It has been a horrible start to a new year for the safety of people walking on the streets of Portland. In the past 24 hours, two people have been hit (one of them killed by a hit-and-run driver) while attempting to cross SE Division Street.

SE Division street as it appears on PBOT's High [...]

TriMet now has a road map to improved safety. Will they follow it?(Photo © J. Maus)

On Wednesday, the TriMet Task Force on Safety and Service Excellence released its final list of recommendations. The task force was put together following a tragic incident back in April where a TriMet bus operator drove into five people [...]

Setting sun on N. Killingsworth.(Photo © J. Maus)

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New safety device would warn people when a bus is turning.(Photos © J. Maus)

In an effort to improve the safety of people walking and bicycling around their buses, TriMet is considering the use of a new product that would emit LED lights and short bursts of sound when a bus makes a turn.
Josh Blanchard, president [...]

While standing on SE Hawthorne Blvd last night I looked up and saw an ad on the side of a TriMet bus that caught my eye...

(Photo © J. Maus)

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Mayor Adams addresses the crowd.(Photos © J. Maus)

Mayor Sam Adams hosted the Transportation Safety Summit at U of O's White Stag Building in downtown Portland Tuesday night and a standing-room only crowd of over 200 citizens, advocates and city and state officials showed up.
The event offered an opportunity (albeit short at only two hours) to [...]

At the 2007 summit, we helped PBOT with the safety chapter of the 2030 Bike Plan.(Photo © J. Maus)

Tonight from 6:30-8:30pm at the White Stag Building (70 NW Couch St) is the 4th Annual Transportation Safety Summit. Hosted by Mayor Sam Adams, this event will be an excellent opportunity to learn and to share [...]

Water Bureau Director David Shaff at last year's event.(Photos © J. Maus)

Continuing a campaign they began last year, the City of Portland's Water Bureau will hold a bike/truck safety event this Saturday.
The Water Bureau says this ongoing effort to improve safety was prompted by a number of near collisions over the years (mostly at the [...]

"While we are working to improve conditions for bicyclists on the roadways, let's, please, remember the culture we've created over the last 100 years will not welcome bikes overnight."-- From the US DOT blog

Came across an article on bike safety published to the official blog of the U.S. Department of Transportation this morning (which is [...]

Roger Geller(Photo © J. Maus)

[Editor's note: This guest editorial was written by Roger Geller, Bicycle Coordinator for the City of Portland.]

"What does it mean to be exemplary? To me it means the two "C's" of cycling: Courtesy and confidence."

In the past week I've been noticing harbingers of spring: flowering magnolia, daffodils in full bloom, tulips [...]

Mayor Adams credits bike boxesas one reason for record numbers(Photo © J. Maus)

Back in January, we reported that Portland had potentially had a record low number of traffic fatalities in 2008.
PBOT has now made it official -- we have never had fewer traffic fatalities in any year since they began keeping track in 1925.
In [...]

Ellee Thalheimer is a new contributing writer to BikePortland. Her most recent story was a product review of women's bike shorts designed for utility and fashion. Ellee is a yoga instructor and travel writer living in Southeast Portland. Check out her author page here.
We covered the beginnings of the Share the Road Safety Class; this [...]

PBOT traffic safety expert Greg Raisman.(Photos © J. Maus)

In 2008, there were no fatal bike crashes in the City of Portland. After a tumultuous 2007, when we had six fatal bike crashes (two of them very high-profile), this was welcome news by many in the community.
To gain more perspective on this statistic, I [...]

PDOT's Sharon White, shown here at a Share the Road rally in 2006.(Photo © J. Maus)

Sharon White is PDOT's pedestrian safety chief. One of the many programs she oversees is an ongoing "crosswalk enforcement action" campaign. Working with the Portland Police Bureau, White and staff at PDOT identify high-risk intersections and then employ [...]

Momentum publisher/editor Amy Walker as Olivia Newton-John in "Let's Get Visible".- Watch video below -

The folks at Vancouver, BC-based Momentum Magazine have combined their passion for safe biking with their fun and fashionable style to create a new PSA for their local Bike to Work Week.
The result is "Let's Get Visible", a bike safety video [...]

In Copenhagen, this sign is placed directly in the bike lane. See another photo below for another view.(Photos by Tom Miller)

Copenhagen should become a sister city to Portland. I can barely keep track of all the local planners, politicians, advocates and bureaucrats who have made a pilgrimmage to the "City of Cyclists" this [...]

New Hindsight glasses from Nike.(Photos: Nike via Gizmodo)

A reader (thanks Austin!) just gave me a heads up on an interesting new product idea from Nike.
Gadget blog Gizmodo reports that the new Hindsight glasses "are designed to do one simple thing: stop cyclists from getting hurt on the roads."
How do they do this?
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The Portland Water Bureau has released a new video on bike and truck safety.
First unveiled to the public at a bike/truck safety event back in September, the video (watch it below) is an engaging look at what Portland's busiest bikeways look like from the seat of a large truck.
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The City of Portland Office of Transportation will host the 2008 Portland Transportation Safey Summit next week (Monday, 10/8). The event is a great way to meet local and state transportation planners, policy makers, etc... and get information on many important resources and programs.
PDOT just released the agenda and program. Check it [...]

A Portland police officer gives out a free set of bike lights back in August 2006.(Photos � J. Maus)

As part of their ongoing Eye to Eye campaign, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) and the Traffic Division of the Portland Police Bureau have partnered up on an effort to increase awareness of using bike lights [...]