SE Bike Patrol officers Pickett and Quick on Hawthorne Blvd.(Photo © Jonathan Maus)

Four Portland bike patrol officers will receive recognition for their community policing efforts at the Police Bureau’s annual awards ceremony next week.
Officers Phil Blanchard, Robert Quick, Anthony Zanetti and Robert Pickett will be recognized by Chief Rosie Sizer with a “Community Policing/Problem Solving” […]

Karl Rohde(Photo © Jonathan Maus)

Karl Rohde, the BTA’s head of public affairs and governmental relations, reports on the BTA blog that he had a “productive meeting” with Captain Vince Jarmer of the Portland Police Bureau Traffic Division yesterday.
They met to discuss the many enforcement-related issues that the BTA (and many in the community) are concerned […]

The “Enforcement” slide from a presentation by PDOT at last night’s bike safety forum.View entire presentation here

Last night in the Portland Building, Commissioner Adams and his Bike Safety Committee heard public testimony on bike safety issues and gave a presentation titled “Bike Safety in Portland” (view presentation).
From all reports (I was not able to attend […]

Press conference Friday, 12:30 at City Hall. Rally Saturday, 12 noon at Salmon Street Fountain. More info here.

In the wake of a tragic October that revealed chinks in Portland’s bike-friendly armor, community members have come together and planned a press conference and rally under the banner of “We are all traffic”.
On Friday there […]

Last Friday at City Hall, Commissioner Sam Adams hosted a meeting to discuss the enforcement issues that have caused frustration and outrage in the bike community and a public relations crisis for the Police Bureau.
At the table were representatives from the Police Bureau including both Chief Sizer and Assistant Chief Lynnae Berg, along with Traffic […]

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 […]

[Updated: 11:28am]

“The driver said the civilian investigation seems like a ‘vigilante’ move that won’t fix anything.”–From a story on KGW

The Oregonian and KGW have picked up the story about an effort by a local lawyer to work toward a citation against the driver in Tuesday’s collision.
Today’s Oregonian also features a forceful opinion […]

Scott Bricker, the Executive Director of the BTA, has posted an update on what he has been doing in light of ongoing community discussion surrounding enforcement issues.
Here are excerpts from his post:
“The community is rightly distressed and beside itself about the recent bicycle fatalities and injuries…There is clear concern about the enforcement practices regarding […]

“There just has to be some consequences for drivers who plow into cyclists.”–Julie Rawls, a witness to yesterday’s collision.

The frustration of many people in the community has reached a boiling point. The well over one-hundred comments on this site (and others), emails and phone calls I’ve received, and messages on local email lists leave […]

[*Updated 3:17pm]

Bob Verrinder remains in serious condition.(Photo courtesy of Bob’s friends)

On Thursday, October 18, Bob Verrinder was seriously injured when he and a motor vehicle collided on NE Marine Drive.
Unfortunately, because a separate tragic event occurred the following Monday, I have been unable to follow-up on this story.
First, I want to share an […]

Education about bicycle laws is a major factor in keeping our roads safe for everyone. Increasing awareness and understanding of these laws is just as important as any bike safety infrastructure or policy changes.
That’s why some cyclists are concerned that a quote attributed to a Portland Police Bureau employee and published by the Oregonian […]

A large crowd in City Hall.Slideshow below(Photos © Jonathan Maus)

Just four days after the second fatal bicycle crash in as many weeks, City Commissioner Sam Adams called together an “emergency meeting” to discuss the issues and brainstorm solutions to improve bike safety in our city. Following the meeting was a press conference that […]

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 […]

With all the discussion going on about how to make bike travel safer on crowded downtown streets, I thought we should take a closer look at some of the options on the table.
The first one has to do with signage and how legislation, enforcement, and engineering deal with non-motorized vehicle travel lanes (previously known as […]

(Photo: Jonathan Maus)

The Portland Police Bureau has named Vince Jarmer as the new Commander of the Traffic Division. The change became effective as of August 9th.
Jarmer was formerly the Lieutenant of the Traffic Division (under former Commander Bill Sinnott) and was most recently Captain of the Personnel Division.
Jarmer takes over the commander position from […]

Still from video.(Watch via YouTube below)

While doing research for a story, I noticed something interesting on the home page of the San Francisco Bike Coalition the other day.
They’ve partnered with the SF Police Department to create a new training video (YouTube embed below).
Fully scripted and acted out by real people (not actors, so […]

(File photo)

In a meeting room nine floors above Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland, bike lawyer Mark Ginsberg hosted a mini-summit Thursday between representatives of Zoobomb and the Traffic Division of the Portland Police Bureau.

In attendance from Zoobomb were Dave Terry, Corey Sevigny, and Leah Bendlin. From the PPB were Commander Mark Kruger and […]