Yes, I suppose my frustration w/ persistent infrastructure challenges did lead me to accentuate the negative.

We have 3 things going for us in (downtown) H'bo:

1. A walkable, human-scaled, pre-WWII downtown street grid.

2. A population quite attuned to the economic advantages of non-SOV travel.

3. The proximity of rural and urban amenities that you mention. It is very special to be able to ride 10 minutes one way and be in the midst of scenery, wildlife, or you-pick farms, or 10 minutes the other way and hop on the max or hit a decent shopping street.

I hope we can make the most of these advantages, but the interaction of the state highways with the downtown street greed, and the familiar problem of essential services removed to the suburban sprawl area along TV Hwy, make it a challenge.

At least we have a grocery store in the downtown street grid. So many suburbs have lost this, or never had it to start with...

Downtown, between 5th, Main, Washington, plus the older neighborhood north of downtown is great walking. Up there around 10th where you mentioned, where TV Highway dumps traffic into town, it's not too nice at all. Big development east of 10th alongside TV Highway for what?...a mile or so?... is the kind of suburban stressful, monotonous urban sprawl people dread.

1st Avenue is kind of a busy street, but nothing that would intimidate someone experienced riding SW Broadway in Portland. The countryside is literally just 5 blocks away south on 1st. Takes you right to Jackson Bottoms Wetlands area, and much more countryside beyond. This area, extending south, west, and north, is a kind cycling heaven on earth. I hope Hillsboro residents in particular, but also all metro area residents...come to realize and understand just what an extraordinary resource the countryside out here is.

A bike station seems like a great idea. An 80 bike capacity isn't so impressive, but if could be imagined that possibly represents 80, or even 40 cars off the road...not bad. Check out this photo I posted to a thread in the forums:

Visual comparison of how much street space different modes of transportation use

That said, as someone who rides to the max in downtown H'bo every day, we do still have a significant legacy of bike-hostile infrastructure to overcome. Downtown is dominated by Baseline, Oak, 1st Ave and 10th Ave. These are high-volume, ODOT-administered roads filled from curb to curb with cars trying to make it through downtown as quickly as possible (think Powell or Sandy).

It can be a challenge to find a safe spot just to cross Oak, Baseline, 1st and 10th. As a result, we have pretty much one safe street each for east-west travel (Walnut), and north-south travel (7th). Thankfully, planned bikestation is on 7th. But even on 7th, there's still no way to trigger the lights to cross Oak, Baseline, and Washington, other than riding up on the sidewalk and hitting the pedestrian signal.

There is so much potential for non-auto travel in downtown H'bo. You can sit in the cafe on the corner of Oak and 10th and watch neighborhood people walking and biking to and from the businesses on 10th all day long, in the midst of a very auto-centered environment. Every once in a while you'll see a flashy customized bike done up in a chopper aesthetic.

But to get to these destinations, people are overwhelmingly riding on the sidewalks, and I'm just dreading the bike/ped or bike/vehicle-in-driveway accident that this situation is asking for.

So - yay bikestation - but as always, there's work to do to make sure there's a decent way to ride *to* the bikestation. If we can't improve the streets in downtown H'bo, the bikestation is going to feel like greenwashing for a big parking structure.

Sigh.

As often the case in recent years, Hillsboro blazes trails in this Region. And note that bikes aren't the only part of this story, but are instead part of a multi-prong effort using a variety of transportation modes to solve problems.

Rifting off of Hillsboro staffer, Colin Cooper's quoted phrase, "We are Holland" (and paraphrasing a well used, Dutch soccer chant) ---- Hupp, Hillsboro, Hupp! (You go, Hillsboro.)

Washington County Commissioner Dick Schouten (representing Aloha, Beaverton and Cooper Mountain, Oregon)

Kudos to City staff for not just sticking a bunch of bike racks in a garage and calling it good enough.