A new lottery-funded bike-and-ride parking structure on land owned by the First United Methodist Church is likely to greatly increase bike parking there. (Image from Connect Oregon materials)
One of the Portland neighborhoods with the lowest rates of car ownership might surprise snooty east-siders: Goose Hollow.
The dense urban neighborhood immediately west of downtown also enjoys terrific access to Washington County thanks to TriMet’s MAX tunnel — and that combination gave a major new bike parking facility proposed there a boost into a list of transportation projects that are about to be funded by coveted state lottery revenue.
The descent into Cottonwood Canyon State Park. (Photos by Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
What’s better than riding the dreamy roads of eastern Oregon with a handful of good friends? How about door-to-door support for you and your entire group on board on air-conditioned shuttle bus that’s stocked with yummy drinks and snacks? Fortunately, as I found this past weekend, that’s no longer just a dream.
Some want more to go to “maintenance.” (city graphic)
With Portland’s mayor and transportation commissioner sticking adamantly to their guns on the notion that the city needs more money for its street system, other political chess pieces are moving.
Here’s one of the biggest: should less of the money go toward street safety and more toward street maintenance?
The initial plan from city leaders, which the city council sent back for retooling in June, was for 44 percent of the $50 million a year fee to go toward “safety projects” such as 4 miles a year of new neighborhood greenways, 70 city blocks a year of new sidewalks, 20 safer street crossings per year and a mile or two of new protected bike lanes each year.
Another 53 percent would go to repaving 30 to 50 miles of city streets each year, plus other maintenance like replacing 8,000 faded city street name signs each year.
Portland is now the largest major city in the United States where the private ridesharing apps Uber and Lyft aren’t operating — but as of last week, one is now up and running in its largest suburb.
Good morning! Here are the bike links from around the world that caught our eyes this week:
Self-driving bike: Chinese search giant Baidu says it’s one-upping Google by prototyping an autonomous bicycle by the end of 2014.
Better taxis, fewer DUIs: In Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle, ridesharing and hailing apps (still illegal in Portland) seem to be reducing drunk-driving arrests.
(Tuesday’s comment of the week was a catch-up from last Friday’s holiday, so we’re now back to the regular schedule.)
Talia Jacobson’s guest post about biking while clumsy — in her case, the result of learning to ride in adulthood — drew a heartwarming wave of true confessions and upbeat encouragements from readers to Talia and (mostly) to one another. The one that stuck in my own head was probably this short recollection from Dave, who fearlessly described his emotions as he learned to ride.
People have been sleeping in the woods with their bikes for over a century. It’s nothing new. But in just the past year or so, doing off-road overnighters — a.k.a. “bikepacking” — with a few frame bags attached to a mountain-bike (or a beefy road bike) has skyrocketed in popularity. Especially here in Oregon.
There are a number of things to explain this phenomenon; but one inarguable catalyst has been VeloDirt.com. Now Donnie Kolb, the man behind the site the has done so much to help popularize gravel riding and camping-by-bike, has launched OregonBikepacking.com.
Kolb launched VeloDirt in 2010 with his friends Suzanne Marcoe and Aaron Schmidt. It began humbly as a blog to catalog rides on “those lonely dirt roads you pass on your regular road rides.” That same year, Kolb organized an unsanctioned, 123 mile race on one of his signature backroad routes called the Oregon Stampede. It was a huge success, so Kolb added a few more events the next year and he hasn’t looked back since.
A woman lounges on the bike-frame bike rack outside Modern Times, Minneapolis’s answer to the New Deal Cafe. “Can I take a photo?” I asked. “Hell yeah,” she said.
(Photos: M.Andersen/BikePortland)
Now, don’t get me wrong: Minneapolis is a great place to ride a bicycle.
It has lots of things that Portland can and should learn from. And yes, those things they do in the November snow and the August sweat are seriously impressive. But is Minneapolis a better biking city than Portland?
I’m not sure why, but all four of our latest job listings come from outside of Portland. This is great news if you’re looking to get out of the city and explore the bike industry in a different part of our region. Just remember to come back and see us every once in a while.
Check out all the latest jobs via the links below…
Sally Spear, 63, moved into a 200-square-foot backyard cottage designed by her son-in-law Schuyler Smith, 33, in 2010. Smith now designs ADUs for a living. (Photo by M.Andersen/BikePortland)
When it comes to cars, accessory units in backyards and basements are nearly as low-impact as big apartment buildings next to bus lines.
The average rental unit in Portland brings 1.31 cars on site, according to the U.S. Census. For transit-oriented apartment buildings, that falls to 0.83 cars — and for accessory dwelling units, it’s 0.93 cars.
In May, we shared the news that bike parking at the light rail stop was sometimes being overwhelmed by the red bikes now being used by the sportswear maker’s workers as they headed to and from the company’s nearby headquarters.
The Tour de Aufderheide down in Westfir (south of Eugene) offers roads beyond compare. (Photo J. Maus/BikePortland)
Welcome to your menu of weekend rides and events, lovingly brought to you by our friends at Hopworks Urban Brewery.
Judging by this weekend’s events it’s clear that it’s time to stretch your legs a bit. If you’ve been putting in some miles, now you get to put your fitness to good use by enjoying the stellar roads and trails around the Portland region. And as luck would have, our warm and dry weather shows no sign of abating.
I’ll be heading far east to Hardman, Oregon this weekend for a stay at the Treo Bike Ranch where I’ll be the embedded journalist on a new type of service they’re rolling out. What are your plans? If you need some ideas. check out our selections below…
This skill (standing up on the pedals) was several years in the making for the author. Yes, she still feels really cool every time. (Photos by L. Mitchell.)
Part of our series of guest posts, America’s Next Bicycle Capital, where we share community voices about the future of biking in Portland.
This week’s guest writer is Talia Jacobson, a transportation planner and ten-year Portland resident.
For those who sort the world by the four types of cyclists (the Myers-Briggs of bike advocacy), most indicators would mark me “enthused and confident.” I’ve been a full-time bike commuter for six years. I take lanes, haul groceries, and ride in just about any weather until ice gets involved. Run down the list of traits, and there’s only one place I break type: skill level.
I could legally vote before I learned how to ride. Years later, there are still days when I’m a slapstick routine on two wheels.
Two people, one on a bicycle and one in a car, collided while traveling on SE Ankeny this morning.
According to the Portland Police Bureau (PPB), the incident occurred just before 7:46 am at the intersection of Ankeny and 7th. The collision involved someone driving a car and someone pedaling a bicycle. Here’s more from the PPB statement:
Officers determined that the driver of the car had turned left while traveling eastbound on S.E. Ankeny, onto northbound S.E. 7th. The driver turned into the path of the bicyclist causing the accident.
The driver of the vehicle had stopped prior to turning and did not show any signs of impairment. It appears that the driver did not see the bicyclist.
Inspired by the changes on NE Multnomah in the Lloyd District, a new proposal would transform SW 2nd and 3rd avenues. (Photo by J. Maus/BikePortland)
A coalition of 30 Old Town bars, restaurants and entertainment venues is proposing adding a quarter-mile of planter-protected bike lanes and street cafe seating to 2nd and/or 3rd avenues.
Inspired by nearby projects on SW Ankeny and NE Multnomah, the six-month-old Old Town Hospitality Group sees their experimental road diet concept, which could narrow the streets’ car-oriented area from three travel lanes to one or two and might remove some on-street auto parking, as a way to make the neighborhood safer, more comfortable and better to do business in.
Public employees, business owners, service providers, tourism officials, and biking advocates all came together for a networking event inside the pavilion at Marine Park in Cascade Locks last nights. (Photos J. Maus/BikePortland)
The biking conditions on N Willamette Blvd leave a lot to be desired. (Photos by J. Maus/BikePortland)
Could this finally be our chance to get a bit of an improvement to the biking environment on a key north Portland corridor? It might be, if the Portland Bureau of Transportation moves forward on a plan to widen the bike lanes on N. Willamette Blvd.
The move comes as city road crews embark on a major re-paving project that will rebuild 2.36 lane miles between N Portsmouth (near University of Portland) and N Woolsey (near Columbia Park). The project was announced last week and began on Monday.
Upon hearing about the paving project we asked if any lane re-striping was being considered. PBOT has a history of widening and re-striping bike lanes when roads are re-paved. Since striping has to be re-done anyways, these projects are a good opportunity to assess capacity needs and make needed changes.
Here’s an idea: a local business is setting out to sell ads attached to each side of local bike commuters’ front wheels.
“It’s a first-of-its-kind-in-the-nation business, because it’s basically for the bike commuters, the year-round riders,” BikeCommuterAds.com founder Gary Courter said in an interview Tuesday. “They’ve been riding green all this time for nothing — years! — and we’re trying to change that.”
“Where did we get the idea that a bike is too expensive to buy and maintain but a car is not?”
That’s one of the questions addressed by an interesting comment this week from reader Yvette Maranowski, who describes herself as a bike promoter, a community health worker and a member of the North Portland bike club We All Can Ride.
We realize this is last minute but it’s the first we heard about it and figured it’s worth getting the word out as far and wide as possible. This could be a great way for east Portland to learn about bicycling and have some good interactions with the Portland Police Bureau. Details and flyer below.. Read More »
Interesting event happening next week down near Oakridge, Oregon. Our friends from the Central Oregon Trail Alliance are teaming with Sierra Club on trail access issues around Waldo Lake. This is notable because Sierra Club and mountain bike advocates have been on opposite sides of trail issues in the past. Also, I’ve got a reporting Read More »
ODOT just announced a few changes coming to SW Barbur Blvd (including a restripe of the southbound bike lane at Taylors Ferry Rd) that are expected to be completed by this fall. Check out the details via the official statement blow: A series of improvements will get under way this month along Southwest Barbur Boulevard Read More »
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