Portland Carfree Days - Day 1
Posted by Jonathan Maus (Editor) on September 23rd, 2006 at 9:13 am
Yesterday was the kick-off to Portland Carfree Days. The event, which runs through Sunday (9/24) drew a enthusiastic crowd who basked in the carfree atmosphere on SW Ankeny Street between 2nd and 3rd avenues.
There was a lot to check out; Carfree Day t-shirts, free maps and resources from PDOT, Carye Bye’s awesome, limited-edition Shift birthday postcards, the amazingly good food of master chef John that benefitted the Get Lit program, and of course friends old and new.
Timo Forsberg brought the mobile TriMet bus bike rack so riders could try out loading their bikes. We figured out how to load a long-wheelbase Electra Townie, which I previously thought couldn’t be done.
The highlight was the much-anticipated Donut Eating Contest. If my memory serves me correct, the victory went to Team BTA who ate 21 Voodoo donuts in five minutes! There was a tie for second which included my team, The Ragtags. I contributed six (yes six!) donuts to our total of 17. This guy had one in each hand and ate with style.
We also had a nice visit from some bicycle cops. Officer Pickett, who is a regular in the Portland Bike Forums (posting as “PoPo”), was a welcome guest. He’s even got a little squeezy pig on his handlebars; you gotta love that.
Carl Larson, and
Linda Ginenthal]
The fun continues today with more great food from Chef John starting at noon, free bike tune ups from the Community Exchange Cycle Touring Club, and a ton of great live music. Check out all the details at PortlandCarFreeDay.org.
[Check out the rest of my photos here]
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September 24th, 2006 22:02
Jonathan;
I want to thank you for posting this so quickly. At the Car-less info booth I spoke with a gentleman who came to the fair from Vancouver specifically because he read about it on BikePortland. This is also a good argument for making Car-Free day a multi-day event.
(is that too many hyphens? :-)
September 25th, 2006 10:27
Did you have to do any special maneuvering to get the Townie on? Inquiring owners of bright orange Townies want to know!
September 25th, 2006 10:29
[...] Portland, OR team donut eating contest held in conjunction with Portland Carfree Days. (This is surprising since environmentalists are usually opposed to competitive eating) [...]
September 26th, 2006 02:23
townies: why did no one figure that out before?
i used to work in a recumbent shop. recumbents have all sorts of funky wheelbase lenghts. we sold racks by sportworks (same people who make racks for just about every city bus in the US if i'm not mistaken). often times flipping the wheel/fork around was the only way to get a 'bent on a rack...
September 26th, 2006 13:26
Dang right we out-ate on the donuts! Hooray!
Read the release.
September 27th, 2006 18:47
I wonder if this event is in any way collaborated with a similar event in Yokohama : "Yokohama Car Free Day".
http://yokohama-car-free.com/
A coincedence that it was held on the same day ???
September 29th, 2006 08:15
Hi Ats,
Great to hear from you. World Carfree Day was celebrated all over the globe on Sept. 22nd so that's probably what your Yokohama event was part of.
December 15th, 2006 16:16
[...] I wanted to gain a perspective on the streets from a bike cop’s point-of-view, learn more about the bike patrol, get to know the officers a little better, and compare this experience to my previous ride-along in a patrol car back in August. I first met Officer Pickett through his posts in the Portland Bike Forums during the “Creep named James” saga. He then showed up to the donut-eating contest at Carfree Day and most recently he was at Sunnyside School for Walk and Bike to School Day. [...]