Durham, North Carolina-based Organic Transit is currently shopping for office and warehouse space in Portland.
The company is known for their "ELF" solar and pedal-powered vehicle (which stands for Electric, Light and Fun) which they bill as the "most efficient vehicle on the planet." The company is the brainchild of Rob Cotter, a former engineer who worked on racing projects for Porsche, Mercedes Benz and BMW. Cotter then moved into the human-powered vehicle scene in the late 1980s as a race promoter and vice president of the International Human Powered Vehicle Association. As CEO and founder of Organic Transit, Cotter steered his latest invention into a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign last year that raised over $225,000 from 547 backers.
Vivian Satterfield of OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon and Justin Buri of Housing Land Advocates, two leaders in Oregon's campaign for inclusionary zoning. (Photos by M.Andersen)
First, Northwest 23rd. Then Southeast Hawthorne. Then Northeast Alberta. Then North Williams.
One after another, Portland's formerly affordable neighborhoods have seen the rising appeal of low-car life drive their mortgages and rents sky-high, at least by local standards. But what's to be done?
Vivian Satterfield and Justin Buri say they've got a city-level policy suggestion that can help. Their main problem is that in Oregon, it's banned by state law.
I sat down this month with the pair – Satterfield is associate director for OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon, Buri is a board member for Housing Land Advocates, and both get around largely by bicycle – to talk about a concept, inclusionary zoning, that might require all developers within certain areas to include lower-priced, income-restricted units in their new buildings.
"TriMore" parody site targeted at TriMet's safety campaign.
It's that time of year when many commutes happen in the dark and transportation agencies and advocacy groups roll out their safety promotion campaigns. You know the campaigns, they encourage people to wear bright, reflective clothing, and implore people to take extra caution when bicycling and walking.
Here in Portland, TriMet has been doing their 'Be Seen Be Safe' promotion for several years. It includes a fashion show and a contest to see who has the most highly visible bike and/or body. And just this morning we saw the following in our Twitter stream from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration:
There are a thousand ways to improve biking in the Portland area, but the pros at the Bicycle Transportation Alliance only have time to focus closely on 16 of them.
That's where you come in.
As part of a project to stretch their advocacy expertise further, the BTA is offering a free workshop tomorrow night to train people in how to make their neighborhoods better.
Some people will ride with cars on 28th, but others won't. (Photo by J.Maus/BikePortland)
One of the most important bike-related projects in the city right now is at that wonderful point in its life-cycle where interesting ideas have a chance to take root. But some fear they won't.
The Bureau of Transportation's 20's Bikeway Project will create the only continuous, street-level north-south bikeway in all of Portland, running essentially from the city's southern border to the Columbia River. Though its length means that there are numerous issues involved, the most complicated stretch runs through a much-trafficked "streetcar suburb" on 28th Avenue between SE Stark Street and NE Sandy Boulevard.
The best cure for gloominess about the progress of active transportation in Portland is Safe Routes to School.
As the newest Streetsfilm shows, the program has been a huge success here. One in ten Portland youngsters bike to school (ten times the national average) and three in ten walk (three times the average).
The parents of Allison Liao. (Video still by Streetfilms.)
Here's the bike-related news from around the world that caught our eyes this week:
Child killed: The parents of a 3-year-old New York girl killed by a man who rolled his SUV over her in a crosswalk (and then received two traffic tickets for doing so) spend four minutes giving the most persuasive and heartbreaking speech I've ever seen about the misplaced priorities of American streets. It's wrenching, and also motivating.
I'm excited to share this month's podcast! But before we get into the topic of discussion, I want to point out a few changes: It's now officially called the BikePortland Podcast; we've updated the logo; and you can now find our stream via Soundcloud. And next month, we've got an even bigger change in store when take a step up in recording quality thanks to our friends at Sprocket Studios who've agreed to host us.
In 2002, looking for future bottlenecks in its road system, the City of Beaverton was troubled by traffic projections for the corner of Southwest Farmington and Murray, one mile west of its historic downtown.
Detail of project concept drawing. (Note the widened intersections and proximity of a nursing home.)
By 2020, traffic engineers calculated, the number of cars using Farmington would soar from 27,000 cars per day to 36,000, clogging traffic unless the five-lane intersection there — which hosts a 7-Eleven, an apartment complex, a senior living facility and a nursing home — were widened to seven traffic lanes. But after unsuccessfully casting about for years to find money for their "Farmington Road Improvement Project," the city mothballed it.
Then a funny thing happened: nothing. There was no permanent traffic jam. Eleven years and two business cycles later, Farmington actually carries 700 fewer cars per day.
The seven-lane intersection, however, is back from the dead. The project, which also includes a new center lane further east on Farmington, newly striped bike lanes, a segment of sidewalk and a new signal and realignment of 142nd Avenue, is on track to be paid for by $21 million in Washington County property taxes.
L to R: Earl Blumenauer (D), Mike McCaul (R), Peter DeFazio (D), Howard Coble (R). (Images: Blumenauer by J. Maus/BikePortland. All others via Facebook)
On a day when we learned U.S. traffic fatalities in 2012 went up for the first time since 2005 — with notable spikes in bicycling and walking deaths — Oregon Congressmen Earl Blumenauer and Peter DeFazio joined with two of their Republican colleagues, Howard Coble (NC) and Mike McCaul (TX) to introduce the Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Act (H.R. 3494).
This path is now open. (Photos by J. Maus/BikePortland)
A gorgeous new segment of the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail is now officially open to the public. The new paved path is 12 feet wide and 1.6 miles long. It goes from the John B Yeon State Park trailhead to the Moffett Creek Bridge. Its completion marks a significant milestone because it's now possible to ride a bicycle between Troutdale and Cascade Locks without ever having to ride on the shoulder of Interstate 84.
We got a sneak peek at this back in August and it is a truly stunning place to ride. The new shared-use path is 12-feet wide and is ADA compatible. There's also a new 76-foot long, 16-foot wide bridge over McCord Creek that ODOT says, "reflects the craftsmanship of the original highway design." Other features include a new picnic and rest area with views of Beacon Rock and a link to US Forest Service Trail 400 that connects to Elowah Falls.
Second thoughts about bump installation. (Photos by J. Maus/BikePortland)
A set of speed bumps in the bicycle lane of SE Madison Ave as it approaches the Hawthorne Bridge are likely to be removed. The bumps have garnered a lot of feedback — much of it negative — since they were installed a few weeks ago with the aim of slowing people down. We were surprised to learn that the County had installed them given the fact they were forced to remove a similar installation of speed bumps back in 2005.
Multnomah County has an advisory committee that meets once per month to discuss issues like this. However, we learned last week that the Multnomah County Bicycle and Pedestrian Citizen Advisory Committee was never briefed about the bumps before they went in. At their meeting last night, the bumps were on the top of the agenda and the County's Engineering Services Manager Jon Henrichsen showed up to hear the committee's concerns and try to explain why the decision was made to put them in.
A surface parking lot in downtown Portland. (Photo by J.Maus/BikePortland)
It looks like Portland is finally ready to think long-term about its auto parking policies.
The City of Portland is preparing to embark on an 18-month study of its future auto parking needs, thanks to a $225,000 state grant. The result of the work, which the city said seems to be the first project of its kind in the country, could shape residential and commercial development patterns and on-street parking policy in the city for decades to come.
Not considered public transit by the IRS. Yet. (Photo by J.Maus/BikePortland)
U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer is cosponsoring a bill to officially recognize bike sharing as the newest category of public transit, at least in the eyes of the IRS.
Unfortunately, the bill is limited by a persistent oversight in tax policy that restricts its benefits to those who both live and work in areas that have bikesharing stations.
It's a new goal for the city transportation commissioner turned Congressman, who spent years pushing for the IRS's first bike commuting benefit. The $20-a-month deduction finally passed as part of the 2008 bank bailout (despite Blumenauer's "no" vote on that package).
The place to place the wheels. (Image by J.Maus/BikePortland)
The pavement marking to the right, which is supposed to tell people where to place the wheels of their bike to trigger a green light, is illegible to about half of Portland bikers, a new study (PDF) finds.
Even worse: Those figures don't include many people who rarely ride, suggesting that interminable red lights are a particular burden on new bike riders.
Stefan Bussey, a PSU civil engineering student who conducted the survey, said he came up with the idea when he noticed that people ahead of him at the long Seven Corners traffic signals on Southeast Division would regularly stop a few feet away from the traffic signal stencil.
"It would happen three or four times a week," Bussey said.
Bussey's research confirmed it: even in Portland, about 55 percent of bicycle riders surveyed don't know the meaning of the pavement marking.
Hang in there. It should be done by the end of this month. (Photo by J. Maus/BikePortland)
By next month, the Springwater Corridor bike path will be in the best shape its been in since early 2012. It will also boast a new, 2.25 mile section of pavement at its southern end in the town of Boring.
Portland Parks & Recreation is currently trying to finish up its repair of major damage to a section of the popular path just south of the Ross Island Bridge. A portion of the path fell into the Willamette River in March of 2012 and Parks is still working to repair the damage. The project has led to a full closure of the Springwater from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm on weekdays since the end of September. Due to wet weather that prevents paving, the City now says the path will remain under construction until "at least this coming Friday" (the 22nd). For more details on the construction and why it has taken so long, read this article published by The Oregonian on Monday.
A City Club sponsored panel discussion will look at who's riding — and who's not.
There's a reason Portland is such a haven for transportation wonks, advocates, and civic engagement superstars. There is never a shortage of advocacy-related events to attend. I have six events on my calendar scheduled for tonight and tomorrow night — all of which offer important opportunities to learn about local bicycle and transportation issues.
Below is a quick guide to what's in store...
Tonight (11/12) River View Natural Area Community Meeting/Open House: 5:30 to 7:30 pm at PDX Church, 125 SW Miles
Off-road bicycling advocates are hoping for a big community turnout at this important planning meeting hosted by Portland Parks & Recreation. As we reported last month, a public process is already underway with the aim of developing a 146 acre parcel in southwest Portland in the hills near the Sellwood Bridge. Parks staff will be on hand to answer questions and hear your feedback about whether or not you think bicycling should be a priority as the trail plans get drawn up. Learn more about this project in our archives, then show up tonight between 5:30 and 7:30 at PDX Church, 125 SW Miles. More info here.
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