Cover of Portland Public School's
Bike Shelter Project Development Guide.

In an effort to make bicycling even more appealing to students, staff, and parents, Portland Public Schools (PPS) now offers a Bike Shelter Project Development Guide (PDF).

The new guide was developed in conjuction with the City of Portland's Safe Routes to School program. PBOT's Safe Routes team has been building momentum for more bike shelters since (at least) March 2010, when they installed shelters at four local schools. According to Safe Routes staffer Clay Veka, the PPS guide emerged from talks between local school leaders and PBOT back in February. (more...)

In a sign of the growing business opportunities that come with the renaissance of urban biking in America — and Portland's reputation for being in the center of it — Woodinville, Washington-based Sportworks will launch its new "No Scratch" bike rack line at Bridgeport Brewpub in the Pearl District next month.

Sportworks is already the nation's leading supplier of bus and transit racks (used in over 500 U.S. cities), and now they're looking to bolster their brand and garner business in the bike parking market. This is a great example of the data we often see in the bike advocacy world being translated into pure bottom line economics. Here's an excerpt from a press statement published yesterday by Sportworks: (more...)

Detail from rendering of
dedicated entrance to bike
parking facilities.

Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) — a school that has grabbed our attention several times in the past for their encouragement of bicycling among faculty and staff — has a new building in the works and they say it, "will set a new standard for the quality of bicycle facilities."

Those are lofty words, so we got a closer look at the plans from Campus Planning and Development Director Brian Newman. (more...)

TriMet initially intended these railings on the downtown transit mall for people to lean on while waiting for buses and MAX trains; but now they say bikes can use them too.

Yesterday morning I took the bus into work. When I got off at SW 6th and Stark I noticed two bikes parked on what look to be snazzy bike racks on the transit mall. (more...)

Downtown Clean & Safe employees cleaning up the bike corral on SW Broadway just south of Burnside.
(Photos © J. Maus)

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Screen grab
from Marketwatch.com.

Today's print edition of the venerable Wall Street Journal features a story on Tim and Sue Butler's Southeast Portland condo. The Butler's are both serious cyclists, with Sue's name gracing these pages on several past occasions for her pro cyclocross exploits.

So, why is the WSJ profiling their condo? The house itself is gorgeous (nice enough to get a feature in Portland Monthly Mag last year), but it's the $1.5 million* amazing bike garage that caught their eye.
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Vancouver's first ever art racks.
(Photos: Marcus Griffith)

In the latest act of Portland's bike love spreading to Vancouver, a Portland resident is opening Clark County’s first fully dedicated climbing center in downtown Vancouver, complete with Vancouver’s first artistic bicycle rack (a.k.a. "art racks").

The Source is co-owned by Portland resident Hanz Kroesen and former Portland resident Michael Lary. According to Lary, the mountain peak shaped bicycle racks at The Source were designed and built by Kroesen, along with “most of the metal work” in the building. (more...)

Bike parking at The Alibi on N. Interstate. The racks were designed and fabricated by Matt Cartwright of Cartwright Design.
(Photos © J. Maus)

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About 150 bikes are using the
temporary bike valet service at the base of
r the Portland Aerial Tram.
(Photo © J. Maus)

A bike valet service at the foot of the Portland Aerial Tram has proved so popular that Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) has extended the service until the end of September.

OHSU began offering the service on July 11th while SW Sam Jackson Park Road — one of only two, two-lane roads to OHSU's Marquam Hill campus (which also happens to be the City's largest employer) — underwent a repair project. The bike valet was one of several measures undertaken to encourage OHSU staff, patient, and visitors to get up the hill in something other than an automobile. (more...)

Patrons of Breakside Brewery dine alongside a new bike shelter that has been built on NE Durham at Dekum in the Woodlawn neighborhood.
(Photos © J. Maus)

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Bike vault.
-More photos below-
(Photos © J. Maus)

The historic Spalding Building in downtown Portland has what might be the coolest indoor bike parking in the city. Tenants of the 12-floor office building get to roll their commute vehicles into what used to be a bank vault that's capped by an immense 16,000 pound door. Check it out...
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PBOT graphic: Portland's bicycle corrals: Installations by year
- Click to enlarge -

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Bike Parking at a Timbers game last year.
(Photo: Jeff Castro/BikeRacker)

Cycling soccer fans could hold the key to whether or not the upcoming Portland Timbers match at Jeld-Wen Field (formerly PGE Park) ends up in a traffic snarl in downtown Portland

On April 14th, the Timbers, hold their first home match as a Major League Soccer franchise. The newly renovated arena has a capacity of 20,000 fans (up from 16,000) and it's located in a dense part of downtown Portland. With auto parking at a premium, the City of Portland and the Timbers are doing everything they can to encourage folks to get to the stadium without a car. (more...)

The new bike rack at the Daimler Trucks North America headquarters on Swan Island.
(Photo: Daimler Trucks North America)

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Rendering of Bike & Ride facility coming to Beaverton Transit Center this summer (by Alta Planning and Design).

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All cozy and dry... I think I'll stop for a meal.
(Photos © J. Maus)

Portland's bike parking offerings continue to improve in both quality and quantity. Recently I've noticed two developments in North Portland worth your attention: a new on-street bike corral on N. Williams Avenue and a nice covering of a corral on N. Mississippi.

This new on-street corral on Williams is located just south of N. Fargo out in front of Waypost Cafe, a community gathering spot that has been in need of more bike parking for a long time. (Just a block north of this corral is another one situated on a curb extension). This is the fifth on-street bike corral on Williams — more than any other street in Portland (I stand corrected. Alberta has seven!). (more...)

BES has taken an on-street bike corral... (Photo © J. Maus)

And integrated it with a bioswale! (Photo: PBOT)

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Artist Buster Simpson's rendering of covered bike rack and green street features. See more at BusterSimpson.net/Dekum

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A source that works for the City of Vancouver (WA) sent this info over the other day (photos of the new lockers below):

"Three weeks ago we installed 4 more Bikelink lockers in our downtown area, bringing the total number of lockers to 9. This project was part of our Destination Downtown project, and was funded through a grant from the Washington State Department of Transportation. The BikeLink lockers are "on-demand" facilities that users can rent by the hour with an electronic key card. At this time we are charging 5 cents an hour for the lockers.

New locations:
SE corner of Columbia Street and W Evergreen Boulevard
NW corner of Main Street and W 11th Street
NE corner of Broadway Street and W 7th Street (1st locker before the C-TRAN lockers)
NE corner of Main Street and E 20th Street

Existing locations:
1300 Franklin Street on south side of Clark County Public Service Center - 4 lockers
NE corner of Columbia and 6th Street - 1 locker"

Vancouver was the first city in the Northwest to install on-demand, debit card access bike lockers. We covered the first installation (across from Esther Short Park) back in June 2006.

Todd Boulanger

[This story is by Todd Boulanger, a former transportation planner for the City of Vancouver who has been soaking up the bike infrastructure of Europe. In this report he shares some views of a bike parking project at a public square in Amsterdam.]

The bike parking options under consideration for Amsterdam's city center
(All photos © Todd Boulanger)

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