🚨 Please note: BikePortland is currently on hiatus and only publishing guest articles. Learn more here. Thank you. - Jonathan 🙏
The Bike Kiss-In is becoming a time-honored tradition here in Portland. Every Pedalpalooza, couples gather in a high-traffic spot to show their passion for bikes and each other, holding up signs with slogans like “Liplock, not gridlock” and “If you were biking, you’d be making out by now.”
Check out our photos from tonight’s event on Flickr, or in the slideshow below:
*Scroll down for ride report, photos and video
The King of Pop, Michael Jackson, is dead.
This very sad news has led to respond with a bike ride, full of Michael Jackson music and memories.
Meet at 6:30 at the Peace Garden above the Eastbank Esplanade at east end of the Steel Bridge.
We’ll hope to have a sound system with Michael Jackson music for sing-alongs and hopefully a microphone set up for karaoke opportunities. If you have gloves, please wear only one in honor of this great artist who had such a profound impact on many of our lives.
Remember Rep. Patrick McHenry?
McHenry is a Republican member of Congress from North Carolina who, back in August of 2007, sharply ridiculed and mocked the bike commuter tax benefit when it came up in Congress as part of an energy bill.
During a floor speech, McHenry said (in part, see full excerpt/video here):
“They want to tell the American people, stop driving, ride a bike…
Apparently, the Democrats believe that the miracle on two wheels that we know as a bicycle will end our dependence on foreign oil. I cannot make this stuff up. It is absolutely amazing.”
With the summer cycling season in full swing, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) and a host of partners kicked of another year of their Eye to Eye safety campaign at a press conference near the Eastbank Esplanade this morning.
The BTA first launched the Eye to Eye effort last August after a string of road rage incidents involving bicycles back in July put Portland traffic relations in a very bad light.
To accomodate what is probably Portland’s busiest bikeway through a commercial district (outside of downtown), the City of Portland Bureau of Transportation is set to install two more of their on-street bike corrals on N.Williams.
According to Sarah Figliozzi with PBOT, the new corrals will be on both sides of Williams at N. Failing Street. One of them will go in front of Pix Patisserie and the other will be right across the street in front of Lincoln Restaurant.
The new corrals are funded by the Portland Development Commission through their Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area.
N. Williams, which has seen a boom in development for several blocks near N. Failing Street, is a very busy bike traffic corridor. What makes it different than other popular commercial areas — like SE Hawthorne, N. Mississipi, SE Belmont, and NE Alberta — is that N. Williams has a bike lane (which, unfortunately, is not as wide as the one on N. Vancouver).
Back in January, even Sunset Magazine noticed Williams’ bike traffic. Lincoln Restaurant, whose roll-up windows will put customers just a few feet from the new bike corral, has started offering a “Commuter Corridor” happy hour.
Restaurant owner David Welch is thrilled about the new bike parking. He told me this morning that the happy hour is an acknowledgment of the large amount of bike traffic. “We realized that, here we are, on this major artery for bike riders,” he said, “and we’re just trying to encourage folks to take a break and stop off on their ride home for a glass of wine, a beer, or something to eat.”
Figliozzi says they are putting two corrals in such close proximity because they’ve noted high demand at both locations; “We want to put the parking as close as possible to those demands.” It’s also likely the City did not want to put people in the position of having to cross the busy N. Williams Ave. just to find a bike parking space.
The new corrals will likely be installed over the weekend. Another corral is set to go up in front of Pambiche on NE Glisan at 28th. The means that by Monday, Portland will have a total of 18 on-street bike corrals with many more in the queue.
Check out a Google Map of all bike corral locations over at PDXStump.
The efforts by the Northwest Trail Alliance (NWTA, formerly the Portland United Mountain Pedalers) to thaw relations with Portland Parks and Recreation (PP&R) and the Forest Park Conservancy (FPC) in order to hasten increased access for bikes in Forest Park are moving faster than I can keep up with.
I am working on a story about the recently completed White Paper drawn up by a committee put together by the FPC, and now, Parks has put out a press release about a trail agreement signed by the three groups.
According to PP&R, the agreement,
“…clarifies the role of Northwest Trail Alliance in providing needed resources to help maintain the park’s existing trail network and assist in outreach to cyclists and other users of Portland’s signature natural area.”
Pedalpalooza culminates this Saturday (6/27) with the infamous, one-of-a-kind Multnomah County Bike Fair. I know, you’re sad because that means eleven long months of waiting for next year will commence — but, you can keep the spirit alive, and remind yourself and the world of your love for bike fun. Come check out some of the unique goods from our BikeCrafters who will be selling their wares in the BikeCraft section of the MCBF Midway.
Summer BikeCraft at the Bike Fair is going to be awesome.
Last month we highlighted some of the amazing, creative Portland-based crafters who are planning to bring their bike accessories and bike themed crafts. See a few more pics of what’s in store, and a full list of confirmed crafters below the jump.