Event Guide: Two great rides to ring in the new year

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward
BTA New Year's Day Ride-11

A scene from the 2010 BTA New Year’s Day ride.
(Photo by J. Maus/BikePortland)

Welcome to your menu of weekend rides and events, lovingly brought to you by our friends at Hopworks Urban Brewery.

Riding a bike is one of the best ways to start out a new year. The health, happiness and camaraderie one taps into while pedaling a bicycle is something with positive impacts that are both tangible and symbolic.

I know many of you will grab a bike and head out on a ride of your own in the next few days. But for those of you who prefer — or need the motivation of — an organized group ride, there are two excellent options to choose from.

And one comes with a money-back satisfaction guarantee…

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Hawthorne Bridge bike trips up just 0.4% in 2014

Summer bike traffic-8-8

Over 1.7 million trips in 2014.
(Photo by J. Maus/BikePortland)

As of yesterday, there were 1,712,172 bicycle trips across Portland’s Hawthorne Bridge in 2014. That’s an impressive number — but it represents just a paltry 0.4 percent increase over last year’s total.

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Job: Sales and Operations Manager – Stites Design – FILLED

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Sorry, this job has been filled. Browse more great jobs here.

Job Title
Sales and Operations Manager

Company/Organization
Stites Design

Job Description
This position calls for a highly organized, engaging professional who can build strong relationships with customers and represent core values of Truck Trike. Creating sales is the primary responsibility, though the successful candidate will be expected to wear many hats, work independently, and play a leadership role in the organization’s development.
Truck Trike remains a small company poised for big growth, and we present a rare opportunity for ground floor participation on our team.
An appreciation for high quality and high service levels should be part of your DNA.

• Based at
Stites Design shop at 738 SE Washington Street, Portland, OR. 97214
• Position reports to
CEO [Bill Stites]
• Job Purpose Summary
Coordinate all aspects of company operations, with an emphasis on marketing and sales.

Key Responsibilities:
Work with the CEO to develop Sales Goals for generating revenue flow toward formidable growth.
Develop a Marketing Strategy to meet Sales Goals.
Research transportation and business trends to identify sales opportunities.
Develop protocols for engaging sales contacts, and follow through with sales leads.
Create contacts with potential new customers on a daily basis. Telephone work preferred.
Work with Production Manager to ensure sales are fulfilled in a timely fashion.
Develop metrics for measuring success.
Participate in weekly meetings to review progress toward goals, present new ideas, and ensure thorough communication among employees.
Maintain basic accounting standards using QuickBooks. Bookkeeping and accounting duties may be reduced or transferred, at the CEO’s discretion.
With such a small company, other tasks will be required from time to time.

Compensation
First year salary will average $30,000 to $36,000, commensurate with experience and performance. Benefits currently include 2 weeks of paid vacation.

Person holding this position should have most or all of the following qualifications:
Required:
Educational requirement – Bachelor’s degree or higher
Sales and Marketing ability [min. 3 years experience]
Organizational Skills, with high attention to detail
Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Strategic thinking and planning skills
Fluency with Social Media
Self-motivated and Innovative
Desire to get in on the ground floor and grow with our business.
Embraces diversity in the work force
Honesty
A passion for Truck Trike’s mission and values
A good sense of humor
Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects, meeting deadlines while maintaining a healthy work-life balance
Experience working with databases, websites, and other online communications tools

Preferred, but not Required:
Experience in the bike/trike/ebike/eV industry
Experience working in a small business environment and being creative with limited resources
Familiarity with bicycles or cycling world
Commitment to values that include sustainability and resilience

How to Apply
Truck Trike is an equal opportunity employer. Please apply no later than January 15, 2015. Send cover letter and resume via email to info@stitesdesign.com with subject line “Sales and Operations Manager.” We will review applications as they are received and may begin interviews as early as the week of January 19th. All applicants will receive confirmation of receipt, and notification via email when a final decision has been made.
Thank you

Job: Bike Mechanic – Western Bikeworks – FILLED

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Sorry, this job has been filled. Browse more great jobs here.Job Title
Bike Mechanic

Company/Organization
Western Bikeworks

Job Description
Bike Mechanic/Assembler – Full Time

Western Bikeworks is seeking a skilled mechanic/bike assembler to join our team. Certification is preferred, but not required. Preferred applicants should have at least two years of experience working on a variety of different bikes.

This is a full time position with a competitive hourly wage, DOE, with a generous benefits package.

How to Apply
Send your Cover letter telling us a little about you and your resume to Jobs@velotech.com

Bike parts spill out of encampments on Springwater path

chops-lead

Seen on the Springwater.
(Photo: Mike Skeels)

We’ve addressed the issue of suspected stolen bike chop shops several times; but we’ve never seen photos quite like the ones sent in by two readers in the past few weeks.

John Howe was riding along the Springwater Corridor path just south of the Ross Island Bridge yesterday when he saw bike parts literally spilling out of bins and boxes adjacent to a homeless encampment. The parts appear to be organized — one bin contains several wheels, another pile contains forks. Howe even spotted what appears to be a metal box that likely contains a power tool (which would be used for cutting tubes, scraping off serial numbers, and so on.)

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Our ten most popular stories of 2014

biking-right-through

One of our biggest stories was about lessons
from another city.
(Photos: J.Maus and M.Andersen, unless noted)

Some people think that controversy makes people read news. They’re half right.

The world has no shortage of controversy. What’s scarce are controversies that are somehow surprising.

You can see that force behind a few of the stories that got the most clicks this year from BikePortland readers.

And though we don’t put pageviews at the heart of our coverage decisions and never will, it’s fun to imagine the threads of shared surprise that caught readers’ imaginations enough to make them click and share these 10 posts. (Click on each headline or photo below to read the original story.)

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PBOT’s whimsical bike lane characters make a comeback

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symbol

PBOT is back to having fun with bike lane symbols.
(Photo courtesy City of Portland)

15 years after if first started, a fun City of Portland tradition seems to be making a comeback.

In 1999, a city employee named Todd Roberts decided to create a little hat from a piece of thermoplastic left over from installation of a bike lane symbol. After that, dozens of bike lane characters began to appear throughout Portland. In 2009, we shared a slideshow of the characters compiled by one of their biggest fans — northeast Portland resident Jim Waigand.

Unfortunately, for the past several years it’s seemed like PBOT crews had stopped laying down these whimsical symbols. I hadn’t seen or heard about any new ones and assumed it was just another part of Portland’s past cycling swagger that has recently gone missing.

But a few weeks ago I was excited to see the tradition return.

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The Monday Roundup: Finnish urbanism, cities defying DOTs and more

helsinki

Helsinki plans to add 250,000 residents by 2050 by
creating a “networked” transportation system
that would make a combination of modes more useful
than car ownership.
(Renderings: Helsinki Strategic Urban Planning Division)

Happy holidays! Things will still be a little slower than usual on BikePortland this week but we’ll have new posts each day this week. To start things off, here are the bike links from around the world that caught our eyes:

Finnish urbanism: If your children become urban planners, it looks like they’ll be taking study tours of Helsinki to see how it’s done.

Civic disobedience: Is your state’s DOT blocking cities from making their streets safer, fairer and more prosperous? Then your city’s DOT should take a lesson from the gay marriage movement and start making changes without permission, argues Transport Providence.

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Southeast Ankeny and 15th may get new diverter this spring, city says

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ankeny at 15th

The corner of Southeast Ankeny at 15th, midafternoon on Tuesday. The Imago Dei church is on the left.
(Photo: M.Andersen/BikePortland)

One of the city’s first bike boulevards may be on its way to a quick upgrade.

Southeast Ankeny Street would get additional speed bumps and a new diagonal traffic diverter at 15th under a plan advanced by advocacy group BikeLoudPDX, endorsed by Portland Bicycle Planning Coordinator Roger Geller and tentatively backed by the Buckman Community Association.

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Q&A: Earl Blumenauer is a little bit worried for the city he helped build

Blumenauer interview-1

Congressman Earl Blumenauer: on the inside looking out — and hoping for a generation of advocates to pass the torch to.
(Photos: J.Maus and M.Andersen/BikePortland)

The biggest problem in Earl Blumenauer’s professional life will never be holding onto his job. There aren’t many safer gigs in the country.

Instead, Blumenauer’s challenge is how to make his job count. And one way he’s done so has nothing to do with Congress.

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Collision on Springwater a reminder to ride cautiously on shared paths

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Springwater path in Boring.
(Photo: Clackamas County)

On Friday I picked up an incoming call on the BikePortland hotline and heard a very sad story.

Mary LaLiberte, an “almost 70-year-old” by her own description, called to share her experience on the Springwater Corridor path outside her home in rural Boring, Oregon. On November 30th, Mary was walking on the path when someone riding a bike zoomed up from behind her.

As the man approached came up from behind her, all she heard was “Left!,” so she moved to the left, only to step right in his path. “And he was going so fast he wasn’t able to stop in time.”

“He was going so fast when he collided with me,” she recalled, “that I actually flew up into the air and hit the pavement.” The man who hit her was riding “one of those very skinny-wheeled bikes” and was in “full racing regalia,” Mary said. She told her friends that she, “Got nuked by Lance Armstrong’s brother.”

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