Out with the old.

The Willamette Pedestrian Coalition will not exist — at least in name — after Saturday night. The non-profit that pushes for infrastructure and policies to encourage more walking has been operating in Portland for over two decades, and now it's ready for a major change.

Major changes at our region's walking advocacy organization are bound to impact bicycling. Walking advocates push for many policies and projects that reduce car use and help create the conditions necessary for better bike access.

At their annual Weston Awards fundraising event this Saturday, the WPC will unveil a new name, a new logo, and an expanded vision. (more...)

Official logo
© Pedestrian Council of Australia Ltd

Bike to Work Day has a long and storied legacy in Portland; but what about walking to work? Why no big to-do for that? That's what the Willamette Pedestrian Coalition (WPC) thought too, so they've done something about it.

On April 6th, the WPC — along with PBOT, the BTA, Keen Footwear, Upstream Public Health, the Oregon Public Health Institute, the Lloyd and Swan Island TMAs, and other partners — will take part in Portland's first-ever Walk to Work Day.

According to WPC director Steph Routh, the event will have four starting points throughout the city. Each group of walkers will converge on City Hall (at around 8:30 am) for free coffee, a light breakfast, and games provided by Keen's Recess is Back campaign. Routh says the event coincides with Public Health Week, "a time to unite around critical public health issues and focus our collective energy on the singular goal of helping people live longer, happier, healthier lives." (more...)

Not even 24 hours has passed and the Portland Bureau of Transportation's (PBOT) decision to include bike share in a federal funding request is already facing opposition — and some of it is coming from unlikely places.

But, while this bike share funding decision is poised to become just the latest bike-related political/media punching bag, supporters of the project are confident and feel that the time is right to move forward.

At issue is whether or not a large-scale bike-sharing system deserves funding priority over other, more traditional biking and walking safety projects. Bike share is on a $6.6 million list of three active transportation projects that PBOT hopes to get adopted by City Council tomorrow. Not on that list is the SW Barbur Boulevard Streetscape project, which would improve a street that has claimed two lives in the last year and that many neighborhood activists have been working on for years. (more...)

Willamette Pedestrian Coalition
Executive Director Stephanie Routh
speaking at a 2009 event.
(Photo © J. Maus)

On the heels of recent media attention on the need for safer streets and news of an 80% increase in walking-involved fatalities and injury crashes in Oregon this year, the non-profit Willamette Pedestrian Coalition (WPC) unveiled their Getting Around on Foot Action Plan at a press conference in Beaverton today.

The plan presents an overview of challenges our transportation planners face in creating a more walkable (and rollable, in the case of wheelchair and other mobility device users) region. From the Executive Summary (which you can read in its entirety below): (more...)

Moving by bike is one thing...
but by foot?!
(Photo © J. Maus)

Bike moves are old hat in Portland. A quick check of the BikePortland archives shows that I first wrote about them way back in April of 2005. Since then there have been hundreds of bike moves in this town, so many that they've actually become quite common. And these days, thanks to the rise of cargo bikes, they've nearly gone mainstream (at least in Portland).

But a foot move? I had never even considered such a thing until I checked my inbox today and saw an email to the Shift list from the leader of the Willamette Pedestrian Coalition (WPC), Steph Routh.
(more...)

Stephanie Routh of the Willamette Pedestrian
Coalition at an Eye-to-Eye campaign
event in 2009.
(Photo © J. Maus)

The leader of the Willamette Pedestrian Coalition, Stephanie Routh, has written a guest column in The Oregonian that provides a meaningful and important perspective on the recent TriMet bus crash that killed two people and injured three others as they walked across a street in downtown Portland.
(more...)

A woman crossing SE Foster at 80th.
(Still taken from Oregonian video
-- watch it below).

Responding to a week where several Portlanders were injured and one woman was killed while walking across SE Foster Blvd, Portland Mayor Sam Adams visited the site this morning. His visit comes on the eve of an awareness action by local safety advocates and on the same morning that national organization Transportation For America released a new report about pedestrian safety.

Adams said he walked several blocks around the intersection of Foster and 80th. After his walk Adams updated his Twitter account saying he would "recommend some immediate changes today." (more...)