Like I mentioned back in April, Portland will be prominently featured on a TV show to air on the Sundance Channel later this month.

Our bike-friendliness will be on the national stage yet again when their Big Ideas for a Small Planet series turns its attention to transportation. The episode features Mia Birk (former PDOT bike program manager and now consultant at Alta Planning), as well as one of Portland’s time-honored bikey traditions — the bike move.

Check a “webisode” of the segment below (or watch it here):

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The CLF wants you to think about
a Climate Smart CRC.

There’s a lot going on with the Columbia River Crossing project.

The much-anticipated Draft Environmental Impact Statement has been released and we are now in a 60-day public comment period (that ends July 1st).

Comments on the DEIS will help regional decision makers choose which alternatives move into the next phases of the project. Two informational open houses where you can comment (either in person or in writing) have been scheduled for May 28th and 29th.

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With just over one week left before ballots are due, here are my thoughts on the race to fill Seat #2 on Portland’s City Council.

Nick Fish (Photos © J. Maus)

Jim Middaugh

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Over the weekend, Seattle P-I columnist Joel Connelly traveled to Bend (175 miles SE of Portland) to cover Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign visit.

In a column he published this morning, Connelly wrote:

Sen. Barack Obama talked wistfully about taking a bicycle ride in the high Oregon desert, but plunged back into what is both a victory lap in the Democratic race and the warmup for a long general election campaign.

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A friend of Erik Davidson’s — the man who was critically injured in a hit-and-run on Saturday — has left a comment with an update on his condition and details about how the community can help.

Here’s what Brina Bolanz writes about Davidson’s condition:

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A guy on a bike — not a “self-serving”,
“agenda driven”, “bike commuter”.
(Photo © J. Maus)

A Portland blog that covers “gentrification and other problems” has published an article about “bike commuters” that I found interesting and wanted to share.

It also brought up some thoughts of mine on how people tend to lump “bike commuters” into one big, happy group.

In Seeing The Sky; And, The Privilege Of Bike Commuting, the blog’s author shares the “unfortunate truth” that bike commuting is “a privilege, mostly denied to the middle working class (my error)” (emphasis mine):

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[Updated: 8:31am, 2:13pm, Monday 10:13am) - Please see end of story for updates.]

Jeremy Jordan was arrested
Saturday afternoon.
(PPB booking photo)

The Portland Police Bureau’s Major Crash Team was called to the scene of a serious injury hit-and-run that occurred at 2:44 am this morning (Saturday, 5/10) at the 6900 block of NE Fremont St. (just north of Sandy Blvd).

According to the PPB, officers have determined that 30 year-old Jeremy Jordan entered a nearby Safeway to buy some beer. When employees refused, he reportedly attempted to steal the beer.

Jordon then ran to his car and began to drive out of the parking lot “at a high rate of speed”.

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Bike traffic on the Hawthorne Bridge.
(Photo © J. Maus)

Bicycling Magazine has released their list of the “Best Cities for Cycling” and Portland is once again on top.

Here’s what Bicycling’s Brian Fiske writes about Portland in their June issue:

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After a downtown time-trial on Tuesday,
racers will tackle Mt. Tabor.
(Photos © J. Maus)

The sixth annual Mt. Hood Cycling Classic will kick-off in Portland early next week. The event be the most prestigious professional cycling race ever held in the city.

Race director Chad Sperry says the race will be a qualifier for the Beijing Olympics and, with its prime place on the National Racing Calendar (NRC), it has been given the highest possible ranking (in terms of importance) on the U.S. racing circuit.

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Green bike lanes, like this one on
SE 7th in Portland, are also being installed
in Seattle.
(Photo © J. Maus)

Portland isn’t the only city in the region to go green for bikes. The Seattle Department of Transportation installed that city’s first green bike lanes earlier this week.

According to a press release from SDOT, green bike lanes were laid out in two locations on Tuesday (5/6) and additional locations are slated for installation today.

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One Million Bicycles, the ambitious event that plans to hold 100 bike rallies in 50 states and recycle and donate 1 million bikes by August 2009, is rolling full steam ahead.

Organizer and author/activist Joe “Metal Cowboy” Kurmaskie is assembling his staff, registration is now open at OneMillionBicycles.org and a kick-off video has just been released (watch it below).

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Exchange Cycle Tours — who led
a ride to Kelly Point last month — will
lead the Butte Buster Challenge
on Saturday.
(Photo: Matt Picio)

Here’s a listing of some of the bike events and rides happening in and around Portland this weekend.

Major thanks are due to the all-powerful Shift Calendar. If you know of any bike events not listed, please add them in the comments and I’ll update this post when I can.

Saturday May 10

Annual Alpenrose Velodrome Clean-up

- Show up ready to paint, pull weeds, lift and carry stuff, etc. Starts at 10:00 AM and we will be there all day. Please show up because we need the help.

- If you haven’t been to one of these seasons before you should go. In the past we have had lots of people show up and hopefully this year will be the same. Lots of people make the work go quickly. In many ways it is a lot like a barn raising. It is very satisfying to see people giving back to the bike racing community and to see the velodrome look good.

- Free pancake breakfast provided by Chris King!!!
- Free pizza lunch provided by Portland Velodrome Committee!
- More info here.

Intermediate Level Road Ride

- Trainer’s Club, 333 S State St, Lake Oswego
- 10:00am, Every Saturday
- Meet at Trainer’s Club in Lake Place Shopping Center for an intermediate level road ride. Helmets required
- Kelly At Bike Gallery , www.bikegallery.com/, Casey - at Trainer’s Club 503.636.3900, 503-254-2663

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Event flyer.
Click to enlarge (390k, jpg).

I get a lot of emails here at BikePortland.org headquarters — but yesterday was the first time I ever got one from a Deacon.

It was a personal invitation from Deacon Thomas Gornick, Director of Evangelization for the Archdiocese of Portland, to attend “the Blessing of the Bikes to be held at the Cathedral on Sunday, June 8, 2008 at 2 PM.”

According to Deacon Gornick, his parish is located near important bike crossings in the Northwest and the Pearl District and he, “wants to celebrate and acknowledge the cyclist contribution to our community.”

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Here’s a great job opportunity that was posted to the BikePortland Job Listings this week:

• Inventory Analyst - Chris King Precision Components

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The Beaverton Police Department’s Public Information Officer Sgt. Paul Wandell says a statement about bike safety printed in a city newsletter has been “blown out of proportion.”

The advice — that bicyclists should, “walk your bike across busy intersections and streets” — was printed as a bike safety tip and it has touched a nerve among many Beaverton residents after a story on BikePortland brought it to their attention.

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Devoted bike advocate and transportation
guru Chris Smith will take part in
a City Club debate tomorrow.
(Photo © J. Maus)

You’ve got some important choices to make in this election, so why not wait a few days before making up your mind?

Tomorrow is the big City Club debate featuring the six candidates vying for City Commissioner Seat #1 (that’s the race with Fritz, Smith, Bissonnette, Branam, Fahey, and Lewis — all solid candidates), and I’ve got thoughts and notes I’d like to share about them as well.

Also, in a few minutes I’m sitting down with mayoral hopeful Sho Dozono. I’ll ask him to share his thoughts on how he’ll work to make Portland equal to Amsterdam — a claim he made in a televised debate last month.

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As many of you who already know, all sorts of interesting things can be seen while riding around a city.

I’ve been trying to snap photos of random sights on the bikeways around Portland more often. Here are three things that caught my eye in the past few days…

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