The Portland Transportation Center Neighborhood Byway seeks to create a stronger biking and walking connection between the existing Deering Center Byway and the PTC/Thompson’s Point and the Fore River Parkway Trail (and points in between).
The proposed route runs (north to south) on Nevens Street, Beacon Street, Orland Street, Whitney Avenue and Sewall Street. The connections to the existing Deering Center Byway would be on Nevens Street and Prospect Street to Glenwood Street. This preliminary route is shown to the right.    A focus of the project is on the pedestrian-bicyclist crossings on the Byway of Congress Street, Brighton Avenue and Woodford Street. Other key improvements would be pavement markings and Byway signs.  

Neighborhood Byways designate local streets to provide safer, more convenient and attractive biking and walking to connect the places people live, go to school, shop, work and play. It's a shared roadway - local vehicle traffic continues to use the streets (with no change to the number of lanes), too, but walking and biking are made much more visible through pavement markings, the quality of the streetscape and signs. Their locations focus on good transportation connections between schools, neighborhood centers, parks and open spaces, and residential areas. 

Byways typically run parallel to and between busier major streets and create good quality ways to cross the busier streets with which they intersect. The Deering Center Byway (5.5. miles) was a pilot project completed in 2012. A city-wide 30 mile Neighborhood Byway network is envisioned to be built over time.   

FMI contact Bruce Hyman, Transportation Program Manager.