Left turns from NW 9th Avenue onto Lovejoy Street toward the Broadway Bridge.
(Photos: J.Maus/BikePortland)

In the city with North America’s largest streetcar system, on-street rails almost rival automobiles as a factor in collisions that injure people on bikes.

That’s one major finding in the first academic study in North America dedicated specifically to the danger of streetcar tracks to people biking.

Among bike-related injuries in Toronto that resulted in emergency-room trips, the study found, 32 percent directly involved streetcar tracks and more than half happened on streets with streetcar tracks. And in what lead author Kay Teschke described as “a surprise to us,” 67 percent of track-related injuries happen away from intersections.

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Dan Bower, at the National Bike Summit in 2009.
(Photo by J. Maus/BikePortland)

The new executive director of Portland Streetcar Inc (PSI) is a familiar face and name for many regular BikePortland readers. Dan Bower, formerly the head of PBOT’s Active Transportation Division, will be PSI’s first full time executive director according to a statement made by the non-profit today. (more…)