Kidical Mass PDX at Gresham Main City Park en route to Oxbow Regional Park.
(Photos: Madi Carlson)

We just returned from a weekend at Oxbow Regional Park with the annual Kidical Mass PDX bike camping trip and my kids declared it their favorite bike camping site in the area.[Read more…]

Photo from bike-mounted camera shows car passenger’s attempted assault.
(Photos: Hank Bosak via Thomas, Coon, Newton & Frost)

We need your help to find suspects of an attempted assault and dangerous pass in Washington County that happened this past Saturday (6/22).
[Read more…]

(Photos: Eric Thornburg/no.lens.cap on IG)

The annual ‘Dropout Prom’ drew a great-looking crowd Friday night. The theme was Cosmic Space Invaders and judging from the images captured by our Pedalpalooza embed Eric Thornburg, you all nailed it!
[Read more…]

Carlene Ostedegaard after being cut by string that was purposely placed across the I-205 path.
(A friend of Carlene Ostedegaard)

Last week the man accused of tying a string across the I-205 bike path in order to hurt someone was sentenced to 20 hours of community service. When we shared that on Twitter, some of our followers felt the consequences should have been more severe.

After all, the string caused several lacerations to the face and neck of Montavilla resident Carlene Ostedegaard, who was biking home from work when she became ensared in the trap.

Today the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office announced that it was Ms. Ostedegaard’s request that the people who caused her injuries were not jailed.

The DA’s office said the parties in the case have reached a pretrial resolution. 23-year-old Raven Jones was the “primary actor” in the incident and pleaded to one count of assault in the third degree, a Class C felony. Here’s more from the DA’s office:
[Read more…]

“Hey, did you hear we might not have to stop at these anymore?”.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

Oregon’s attempt to decriminalize rolling stops for bicycle riders took a giant leap forward today when it was voted out of the House Rules Committee 5 to 2.

At Senate Bill 998‘s first House hearing on Thursday, committee members voiced several concerns with the idea of allow bicycle riders to treat stop signs and flashing red signals as yields. One member noticed there were only three pieces of testimony in the official record. So on Friday we put out a call to get more people to email the committee.

By today’s meeting there were 183 emails filed on the State legislative website — the vast majority of which were in strong support of the bill.[Read more…]

Future (carfree) food cart pod promenade?

In case you hadn’t heard, Portland’s most famous food cart pod was recently evicted from its space on Southwest Alder Street to make way for a new hotel.

The Oregonian reported this morning that Commissioner Chloe Eudaly’s office wants to move the carts to the North Park Blocks:[Read more…]

This week’s Monday Roundup is brought to you by Wheelhouse Lofts. Just steps away from the Springwater Corridor, you can live in a place that welcomes you and your bike with open arms.

Here are the most notable items we came across in the past week…
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Looking eastbound on Flavel near 78th. Local residents say this is a popular route for cycling.

A man riding a bicycle was killed last night. Police say the man was involved in a collision with someone driving a sedan on SE Flavel near 78th.[Read more…]

(Photos by: Amit Zinman)

Hundreds of concerned Portlanders shut down SW 4th Avenue outside City Hall today to raise awareness of climate change.

Led by Extinction Rebellion PDX and 350PDX, activists called on Mayor Ted Wheeler to declare a citywide climate emergency. In addition to a creative and colorful rally that took over the street, activists from Sunrise Movement staged a sit-in in Wheeler’s office.
[Read more…]

Sen. Floyd Prozanski testifying at the House Rules Committee yesterday.

As we’ve been reporting, Oregon is tantalizingly close to passing a version of the Idaho Stop law. Now its chief sponsor says the bill needs your help to get over the final hurdle.

Senate Bill 998 would allow bicycle riders to treat stop signs and flashing red signals as yields. Because it makes so much sense and would make our roads safer and more efficient for all Oregonians, it breezed through the Senate earlier this week with bipartisan support by a vote of 21 to 8.

With just days left in the legislative session, the bill now sits in the House Rules Committee — its final stop before a vote on the House floor. The committee gave the bill a public hearing yesterday, but there was no vote taken. A majority of the representatives seemed open to supporting the bill, but they were tentative and expressed a need to learn more and see more public support for it.
[Read more…]

Cover of PBOT’s Vision Zero 2-Year Update.

The Portland Bureau of Transportation is making steady progress on their march toward safer streets. They’ve queued up an impressive slate of capital projects, worked the legislature to gain authority for speed limits and enforcement cameras, and have passed important plans with the policy backbone that enables them to do things like remove auto parking from corners (a.k.a. “intersection daylighting”), install crossing treatments in more places, and so on.

Last week PBOT brought their annual Vision Zero 2-Year Update (PDF) to city council. They don’t have to get council’s official blessing for reports like this, but PBOT often takes this step to burnish council relationships, lay political groundwork for funding requests, and get explicit support for what might be controversial Vision Zero-related moves down the road.

Things like this usually get unanimous support because PBOT doesn’t bring half-baked ideas to council and they brief each commissioner beforehand to make sure they are up-to-speed with the issues and information. So it was a big surprise when Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty voted no.[Read more…]

Armed with data, plans, and support from city council, the Portland Bureau of Transportation is moving forward with a pilot program to install “left turn calming” at 29 intersections.

Using a mix of rubber speed bumps and centerline delineator wands, PBOT’s aim is to slow drivers down, prevent them from “cutting corners”, and make it easier for them to see people crossing the street.
[Read more…]

In the past five years, people walking have accounted for nearly 40% of Portland’s traffic fatalities.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty wants the transportation bureau to do more about distracted walking.
[Read more…]

Get out there. (Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

[Read more…]

We might have to remove this marking.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

Senate Bill 998 — Oregon’s version of the “Idaho Stop” law that would allow bicycle riders to treat stop signs and flashing red signals like yields — has finally made it to the House.

Since our report on this bill last week, the bill passed the full Oregon Senate yesterday by a vote of 21 to 8. It was then referred to the House Rules Committee where it will receive a public hearing and possible vote tomorrow (6/20).

The House Rules Committee has seven members. Among them are Portland-area Democrats Barbara Smith-Warner (District 45), Rob Nosse (District 42), and Vice-Chair Jennifer Williamson (District 36).
[Read more…]

People turned out in large numbers for a 2015 rally to protest the lack of cycling access in River View Natural Area.
(Photos: J. Maus/BikePortland)

It’s been over four years since the City of Portland embarked on an effort to create a master plan for off-road cycling. The draft of the Off-road Cycling Master Plan came out in November 2017.[Read more…]

Two people died on Sunday and a 4-year old was injured in this crash on McKay Road in the Willamette Valley.

A bill that has received unanimous support from the Oregon House and Senate will give counties throughout Oregon a new tool to improve safety on rural roads.

House Bill 3213 creates a pilot program that will allow five counties to designate a dangerous stretch of road as a “safety corridor”. The legislation is meant to stem the tide of serious and fatal crashes that plague rural roads throughout the state. During committee hearings for the bill, lawmakers heard that many of Oregon’s once quiet farming roads now see increased levels of driving due to population growth and people who want to avoid congested interstates.

Some of these rural, county-owned roads also happen to be popular for bicycle riding.
[Read more…]

Looking eastbound on North Rosa Parks Way where it crossing I-5.
(Photos: J. Maus/BikePortland)

10 months after the City of Portland widened the bike lanes on North Rosa Parks Way (where it crossing Interstate 5) the Oregon Department of Transportation wants to narrow them.[Read more…]

Kidical Mass PDX rides to camp, 2014.
(Photo: Andy Schmidt)

Who doesn’t love a last-minute weekend adventure? We’ve got a few spots left for our annual Kidical Mass PDX family group camping trip this weekend and we’d love to have you come along. There are even still some scholarships available (email kmasspdx[at]gmail[dot]com for scholarship information). Keep reading for all the details!
[Read more…]

Clad in plaid at Plaid.
(Photos: Eric Thornburg/no.lens.cap on IG)

We hope you’ve been enjoying Pedalpalooza. From the looks of streets and social media it seems like the rides and events are going very well.

To keep you inspired and updated, we’ve got a few photos to share from two rides that happened on Saturday: The Cosplay Ride and the Plaid to Plaid Ride…

Cosplay Ride

Official description:

“Ladies, Gentlemen and everyone between! Come one, come all, come slither with Womanimal and her pet dragon! Please wear attire inspired from all things fantasy: kings, queens, orks, wizards, goblins, hobbitzes, gelflings, skeksis, unicorns, GOT, xmen and women, super heros, super villians, make it up, be your own creation! Having a story to tell will add to the allure!”

Ride leader Abbey Wan Dracoon led just over a dozen people on the inaugural edition of this ride. Our photographer Eric Thornburg said the outfits drew inspiration from the entire gamut of fantasy and relied heavily on Goodwill and Craigslist finds. What makes cosplay more fun? Getting on a bike and parading around town!

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Plaid To Plaid Ride
A healthy crowd showed up wearing as much plaid as they had and took a tour of a few local Plaid Pantry stores with some general bikey shenanigans thrown in for good fun. Here’s what it looked like…

Check the Pedalpalooza Calendar for more great rides!

— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org

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