Mayor Hales and his interim PBOT Director Toby Widmer are on the hot seat this morning for their decision to make paving a higher priority than safety. The City's budget plan to "realign" $7.15 million in PBOT funds — $1.2 million of which would come from an already planned sidewalk project on SE 136th Ave — was immediately controversial when it was announced last week. And that was before last night when a five-year-old girl was tragically killed just blocks away from where that new sidewalk was slated to go.

According to the Portland Police, around 7:00 pm last night Morgan Maynard-Cook was visiting a friend across the street from her home on SE 136th. She was on the east side of 136th. Her home is on the west side of the street at the corner of 136th and Harold (map). When ready to come home, she went to cross 136th after a northbound car slowed to let her cross. She then left the grasp of the person she was walking with, ran out and was struck by a 69-year old woman driving a car in the opposite lane. Maynard-Cook died on the way to the hospital.

There are no sidewalks on either side of 136th in this location. The posted speed limit is 35 mph (a speed that results in a fatality in 65% of collisions, whereas a speed of 20 mph comes with 0% chance of fatality).

This summer, PBOT was planning to build a sidewalk on the east side of 136th between SE Powell and Holgate, just 0.4 miles north of where Maynard-Cook was hit. While technically, the money PBOT — under the direction of Mayor Hales — is proposing to "realign" for paving would not have built a sidewalk in the location of this tragedy, last night's news will weigh heavily on Hales' mind as he ponders the budget. Especially since, according a police spokesman I spoke with this morning, Hales visited the scene last night just minutes after police arrived.

Not surprisingly, the mayor is already hearing from the public about the lack of sidewalks in this area.

KGW-TV's story last night mentioned that Maynard-Cook's mom, "said the neighborhood has no sidewalks, no crosswalks and lots of children trying to walk around in those conditions." (Incidentally, an ad before the KGW online video was for a new Honda that comes with SMS texting in the dashboard.)

Executive Director of Oregon Walks Stephanie Routh released a statement this morning that said, "Proposing to cut a long-awaited basic sidewalk project in Portland's poorest neighborhood and severely cutting funding for ADA access [another proposal from Hales/Widmer] is not in keeping with the city's stated commitment to equity... Repaving streets is absolutely important for this city, but let's not fix potholes at the expense of children's safety and accessibility for people with disabilities."

Former Mayor Sam Adams was not shy about saying his top transportation priority was safety. PBOT staffers had even started calling him "our traffic safety mayor." And Adams put money where his mouth is by allocating $16 million to sidewalks in east and southwest Portland. Mayor Hales, looking to differentiate himself from Adams (perhaps more for politics than policy), has made it clear paving is Job #1.

Paving and maintenance is important. But it must be funding in a very careful balance with system improvements that will make people safer. No one has ever died because of a pothole or a rough road. (UPDATE That's not true and it was a mistake to write it.)

Would a sidewalk have prevented last night's tragedy? Of course we can't say for sure. But as someone with three young children myself, I can say from experience that the presence of sidewalks and curbs matters. Curbs are an important physical feature that communicates something to kids even before they can speak. When my almost two-year-old comes to a curb, he knows a street with dangers lies ahead.

When I asked Mayor Hales about PBOT's proposal to "realign" this sidewalk money for paving, he distanced himself from the decision. "It's a bureau budget. It's just a starting point." Asked if the sidewalk funding cut would be adopted into the final budget, Hales said, "I'd say it's about 50/50."

After last night, I have no doubt those percentages have changed.

UPDATE 11:52 am: Statement from Mayor Hales just released:

"My heart goes out to the family of Morgan. As a parent, I can find no words that are sufficient to describe this horrible occurrence.

My thoughts also are with the Portland Police officers who responded last night. Each of them has family, too, and each is affected by such tragedies in different ways.

Safety throughout the city has to be our first priority. I have been at work fewer than 60 days, and so far the city of Portland has experienced eight automobile-related fatalities, four of which were pedestrian deaths.

There has been a lot of talk of late about paving streets, and about sidewalks and crosswalks throughout our city. There has been a lot of talk about the backlog of projects, and about how to pay for these core responsibilities. As always, public safety has to be our North Star, guiding all of our decisions in every part of the city.

We will work through these decisions together, as involved citizens, as elected officials, as city employees, as residents of Portland, and as people who are holding our families a little bit tighter today."

You could make a pretty good case that Broadway is the most important piece of Portland's vaunted bikeway network. And as the three recent images in this post show, Broadway often reaches full bike capacity at peak hours. Isn't it time to expand the bikeway to accomodate this demand and encourage this positive travel behavior even more?

NW Broadway at Hoyt on February 13th, 2013.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Broadway and Hoyt on September 26th, 2012.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Broadway is the main artery that captures bike traffic headed downtown from all of north and northeast Portland. (And it's worth noting that inner northeast has the highest bike mode share in the city according to a 2008 City Auditor report that found 29% of inner northeast Portlanders use a bicycle as either their primary or secondary commute vehicle.) That traffic rolls onto the separated path on the Broadway Bridge and then splits into either northwest or downtown.

When Peter Koonce (who happens to be PBOT's division manager of signals and street lighting) uploaded the lead photo in this post to Twitter yesterday he noted that 16 people on bikes that went through the intersection on one signal. That's more than the amount of people who went through in cars in the adjacent lane.

Regarding Broadway's bikeway future, there's good news and bad news.

The bad news is that Broadway is also one of the most dangerous and unpleasant streets to ride on. It's notorious for right hooks at Williams, Hoyt, and other intersections, and the narrow bike lane through downtown is often full of obstacles from dooring hazards to idling tour buses and taxis. The good news is that the City of Portland is working on a plan that could make it much better.

As we shared back in January, a current plan in development would pour millions into a much-needed downtown bikeway facelift. PBOT hasn't revealed details of that plan, but I've heard from sources that it is still very much in play.

Whether or not a protected bikeway on Broadway is a part of that plan remains to be seen. But there's no denying Broadway needs the help and it's consistently identified as a high priority by advocates and citizens. If we want to keep calling ourselves "America's most bike friendly city" then it's time to start putting some money where our mouth is. The demand is clearly there. And hopefully soon, the money will be too. Stay tuned.

"Demands for new biking, walking, transit, and other system improvements are common, but do you ever see activists clamoring for paving and street maintenance?"

Twice this week citizens of Portland have taken action to raise awareness about unsafe streets.

Benjamin Kerensa emailed us a video (watch it below) he put together of the crosswalk at NE 79th and Glisan. Kerensa witnessed a fatal collision last week involving a woman who was walking across that intersection in the sidewalk when she was hit by someone driving a car. The video, which shows numerous people failing to yield to people crossing the street, was featured on The Oregonian's Hard Drive blog on Wednesday.

In his description of the video on YouTube, Kerensa pressured City Hall to improve the crosswalk:

"The City Council has been unresponsive in any attempt to address this matter both before the death of Heather Fitzsimmons and today. Also PBOT has been very difficult to work with telling us they do not have funding to improve the crosswalk...

I encourage those concerned about our lacking public infrastructure and traffic safety to please e-mail the Portland City Council and Portland Bureau of Transportation and demand they take action."

Then today we learned about another bit of citizen activism regarding what someone perceives as an unsafe crossing of a major arterial. The Oregonian's northeast Portland reporter Larry Bingham pointed us to an online petition by Portlander Christopher Herrick. Herrick works above the intersection of NE Failing and MLK Jr. Blvd., which he says is rife with dangers for those who attempt to cross.

He created this graphic to go along with his petition:

"From my office window I have witnessed dozens of accidents involving these crosswalks," he wrote on Change.org, "and I'm tired of doing nothing while people are in danger of being hurt or killed, especially when all that's necessary to stop it is a few lines of paint."

These are just two examples of something that's common in Portland: Citizens demanding action from City Hall for safer streets. As we've seen in coverage here over the years — and as I pointed out yesterday — our commission form of government where five commissioners (including the mayor) have equal power and one rules over each bureau, spending decisions often become highly politicized. In the transportation bureau, where a large portion of its budget is controlled by Council decisions, this phenomenon is especially strong. As a consequence, transportation spending decisions often reflect the whim of politicians and not always what's fiscally and strategically prudent.

Demands for new biking, walking, transit, and other system improvements are common, but do you ever see activists clamoring for paving and street maintenance?

PBOT has come under fire from new Mayor Charlie Hales and from the City Auditor for, in their words, not spending enough on paving and maintenance. However, when citizen activists and advocacy groups are constantly beating the drum for system improvements rather than basic upkeep, it's easy to see how a commissioner of transportation would bend toward the former (not to mention how crack-sealing and asphalt overlays are never on advocates' project wish lists and rarely lead to ribbon-cuttings or photo-ops).

Put another way, street maintenance has never had an effective or consistent advocacy voice, while things like crossing improvements, sidewalks, new light-rail/streetcar projects, bikeways, and so on, have. Faced with online petitions and YouTube videos showing clear infrastructure needs, what's a commissioner to do? Should they find money to remedy immediate safety concerns, or should they put that money into the vast abyss of the maintenance backlog where it will barely make dent?

As Mayor Hales looks over the transportation budget and decides where and how deep to swing his ax, that's a question that will weigh heavily on his mind.

Over the long weekend I was summoned by the sun (and the need to break in a new bike) to do an exploratory ride. I hadn't rambled down the Springwater beyond Sellwood for ages so I thought I'd go do "the loop" (north Portland to Springwater via the Esplanade then back north via I-205 path). As I rolled north on the path, one of the overcrossings (thanks TriMet!) allowed me to gaze down on SE Foster Road. Foster has been on my mind lately as a redesign that could include bikeways has recently floated up during the ongoing streetscape planning process. Without any set route in my mind, I decided to ride up Foster and get a first-hand feel for the street.

Eek. After being out there myself, I have a much better sense of what we're up against. It wasn't the first time I'd been on Foster; but it's the first time I spent time to soak in the atmosphere and think about what could be.

Almost immediately I realized that riding on SE Foster is not an option, at least not for me (I have heard that some people aren't afraid to try). Traffic is very fast, the road is wide (at least two lanes in each direction, and some portions have a wide center turn lane as well), and there is zero room in the shoulder.

Some people might think the sidewalk is a pleasant oasis. It's not. Not next to a street like Foster when a huge cement truck can rumble by just inches away (that actually happened and it sort of spooked me).

I have some personal principles about not riding on the sidewalk and asserting my legal right to be in the road. But I swallowed my pride on that stance in about two seconds. Then I realized even the sidewalk on SE Foster is no picnic. It's extremely narrow in spots. So narrow in fact that I saw two people chatting, walking side-by-side, and one of them actually had to step into the street to continue their conversation because a utility pole blocked his way (see below).

Then I stood for several minutes at the intersection of SE 82nd and Foster. The first thing that struck me was the sheer size of the intersection, the massive volume of cars that go through it, and the horrible condition of the pavement. Then I noticed, despite how intimidating the place was for everyone outside of a car, there was actually quit a bit of street life. Almost everywhere I turned I saw people walking, riding bikes, or rolling along in a scooter.

This guy popped a killer wheelie!

Then it occurred to me how much potential the street has. Imagine the life that would spring forward if auto traffic was tamed and the overall streetscape was more humane? Foster has a lot going for it in the way of existing storefronts and (relatively) dense residential areas nearby. Even with the clamoring and obnoxious auto traffic that defines it, it's easy to imagine Foster as a much different place. A place where people can meet, talk, and enjoy the public space that runs through the center of their neighborhoods.

Unfortunately, at the present time, it's just a big, wide, high-speed thoroughfare where only motor vehicles are welcome. (*SE Foster is one of the most deadly corridors in the City and has been part of PBOT's High Crash Corridor program since 2010.)

So much space, so much potential.

Luckily a lot of dedicated and smart people are working to help Foster reach that potential. Following a link from the excellent neighborhood blog, FosterUnited.org, I came across the Foster Lents Integration Partnership (FLIP) planning exercise by the Portland Development Commission. They're holding an online Town Hall to garner feedback on how to invest in the Foster Corridor. If you care about this part of our city (and you should!), I hope you'll consider getting involved in making it a vibrant and welcoming place.

— For more on some of the streetscape design options and the potential for creating bikeways on SE Foster, see our report from last month.

The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) is prepping a $10.2 million list of active transportation projects they hope to get funded through a federal grant. According to sources at PBOT, conversations have already begun to focus all that money on a package of projects that would focus specifically on downtown bike access in the form of protected bike lanes and cycle tracks.

This is a golden opportunity we should not pass up.

The money is available through a pot of federal money doled out by Metro Council known as regional flexible funds. The amount of funding that will come to the City of Portland (for the 2016-18 cycle) is $14 million. As per a resolution passed by the Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation in 2010, $10.2 million (or 75%) of that total must be spent on active transportation projects (the remaining $3.7 million will go to freight projects).

According to a January 7th memo from PBOT Active Transportation Division Manager Dan Bower, the City is working with the following set of criteria to decide which projects to fund:

• Improving transportation safety
• Maintaining transportation assets
• Enhancing public health and livable communities
• Supporting economic vitality

As I've shared on several occasions over the past few years, Portland has fallen woefully behind when it comes to quality bike access downtown. This is due to a lack of political will mixed with complicated funding dynamics (and yes, the two are closely related). When you look at the last several years of investments to improve bicycling conditions, PBOT has focused primarily on neighborhood greenways in north, northeast, and southeast Portland. Look downtown on the other hand and you see hardly any investment at all.

The only significant investments we've made downtown in the past few years are a protected bike lane on SW Broadway bordering Portland State University (about $50,000) and the newly widened and green-colored lanes on SW Stark and Oak (about $20,000). Both of those projects, combined with green bike boxes and a bike lane here and there, probably equals no more than $200,000 (or so) in total investment. In fact, there have not been any significant infrastructure projects downtown in recent memory where improved bike access was one of the primary components.

While the City's recent investments to improve bike access in neighborhoods can be counted in tens of millions (a mix of PBOT revenue and grants from outside rouces, much of it in outer east Portland), the amount spent downtown — where many of those neighborhood bike trips end — has not kept pace.

One of PBOT's stated goals with the neighborhood greenways was to get more people riding and thus "create a constituency" that would then demand — a.k.a. create political will for — higher-quality, low-stress bikeways that would take them out of their neighborhoods and directly to their destinations.

Everyone knows that in order to convince more people to try bicycling (an imperative if we are to reach our City Council adopted goals), PBOT must provide safer places to ride. Currently in downtown we have glaringly few places where the coveted "interested but concerned" demographic would feel safe. All of our main downtown bridges (Broadway, Steel, Burnside, Morrison and Hawthorne) lack adequate bike connections into downtown. Downtown itself is dominated by 4-5 foot bike lanes and streets without any dedicated bike space at all. On most streets (like SW 3rd and 4th) the only consideration PBOT has made for bicycling is to time traffic signals for biking speeds of 10-12 mph. For someone like me, sharing the road with people in cars at those speeds is fine. But for less experienced riders, or for people with young children in tow, it's not pleasant.

In other words, the people we are trying to seduce into cycling have nowhere to ride downtown.

A few months ago at the barbershop, the topic of bicycling came up. The woman cutting my hair said she'd love to bike to work; but riding downtown seemed too scary. Her comment frustrated me because I know there are tens of thousands of people just like her.

To get people like her to ride, we have to step up our game. The next step in our evolution is to create a network of protected bike lanes similar to lanes popping up in New York City, Chicago, D.C., San Francisco, and many other cities. Also hovering over this opportunity is the forthcoming bike share system that will plop 740 bikes downtown. Bike share will have a much better chance at success if its customers can count on having a safe place to ride and people driving cars near them don't have to worry about running into them.

PBOT's budget is bleak and unstable. This $10.2 million dollars is a great chance to make up for lost time and finally invest downtown.

This is just the start of what should be a productive conversation about how — not if — we take the next step in making our city as competitive, accessible, and safe as it can be. I'm looking forward the discussion. Stay tuned.

It occurred to me today that, when it comes to accessories and their presence on the road, bikes are slowly but surely becoming more and more like cars. Consider this: Not only are more and more cities dedicated increased roadway space to bicycles; but the proliferation of sound systems, iPhone mounts on handlebars, super-bright hub-powered light systems, and other product trends point to a significant leveling of the vehicle playing field.

Take horns for instance. The iconic, cute little "ding ding" bicycle bell is giving way to full-fledged horns. Today I heard about Loud Bicycle, a soon-to-be launched product (Kickstarter campaign starts tomorrow) that is "designed to sound just like a car horn" and will blare at 112 decibels. This is the second such product I'm aware of. The other one will be coming out soon; but I'm sworn to secrecy (stay tuned, it's local!).

And take a look at your handlebars. An increasing number of folks have phone mounts that allow them to partake in screen-time whenever they ride. Biologic sent me one that's waterproof and also charges my phone while it's encased. There's also a new iPhone app developed here in Portland called Quick Route that will give you turn-by-turn biking directions.

Lights are perhaps the most well-known of this phenomenon. Manufacturers keep upping the brightness of their lights to the point where there's a debate raging in the bike world about being blinded by oncoming bike traffic. And of course, hub-powered lights — that you never have to worry about running out and are always-on — are becoming common on city bikes.

A good stereo is a pillar of car culture, and now even that aspect of the driving experience is becoming common for bike riders. DIY, mobile sound systems have long consisted of large and heavy amps and speakers; but new products are giving everyone the ability to enjoy some tunes without weight or complexity. Just this week I heard from the guys at Boombotix. Their new REX speaker has quickly raised over $20,000 on Kickstarter. It's size, water-resistance, and bluetooth capabilities make it perfect for biking.

Rolling with the Owl 360 rear-view camera.
(Photo: Jim Parsons)

Another car-inspired product creeping into the bike space is the center console. You know, that handy cargo bin on the front seat where you can stash your glasses, a pack of gum, your phone, or whatever. The Portland-based Beebe Company unveiled their bicycle center console at BikeCraft and I won't be surprised if we see more of that type of thing in the future.

And did you realize there's even a rear-view camera for bicycles? It's called the Owl 360 and it consists of a camera mounted to your seatpost that beams moving image to a large LCD screen on your handlebars. We had Jim Parsons review it for us, and while it's not the perfect product, it does show how a company is trying to adapt a feature common on cars, to bikes.

On a darker note, the rear-end collision I wrote about this week got me thinking: If the bike industry followed the automakers' lead, bike makers would respond to the safety fears of bike riders by making bigger and bigger bikes that would fare better in collisions (remember the immense SUV era?).

On a related note, I recall a few years back when I borrowed a bakfiets from my friends at Clever Cycles that was equipped with an electric-assist unit. With its large road footprint, high-power lights, and ability to easily cruise along at 18-20 miles an hour, I was amazed at how confident I felt zipping down the middle of residential streets with no intention at all of letting a car behind me influence my road position.

In many ways, these trends are exciting. They help make city bikers feel like legitimate users of the road alongside much larger vehicles. If there's any downside at all, it's that, instead of being happy that bikes are becoming more like cars, perhaps we should try harder to create conditions where we don't need louder, brighter, bigger vehicles to feel safe.

When I thoughts about the loud horns on Twitter today, Park Slope, Brooklyn neighborhood activist Eric McClure said, "On the other hand, it might be better to make car horns as (relatively) quiet as bike bells." And northwest Portland resident Dave Feucht added, "I find that an obnoxious reality/necessity stemming from the bad planning of our cities." Good points.

Like New York before them, Chicago has just taken a major step forward in becoming a city where biking is given equal respect to driving.

Advocates are buzzing today as the Chicago Department of Transportation has striped a new, two-way bikeway on N. Dearborn St between Polk and Kinzie. That's a segment of over one mile on a high-profile downtown street in one of America's largest cities.

"That's huge and symbolic," tweeted Portland Mercury News Editor Denis Theriault upon hearing the news, "[Would] Be like putting one here on Washington or Everett."

Yeah. If only.

While excited by what's happening in Chicago (and D.C., and San Francisco, and so on), I can't help but think how great it would be if Portland could muster something this big.

Tonight, the director of the Green Lane Project will host a panel discussion with local transportation officials about how to bring world-class bikeways to Portland. It's a talk, which is something we've done an awful lot of the past several years. Unfortunately, when it comes to protected bike lanes downtown, we haven't seen much action.

Mayor Adams came into office guns a' blazing, with a promise for a downtown cycle track within his first "100 days." He lived up to that promise, but a few blocks of curbside bike lanes protected by parked cars on SW Broadway that leaves users in a lurch at both ends has hardly been a game changer.

In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has re-allocated a lane of the roadway to make room for the new protected lanes. The design of Dearborn is a two-way bikeway that is protected from moving traffic by parked cars. Along with the new striping are new bicycle traffic signals at every intersection to manage traffic flow.

In an official statement, head of Chicago DOT, Gabe Klein said, “The Dearborn Street two-way protected bike lane project will balance roadway space to ensure pedestrians, transit users, bicyclists and motorists can travel along and across the street safely.”

Portland has many gaps in its downtown bike network. The streets are out of balance. Each time another U.S. city does a project like this it just becomes more and more obvious that we have plateaued. Beyond the island of protection provided by the Broadway bike lane, the only other bike-centric changes on major downtown streets have come in the form of bike boxes. And, as recently reported, those have had mixed results in preventing right-hooks (and PBOT says people on bikes need to be more careful when riding through them).

It's clear now that Mayor Adams doesn't have any major, downtown bike access improvements up his sleeve for his last few weeks in office, so the conversation now is: How can we best help PBOT and City Hall do what needs to be done? We have seen glimmers of hope recently. The bike lane lanes on Stark and Oak have been widened and painted green, and PBOT is putting finishing touches on a major redesign of NE Multnomah (which is not downtown, but is still a noteworthy project).

I'll hope to hear more reasons for optimism at the Green Lane Project/PBOT event tonight.

— We'll be talking about the future of bikeway design in Portland and much more at the BikePortland/Lancaster Engineering Wonk Night event tomorrow (12/5) starting at 6:00 pm. I hope you'll come and add your thoughts to the mix. (Did you hear that Omission Beer is an official sponsor?)

Hey everyone, I've been wanting to get a bit more informal here on the Front Page. There are many things that cross my mind (and my desk) each week that I don't post about; but that I want to share. And since Twitter is only 140 characters and it's, well, Twitter, I want to try and start doing this every Friday. Think of it like the publisher's letter. Expect a smattering of brief mentions, opinions, and whatnot. Thanks for reading, and thanks again for another amazing week of stories and comments. Oh, and I'm not sure what to call this new column. Any ideas? — Jonathan

If you're in need of outfitting yourself with new gear for winter, you're in luck. Showers Pass is blowing out their famed rain gear at "stupid low prices" at a warehouse sale that starts tomorrow morning at 9:00 am. This event was huge last year, so I'd suggest getting there early (it goes until 12 noon). 2101 SE 6th Ave (cross street is SE Lincoln). But wait! There's more... I've lived in Icebreaker merino wool stuff for the past few years. Seriously. It's awesome. And the big Friends and Family sale started today. It goes until 7:00 pm. It's also on tomorrow from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm at 525 NW 10th Ave.

Once you get all cozied up in your new wool, you should definitely check out the new bikeways over on NE Multnomah in the Lloyd District. They've added a lot more since my post a few days ago. This is an important project. The protected bike lanes and other big changes show what's possible in reforming outdated streets. And if it's deemed a success, we could see it happen all over the city. Go check it out and let me know what you think.

Speaking of reform, I'm fascinated that Hillsboro Mayor Jerry Willey has re-ignited the debate about the Westside bypass freeway project. I've already heard folks are gearing up to oppose it and it's sure to be contentious. How will the debate be different this time around? Does the growth of the west side make more freeways inevitable? What will be the basis of the argument from those who oppose this project? A lot of big questions that should make for an interesting 2013 legislative session.

When things start heating up down in Salem next year, I'm sure there will be lots of transportation issues to cover and discuss. Today, Oregon House representative Val Hoyle was named as majority leader. That should come in handy for issues many of us care about, seeing as how Rep. Hoyle was also recently elected to the BTA's Board of Directors.

Closer to home here in Portland, I've been dismayed and upset by something I've heard regarding the N. Williams Avenue project. That project — which, as many of you know, has turned into a case study on community racial tension and so on — was the subject of two separate panel discussions this week. People that attended those events have informed me that someone who was involved with the project is spreading lies about me and the role BikePortland played in the project. This is very unfortunate. If you were at one of those events and know what I'm talking about, please contact me. I would really like the opportunity to set the record straight.

On a much brighter note, I thoroughly enjoyed following along on Twitter as Emily "6 kids and no car" Finch traveled to Los Angeles this week to appear as a guest on The Ricki Lake Show. Emily has really handled her new-found celebrity well. Watch the Front Page next week where I'll try to recap the amazing journey her story has taken since our story back in June (it's been shared on Facebook over 20,000 times!).

On a cargo biking note, today I sat down with a public information staffer that works with the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management. They're creating a video about the role bicycles can play in disaster response. I was more than happy to share my experiences from New York City during Sandy. I've been thinking a lot about New York as I ride around Portland. Beyond the disaster, my time there really changed my perspective on density. I've always understood it to be a good thing from a transportation planning standpoint, but now I really see how our lack of it here in Portland creates limitations.

It will be difficult for us to achieve the type of non-auto mode splits we are aiming for if we don't add density. It's with this new lens that I am seeing the parking debate unfold. I'm relieved that it appears — thanks in large part because of testimony by many of you — City Council won't be changing the existing codes that allow developers to build multi-story apartments without on-site car parking. Despite protestations by The Oregonian Editorial Board (big surprise!), the conversation seems to be veering toward a real discussion of parking management and pricing. In general, I think this parking debate is aligned well with the general sense I heard at the first PBOT Budget Advisory Committee this week, that pricing parking higher and more often than we do now isn't a matter of if, it's a matter of when.

Our recently elected mayor-to-be Charlie Hales threw me for a loop this week. I thought it was obvious that he should address the very poor and misleading KATU story about his transportation plans; but apparently Hales thinks he's made his opinions perfectly clear. Unfortunately, he hasn't. I was concerned about the way Hales talked about transportation during the campaign. Those concerns remain. And now added to them are concerns about his inability to set an honest public narrative about transportation in the local media.

Have a great weekend.

Mayor-elect Charlie Hales needs to publicly refute a story by KATU-TV that grossly misrepresents his views on transportation policy. Hales has been aware of the misrepresentation for at least two days now, and yet he has not made any public statements to clarify and correct the record.

On Monday night, KATU broadcast (and then later published on their website) a story saying, "Hales plans to shift focus of city transportation budget." The story went on to report that Hales would not make bikes a priority and that he, "wants 60 miles of streets paved and others repaired before there are any more bike projects."

However, Hales' own comments — made to me on two separate occasions and to KATU for their story — said nothing like that at all.

After detailing my opinion on the KATU story yesterday, I have since spoken again with Mayor-elect Hales.

While Hales responded to my initial request for comment about the KATU story, his answer — while I felt it was enough to illustrate the misrepresentation — did not directly address what I feel is the key question here: Does Hales feel that KATU misrepresented his views? If not, why is he telling me the complete opposite? And if so, does he plan to publicly refute the story and clarify his stance?

I asked that question of Hales again on the phone yesterday. Again he didn't directly answer, saying he needed to re-read the KATU story.

He did, however, share additional clarifying remarks about his stance. And it turns out what he actually believes is nearly the complete, polar opposite of what KATU reported:

"I am not planning in a change in philosophy at the City of Portland. I am planning on being a relentless prioritizer, because that's what the budget requires... And we've got to prioritize maintenance first and remedial construction of infrastructure that should have been there all along. And then, as we add things, we will continue being a progressive city that's building a multimodal transportation network. That means more bike projects, more sidewalks, more connections for things that aren't automobiles. I don't regard where I'm heading with this as any kind of change in direction..."

Given the vast distance between what KATU chose to report and what Hales told me he actually believes, I feel the mayor-elect has an obligation to set the record straight. But he hasn't yet. Why not?

Is he trying to play both sides in this heated discussion? Is he happy to have KATU bend his views to sound more auto-centric — and less bike-friendly — than he actually is (many KATU commenters are gleefully supportive of Hales)?

Or, is Hales simply afraid of calling KATU out for their inaccurate and biased reporting?

As Hales reminded me yesterday, he went through the media ringer during his campaign. At one point, he challenged The Oregonian's reporting about a letter he claimed to have authored for the St. Johns Review. "As you may recall," he shared with me on the phone, "There was one point in the campaign where I thought a media outlet was factually wrong and I found out the price you pay for that. So I'm a little gun-shy."

After we spoke yesterday afternoon, Hales said he would re-read the KATU story and get back to me. I have yet to hear from him.

Meanwhile, it's clearer than ever that KATU took serious liberties with Hales' positions. They have still not provided me with any further source comments from Hales that would help justify their reporting and explain why they decided to single out "bike projects" and why they framed Hales' views on transportation as a "shift" from Mayor Adams' (which, given what he's said to KATU and to me, they clearly aren't).

But the blame can't be fully placed on KATU. For months now, Hales has found himself trying to explain and clarify his position on transportation. His "back to basics" and "roads first" rhetoric, especially given the narrative context in Portland around spending on bicycle-related projects, could easily be misinterpreted. The KATU story is just one consequence of Hales' (intentionally?) vague position.

During my conversation with Hales, he said, "People are going to keep framing this story in terms of a conflict of bikes versus cars no matter what I say. But I'll try and be as clear as I can possibly be."

This story, and the confusion many people in the community continue to have around it, make it clear that he needs to try harder. A public refutation of the KATU story and/or a public statement that more clearly spells out his views is what's needed to set the record straight.

A new study by researchers at the University of British Columbia and published in the American Journal of Public Health shows that physcially separated, bicycle-specific infrastructure can lead to much lower risk of injury for people riding bicycles.

Here's more on the study from Atlantic Cities:

As it turns out, infrastructure really matters. Your chance of injury drops by about 50 percent, relative to that major city street, when riding on a similar road with a bike lane and no parked cars. The same improvement occurs on bike paths and local streets with designated bike routes. And protected bike lanes – with actual barriers separating cyclists from traffic – really make a difference. The risk of injury drops for riders there by 90 percent.

Intuitively, it shouldn't come as any surprise to find that research shows separating people on bikes from motor vehicle traffic leads to fewer injuries. But there's a group of people in the U.S. who feel that people on bikes are safest when they mix with car traffic. Even in comments here on BikePortland, it's common to hear from folks who don't like the idea of being locked into using separated bikeways (either by design or by law) when they'd rather "take the lane".

In the past, I've heard that one reason for City Hall's reluctance to push for more physically separated bikeways was precisely because there seemed to be infighting from the "bike community" about whether they were wanted or not. (Unfortunately, local politicians still seem to wait for a mythical, 100% consensus from the "bike community" before they push for bike-specific projects.)

This new research should be welcome ammunition for advocates and city planners who support more separated bike infrastructure.

Here in Portland — despite knowing for years that separation is imperative to reach our cycling usage goals — we've had a bit of separation anxiety. While we do have some bright spots of separated infrastructure, it has happened primarily where it was politically and technically easy to pull off. The plans to revamp NE Multnomah through the Lloyd District with more protected bikeways are a positive step forward. That project is great sign of progress and a promising omen for the future; but even that came only after major public outcry from people who wanted better bike access than PBOT originally proposed.

Last year, when I asked Portland Mayor Sam Adams' transportation policy director Catherine Ciarlo about our progress toward more separation, even she acknowledged our effort was only good for "bronze". Instead of pushing for fully separated, connected bikeways in the urban core, Ciarlo's response was very telling. "The challenge is to figure out how to achieve separation in creative or economical ways," she said. Ciarlo cited neighborhood greenways (which are shared environments on residential streets) as an example of this creativity. She also cited progress on signal timing as one way PBOT is separating bicycle traffic.

Bike boulevards and bike-oriented signal technology will only get us so far. The unmet challenge in Portland is to map out a network of streets in the central city that have dedicated and physically separated bicycle access. The City has an obligation to provide the same level of comfort and convenience for people riding bicycles as they currently offer people on foot and in cars, buses, streetcars, and light rail trains.

As evidenced by PBOT's recent revelation that collisions have gone way up at several downtown intersections where they opted to use only paint as a means of separation, this research couldn't have come at a better time. Of course, all the knowledge in the world means nothing unless it's acted upon.