🚨 Please note: BikePortland is currently on hiatus and only publishing guest articles. Learn more here. Thank you. - Jonathan 🙏
Jeremy Towsey-French dropped by BikePortland.org headquarters today to introduce me to the Yuba Mundo.
The Mundo (it means “world” in Spanish) is a cargo bike dreamed up by an ex-employee of Xtracycle and Jeremy is the Portland distributor. He’s set up a website at StumptownMundo.com and he tells me he’s got the only Mundos in the country right now.
A request by a coalition of 13 advocacy groups that sought an extension to the comment period on the Draft Environment Impact Statement of the Columbia River Crossing project has been denied.
In a letter (download PDF here) from the U.S. Department of Transportation, to Tom Buechele of the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Group (he represented the 13 member coalition), representatives of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Federal Transportation Administration (FTA) wrote:
May 23rd was a bad day for Portlanders who buy a lot of gas, but for Michael Khadabux, it was he’ll always remember with a smile.
That’s because he was the lucky winner in a contest to guess which day gas would hit $4.00 a gallon at a Shell station across from River City Bicycles on SE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Khadabux’s petrol prognostication skills earned him a brand new Specialized Globe city bike. He told me today that he plans to use it “for short trips to the store or library etc. I’ve got a pretty long commute [Clackamas to Lloyd Center] so I’ll do that on my faster road bike.”
As reported yesterday, TriMet is working to improve the bike hooks on their MAX trains. However, if you’re like many people who take a bike onboard (especially during peak hours), the bigger problem is that there are just aren’t enough hooks available.
If you’re waiting for more bike capacity or more hooks, don’t hold your breath — all signs point to no increased bike capacity on MAX in the foreseeable future.
TriMet recently bought new MAX trains and the design offers more seats (eight more per train), more rider capacity (space for 36 more passengers) but has the same number of bike hooks (eight) as existing trains (a “train” is two joined MAX vehicles). Below is a rendering of the new trains (which are slated to arrive this fall):
House Congressional Resolution 305, also known as the National Bike Bill, has passed through a vote by the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this week.
The resolution — which was introduced by Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) back in February — recognizes the importance of bicycling to “enriching the nation’s health, reducing traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions, and improving America’s economic vitality and overall quality of life.”
OPB’s Think Out Loud show is discussing the Columbia River Crossing project this morning (9-10am).
They’ll have guest experts from all perspectives on the controversial project and they’ll also take questions from callers and commenters on their website.
You can listen live, wait for the re-broadcast tonight at 9:00pm, or check the show website for an MP3 download.