Bicycle frame and component manufacturer
Chris King Precision Components employs over 100
people in northwest Portland.
(Photo: Chris King Precision Components)

Earlier this month we learned that bicycle-related travel pumps $400 million into Oregon's economy each year. Now Travel Oregon, the state's tourism development and marketing organization, has embarked on the second part of that research project: a comprehensive look at the economic impact of bicycle-related industry.

Travel Oregon released the Bicycle Industry Survey yesterday to begin data collection for the study. Here's more from them from the email announcement:

The bicycle industry in Oregon is a unique and growing part of our economy. To get a better handle on the size, characteristics and growth of this industry, a research project has been launched to gather current data that is not available from any existing sources.

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Not as flashy as most
people think.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

People who ride bikes at night consistently overestimate their visibility to other road users, a new study has found.

They also overlook a few tricks, like reflective strips around the ankles and knees, that can help the most.

The report, led by Joanne Wood of the Queensland University of Technology in Australia and published in next month's issue of Accident Analysis & Prevention, asked both regular and occasional bike riders wearing black clothing, fluorescent or reflective vests, and vests with reflective strips to estimate the point at which an approaching driver would be able to spot them. Different lighting setups were used, too.

People wearing black clothing on their bike at night, or just a reflective vest, were far too optimistic. They thought drivers would see them from nearly twice the distance drivers actually tend to. (more...)

Could road rage tell us something
about the gender gap in bicycling?
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Tara Goddard, a PhD candidate in Urban Studies at Portland State University (PSU), is devoting her thesis to a subject that gets a lot of traction in the media but so far has received scant attention in academia: road rage between people who drive and people who bike.

According to Goddard, her research will focus on the "interactions between drivers and bicyclists," an aspect of "transportation psychology" research that is largely untapped (most major studies have focused on driver-to-driver rage). Goddard plans to delve into the mechanisms and predictors of driver-rider road rage. "For example, as drivers, we experience (and sometimes perpetrate) law-bending/breaking all the time," she shared via email. "It is socially acceptable, in many ways. But any scofflaw behavior on the part of a bicyclist suddenly condemns the entire bicycling world."

Why does that happen? Goddard has a few hunches: (more...)

Image taken from Metro Regional Travel Options grant application.

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Graph of "commute well-being" from a presentation poster by Oliver Smith.

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Researcher Kelly Clifton at a presentation at City Hall today.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Portland State University researcher Kelly Clifton has shared more detailed data on her research into how mode choice impacts spending behaviors. After talking to Clifton at the outset of her research and then sharing some initial findings back in July, I learned more about her findings at the Bureau of Transportation's monthly Bicycle Brown Bag discussion series held at City Hall today.

According to data from 1,884 surveys taken outside various establishments, non-driving customers — those who show up by bike, on foot, or via transit — are often more valuable in terms of dollars spent than customers who arrive in a car. This data flies in the face of the often heard perspective that automobile access should be the highest priority to ensure business success. (more...)

Cargo bike researcher Jane Pearce.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

If more people of modest means had access to an affordable, dependable cargo bike, could they avoid being sucked into "forced car ownership"? Can cargo bikes play a role in rebuilding a city devastated by a major earthquake? Jane Pearce, a PhD student in the Geography department of Canterbury University in Christchurch, New Zealand visited Portland for two weeks this past June to better understand those questions and to further explore the social justice implications of cargo bikes.

On February 22, 2011, a massive earthquake ripped through Pearce's hometown of Christchurch. 180 people died and much of the city remains, a macabre reminder of what was lost that day. Pearce came to Portland because of the extensive community that has developed around cargo bikes here; but, as a survivor of the Christchurch quake, she found special significance in the Disaster Relief Trials event. (more...)

Roger Geller's chart that started it all.

It's been six-and-a-half years since Portland Bureau of Transportation bicycle coordinator Roger Geller first defined the "Four types of cyclists". Geller's insights proved to be groundbreaking and his definitions have stood the test of time. I frequently hear references about the need to attract more "Interested but concerned" riders at conferences all over the country and I read about them in articles in media large and small.

Now a noted bicycle researcher at Portland State University, Jennifer Dill, is working to learn more about the various types of riders. At the recent Velo-City conference in Vancouver B.C., she shared her research, Categorizing Cyclists: What Do We Know? Insights from Portland, OR (PDF). Now her work has been made public.
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Does your mode of transportation have any relationship to how much you spend at restaurants and bars? That's the question researchers at Portland State University set out to answer when they embarked on a study last year. I spoke with lead researcher Kelly Clifton at the outset of this project and now she's had some preliminary data published in the most recent issue of TR News (the magazine of the Transportation Research Board).

The impetus for this research came from the common perception among business owners that auto access equals business and anything that impedes auto parking or auto capacity on roads near their business will hurt their bottom line. We all know how this plays out: A city announces plans for a new bikeway and immediately there is push-back from business organizations and/or business owners. We've seen examples of this play out all over Portland, most recently on SW 12th Ave.
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Portland State University announced today that they've been awarded a $3.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to continue work at the federally recognized University Transportation Center — the Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium (OTREC) — housed on their campus.

They're also breathing a huge sigh of relief.

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