[Note: I’ve updated the post (at 3:45pm) to include a response from the Deputy City Attorney.]

The denial.Click to enlarge, (240k, jpg)

The Records Division of the Portland Police Bureau has denied a request for information made by lawyer Christopher Heaps in an ongoing effort to utilize an Oregon statute to file “citizen initiated citations,” in a […]

A trail to nowhere, for now.(Photo © J. Maus)

The BTA reports great news in the ongoing saga of SK Northwest and their battle against building a key piece of trail across their property on the Willamette Riverfront just south of OMSI.
The BTA’s Michelle Poyourow writes on their blog that the Oregon Court of Appeals has […]

(Photo © Jonathan Maus)

The city of Vancouver, Washington is considering adoption of a new ordinance that would require the use of helmets by anyone under the age of 18.
The new ordinance is set to go before the Vancouver City Council on Monday, January 14 at 6:00 p.m.
Vancouver is currently one of just a few cities […]

Christopher Heaps

The article below was written by Christopher Heaps. Heaps is a lawyer with Stoel Rives who has volunteered to carry out the “citizen-initiated citation” process (as outlined in ORS 153.058) to retroactively cite Lisa Wheeler (the woman who hit Siobhan Doyle at N. Interstate and Greeley back in October) for “failure to yield”.
The […]

Lawyer Christopher Heaps.(Photos © Jonathan Maus)

Christopher Heaps, the Portland attorney who’s leading an effort to bring a motor vehicle driver to justice for failing to yield to a bicycle in a bike lane, plans to file the formal citation at the Multnomah County Courthouse tomorrow.
Heaps has completed an Oregon Uniform Citation and Complaint (a.k.a. a […]

[Updated: 11/3, 10:05pm]
As reported by Emily Gardner of the BTA on Friday, SK Northwest has filed an appeal with the Oregon Court of Appeals.
It seems SK Northwest, who wants to develop a riverfront parcel for their personal watercraft business, can’t accept a recent Land Use Board of Appeals opinion that the city’s demand for […]

A couple crosses at NW 9th and Lovejoy.(Photo © Jonathan Maus)

Local lawyer Ray Thomas, a tireless defender of bicyclist’s rights who most recently spoke at the We are All Traffic press conference, has released a new book to help educate that other group of vulnerable roadway users: pedestrians.
Oregon Pedestrian Rights is billed as a “legal […]

The Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA), which has “exclusive jurisdiction to review all governmental land use decisions”, has issued an opinion on the SK Northwest case.
Their decision (dated November 8th) to “remand” the case means it will now be sent back to the City of Portland for further review.
(You can view […]

Lawyer Bob Mionske

Portland-based lawyer Bob Mionske, a former Olympian who writes a monthly legal column for VeloNews Magazine, has added yet another voice of concern over what he sees as a bias against bicyclists at the Portland Police Bureau.
In his most recent VeloNews column, A fatal bias?, Mionske goes in-depth on four cases that he […]

[NOTE: Please scroll to end of story for an important note.]

“We made the best we could out of this situation.”–Multnomah County DA Jim Hayden

The two women involved in the fatal hit-and-run that killed Jerry Hinatsu earlier this year will receive a fine, probation and two-months in jail.
After Hinatsu collided with their vehicle, both women then […]

One of the major questions the community is grappling with after the deaths of both Tracey Sparling and Brett Jarolimek is; why were the truck drivers not given a citation for failure to yield to a bicycle in a bike lane?
The law (ORS 811.050) seems clear:
“A person commits the offense of failure of a motor […]

“…when the intention to harm one individual inadvertently causes a second person to be hurt instead.”-from Wikipedia’s definition of “transferred intent”

A KGW report and a police spokesperson have said that one of the cyclists injured in last Friday’s road rage incident was completely unrelated to the initial altercation between driver Johnny Eschweiler and cyclist Ben […]

There has been some confusion about whether or not passengers on TriMet MAX trains are required to move for bicycles in the designated bike hook area.
Now, in a comment exchange from a post back in April TriMet has clarified that passengers are not required to move in order to make room for bicycles.
Here’s […]

After it seemed like the final nail had been put in the coffin on SK Northwest’s development proposal, they have announced yet another appeal.
A quick look back at my coverage shows that this would be their fifth appeal since June 2006.

Red shows lot in question.(Graphic via Google Earth)

According to comments on my recent post by […]

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) reports a victory over SK Northwest after SK’s development application appeal was denied Friday by the City of Portland Hearings Office.
At issue was whether or not SK Northwest has to include a bike/ped trail along their proposed riverfront development.
According to the BTA, SK’s most recent appeal was shot down because […]

Phil made posters (like this one) to encourage support at his trials.Poster photo by Dat Nguyen(File photo)

Just over a year ago, while holding up traffic on W. Burnside for hundreds of cyclists during the 2006 World Naked Bike Ride, bike scene personality and filmmaker Reverend Phil got into an altercation with a motor vehicle (read […]

With the recent flap over stop sign enforcement, there is growing momentum to consider a change in the law. Idaho’s example is often held up as a model Oregon might seek to emulate.
Since 1982 Idaho has had a law in the books that allows cyclists to treat stop-signs as yields. In […]