Oregon State Rep. Shemia Fagan.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Oregon Public Broadcasting's Think out Loud radio show hosted a conversation about "the future of bicycling" yesterday. The show was set up to discuss the recent release of reports by the City Club of Portland and the Bicycle Transportation Alliance. Leaders from both groups were in studio and the host also welcomed Oregon State Representative Shemia Fagan onto the show via telephone. Rep. Fagan — whose district stretches east from SE 122nd Ave through Clackamas County all the way to Highway 26 — was asked how she felt upon hearing about all the talk of bicycle funding and projects.

I think Fagan's answers deserve a wider audience so I've shared the entire exchange below (you can also listen to the whole show here):

Think out Loud Host David Miller:

"When you hear people like Craig [Beebe, from City Club] and Rob [Sadowsky, from the BTA] talking about increasing bicycle-friendly infrastructure as a way to have pedestrians and cars and bikers all play well together, what goes through your mind?"

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Seattle wants more of them.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

An ongoing "bike backlash" and "war on cars" pushed by the local media, biking as a wedge-issue in political campaigns, fear from politicians about doing "too much" for bikes — sounds like Portland right? Well, Seattle (not to mention New York City and many others) suffers from the same illusion. Now, a new survey commissioned by Seattle's Cascade Bicycle Club could help tamp down this pervasive — yet false — narrative.

According to a memo (PDF) about the survey from public opinion research firm Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates, the results provide, "absolutely no evidence of widespread anti-cycling sentiment in Seattle." The memo goes on to explain that (among other things) 78% of those surveyed ride a bike at least once a year, 45% ride monthly, and 60% say they'd like to ride more*.

While the perception of people who ride bikes has become the butt of jokes, the Seattle survey found that people, "overwhelmingly report positive feelings towards the City’s bicyclists." 78% say they have a "favorable opinion" of people who ride bikes, including 38% who said "very favorable" (just 19% said their opinions of people who ride are "unfavorable"). (more...)

Expect fewer protected bike lanes from
Charlie Hales says KATU's Bob Heye.
(Screen grab - Watch video below)

KATU News ran a segment on their newscast and website tonight that made shocking pronouncements about how mayor-elect Charlie Hales' transportation plans would impact bicycling.

"Charlie Hales said he plans to shift the focus of Portland's transportation budget from bike projects to road repairs," reads a caption to a video of the segment (watch it below).

"One big change Portlanders can expect," continues the story, "Bike projects will take a back seat to road repairs in Hales’ administration. Hales said bike projects are important, but the city has ignored road maintenance for too long."

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Portland is once again received major national press coverage for being bike-friendly. A 'Cover Story' (front page, below-the-fold) in yesterday's edition of USA Today — the paper with the second largest circulation in America — gave major props to Portland as a place where "bikes rule the road." The story has also been picked up in smaller papers nationwide. On USAToday.com, the story was accompanied by a video that features the head of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) Rob Sadowsky and Portland State University researcher Jennifer Dill.

The framing of the story is that Portland is on the leading edge of a push across the country to "rethink... the automobile". This story comes just a day after The Economist magazine proclaimed, "A cycling renaissance is taking place in America." While this coverage is exciting, it comes with pitfalls we should be aware of.

Here's the lede from the USA Today...

America spent 50 years and billions of dollars after World War II redesigning itself so that cars could move people across this vast country more quickly.

Now, with many cities in gridlock, one-third of the population obese and climate change forcing innovators to look beyond the internal combustion engine, cities are beginning to rethink that push toward the automobile.

Perhaps no place has thought about it more than Portland,

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A reader just made me aware of a recent editorial in the Portland Business Journal that deserves wider attention.

Given the fact that there remain some powerful business interests who feel that Portland's inevitable march toward better bike access on our roads is at odds with their bottom lines, the PBJ editorial board stood up and blew that idea out of the water. (This is especially great to see from the PBJ because when the Bike Plan for 2030 passed in February 2010, I called them out for a misleading poll.)

In a piece titled "Bicycling serves as economic tool" that appeared in the July 6th edition, the paper makes a compelling argument for why bikes are not only good for business, they're key to Portland's economic future. The article is behind a paywall, but a reader was nice enough to send me the hard copy so I can share more of it with you. (more...)

Bike share is a runaway success
in Washington D.C.

We knew this was coming.

With bike share finally moving forward in Portland, we could count on The Oregonian to do their best undermine it before it even hits the street. Why? Because it's about bikes, it's new — and most importantly — because it is something championed by Mayor Sam Adams.

Before sharing some snippets of The O piece, let's do a reality check: Bike share is becoming like bus service in cities across America. It's a reliable, affordable, popular, easily-accessible system that opens up bicycling to new audiences in new places. Even before trying a modern system out for myself in Washington D.C. last week, I was generally positive about bike share. After trying it out, I'm convinced. It's a game-changer and the early wrinkles have been ironed out. Sure, D.C. is not Portland, but we will have a right-sized system and I'm confident the people who put ours together will be the best and brightest in the field. (more...)

Give me a break.

Well, you can't say I didn't warn you. The Oregonian's strange, anti-bike editorial last week, seems to have laid the groundwork for Sunday's front page story that unfairly and inaccurately blames bikes for PBOT's budget problems.

As you can see from the front page image, under massive font that reads, "Portland's Roads to Ruin" is the sub-headline, "What's a priority? Bike routes, conferences, and staff. What's not? Repaving and cleaning your crumbling roads." (more...)

BBC journalist interviews Zoobomber
and PPB spokesman downtown.

The esteemed British Broadcast Corporation has turned its lens on Zoobombing. The beloved Portland institution is the focus of a recent BBC "Close-up" segment.

The short piece offers classic footage that is hilarious (in a good way). It features a serious journalist interviewing Zoobomb's "Handsome" Dave and Portland Police Bureau spokesman Peter Simpson in front of the Zoobomb Pyle.
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Screen shot from The
Oregonian's "Hard Drive" blog.

A new blog post by Joseph Rose, the commuting columnist for The Oregonian, takes a look at one of the most unpopular aspects of bicycling behavior: red light running. In, Portland bicyclists who run red lights: Is it worth it? Rose asks, "Is it really worth blowing through a red light on your bicycle on the streets of Portland?... Does it really cut much time off your commute?"

Rose also took the opportunity to include a helmet-cam video of a man running several red lights on N. Williams Avenue...
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A question we get a lot here at BikePortland is "Where do you get all your story ideas?".

Most of our sources are top secret and will stay that way (just kidding, sort of), but here's a rundown of a few of the places I go to gather tips for our weekly Monday Roundup post and to generally stay in the loop on transportation news and culture. (more...)