to more private, local destinations. You can think of it as a network plan for each method of transportation. By developing a separate functional classification for each form of transportation, the updated TSP will better reflect the different needs of people walking, cycling, riding public transportation, or using a car.

The functional classification system is made up of two key components: classification descriptions for each type of transportation and a map that assigns those classifications to each street and pathway in the city. The classification descriptions explain the role each type of facility plays within the broader transportation network, outline potential improvements that could enhance its function, and consider how surrounding land uses might support or influence the facility’s effectiveness. The map visually shows how each street and pathway is classified.

Why Adopt a Functional Classification for Other Methods of Transportation?

Currently, the city has a functional classification system that mainly focuses on managing car traffic. By creating separate network plans for people walking, cycling, driving, and using transit, the city will give each type of transportation equal attention in planning and decision-making. This will help prioritize improvements and avoid conflicts between methods of transportation when the city makes transportation investments. 

The new network plans will guide decisions about where and how to improve transportation networks. The classifications won’t dictate exactly how things should be built (like whether to put in a bike lane or crosswalk), but they will help ensure that each transportation method has appropriate facilities to keep people moving. 

An Example: Major City Walkways and 32nd Avenue 

Take Major City Walkways and 32nd Avenue as an example. You can see on the proposed functional classification map for pedestrians below that 32nd Avenue is given the classification Major City Walkway. Major City Walkways are key pedestrian routes that provide safe and comfortable walking environments along important streets and trails, especially where there’s a lot of pedestrian activity. They are often found in areas with denser land uses, like Milwaukie’s downtown, or along streets with frequent transit service or busy off-street trails like the Trolley Trail.

Here’s what the guidelines for a Major City Walkway include:

• Pedestrian Comfort: These walkways are designed to be very comfortable and safe for pedestrians, with a Level of Traffic Stress (PLTS 1) rating (see performance measures memoranda to learn more about Level of Traffic Stress).
• Land Use: Major City Walkways generally serve areas in Milwaukie’s Region 2040 Town Center, where land is zoned for high density residential, commercial, and mixed-use development, but also run along major streets through predominantly low-density residential areas. Where auto-oriented land uses are allowed on Major City Walkways, site development standards should address the needs of pedestrians for access.
• Improvements: Major City Walkways should have regularly spaced marked crossings (with closer spacing in the Region 2040 Town Center and in other commercial and mixed-use areas, such as Milwaukie Marketplace). Major City Walkways should have wide sidewalks, and a pedestrian realm that can accommodate higher volumes of pedestrian activity.

For 32nd Avenue, being classified as a Major City Walkway means the city will focus on making it safer and more comfortable for pedestrians. Improvements might include widening sidewalks to provide more space for people walking, removing sidewalk obstructions like utility poles, and adding more marked crossings for better safety. These upgrades will help make 32nd Avenue a better route for walking, in line with its role as a Major City Walkway.

In summary, these new classifications, like Major City Walkways, offer clear guidance for how streets and pathways should be developed. They ensure that each transportation method, whether walking, riding, cycling, or driving, gets the right kind of infrastructure to serve its purpose and fit the surrounding area.

Interested in learning more or viewing the classification descriptions and maps for other methods of transportation? Check out the entire functional classification memo here.

Transportation System Plan Update: Gaps Analysis

As part of the Transportation System Plan (TSP) update, the city conducted a gaps analysis to identify areas where our transportation network is falling short of our community’s needs. This analysis was guided by new performance standards, including Pedestrian and Bicycle Level of Traffic Stress (see definitions below), and focused on access to the following key destinations in Milwaukie: schools, parks, grocery stores, Neighborhood Hubs, and the the Town Center.

Using this framework, we identified areas within a 1/4-mile walking and bicycling distance of these destinations and identified transportation facilities where the existing conditions do not meet the City’s standards for low-stress walking and cycling (Stress Targets: BLTS Level 1 and PLTS Level 2).

To better understand the most critical needs, we layered these walk and bike sheds to highlight locations where multiple key destinations—like a school and a park—are nearby, but transportation facilities do not meet BLTS 1 or PLTS 2. Figure 13B shows the outcome of this analysis for the city’s pedestrian facilities and Figure 16B shows the analysis for the city’s cycling facilities.

Figure 13B: Pedestrian gaps and deficiencies near key destinations
(key destinations = priority focus areas)

Figure 16B: Bicycle gaps and deficiencies near key destinations 
(key destinations = priority focus areas)

The findings from this analysis will help the city prioritize future transportation projects and investments, ensuring we improve access and safety for all users while advancing equity, sustainability, and mobility goals.

While the primary focus of this analysis was on pedestrian and bicycle facilities, consistent with the previously identified TSP goals and policies and the new state Climate-Friendly and Equitable Communities (CFEC) rules, we also evaluated key intersections for automobile flow and delay and analyzed the movement of freight throughout Milwaukie. You’ll be able to read the full existing conditions/needs gaps memorandum within the coming weeks.

We encourage you to share feedback on this analysis and ask questions. You can also view the whole set of walk/bike-shed maps here.

(Traducciones de este información están disponibles en español. Para solicitar información o preguntar en español, favor de email weigell@milwaukieoregon.gov.)

Reviewing Standards and Policies 

As part of the TSP update, the city and its consultant team reviewed the city’s local street design policies and standards to see how they stacked up against regional best practices for creating livable streets. 

Livable streets are:

• Safe and comfortable places to travel for people of all ages and abilities
• Designed to encourage slower travel speeds
• Welcoming, spaces for people of all backgrounds
• Places to interact and linger
• Designed to foster a sense of community, ownership, and responsibility
• Designed to protect the environment
• Able to adapt to new mobility technologies
• Resilient to changing climates and the impacts of weather events

The review found that the existing policies and standards include a flexible policy framework, which is ideal for creating livable streets. The review also found some room for improvement and recommended that adjustments be made to Neighborhood Greenway principles and that the city consider adding policy guidance on unique street design treatments such as Woonerfs (see Figure 9 below).

Neighborhood Greenway Recommendations

To help guide future decisions regarding neighborhood greenways, it is recommended that the following performance guidelines be adopted

• Vehicle speeds should be no more than 20 mph on all neighborhood greenways.
• The ideal neighborhood greenway has a target volume of 1,000 motor vehicles a day or less.
• Neighborhood greenways can function effectively with added design features with an average of 1,500 motor vehicles per day.

Example Street Designs 

The review created illustrations depicting standard street designs. The city can use different designs based on the type of road and how much space is available for improvements. Put differently, the city isn't choosing between these designs, rather, these design types can be applied depending on the roadway's intended purpose, available resources, and existing constraints. Updated versions of these graphics will be included in the final TSP. Learn more by clicking here. 

Figure 1. Unenhanced Local Street

Figure 1 illustrates an unimproved local street cross section that would apply to existing streets in the City. This cross section recognizes a minimum design allowance for specific situations where a full local street upgrade is not feasible or necessary and overall traffic volumes and speeds are very low.

Figure 2. Local/Neighborhood Street with Sidewalks and On-Street Parking Figure 2 illustrates a local/neighborhood street cross section, enhanced to provide on-street parking and separate facilities for people walking. Bicyclists would share the roadway with vehicles. This cross section is appropriate for local and neighborhood streets with low traffic volumes and speeds. It could be a design application for a neighborhood greenway.

Figure 3. Local/Neighborhood Streets with Sidewalks on Both Sides Figure 3 illustrates a local/neighborhood street cross section, enhanced to provide separate sidewalk facilities for people walking. Bicyclists would share the roadway with vehicles. This cross section does not include on-street parking and would therefore only be appropriate on certain neighborhood streets that are not anticipated to have on-street parking needs. This cross section is appropriate for low traffic volumes and speeds. It could be a design application for a neighborhood greenway.

Figure 4. Low Volume Street

Figure 4. illustrates a low volume street cross section. The Low Volume Street (LVS) standard is not intended to be used in lieu of one of the City’s local street standards, but is intended to facilitate infill development in situations where development to the assigned standard would likely preclude such development. Appropriate for situations where traffic volumes and speeds should be considerably lower than the standards that allow 20 MPH streets.

 

Figure 5. Collector Street with Shared Use Path

 Figure 5 illustrates a collector street enhanced to provide separate facilities for people walking and biking on one side of the roadway while maintaining one lane of on-street parking. This cross section is appropriate for collector streets with moderate traffic volumes and speeds. It could be a design application in a constrained right-of-way setting when there is a need for enhanced bicycle accommodations. 

Figure 6. Collector Street with Separate Pedestrian and Bicycle Facilities

 

Figure 6. illustrates a collector street cross section, enhanced to provide more traditional sidewalk and bicycle facilities for multimodal travel. Right of way permitting, the bicycle lanes could be designed as buffered bicycle lanes. It does not include on-street parking. This cross section is appropriate for collector streets (and arterials is some settings) with moderate traffic volumes and speeds.

Figure 7.Collector Street with Multiuse Path and Simple Sidewalk

Figure 7. illustrates a collector street cross section, enhanced to provide a separate multiuse path for walking and biking on one side of the roadway and a simple sidewalk on the other. This cross section is appropriate for collector streets with moderate traffic volumes and speeds when there is a need for enhanced bicycle accommodations.

 

Figure 8. Collector Street with multiuse path on both sides. 

Figure 8. illustrates a collector street cross section, enhanced to provide separate facilities for people walking and biking on both sides of the roadway. This cross section is appropriate for collector streets (and arterials is some settings) with moderate to high traffic volumes/speeds and where there is a need for enhanced bicycle accommodations.

Figure 9. Woonerf Design

Figure 9 illustrates a woonerf design, which is a type of road design that blends the vehicular and pedestrian spaces into one shared space. Typically, there is no formal division between the pedestrian zones and the mixed travel way zones, creating a pedestrian-focused space that is open for vehicles but with the expectation that vehicular travel will be minimal and at much slower speeds. Woonerfs have the following benefits:

• Creates a community-oriented space that is not dominated by vehicular travel.
• Encourages multimodal travel.
• Incorporates outdoor furnishings, landscaping, on-street parking, and lighting. These elements act as traffic calming devices to ensure slow travel speeds.

 

 

 

(Traducciones de este información están disponibles en español. Para solicitar información o preguntar en español, favor de email weigell@milwaukieoregon.gov.)

Recent changes to the state rules governing transportation planning in Oregon emphasize and require the City of Milwaukie—and other metropolitan cities—to adopt a performance-based approach to TSP development. This means the city has to adopt performance standards.

What is a performance standard? 

Performance standards include two components:

1. A measure, estimate, or projection of some characteristic of the transportation system.  
2. A target threshold to determine if the city is making improvements to that characteristic of the transportation system.

How does this change transportation planning? 

The concept of using performance-management principles in transportation planning is not new. In fact, the city currently uses a standard that measures how long automobiles are delayed at intersections during the busiest travel times. While the city will likely continue to use that standard (or something like it) to measure the movement of automobiles, the new state rules require the city to adopt standards that cumulatively support reducing transportation-related climate pollution (like CO2 emissions from vehicle tailpipes). 

At least one of the standards adopted must also support making it easier to get around without an automobile and advance transportation planning objectives like safety and accessibility. Because Milwaukie is part of a regional transportation network, climate pollution reduction targets are set by the regional planning authority, Metro. As such, the city will work with Metro to track progress on these targets.

The city is considering adopting four performance standards. 

These standards measure how certain aspects of the transportation system are working and establish targets for improving those aspects of the system.

1.  Accessibility to public transit: The measure looks at the percentage of a population, jobs, or households living within a certain distance or travel time from a transit stop.

2.  Bicycle Level of Traffic Stress (BLTS): BLTS classifies segments of roadways into different categories of stress based on factors that correlate to the comfort and safety of the bicyclist using that facility. Characteristics that might improve comfort and safety include separated bicycle lanes, specific signals for cyclists, less car traffic or slower speeds.

3.  Pedestrian Level of Traffic Stress (PLTS):Like BLTS, PLTS classifies segments of roadways into different categories of stress based on factors that correlate to the comfort and safety of the pedestrian using that facility. For example, are there sidewalks, is there landscaping between the sidewalk and the vehicle travel lane, what's the speed limit, etc.  

4.  System Completeness: System completeness identifies all the sidewalks, bike lanes, roadway connections, etc. throughout the city and identifies where we would like to increase those faciliites in the future.

For those wanting to learn more about BLTS and PLTS, the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency in Tennessee created a StoryMap illustrating the concepts.

How would a standard like "accessibility to public transit" be used?

Milwaukie’s TSP will likely look at the percentage of households in the city that live within ¼ mile of a transit route that can be accessed by foot using sidewalks and other safe pedestrian routes like multi-use pathways. The analysis will also show which households are lacking good access to public transportation which in turn will reveal where there are gaps in the city's network of pedestrian facilities. 

Using the percentage of households with good access to transit as a baseline, the city will be able to set a realistic target for what percentage of households should have better access to transit in the future if certain improvements are made. Since the city does not directly make decisions about transit routes (TriMet does that), the best way to improve access to transit from a transportation planning perspective is by providing new and better connections - making it easier to reach the routes that already exist.

Want to learn more? Click here.