Former chair of the Portland Freight
Committee, Corky Collier.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Not surprisingly, the death of Kathryn Rickson while she rode in a bike lane just one block from Portland City Hall has got a lot of people talking. Apart from the grieving we do as a community when something like this happens, many people are turning their feelings toward finding a solution to the problems they feel might have led to the collision.

Two major strains of discussion have emerged: large trucks and the safety issues they pose in tight, urban environments; and how we design bicycle access into our roads. Today I want to focus on the issue of truck safety (I am not dismissing the bikeway design issue; but it's worth noting that we covered that at length following a similar fatality back in October 2007).

To get a better understanding about freight movement and truck safety downtown, I got in touch with Corky Collier. Collier is the former chair of the Portland Freight Committee, which is an advisory group to the Bureau of Transportation (think of it as the Bicycle Advisory Committee, but for freight). Collier is also the executive director of the Columbia Corridor Association, a non-profit business association that represents industries along the Columbia River. (more...)

(Photo © J. Maus)

A lobbying group that made headlines in June for trying to tilt a pot of Metro's federal funds away from active transportation and toward freight projects now has a former top aide to Governor Ted Kulongoski to manage its communications efforts.

Hans Bernard, who handled transportation issues as the Governor's legislative deputy director from 2007 to 2009, is now principal at Hubbell Communications, the public relations firm hired by BEST (Building the Economy through Sustainable Transportation), a coalition of business, industry, and freight interests. (more...)

As I detailed on Wednesday, active transportation advocates are mobilizing to thwart an attempt by freight and business advocates to get a larger piece of an important infrastructure funding source.

This freight activism has raised eyebrows because it's coming from what I've recently learned is the state's first privately-funded, professionally represented coalition whose sole purpose is to make the case for freight infrastructure and to remedy what they see as a "disproportionate share of funding" going to biking and walking projects. (more...)

Freight or bikes? A Metro committee
is being pulled both ways.
(Photo © J. Maus)

Next week, Metro's 17-member Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation (JPACT) will vote on a policy direction that will guide them in handing out $20-24 million in federal transportation funds. With scarce transportation dollars at stake these days, freight and active transportation advocates are dueling to get their projects a larger piece of the pie.

This funding pot, known as "Regional Flexible Funds" have been extremely important for non-motorized transportation projects in recent years. Last year, Metro allocated a record amount of this money -- around $10 million -- to biking and walking projects while freight projects didn't receive a dime. According to Gerik Kransky of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, in the last two funding cycles, active transportation and complete streets projects have received an average of $19.9 million from this process. (more...)

Part of the farm-bike-boat delivery team at
last year's Village Building Convergence on
the dock at OMSI.
(Photos courtesy of CultureChange.org)

Jan Lundberg moved to Portland a year ago because it seemed like the best place to pursue his intersecting passions for food security, peak oil, bicycles, and sailing.

These passions will be coming to fruition later this month when the oil analyst's brainchild, the Sail Transport Network, will launch into its first major, ongoing local venture. Lundberg is finalizing plans to deliver malted grain from Vancouver, Washington to a brewery further down the Columbia River by a combination of cargo bike and sailboat. (more...)