BikePortland.org » Oregon Bike Summit '09

Bikes Belong hopes all-star team can bring biking mainstream

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:54:45 +0000

Bikes Belong Executive Director Tim
Blumenthal spoke at the Oregon Bike
Summit yesterday.
(Photos © J. Maus)

Bikes Belong Executive Director Tim Blumenthal shared a lot of inspiring news and information during his remarks at the end of the Oregon Bike Summit yesterday.

Blumenthal is a key figure in the national bike movement. He's at the helm of arguably the most well-funded and well-positioned bike organization in the country and he deftly wears many hats including that of an advocate, a corporate fundraiser, a marketing expert, and a smooth political operator.

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During his talk, Blumenthal shared Bike Belong's current role in the bike movement and he offered a compelling, big-picture view about the unprecedented momentum that exists for biking in America today.

"We're trying to think big, and the more the more we can engage people outside the bike industry, the more successful we can be."
-- Tim Blumenthal, Bikes Belong

From the work being done in cities across Oregon, to the Amgen Tour of California; from the urban fixed gear culture all the way up to a President who not only listens, but who has pledged support for the bike agenda; Blumenthal paints a picture of bicycling that would stoke the fire of any bike advocate.

One of Blumenthal's major tenets is that the movement must find partners outside bike industry. "We're trying to think big," he said, "and the more the more we can engage people outside the bike industry, the more successful we can be."

The Numbers

49% of trips are three miles or less
39% of trips are two miles or less
24% of trips are less than one mile
About 1% of trips are taken by bike
80% are taken by single-occupancy cars
250,000 people are estimated to be bike enthusiasts/supporters
50 million ride at least once a year

During the Presidential election, Bikes Belong joined forces with Humana Corporation for a bike-share project at the Republican and Democratic conventions. That effort "exceeded expecations", paying off in the form of major national media coverage and in getting leaders in host cities thinking about how to accomodate bikes in ways they'd never considered before.

Blumenthal also emphasized that Bikes Belong "wants to pay special attention to short trips." He shared his "49/39/24" formula. 49 is the percentage of trips taken in the U.S. that are three miles or less, 39% are two miles or less, and 24% are less than one mile. However, of all the trips taken, Blumenthal said "barely one percent are taken by bike and almost 80% are taken by a single occupancy car."

Blumenthal is also big on the need for more research. He told us yesterday that he's guilty, like many advocates, of believing in bicycling so much that, "sometimes we forget we have to make a strong and effective case, and we have to back it up with research."

PSU bike researcher Jennifer Dill.

To that end, Blumenthal announced that he is holding an invite-only, bicycle research summit at Bikes Belong headquarters in Colorado next week. Blumenthal said he will fly all the top bike researchers from across the country to get together and find out, "What they're working on; what they wish they were working on; what we need; and how to get it."

Researchers that plan to attend the meeting include Portland State University's Jennifer Dill, University of Oregon professor Marc Schlossberg, noted speaker and researcher John Pucher from Rutgers, and bike-related researchers from Harvard, the University of North Carolina, and others.

The big news Blumenthal shared with the crowd was a new "consumer outreach campaign" that Bikes Belong plans to launch soon. Blumenthal said he estimates that there are currently 250,000 people who would identify as being bike advocates and supporters in the U.S., yet surveys have shown that there are 50 million Americans who ride a bike at least once a year.

"That's a pretty big gap," says Blumenthal, and he's got a plan to close it. Bikes Belong has hired global ad firm Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Crispin Porter -- whose current clients read like a who's-who of the world's largest corporations -- will create an ad campaign aimed at getting more Americans to sign up and support the bike movement.

To seal the deal, Blumenthal has hired online marketing specialists Blue State Digital. Blue State Digital specializes in raising awareness and funds for a number of causes. Their most recent, high-profile success was getting a guy named Barack Obama into the White House. Blue State Digital, the company that managed all of Obama's online marketing, fundraising and campaign strategy, will soon be putting those same skills towards rallying for a more bike-friendly America.

Blumenthal says they'll spend about $300,000 to start the campaign. "That should be a good start," he said, "we'll see how it goes and I'll report back."

Bikes Belong's efforts couldn't come at a better time. In the coming months, Congress will be crafting a new transportation bill and our elected officials will need to hear from as many bike-believers as possible.

-- This is part of our special coverage of the 2009 Oregon Bike Summit. View more coverage here and see our latest photos in the official photo gallery.

Portland legislators will hold town hall meeting on two wheels

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:39:14 +0000

Rep. Dembrow (right) with
Jay Graves (center) and Ray Thomas
in the State Capitol building yesterday.
(Photos © J. Maus)

Billing it as a "A new kind of town hall," two Oregon State Legislators will lead a bike ride around their districts next month.

Representative Michael Dembrow and Senator Jackie Dingfelder -- both of whom represent districts in Northeast Portland -- will join their constituents for a bike tour around the Cully neighborhood on May 9th. The six-mile ride will make a stop at the Rigler School Community Garden for a brief work party and organizers are considering a stop at the site of the upcoming cycletrack (slated to go in on Cully Blvd between Killingsworth and Prescott).

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For residents without access to a bicycle, Portland-based Pedal Bike Tours will provide one.

Sen. Dingfelder at the legislator
bike ride on Wednesday.

Alex Berke, a legislative aid to Rep. Dembrow, said both legislators are bike advocates. Dingfelder is a BTA Alica Award winner and former employee of the Bike Gallery. Dembrow was a co-sponsor of the Idaho Stop Law and he regularly rides around Portland with his family. "They miss bike commuting," said Berke, "and this is a fun way for them to be out and about in their districts."

Berke told us that Rep. Dembrow is always looking for new ways to engage with constituents. According to Berke, they felt doing a bike ride would be a great way to get people involved with state government who wouldn't normally think of attending a regular town hall meeting.

Anyone interested in joining the ride should RSVP to Rep. Dembrow's office via email to rep.michaeldembrow@state.or.us or by calling (503) 986-1445.

More details:

Rep. Dembrow, Sen. Dingfelder and You

A Bike Ride in Cully Neighborhood

-- This is part of our special coverage of the 2009 Oregon Bike Summit. View more coverage here and see our latest photos in the official photo gallery.

Legislators suit up for ride around the Capitol

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 23:32:20 +0000

On the steps of the Capitol.
-Slideshow below-
(Photos © J. Maus)

This morning, as part of the Oregon Bike Summit, a handful of state legislators suited up for the first-ever Legislator Bike Ride.

About 50 summit attendees met on the steps of the Capitol building before taking a leisurely, five-mile ride around Salem. Joining the bike advocates from around the state were six state legislators: Rep. Jules Bailey (D-Portland), Rep. Tobias Read (D-Beaverton), Sen. Jackie Dingfelder (D-Portland), Sen. Ginny Burdick (D-Portland), Sen. Floyd Prozanski (D-Eugene), and Sen. Jason Atkinson (R-Ashland).

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Senators Jason Atkinson (L) and
Ginny Burdick ride along the Willamette.

The legislators were all experienced cyclists. Atkinson is a former semi-professional road racer who showed up this morning on a custom, Oregon-made Land Shark. Atkinson is still recovering from a freak gunshot wound to his leg back in July of 2008. I spoke a bit with Atkinson about his ongoing effort to build a velodrome facility in Portland (more on that later).

A highlight of the ride was rolling over the recently opened Union Street Railroad bike/ped bridge.

See more legislators in spandex and beautiful spring scenes from Salem in the slideshow below:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

-- This is part of our special coverage of the 2009 Oregon Bike Summit. View more coverage here and see our latest photos in the official photo gallery.

A sneak peek at the new "Ride Oregon" website

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:28:21 +0000

Yesterday in Salem at the Oregon Bike Summit, we got a sneak peek of the new "Ride Oregon" website. When it officially launches in mid-May, the site will allow visitors to learn about Oregon's great rides, plan a trip of their own, find the best hotels, places for a post-ride meal, and more.

The site (URL yet to be announced) is funded by Travel Oregon and it's being created by Substance, a creative design agency based on Portland. Travel Oregon put their support behind the site after hearing years of requests from communities and advocates around the state.

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"We want to tell your stories to the world and this is where we're going to do it."
--David Lowe-Rogstad, Substance

David Lowe-Rogstad and Stephen Landau from Substance gave summit attendees a tour of the new site and pointed out several of its features.

Lowe-Rogstad said their mission in creating the site was to "sell the emotion of being here [Oregon] on a bicycle" and to "develop a tool to empower and inspire biking in Oregon". The central theme they adhered to was "Celebrate the ride". Lowe-Rogstad said that the site won't try to do everything, but they hope it will be a central hub that can quickly point people to the information they need.

A ride detail page.

Detail of social media and ratings features.

Among the many features the site will offer are:

favorite ride lists that can be saved each time you visit the site;
detailed searches for events, rides, accomodations, etc..., on a local, regional, or statewide level;
view rides by difficulty, length, user ratings, and more;
editorial articles, content and photographs;
and quickly view restaurants, hotels, points of interest, and first aid locations on a Google-based map;
print ride details and maps for a cue sheet to take with you.

Other highlights include the ability to leave comments, and to create lists of contacts. The social media aspect is very interesting. On a ride detail page, you can add your profile to one of two lists: "I've done this ride" or "I want to do this ride." Then, when several people want to do the ride, they have the ability to connect with each other (and could even do the ride together if the chemistry is right).

Stephen Landau is one of
the site's creators.

Travel Oregon's Tourism Development & Sustainability Manager Kristin Dahl announced last night that they've already populated the site with about 70 routes throughout the state (they put out a call for submissions last month).

Lowe-Rogstad said they're still in dire need of tips and submissions about all things bike in Oregon. "It's a living beast," he said, "when we launch, it's just the beginning." He also emphasized the tourism aspect of the site, saying, "We want to tell your stories to the world and this is where we're going to do it."

Stay tuned for an announcement of the the web address and official launch.

-- This is part of our special coverage of the 2009 Oregon Bike Summit. View more coverage here and see our latest photos in the official photo gallery.

Two new bike shows coming to Portland in 2010

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:03:04 +0000

Northwest Bike Show booth.
(Photo © J. Maus)

Two new bike shows are being planned for the Portland area in 2010.

The Northwest Bike Show, "Where cycling comes full circle", is slated for February 20-21 and will take place inside a 54,000 square foot hall at the Portland Expo Center. The event is being put together by the Hilsboro-based Convention & Meeting Planners of Oregon, Inc. (they're also behind the Rose City Bridal Showcase). The CEO of the company, Lora Heil-Frone, has a booth here at the Oregon Bike Summit. She said highlights of her Northwest Bike Show will include a kids safety area, a performance stage, and hopefully (she's still working on it) a stunt riding performance by the Dew Action Sports team.

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If you'd like to be part of this show, as an exhibitor or a presenter/performer, contact Lora Heil-Frone at sales@cmpor.com.

On April 10th, Hillsboro resident Aaron McBride will open the doors on "The Bicycle Show". McBride's event will be held at the Oregon Convention Center. McBride, who runs Pedal Nation Events, says his show is set to be "the largest consumer bicycle show in the state of Oregon".

Also in the local bike show mix in the coming months is the 2009 edition of the Oregon Manifest. I met with Manifest director Jocelyn Sycip a few days ago. They've got some very exciting things in the works for their show.

Stay tuned for more on all these shows in the months and weeks to come.

BTA: Vehicular homicide bill is "alive and kicking"

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 23:29:45 +0000

Scott Bricker speaking at the
Oregon Bike Summit today.
(Photo © J. Maus)

Speaking at the opening session of the Oregon Bike Summit today, Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) Executive Director Scott Bricker gave a rundown of their existing priority bills in the 2009 legislative session.

With the door officially closed on Idaho Stops (interesting report about it on the Mercury blog today) and with news today that their Driver's Education bill (HB 3252) will not move forward this session, the BTA is pouring all remaining efforts into their vehicular homicide bill, HB 3399.

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Addressing over 100 bike advocates from throughout Oregon, Bricker said the bill is "alive and kicking". The bill was given a public hearing earlier this month. During that hearing, a need for amendments was raised. Bricker says the BTA is still working on getting those amendments back and they hope to have them ready before an important work session with the House Judiciary committee set for this Thursday.

Besides the amendments, the larger hurdle for the bill is that it still must get through the Ways and Means Committee to discuss the fiscal components of the bill. With Oregon's budget in crisis this session, Bricker says Ways and Means is "the graveyard for most bills". After Ways and Means it would be referred to another committee. "We don't know what committee it will go to after that," said Bricker, and he added that they hope it goes to the Public Safety committee.

Idaho Stops got all the publicity, but HB 3399 is the BTA's big iron in the fire. They have been working on it for years and it would fill a glaring gap in our state's laws.

In a recent update on their blog, the BTA wrote that they have already met with most of the House Judiciary Committee and received positive comments.

Stay tuned for more on this bill.

No Idaho Stops in Oregon: Bill fails to win necessary support

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:12:17 +0000

"...they [legislators] had heard from a number of constituents who were very concerned and opposed to giving cyclists what they viewed as special rights."
--Doug Parrow, Chair of the BTA's Legislative Committee

An effort to pass the "Idaho Stop Law" in Oregon has officially ceased all forward motion.

I confirmed this morning from Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) legislative committee chair Doug Parrow that they were not able to convince a key legislator to schedule a work session on HB 2690. As a consequence, the BTA will move onto other bills and shelve the Idaho Stop idea for now.

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On Friday, we reported that the BTA was under pressure from House Transportation Committee Chair Terry Beyer to confirm support for the bill from at least 31 House members (the number of votes it would need to pass). Chair Beyer wanted to make sure the bill would pass before she committed to a work session.

The BTA's Doug Parrow
(Photos © J. Maus)

On the phone today, Doug Parrow said that "Unfortunately, as we went around and met with legislators, it became increasingly clear that there were not enough votes to pass the bill."

Parrow chalks up the lack of support from legislators to a small number of vocal constituents who called and emailed in their opposition to the bill;

"What I perceived from our meetings [with lawmakers] is that they had heard from a number of constituents who were very concerned and opposed to giving cyclists what they viewed as special rights."

Parrow said the demise of the bill is unfortunate because he felt the BTA was making progress of late. "Perhaps what occurred," he said, "is we just ran out of time."

Feeling that the outpouring of early opposition to the bill (perhaps stoked by incorrect and biased news stories), "poisoned the water", Parrow said the tide got going in the wrong direction early on and that "we weren't able to reverse that."

Will the BTA try again in 2011? Parrow says it's too early to make that decision.

In the mean time, Parrow said he and others on the BTA legislative team will start thinking what they can do to get broader support and "deal with those perceptions that Idaho Stops are somehow or another a strange or unacceptable idea."

In addition to Oregonians who voiced their opposition to the bill, the Idaho Stop Law idea was almost certainly victim to a sense in Salem that how bicycles treat stop signs simply wasn't a priority in light of a $4 billion budget shortfall facing our state. I heard from Parrow, former BTA lobbyist Karl Rohde, and their executive director Scott Bricker that legislators were on the hot seat to only spend time on high-priority bills.

On that note, Parrow referred to an opinion article published in the Salem Stateman-Journal newspaper on April 5th that said legislators should be focused on priorities, but instead "they've found time to take up inconsequential topics such as prescription tobacco, bicycle stop signs, the state bird — and even bird-seed taxes."

You know you're in trouble when your highest legislative priority gets labeled "inconsequential" and is bundled in with bird seed taxes.

Now, with Idaho Stops in the rear view mirror, Parrow says the BTA will focus all of their attention on their Vehicular Homicide Bill (HB 3399). That bill is scheduled for a work session this Thursday, just a day after hundreds of bike advocates will be lobbying in the capitol as part of the Oregon Bike Summit.

-- Browse our complete coverage of the Idaho Stop Law.
-- Learn more about the rest of the BTA's 2009 legislative agenda.

Have your say in Salem at the Oregon Bike Summit

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:15:43 +0000

Time to rise up, Oregon cyclists!

Next week's Oregon Bike Summit (4/21-4/22) in Salem could be the most important advocacy event of the year.

In previous years, the summit has been held in Eugene, Sisters, and Portland, but this year organizers are taking the bike movement straight to the lawmakers and pursestring holders in Salem.

The man behind the summit, Jerry Norquist, is the ride director of Cycle Oregon, Chair of the Oregon Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, and one of the state's pre-eminent bike advocates. He's decided to model the event on the National Bike Summit, held each year in Washington D.C..

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When I spoke with Norquist yesterday, he said how important it was to make our presence known; "We have to convince people," he said, "that the only way to get things done is to show up and get your voice heard."

Where ideas can turn
into actions.
(Photo © J. Maus)

Norquist, along with other summit organizers including staff and volunteers from Cycle Oregon and the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, have put together an impressive agenda that will ensure our state's legislators hear loud and clear that there is a massive amount of energy and support for making Oregon, "The land bicycles dream about".

The event is slated for two full days and will be kicked off by the Mayor of Salem (and Alice B. Toeclips award winner) Janet Taylor. New this year is a focus on lobbying and education on how the legislative process works.

The BTA has lined up meetings with nearly every Oregon legislator, so no matter what part of the state you show up from, you'll have the opportunity to meet face-to-face with your representative to tell them how much you care about biking.

Other highlights include;

Sen. Dingfelder will join us
for a ride on Wednesday morning.
(Photo © J. Maus)

the unveiling of the new website created to promote bike tourism in Oregon (I've been following its development, prepared to be blown away),

a bike ride with legislators (Senators Floyd Prozanski, Jackie Dingfelder, Jason Atkinson, and House rep Tobias Read and others will attend),

a talk about the history of cycling in Oregon by historian (and BikePortland contributor) Eric Lundgren.

Imagine, bike advocates from all over the state, flooding the Capitol with information and inspiration about how bikes can impact our state in a positive way on issues like health, the economy, sustainable transportation, and more.

I'll be there to bring you all the action (like I've done every year the event has been held), but if you want to help us make history, you should make plans to be there yourself!

Learn more at OregonBikeSummit.com.