🚨 Please note: BikePortland is currently on hiatus and only publishing guest articles. Learn more here. Thank you. - Jonathan 🙏
Tigard school teacher Eric Kautzky was killed in June of 2005 by a teenager who fell asleep at the wheel (more on Kautzky here).
Evan Manvel of the BTA just forwarded me this news release from Salem from the office of State Representative Jerry Krummel (R-Wilsonville). It’s an announcement of a special ceremony this Sunday (Father’s Day) to honor Kautzky. Here’s an excerpt:
[via Portland Transport]
After some speculation that the old Sauvie Island Bridge might become a new bike/ped only bridge over the 405 freeway at Flanders Street, city transportation insider Chris Smith tell us that,
“The Commissioner’s office indicates that community response was not sufficient to justify the extra cost of moving the bridge.”
We needed a ton of community excitement (and cash) for Sam Adams to put his weight behind this. Bummer. I was pretty excited about this.
Several people have emailed me lately wanting to know more about the free bike repair being offered on some local bridges and on the Eastbank Esplanade during their morning commute.
Turns out the folks behind this are The Bike Gallery’s Barb Grover and service manager Brett Flemming. They call it “Ride-In-Repair” and have been doing it since April. I asked Barb for the lowdown:
Cycling has reached a fever pitch here in Portland.
We’re in the midst of the largest and craziest Pedalpalooza ever, we’re now a legit part of the economy, it’s the eve of our first-ever Bike Summit (with over 300 registered so far), and today the Oregonian is chock-full of bike coverage.
The one article that really stands out is the editorial, “Bike advocates aim for political staying power.” Check out the last sentence of this paragraph:
Bicycle boulevards are the Next Big Thing for Portland’s bike-friendliness. Both PDOT and the BTA are working on different projects to move the conversation and infrastructure forward.
While PDOT is forging ahead on an infrastructure level (recently asking for over $5 million for bike boulevards) the BTA plans to focus their efforts in a more grassroots way.
Their plan – just unveiled on their website a few minutes ago – will tap into $35,000 from private donors and a mini-grant from Bikes Belong to go out into the community to figure out just what a bicycle boulevard should look like. Here’s a quote taken from Evan Manvel on the BTA Blog: