"We really do not have a problem with mountain biking at all. In fact, we would affirmatively support mountain bike access on Mt. Hood and we'd love to build allegiances with those folks, but we just don't believe this is the proper place for this development." — Rhett Lawrence, Conservation Director, Sierra Club (Oregon Chapter)
Plans to build a mountain bike park on Mt. Hood have taken another turn. Yesterday, four non-profit organizations filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to stop the project. The plaintiffs on the suit are Bark, Friends of Mt. Hood, the Northwest Environmental Defense Center, and the Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club.
In the 56-page lawsuit (PDF), that coalition says the area of Mt. Hood where RLK & Company wants to build the Timberline MTB Park is, "ecologically significant" and consists of ,"fragile alpine ecosystems" that feed directly into Still Creek and the west fork of the Salmon River. The plaintiffs also claim that the Forest Service did not adhere to adequate public processes as defined by federal environmental review laws.
The project would build 17 miles of new, lift-assisted mountain bike trails on a 500-600 acre parcel of land (*I originally posted the incorrect acreage). In November of 2012, the Forest Service approved RLK's permit to build the park. In doing so, a USFS rep said he believes that mountain biking at Timberline, "represents yet another new opportunity for play in every season of the year." An appeal of that decision made by an even larger coalition of environmental groups was denied back in March (it's interesting to note that some groups on the original appeal have chosen not to join this new lawsuit).
Before you finalize all your weekend riding plans, I wanted to highlight three events that deserve your attention.
Tomorrow is the American Lung Association's big annual Reach the Beach ride. It's the 23rd year for this popular event that takes folks from several starting points out to the finish line at Cape Kiwanda (south of Tillamook). There are 100, 80, 55, and 28-mile options leaving from Portland, Newberg, Amity, and Grand Ronde respectively. If you're doing the ride, have fun and good luck! If you're biking or driving on the route, expect to find thousands of people sharing the road with you.
On Sunday (5/19), bike racers and riders of all persuasions will head out to Sauvie Island for the Kruger's Kermesse Farm Crit. This unique event features a fun mix of terrain that will have something for riders of all abilities. It all happens at Kruger's Farm, which is a great place to bring the family and hang out with friends. For a fun day, ride out to the event via the St. Johns Bridge and Highway 30 (where traffic is much more pleasant on the weekends).
In a report released this morning, the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) says bicycle traffic counts for 2012 were up 3.3 percent over 2011 levels. These counts, which have been conducted annually since 1991, provide an important barometer for how many people are riding bikes in Portland. In addition to bike traffic volumes, the counts also tally gender and helmet usage. PBOT uses a mix of automated "hose" counts as well as manual counts by staff and volunteers. For the 2012 counts, volunteers manually counted 38,500 daily bicycle trips across a record 216 locations throughout the city — which PBOT says translates into more than 190,000 daily bicycle trips once the two-hour peak period counts are extrapolated out.
Here's the summary of 2012's numbers (taken directly from the report):
The great bike-related job opportunities keep coming in. We had a diverse selection of Job Listings posted this past week. Check them out via the links below...
I came across something interesting while perusing some Oregon Transportation Commission meeting materials: the 2012 ODOT Sustainability Progress Report (PDF). The report covers a number of things; from how much paper the agency uses to the amount of greenhouse gases being emitted by their vehicle fleet. But the part that caught my eye was the section titled "Work Force Diversity". It was an analysis about the demographics of ODOT's 4,521 employees.
Here's how the report's authors introduced the section:
ODOT must have a fully skilled, competent and diverse workforce to carry out its mission. As the number of retirements increase, ODOT must recruit employees with diverse backgrounds, retain the expertise of experienced employees, and develop employee skills to meet new challenges to the agency and the transportation system.
That sounds reasonable. Then I saw the statistical breakdown: 63% male, 90% white non-hispanic and 56% over the age of 50.
Lance Marcus died Tuesday night while driving on SW Barbur Blvd. (Photo: Facebook profile)
45 year-old Lance Marcus died on Tuesday night after driving his car into a power pole on SW Barbur Blvd near Miles Street. The Portland Police report that Marcus was driving "at a high rate of speed" before he hit the pole.
In October of 2011, just a few tenths of a mile north of where Marcus died, 25-year old Nisha Rana was also killed when police say she "failed to negotiate a curve" while driving "at a very high rate of speed."
Back in 2010, just one mile north of those tragedies, 28 year-old Caleb Pruitt was also driving "at a high rate of speed" (according to the police) when he rounded a corner on SW Barbur Blvd near the Town and Country Apartments and collided with 26 year-old Angela Burke. Burke was walking her bicycle at the time and was attempting to cross the street.
Barbur Blvd is notorious in Portland transportation circles. It's one of the City's High Crash Corridors and it has been subject of hopeful planning documents and neighborhood activism for years. However, despite this attention, it remains a classic, high-speed arterial where people continue to drive too fast and people continue to get hurt and killed. A few weeks ago a new "Friends of Barbur" group came together to try and hasten improvements. Here's what they wrote on their website:
This guest article was written by ODOT's Region 1 Transit and Active Transportation Liaison Jessica Horning and ODOT's Historic Columbia River Highway project coordinator Kristen Stallman.
The Historic Columbia River Highway is one of Oregon’s most popular and scenic destinations regardless of your preferred mode of travel. The 73-mile route from Troutdale to The Dalles provides amazing views of the best the Columbia River Gorge has to offer, from waterfalls to windswept high plains. The highway was constructed in 1913 with a maximum 5 percent grade, making it an ideal route for a long distance bike ride. The Historic Highway is also a designated scenic byway, making it a popular shared route for motorists and bicyclists alike.
In 2013, the Historic Highway will see improvements that will make this scenic gem more accessible, with more opportunities for visitors to enjoy the Gorge by foot, bike, and car.
Seattle resident Jan Heine is a very respected figure in the bicycling world. As editor of Bicycle Quarterly, a magazine that delves deeply into bicycle design and randonneuring, he has a large and loyal following. So when he published a lengthy blog post yesterday that was highly critical of the "worrisome trend" in the U.S. of building and advocating for cycle tracks and other types of physically separated bikeways — I wasn't surprised at the heated debate it stirred up (both in his comment section and on Twitter when I shared the link).
Heine has touched a nerve on one of the the most heated debates in the bicycling world: Should we create separation (which is the outlook held by almost every major bike advocacy organization) similar to the great bike cities of northern Europe; or should we focus on educating people how to "take the lane" and maintain the push for "vehicular cycling" wherein people on bikes learn to share lanes with those of us in cars. (Or better yet, as some have pointed out in comments below, we should combine the best aspects of the two approaches.)
ECHOS Communications, a marketing agency based in Sausalito, California with deep roots in the cycling industry and San Francisco-based Chrome Industries, announced this morning that they've launched the Urban Cycling Hall of Fame. The mission of the UCHOF is to "celebrate the culture of urban cycling and showcase the history and people shaping the modern urban bike movement."
"We felt it was important that somebody take this moment and recognize the people who got us where we're at today," said Chrome President Steve McCallion during an interview with BikePortland last month (I'll share more from that interview next week).
Everywhere we turn these days it seems there are signs that bicycling means business. Whether it's impacts to tourism, property values, sales receipts, or economic and urban development — the case is very strong. Another major component of the "bikes mean business" mantra relates directly to how having a bike-friendly workplace contributes to the bottom line. Simply put, a bike-friendly workplace can have a significant impact to the physical and financial well-being of businesses and their employees.
At the Portland Employers Bike Summit this Friday, executives, building managers, and HR personnel will get the information and inspiration they need to take advantage of the growing movement to make workplaces more attractive to bicycling and low-car employees.
Responding to concerns about poor quality bike access on two narrow bridges on SW Barbur Blvd, the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has proposed a new flashing sign that would warn road users about the presence of bicycle traffic. The new sign is being considered as part of the $5 million Newbury & Vermont Street Bridge Rehabilitation Project.
ODOT announced the new sign at an open house for the project last night and they've updated their project website with a graphic of the proposed sign. They are currently asking for feedback as to whether or not it would be worth installing. The plan would be to install four signs total — two per bridge and one in each direction. They come with an automatic sensor, which means the lights would flash without someone on a bike having to stop and push a button. ODOT says this would be the first sign of its kind on any highway or bridge in the entire state.
Smashed window at Chrome store. (Photo: Chrome Industries)
Thieves smashed the large front window of the Chrome Industries store at 425 SW 10th Avenue in Portland in the wee hours of Monday morning.
According to Store Manager Lilly Eidsness, they broke the glass and "grabbed whatever they could reach." In this case that was five bags — which were hand-sewn custom bags made by in-house seamstress Lara Kessler. The total value of all the bags is $630 and the broken window is estimated to cost $1,000 to replace. Chrome is open for business while the window is being replaced.
The custom bags were one-of-a-kind, which leaves Eidsness hopeful they will catch someone's eye and end up being recovered (see photo below). Below is a photo of the stolen bags followed by a description of each one:
"We welcome bicyclists at our drive-through lanes... riding a bike is just the kind of healthy, environmentally-friendly activity we welcome at our stores." — James Graham, Walgreens corporate media relations
Walgreens, America's largest drug store chain, has responded to concerns that one of their policies unfairly excluded customers who ride bicycles. As we detailed last week, for at least the past several years people have been refused service by some Walgreens employees at outdoor service windows (a.k.a. drive-thrus) based solely on their mode of transportation. When asked about this refusal, store managers have listed a number of reasons — from safety concerns to liability insurance constraints.
Before we published that story, we contacted the Deerfield, Illinois-based corporate offices of Walgreens Company to ask for a clarification about this policy. James Graham in Walgreens' corporate media relations department responded and confirmed that they had heard feedback from "bicycling customers" about this issue and they agreed to review their policies. This morning we received the following statement from Graham:
Yesterday I finally got a chance to visit The Fields, Portland's newest neighborhood park. Situated on NW Overton between 10th and 11th at the northern end of the Pearl District, The Fields is a beautiful addition to our city. It's got fantastic views of old industrial areas, a panorama of the Fremont Bridge, and lots of green grass to lay and play on. Whenever Portland opens a new public space, I'm always interested to see how they deal with bicycle access. In the case of The Fields, they've created a nice area for bicycle parking; but it took me a while to 1) realize it was there and 2) figure out how to use it.
- Independent, daily bike news since 2005 -
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