Market on Saturday morning
(Photo © Dan Liu)
Friday, May 8
– If you’ve never participated in a bike move, that iconic Portland barnraising event, here’s your chance! It’s a long one but a good one, from Sellwood to Piedmont. Details on the Shift Calendar. Want to host your own bike move? Check out this handy guide.
– And the bike move destination is very near the starting point for this month’s Midnight Mystery Ride…
– Or if you’ve been thinking about joining us at the Opera, it’s not too late to get tickets. Or if you’re a student, a senior, or in the military, show up at 6:30 to see if you can snag a $10 ticket.
Saturday, May 9
– Town Hall Meeting on Two Wheels. Join State Representatives Dembrow and Dingfelder for a ride around the Cully neighborhood in Northeast Portland to see the sights and discuss the issues. Meet at 9:30am at Wilshire Park (NE 33rd and Skidmore)
– Ride to the Farmers Markets! You can join the weekly bike2market ride leaving Ladd’s Circle at 9:30am and riding mellow to the PSU Farmers Market. BP intern Dan Liu went along last week and posted this ride report.
– Or you can join a ride to the Hollywood Farmers Market:
The ride starts at the Lloyd Center MAX at 10 a.m. and will wind through some beautiful neighborhoods, including a stop at what we consider the most spectacular median-strip garden in the city, before wrapping up at the Hollywood Farmers Market. The ride is geared toward people who are just getting used to riding in street traffic. We’ll also cover creative ways to carry stuff on your bike. More details are here.
This spring, help turn it into a food forest
(Photo © J. Maus)
– Remember Depaving Day last June when a bunch of volunteers depaved a parking lot to turn it into a garden? Well the Fargo Garden project is still in the works and needs strong, motivated volunteers. There are work parties at the site on N Williams at Fargo every Saturday during the month of May, starting at 11:00 a.m. and going into the afternoon or evening.
We will be shaping the garden by hand, so all you crazy diggers show up for some fun! You will learn about the finer details of and help construct our stormwater infiltration basin, which will help divert and infiltrate roof runoff from the adjacent buildings. Bring shovels, work gloves, and wheelbarrows. Rain or shine.
Sunday, May 10
– Can’t wait for the Rose Festival to get started? Get a head start by joining the Grand Floral Bike Parade. Meet up at 9:30 a.m. at Peninsula Park (N Ainsworth and Albina) to ride bikes and enjoy flowers.
Enjoy the sunshine! And as always, post your own events and discuss your plans and how they play out in the comments below. And don’t forget about the races.
Or you could join a bunch of us who camp by bike and ride out to Bagby Hot Springs this weekend to camp and soak!
9am departure from Cleveland Avenue MAX Station in Gresham. 58 miles.
Details can be found on the Shift calendar
Also, don’t forget the St Johns Bizarre/Street Fair and Parade.
npGREENWAY will be there.
Come visit with us & pick up a hard copy of our latest VISION MAP on Saturday between 10am and 6pm! Parade starts at noon.
I’m told that new on street bike parking facilities will be unveiled in St Johns as well on Saturday.
For more info, click here:St Johns Bizarre &
http://bit.ly/frhbP
Correction for link errors here:
St Johns Bizarre
St Johns Parade
Note: Nearly all of downtown St Johns will be Car Free for the day.
I ride year around but nothing beats a nice weekend ride in good weather. Hopefully the rest of you will be able to get out and take advantage!
Awesome photo of two cyclists operating their bicycles in flagrant violation of Oregon law. That’s just uber! Is that how they say it in Holland, I forget?
Vance, what are you talking about?
Portland’s bike culture is featured prominently in the lead story in the New York Times travel section today.
Yay, thanks for asking Lucky #6. Yup the rider with the red top on the drop-bar, and the fella in plaid on the flat-bar are in violation of Oregon Revised Statute 814.430, subsection, ‘a)’. I’m convinced many people think that side-by-side dawdling, and, “Taking the lane.”, are legal here in Oregon. After all, same road same rules, right? They are not legal though.
My reason for pointing this out is because while the photo depicts a fairly innocuous violation, formations of this sort can be very disruptive. Aside from that, there are also hundreds of little formations like this using the roads all over Portland at any given minute. Encountering, and being inconvenienced by, or interfered with by, or put in harms way by, several groups like this in a 5 mile ride or drive get very frustrating, very quick.
Most folks are like you Lucky. They simply don’t know that this is illegal. So, after navigating through, by, and around several groups like this in just a few minutes, I’m ready to chew nails. Not so bad if they were just being entitled, and rude. Much worse knowing that they are also in violation of the law.
Skagit Spring Classic, up in Mt. Vernon, WA. Great scenery (Chuckanut Drive), great people, and my made in PDX steed was the prettiest bike there, by far.
Interesting how many folks asked me if it’s true that “Everyone” in PDX commutes by bike…and “how much does a 3 bed/2 bath in inner SE cost?”
Vance, that’s your interpretation. And, if we’re talking about the particulars of the photo, I’d say an incorrect one.
From the ORS you cite, see subsection a) re: rider in red, and subsection e) re: plaid & yellow riders.
Also, there’s no motor vehicle being delayed, except in your imagination.
#10
Nope. No interpretation necessary. The statute requires that one rides as practicably close to the, “curb”, as possible. The inside riders in the photo would be in violation too, except that they are navigating around road-hazards, in this case the parked cars. (Sorry pointy little rocks, and light detritus don’t qualify as a road hazards BTWFYI.) No part of the statute lists an exemption from this statute relative to the presence of another vehicle. Or did you really mean that they don’t appear to be causing any ruckus? I said it was, “fairly innaccuous”. Jeez) I wanted to go look and didn’t, but I’m pretty sure riding abreast like that, under any circumstance, is verboten as well.
I don’t want to introduce an overly negative vibe on the open-thread. I ain’t really griping, just trying to raise awareness. Feel free to do this all you like. I can’t really stop you. More than likely a cop never will either. However, this is illegal: Fact, and quite rude: My opinion, and all together unsafe: Wild-ass-assertion. It’s certainly a set up to annoy heck out of me and about a bagillion other folks I’ve spoken with.
It’d be awesome to have a lawyer give us their take.
Good old Vance.
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=%22vance+longwell%22&btnG=Google+Search&fp=0_TDBcSQxa0
DFTT. Doesn’t even live anywhere near Portland. Rabid anti-bike-lane, anti-take-the-lane voice for years. Coincidentally, serves on La Grande’s parking commission. Ironic, that.
Oh you know, if they were legitimately passing, and not obstructing motorist traffic, that’s a legit move. I hadn’t thought of that, and apologize for the conjecture if that were the case. I do see people packed up like that all the time and my earlier assertions apply.
They WERE probably riding like that though.
#12? Huh? Where DO you folks come up with this stuff? Hehe. I was in La Grande last summer loopty-lou! Went to grade school there ’cause my family got ran out of St. Johns in ’76. Went back for a while to escape the BikePortland/BTA lynch mob looking to string me up. Do you blame me?
Portland is my hometown holmes. I live here as I write this, and have for 35 years. Well, except for the occasional forays into annoying people in a completely different regions. The remaining 5 years of my life were spent in nether reaches so remote as to virtually not exist. So there. Local AND well traveled. Hmmm.
Come now. Simmer down. I’m sure the City of La Grande won’t appreciate you associating me with their good name! Besides, I never even sat a meeting.
If a troll speaks in the woods and no one pays attention does he exist?
As a frequent rider of the Ladd diagonal, on a yellow fixie and on the #10 bus, I must agree with Vance. Many cyclists there show no consideration to, or even the existence of, other users.
After blocking the bus on the short straights between the little “traffic-calming” circles, they routinely blow the octagonal red at the big circle, where all us legal types, including the bus, come to a complete stop. (There are crosswalks with pedestrians there, people!) Then they dawdle through the circle, blocking the bus again on the next short straight, always managing to stay just ahead.
Very, very, annoying!
Either go fast or let the bus with its twenty passengers get ahead, folks. Personally, if I hear the bus behind me I try to find a clear place to pull to the right curb and stop, for I would rather have that extra wide vehicle ahead of me.
Ladd’s Addition is nice and safe to ride because it has no garages facing the streets, and therefore no driveways with cars backing out. All houses have garages on paved alleys, which themselves make for interesting and clever riding.
It’s a shame that even the weekend guide / open threads are being marred by the troll.
Perhaps the pair of them are preparing to turn left. I’m sure they signaled before taking over the lane and are just about to signal a left turn.
Hope you all had a nice weekend. I did.
I rode a beautiful, glorious and epic 400K this weekend, from Newberg down to Marcola and back by way of just about every covered bridge left in the Valley. 250 miles in just over 21 hours and I still had time to take lots of pictures:
http://tinyurl.com/pd8pbe
Cecil, I believe those pictures of people riding bike in the sunshine are forgeries. Everyone knows the OR Randonneurs only ride in the rain. Wish I could have joined you on this ride but I’m still nursing the gimp knee I picked up on the Three Capes. It didn’t stop me from riding up to Bagby with Matt and the gang, but it should have. Oh well, I still have one good knee, I’ll just use that one.
How anyone can take issue with cyclists enjoying the lovely day without bothering anyone else is absolutely beyond me.
I ride like that all the time and will get in a nice line when cars need to pass. This is done in early enough such that no-one is impeded so everyone is happy. I’m fairly certain that you could do this nine times out of ten right in front of police without incident because they are not so worried about it.
BTW, Thank you John Kangas (#12)
…And our family rolled to LL Stub Stewart park from the end of the MAX line for an overnight camping excursion on dualing Xtracycles. After a number of rural low-traffic roads, the Banks-Veronia path leads you directly into camp. Unbelievably cool. We rode side by side a lot.
Vance (#8) – First of all, the only “subsection (a)” is in section 2. That subsection lists an exception to section 2. It’s impossible to be in violation of an exception. Secondly, you’re generalizing – we have no idea the context of the photo. It’s entirely possible that the 2 cyclists on the left are riding side-by-side (which is legal if they are not impeding traffic – ORS 814.430(2)(e)), and that the one in red is passing them (which is legal under ORS 814.430(2)(a)). There is plenty of room for the 3rd cyclist to pass, so the other 2 are not violating ORS 814.430(1).
Vance (#11) – No, it does not require that, it requires “as close as PRACTICABLE” (emphasis mine). Also, you are incorrect – pointy little rocks *do* constitute hazards, depending on the bike in question. The determination of hazard is in the hands of the cyclist (if I recall Ray Thomas’ legal clinic correctly)
It’d be great if Mark, a.O or Ray Thomas weighed in, but in the absence of that – Ray Thomas is doing another legal clinic during Pedalpalooza. Ask him yourself.
Sorry, everyone for fanning the flames in the previous post.
Great weekend – 10 of us rode up to Bagby Hot Springs and back (joined partway by bp.org intern Dan Liu) and camped at the Shower Creek campsites past the hot springs. The weather was spectacular, except for the obligatory Oregon cloudburst about 12 miles before our destination. It was short and almost refreshing, and the pavement was soon dry again.
If you haven’t been to Bagby, you should try it, but go during the week if possible, because it’s already getting crowded up there.
Hope everyone else had a great weekend!
Nice pictures Cecil.