Back in January, Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder took to a public forum and dropped a pretty hefty insult on the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA). The comment left by Burkholder on a widely read urban planning blog was notable, not just because the level of candor was rare for an elected official (especially in always-nice Portland), but because Burkholder is one of the BTA's founders.

Burkholder's opinion came out in the form of a comment on the popular Sightline blog. The blog post was a top ten list of the best things European cities are doing to improve bicycling conditions.

Here are some snips from Burkholder's comment (emphasis mine): (more...)

A recent flap over Sunday Parkways funding at City Council underscores what seems to be a growing reality for people who run active transportation programs: You better start looking for private funds because city/state/federal budgets are shrinking fast.

Portland would not be getting a bike-sharing system (at least right now) if it weren't for the fact that all of its ongoing operations costs will be privately funded. Sunday Parkways will only get one-third of its total operating budget from the City this year — the rest will come from private sponsorships.

Now the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) is adding to its traditional funding sources for its youth education programs — state and federal grants — by turning to popular discount site Groupon. (more...)

BTA says they'll oppose
mandatory helmet laws "if
a bill does not advance cycling
in Oregon."
(Photo © J. Maus)

In an email to members this morning, Bicycle Transportation Alliance Board President Stephen Gomez wrote a letter offering, "Clarity on the BTA's helmet stance."

The letter comes in response to a new helmet policy released by the BTA back in October. That policy, which came after tallying results from a member survey on the issue, rubbed many in the community the wrong way.

The key part of the policy some people expressed disappoint in was this: "If confronted with a proposed mandatory helmet law, the BTA will not stand in opposition to the law. Neither will we devote resources to passing such a law." While subtle, the new policy marked a shift toward a more pro-helmet stance than they'd had in the past. The BTA had previously been opposed — both philosophically and in practice — to laws that would make helmets mandatory for adults. (more...)

The Noll family.
(Photos: Will Vanlue)

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance opened its new offices (618 NW Glisan St) to the public last week for an evening of food, bicycles, and fun. The evening featured hors d'oeuvres from Madison's Grill and beer from Hopworks.

Guests also got to meet local bike builders and get an up-close look at award-winning Oregon Manifest entries from Pereira Cycles, Tsunehiro Cycles, Cielo Cycles, and Signal Cycles. (more...)

Helmets on the Hawthorne Bridge
(Photo by Will Vanlue)

Using feedback gleaned from a recent survey, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) board of directors has formally adopted a policy on helmets. Here is the position statement as published on their blog this morning:

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance supports state law that requires those under 16 to wear helmets while on a bicycle. Helmets are safety devices that make bicycling safer by mitigating injury in the event of a fall or crash. Our role as an advocacy organization is to push for safer cycling environments and making our roads more bike-friendly. Therefore, The Bicycle Transportation Alliance encourages the use of helmets by all cyclists.

(more...)

Did we win?!
(Photos: Will Vanlue)

Photos and story by Will Vanlue

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) celebrated another successful Bike Commute Challenge with a party in Memorial Coliseum last night.

For the sixteenth year in a row the BTA's annual competition encouraged commuters around the Portland metro area to ride their bicycle to work during the month of September. Although the event is a friendly competition, this year the BTA encouraged participants to "throw down" and challenge friends and other teams to see who would ride their bicycle to work most often.

And throw down they did. (more...)

Not even 24 hours has passed and the Portland Bureau of Transportation's (PBOT) decision to include bike share in a federal funding request is already facing opposition — and some of it is coming from unlikely places.

But, while this bike share funding decision is poised to become just the latest bike-related political/media punching bag, supporters of the project are confident and feel that the time is right to move forward.

At issue is whether or not a large-scale bike-sharing system deserves funding priority over other, more traditional biking and walking safety projects. Bike share is on a $6.6 million list of three active transportation projects that PBOT hopes to get adopted by City Council tomorrow. Not on that list is the SW Barbur Boulevard Streetscape project, which would improve a street that has claimed two lives in the last year and that many neighborhood activists have been working on for years. (more...)

Still from new BTA vid.
- Watch it below -

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) held their annual member meeting earlier this week. Unfortunately I wasn't there, but from what I've heard it was a very solid event. In addition to their new 20-year vision and Strategic Plan, the BTA shared a new promotional video at the event.
(more...)

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA), Oregon's largest bike advocacy group, is refining their identity and brand. One of the first pieces of that process is a new logo...

Old logo on the left.

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It was a sell-out crowd.
(Photos © J. Maus)

The 2011 Alice Awards & Auction, presented by the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, once again raised the bar for bike advocacy events in Portland. At a stunning new venue in the Pearl District, about 480 of our region's bike luminaries showed up — and dressed up — for a night to honor great work by both the BTA and this year's crop of Alice winners.
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Citizen activist Kiel Johnson is one of
four winners announced today.
(Photos © J. Maus)

I got an unexpected email this morning from the Bicycle Transportation Alliance. The local bike advocacy group is working on their major fundraising event of the year, The Alice Awards and Auction (set for April 23rd); but instead of announcing the winners at the gala like usual, they decided to share the winners today.

Why? Here's how the BTA puts it:

"...These individuals did not sit back and wait for the movement to come their way. "Why wait?" they asked. Instead, they took stock of their resources, looked to their allies and partners, and seized the moment of transformation.

Inspired by the actions of these individuals, the BTA asks the same question of ourselves. "Why wait?" Why keep the knowledge to ourselves, when we are bursting to shout it out to the world?"

So, without further ado, below are the 2011 Alice Award winners (a.k.a. "Bike Superheroes"): (more...)

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) has released a one-year report on the City of Portland's 2030 Bike Plan. In it, the non-profit group points out where PBOT has lived up to their lofty goals and where they need to do more. (more...)

Sec. LaHood is coming to Portland.
(Photo © J. Maus)

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) has nabbed a personal visit from U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. At the BTA's request, LaHood is slated for an invite-only event that will take place in Portland on March 21st.

BTA Executive Director Rob Sadowsky says they initially asked LaHood's staff if he'd be willing to accept an award of recognition in person at their annual Alice Awards gala slated for April 23rd. That date didn't work for LaHood's schedule, so his office suggested a different date and the BTA was happy to oblige.

At the event, Sadowsky says the topic will be crash reduction and distracted driving — two key pieces to the BTA's current focus on the 'Vision Zero' strategy. (more...)

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance has just released their latest video in an ongoing campaign to raise awareness about bike light usage... and it's the best one yet in my opinion. It features Master of Light Mark Allyn and Jim "K'Tesh" Parsons in all of his Klingon glory.

Tell Us About Your Bike Lights! from BICYCLE TRANSPORTATION ALLIANCE on Vimeo.

(more...)

Karen Frost at the 2005 Alice Awards.
(Photo © J. Maus)

It is truly the end of an era: Local transportation activist and bicycling superhero Karen Frost, who has provided graceful leadership in the Portland/Metro area for over 20 years, has announced she will retire by the end of March.

Frost, who turned 66 earlier this month, was the first-ever executive director of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (from 1995-98) and currently serves as executive director of the Beaverton-based Westside Transportation Alliance (WTA).
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All lit up.
(Photo: Jeff Bernards)

In case you haven't heard, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) is working on a campaign to increase awareness of the need to use lights while biking. They debuted a hilarious video PSA a few weeks ago (and more are in the works) and now they're teaming up with the City of Portland to do the first-ever bike light count.

The purpose of the count is to better understand what the current levels of bike light usage are, find out whether usage is going up or down, and so on. Here's more from the BTA: (more...)

Shot from BTA's new video.
- Watch it below -

For most of us, there's only one night a year where we'd even think about hopping on our bike without our pants on. The BTA has put out a new video that uses this idea to encourage the use of bike lights.

They unveiled a hilarious new video the other day titled, Strategies for Getting Around Without Bike Lights (or Pants). It features Portland Mercury editor Wm. Steven Humphrey trying to get through his day without pants on — which is just as silly as trying to get around town in dark without lights on your bike.
(more...)

For some heroes, winning an Alice is
quite emotional.
(Photo © J. Maus)

There are just a few days left to nominate your bike hero for an Alice Award. The annual Alice Awards and Auction event hosted by the Bicycle Transportation Alliance is always a good time and it's also a time to recognize the work of dedicated advocates from throughout Oregon.

The deadline to nominate your bike hero is this Saturday (1/22). The BTA will select three winners (over 30 people were nominated last year) and the announcement will be made at the big gala event on April 23rd. (more...)

Doug Parrow speaking for the BTA at
the 2010 Oregon Bike Summit.
(Photos © J. Maus)

Doug Parrow has resigned from the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) Board of Directors after 13 years. Parrow was the longest serving board member in the organization's history and also served as Chair of the BTA's Legislative Committee. (more...)

With the 2011 Oregon legislative session nearly underway (committee meetings begin mid-December), the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) has decided on their course of action; and it's a lot less ambitious than the wish list they unveiled back in March. Coming off a 2009 session without any significant new bike laws being passed and with a new leader coming to the helm in June, the BTA will use the 2011 session to as a building block that will (hopefully) set them up for larger gains in 2012.

"It's clearly a building year," BTA Executive Director Rob Sadowsky commented during a phone interview this morning. "Starting [his position with the BTA] in June made it difficult to build a consensus around an agenda." In addition to not having adequate time to prepare major legislative initiatives, Sadowsky says the BTA (and biking in general) is still stinging from an acrimonious and largely unsuccessful 2009 session: (more...)