“To me these highway expansions represent an old way of doing business.”
— Juan Carlos González, Metro Council

Juan Carlos González.

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Example of temporary roundabout that will be installed in the Portsmouth neighborhood.

A mini-roundabout could be coming to a dangerous intersection in the Portsmouth neighborhood of north Portland later this year thanks to an inspiring partnership between the César Chávez K-8 School community and Portland State University.

The intersection of North Portsmouth and Willis has been known for years as a hotspot for crashes and near misses. When a school student was hit by a driver in 2020, local advocates stepped up and nominated the intersection to be part of the Better Block PSU pathway program. As we’ve shared in the past, leaders with nonprofit tactical urbanism group Better Block have forged close ties with PSU urban planning students and the school’s Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC). [Read more…]

Ever wanted to get into the creative cycling arts? A local paint shop could be your dream destination.

Check out a listing from storied Black Magic Paint and other great local companies via the links below…

– Shipping Specialist – Velotech, Inc.

– Production/Shop Assistant – Black Magic Paint LLC

– Growth Development Manager – Ride Report

– FT + PT Mechanic + Customer service – Everybody’s Bike Rentals

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The cake from our 10th anniversary party at Velo Cult.

16 years ago today we published our first post as BikePortland (if you see posts before that it’s because I’d been posting since mid-April of that same year for The Oregonian before launching my own thing here).

About 16,000 Front Page posts and 500,000 comments later here we are, still serving this community with news, information, and conversation.

When I think about our time doing this, the word that always comes up is change. Constant change. Everything about the city and the world around BikePortland has changed dramatically since 2005. [Read more…]

A popular mantra in Portland these days, chalked outside Tubman Middle School at a rally in April.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

Two freeway expansion projects that were due to be approved by Metro Council at a meeting today (7/29) have been taken off the agenda and will be given their own meeting next week. The change is notable because, as we shared last week in an opinion from transportation and climate change activist Chris Smith, the items were previously on a consent agenda which meant there would be no formal vote or discussion.

The newly scheduled meeting on Tuesday at 2:00 pm (8/3) takes the controversial resolutions out of a consent agenda and they will now be discussed and voted on by Metro Council members separately. It’s not a public hearing, and public comment will still only be taken at the start of the meeting, but the move is a small win for activists who’ve flooded Metro Council with concerns about the projects.
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A B-line delivery trike in action.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

Portland-based B-Line has stood the test of time. And they also stand as an excellent illustration of how pedal-powered cargo trikes can have a positive, climate-friendly impact on urban freight delivery.

In 2020, the B-Line crew pedaled their fleet of electric-assisted trikes a total of 573,160 miles. That’s just one of the eye-popping stats in the company’s just-released annual impact report (PDF). The company launched in 2009 and moved their headquarters to the central eastside in 2015. Over the past decade, co-founder and current CEO Franklin Jones has stayed true to the company’s mission. They don’t just deliver freight (everything from bread to sports drinks), they’ve expanded to benefit the community in many other ways.[Read more…]

Metro Councilor Shirley Craddick and her e-bike at a 2017 ride.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

Oregon is home to many electric bike businesses and believers. But so far, the revolutionary vehicles have failed to crack into the mainstream political discourse. Now a group of e-bike advocates will take concrete steps to change that by getting legislators and policymakers into the saddle.

Electric Bikes For All (EB4A) is a group that’s been meeting since 2019. It started informally thanks to leadership from Joseph Wachunas, program manager for Forth, a nonprofit working to boost electric vehicle use and policy in Oregon. Wachunas shared with BikePortland that EB4A first got together to plan an electric bike expo event. Portland hosted a successful e-bike expo in 2016, but it was cancelled in 2017 when “solar eclipse mania” swept the region and organizers had trouble finding necessary equipment to host the event.[Read more…]

Slide from presentation shared at IBR Program July meeting.

Will the Columbia River Crossing project’s multibillion dollar successor fully integrate climate change into its design and construction? Or will climate change merely be a box that is checked on the way to a wider I-5 that encourages more driving and more emissions? That question took center stage at the July meeting of the Interstate Bridge Replacement project’s Executive Steering Group. [Read more…]