This Portland Intersection Might Confuse and Embarrass You

If you stop at the light at this intersection in Portland, make sure you end up in the correct lane or you're going to be embarrassed.

The intersection at Park Avenue and Forest Avenue looks like it has three lanes, one to turn left, one to go straight and one to turn right. But one of those lanes is actually parking. I took this photo early in the morning showing a car that looks like it's sitting at the light, but it's actually parked in one of two spaces that look like a traffic lane.

I've wanted to turn right on Forest Avenue here a few times and ended up waiting behind a parked car, because of a new and odd configuration of the lanes.

Last summer, Portland reconfigured Park Street to add a bike lane. Unlike most bike lanes, this one is up against the curb with street parking to the left of the lane. Before the reconfiguration, this left most lane WAS the right turn lane as you can see in this Google Street View of the intersection before the change.

What used to be three lanes has been reduced to two and the right lane is for traffic going straight and turning right. With the parking area so far from the curb, during daylight hours, it looks like two cars are in a right turn lane waiting to turn.

It's an extremely confusing setup. The city should do something to let people know this is a parking lane. Paint the lane, put up a sign, whatever. People hate being embarrassed when they sit and honk the horn at these cars. Please tell me I'm not the only one.