28 January 2009 Archives

Two years and counting; Master Plan update effort picks up steam

Master plan update project manager
Ellen Vanderslice (committee co-chair
Mia Birk in background).
(Photos © J. Maus)

It’s been nearly two years since the Bureau of Transportation kicked off an effort to update Portland’s Bicycle Master Plan.

Since that time, the plan has gone through quite a few speed bumps. In April of 2007, just two weeks after the update effort started in earnest, former Mayor Tom Potter slashed its $100,000 of funding. Thankfully, Potter realized the error and restored the plan’s funding a few weeks later, but that episode is just one of several things that has temporarily diverted attention from update process at one time or another.

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

“All I know is that she was distracted. She didn’t see him somehow, that’s all we’re being told.”
— Keith Miles, Kristopher Miles’ grandfather

14-year boy Kristopher Miles clings to life this morning in a Portland trauma center, one week after 28-year old Andrea Dickinson ran him over with her SUV while he rode home in a marked crosswalk just two blocks from his middle school in Vancouver.

According to a story filed last night by The Columbian, Miles underwent surgery yesterday to relieve swelling on his brain and “the outlook remained grim.” The boy has been in a drug-induced coma since the crash and he has severe brain injuries, a broken femur, a punctured lung and a broken rib.

More on this series:

[Welcome to Part Two of our three-part series on bike messengers in Portland.

This series is written by BikePortland contributing writer Erin Greeson (bio). In Part One, Greeson laid out the tough working conditions faced by Portland’s messengers. In the article below, she shares finding health care coverage for a messenger who’s also a mom and she delves into the impact of the messenger stereotype.]

The Transportation Options Division inside the Bureau of Transportation is a key piece of Portland’s success as a sustainable city. “Options” (as it’s known around here) is the marketing arm of the city’s transportation program and there the ones you see at street fairs and hundreds of events throughout the year. Their mission is to provide information, resources and tools to encourage Portlanders to, “make good choices about how to get around.”

One of their primary responsibilities is to send out bike maps and other bike information whenever someone requests it. When I moved to Portland in 2005 (totally unaware of the institutional support for biking in this city) I surfed the City website and found the Options page. Wanting to know how to get around by bike, I filled out a request for some free bike maps (now they have this handy online form).

Two years and counting; Master Plan update effort picks up steam

Vancouver collision update: Boy clings to life, investigation continues

Don’t kill the messengers: Inside the health of the industry (Part Two)

60,000 free bike maps: A look at Transportation Options’ survey results

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