BTA Board Chair Stephen Gomez at
their annual member meeting
Wednesday night.
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

At their annual meeting Wednesday night, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) launched an effort to identify and prioritize a list of projects that will update their 'Blueprint for Better Bicycling.' The BTA's first Blueprint, a report that identified a list of their top 40 infrastructure projects around the region, was released nearly seven years ago.

Along with announcing the start of a process to develop a new Blueprint report, the BTA offered an update on how those projects have fared since 2005. Addressing the crowd of members as they milled around the Portland Art Museum Sculpture Garden dining on tacos and beer (served by bike by Taco Pedaler and the Hopworks Beer Bike), BTA Board Director Stephen Gomez reflected on the 2005 project list. "I can't say we've had success with everything on this list. But the list, it really matters." (more...)

Last minute cost-cutting has resulted in proposed design changes to the $268 million Sellwood Bridge project that could have significant impacts on bicycling. With a key vote on the final design set for this coming Monday (7/16) and a decision on the plans set for Thursday (7/19), the Bicycle Transportation Alliance is concerned that there's not enough time to consider the changes and they are urging the county to delay the vote.

Citing rising costs, the County has proposed $3.2 million in project cutbacks. The biggest ticket item on the chopping block is a $2 million multi-use path bridge. Another $81,000 proposed cutback will shelve plans for "surface treatments" on the bike/walk lanes.

The BTA has been tracking this project closely and has a volunteer on the Citizen's Advisory Committee. Here's more from a BTA blog post yesterday: (more...)

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...)