🚨 Please note: BikePortland is currently on hiatus and only publishing guest articles. Learn more here. Thank you. - Jonathan 🙏
PDOT just sent out a lengthy press release that gives an overview of their status and strategy in tackling the ongoing issues created by this week’s severe weather. The full press release is below (scroll to the bottom for some biking and walking tips):
City Crews Working to Clear Main Streets of Ice
Neighborhood Streets Still Very Icy
This just in from the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA):
Bicycle Transportation Alliance Starts the New Year Off Right with a Local Bike Ride
It’s a 50-year tradition – the BTA and Portland bicyclists get off to a good start with the New Year’s Day Ride! This is a free, easy, family-friendly way to spend the first afternoon of 2009.
It is also a benefit for the Brett Jarolimek Memorial Fund. The Brett J. Fund supports bike safety projects and bike safety awareness.
Whether they go to bed at 8:00 pm New Year’s Eve or 3:00 am New Year’s Day, attendees can handle a 12 noon start time at the Battleship Oregon Memorial in Portland’s Waterfront Park and an easy 3-mile ride to the eastside and back.
At the end of the ride, everyone will enjoy free warm drinks and snacks at McCall’s Restaurant next to the Salmon St. Springs in Tom McCall Waterfront Park, as a reward for sticking to their New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, or get fit, or save money, or help the environment – or all of the above! And with a more bike-friendly US Congress and Oregon legislature recently elected, Oregon cyclists are optimistic about the future.
The first leg of my journey begins this afternoon, barring any delays on Amtrak (that’s been known to happen before).
I’ll be on the Empire Builder to Chicago for two nights, and then spend a third night on a less cushy train to DC. It will be nice to have a break from email, phone calls, the internet, and just about everything for a few days — though it would be nicer if it weren’t quite that long.
And who knows, maybe a few years from now it won’t be. There is plenty of speculation about an Obama administration’s support for a national high speed rail network, perhaps as part of the forthcoming economic stimulus package.
When I posted on Thursday that I’m headed out today for an east coast train and bike tour, Todd at Clever Cycles got in touch over Twitter right away with the offer of a bike loan.
That’s how I came to spend the weekend riding around town in sun, rain, snow, and ice on a bright green, lovingly built-up Brompton folding bike and with a big smile on my face.
I’ll be writing more about the Brompton as I travel (including photos) but after riding around all weekend, I have two things to say:
Widmer Brothers Brewing is well-known for their Hefeweizen beer and for being one of the nation’s pioneering craft brewers. But perhaps less well known is their commitment to the growing number of their 150 Portland employees who ride their bikes to work.
At their North Portland headquarters (on Russell Street off of N. Interstate Ave), Widmer just finished up a major expansion project. Along with more beer storage space, offices, and keg-filling capacity, they also added an entire building devoted to bike parking.
As we reported yesterday, the Community Cycling Center‘s Holiday Bike Drive suffered a bit due to extreme weather conditions that kept many families away.
The event is their largest of the year and volunteers had readied well over 500 bikes to give to low-income kids. CCC communications director Alison Hill-Graves sent us an email with the following recap:
“We had a smaller, yet still incredible event despite that pesky storm. We had kids coming in until 3:30 and we still had staff and volunteers around to help. We ended up loading up about 400 bikes and getting them back up to North Portland where we keep them. We plan some kind of alternative event in January.”
Last night was the unofficial/official start of the annual Peacock Lane holiday light festival. For the first time ever this year, organizers decided to try a carfree night.
From all reports we heard, it was a big success. Not even snow, ice and frigid temps could keep people away from the lights and this “quintessential PDX experience” (as one reader put it). Not having to worry about cars in the street was icing on the cake.
Now that was a bit scary.
I just arrived at our office in the Central Eastside after a challenging and harrowing ride from North Portland. I consider myself a pretty skilled rider, but with many streets covered in a sheet of ice, there’s really no chance of staying upright.
