Oregonian columnist
Steve Duin.

Oregonian columnist Steve Duin has published pointed criticisms directed at the Portland Police Bureau's handling of the Freedom Child bike light case in his column today.

Freedom Child is the 57-year old St. Johns woman who was involved with an altercation with two Police officers back in 2003. Child claims she was walking her bike down the sidewalk when Officers Jeffrey Dorn and Jason Harris reportedly pulled up alongside her in an unmarked car and began questioning her. Those questions ultimately led to Child being followed and then, according to Duin, "dragged...out of her home" and then arrested. (more...)

It's the BTA's worst nightmare.

They've spent months preparing for the smooth passage of the Idaho Stop Law (the proposed bill, HB 2690, would allow bicycle operators to enter a stop-sign controlled intersection without stopping when safe, and once they've yielded to all other traffic). Members of their legislative committee have traveled to Idaho to speak with transportation planners and law enforcement officials about the law (which has been on the books there since the 1980s without incident). The BTA's legislative team has also spent countless hours working the Salem offices of our state legislators answering their questions and clearing up their confusions about the proposed law.

Then, in one fell swoop, the largest media outlet in the entire state can pen a story that pans the idea -- and it's not even on the editorial page. (more...)

Joseph Rose

The Oregonian (and many other newspapers) might be in the midst of major newsroom shrinkage and other changes to its print edition, but that hasn't stopped them from launching a new blog about "the culture of the commute".

The "Hard Drive" blog officially launched today and will be written by Oregonian staff reporter Joseph Rose. Rose told me he'll cover everything from TriMet to bike lanes. "Slap a "Share the Road" sticker on my forehead," he wrote in an email about his new endeavor, "I want to be at the center of the whole bike-car-bus-walk-light rail continuum." (more...)

Remember Shelby Wood, the Oregonian columnist who was "too scared to saddle up" and ride her bike in Portland?

Wood, who writes the PDXGreen column, said her fears about biking were representative of many Portlanders in the "thick, nervous mainstream". When I shared her story back in May it sparked over 140 comments, including one from Ms. Green.

She wrote, (more...)

The front page of today's Metro section of the Oregonian has perhaps one of my favorite headlines ever; "In Oregon, bike culture isn't partisan."

The story, by the O's Salem staffer Harry Esteve, is about how Republican Senator Jason Atkinson is behind a bill that would re-word existing bicycle equipment requirements to exclude fixed-gear bicycles from requiring a separate brake.
(more...)