Month: August 2005

Wanted: your close calls

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

We as cyclists risk our lives every day on the streets of Portland. Many of us have had near-misses and other altercations that left us rattled, angry, and feeling vulnerable. Yet the only people that ever hear about these incidents are our friends, families and riding buddies.

The media, the police and our elected officials usually don’t take notice until someone is killed. This needs to change.

If our elected officials and city leaders realized how dangerous our daily rides and commutes were, they would begin to take the needs of the bike community more seriously. Now is your time to speak out. If you have had a near-miss incident, or other dangerous interaction with a vehicle while riding your bike in or around Portland, please share your story below.

In your comment please include:

  • The nearest cross streets of your incident.
  • A short description of what happened.
  • What neighborhood you’re from.

In a few weeks, I will draft a letter with all your comments attached and send it to the appropriate politicians and city leaders. Thank you for taking time to make your voice heard.

[For more close-calls, read this thread on the Portland Bike Forums.]

Boulder to get interactive bike route map

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Boulder Colorado has just made a serious move in the race to be the first Platinum Level Bicycle Friendly City. According to their local newspaper,they have ponied up $140,000 to have MapQuest build them an interactive bike route map.

Boulder is one of only four other Gold Level Bicycle Friendly Cities as designated by the League of American Bicyclists. Portland is also a “Gold Level” city along with Palo Alto, California and Corvallis Oregon. However, our great city still has yet to announce anything publicly about a major interactive bike route mapping effort.

The only one I’ve found locally is done by ByCycle.org and it isn’t quite ready for prime time. Marin County, in California has the “BikeMapper.” And even Los Angeles (car capital of the world!) has one.

Come one, Portland! We’re not going to let those other cities outdo us are we?

[via Cyclelicious]

MTB club vying for bike park

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Timothy Lake MTB RidePUMP (Portland United Mountain Pedalers) is our local mountain bike advocacy group. They work to maintain trails and make sure the interests of mountain bikes are represented in often thorny land access issues.

PUMP was also instrumental in putting together this great (and free) map of Forest Park (PDF).

Now they’re gaining momentum for a very exciting project; The Portland Dirt Experiment (PDX, get it?) Bike Park. This would be a designated mountain biking playground where freeriders and dirt-lovers from all over the country could come and play, without fear of running hikers off the trail, or eroding sensitive habitats.

Read the full proposal online, or show your support of the project by signing their online petition.

BTA unveils 5-part safety plan

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Tomorrow, the BTA will release a statement that outlines their response to the recent rash of bike/car collisions in the Portland metro area. I have received advanced permission to publish this press release to the bike community here on BikePortland.org.

The release of their “Five Part Plan” follows their recent Op-ed that ran in the Oregonian and it reinforces their commitment to cyclist’s rights.

  • (1) Identification of, and advocacy for, site-specific engineering safety improvements.
    They will visit crash scenes and advise city engineers on how to make them safer.
  • (2) Advocacy for appropriate enforcement actions.
    Make sure the guilty party receives a punishment equal to the crime.
  • (3) Expanded driver and cyclist education efforts.
    They will work to add bicycle awarenss to the DMV’s driver’s ed. test.
  • (4) Improved identification of dangerous areas.
    They will ask the city to fund an online, interactive crash reporting system.
  • (5) Advocacy for a fair share of safety funding for bike and pedestrian projects.
    They will lobby for more equal representation for cyclists in transporation funding.

Continue reading for the full release…

Read more

Tour de Fat a big success

Tour de Fat: Portland, OR 8/6/05
Tour de Fat: Portland, OR 8/6/05
Tour de Fat: Portland, OR 8/6/05

Hats off to New Belgium Brewery for throwing a great party on Saturday! Their Tour de Fat is a traveling bike circus, concert, beer garden, fundraiser, and bike love-fest all rolled into one.

It started out with a police-escorted parade through downtown (Portland must be leading the country in bike parades per year!). The New Belgium crew showed up with all manner of Chunk-ified bikes and funky costumes. The coolest thing was an Xtracycle boom-box bike that kept things fun with a great selection of disco party music blaring through the streets as we rode along.

Once back in Waterfront Park, we were greeted with the wonderful announcement of, “the beer garden is now open.” All the beer money went directly to the BTA and PUMP….and let’s just say that I’ve done my part for the Portland bike community!;-).

Beers firmly in hand, we all settled in for a sultry vaudeville/burlesque show from the Yard Dogs Road Show and some good, old-fashioned foot stompin’, Dukes of Hazzard style banjo pickin’ bluegrass from Oakhurst.

Their was also a bike test corral full of quirky, creative and weird bikes. I’ve been wanting to ride a tall bike for months now and I finally got my chance. It was amazing! Now I know why people love their SUVs…I was large and in charge! But besides a tall bike there was a shoe bike, an articulated “swing bike”, a bike with 14″ wide tires!, a pump bike, and many others.

Much credit goes to the event crew at New Belgium. In a town that knows a thing or two about fun bikey events, you guys held your own, and then some. See you next year!

[Click here for all of my Tour de Fat photos]

Cyclecide Bike Rodeo this weekend

Chunk Organ Donor InviteWondering what to do after the Tour de Fat tomorrow?

Take your summer beer-buzz-bike-love over to Acme (SE 8th and Main St) to catch the Cyclecide Bike Rodeo. I haven’t seen them yet, but I think they’re sort of a mix between Chunk 666 and the Alberta Clownhouse crew. Here’s what the SF Weekly had to say about them:

“To get an idea of what, exactly, the Cyclecide folks do, imagine Cirque du Soleil. Now take away the grace and beauty of a hundred seminaked French people and replace it with a bunch of surly, moonshine-swilling, outlaw types wearing monkey boots and moth-eaten clothing.”

Sounds like some Kodak moments for sure. Don’t forget your camera.

The BTA responds to Portland Tribune article

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) has written an op-ed in response to last Friday’s Portland Tribune headline story on bike safety. The headline that ran on the front page was, “Walk, ride at your peril”.

The BTA thinks this alarmist headline “irresponsible journalism” because both walking and riding remain relatively very safe activities. They go on to outline several positive ways our community can react to the recent spate of bike/car incidents that have left 5 cyclists dead since the start of June. Here they are:

  • First, as drivers and cyclists, we have to act responsibly when we’re on the road.
  • Second, law enforcement officials need to respond effectively and send a clear message that our roads must be safe for all.
  • Third, our elected officials must dedicate the required resources to identify the most dangerous roads and bridges and fix them, as well as improving safety during every upgrade.
  • Fourth, community partners such as the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, schools, and Department of Motor Vehicles, must work to educate drivers and bicyclists about safely sharing the road.
  • Fifth, the media should continue to draw attention to the crashes, in a thoughtful and responsible way.

All very good points to keep in mind during this “sad summer.” Much credit due to the BTA for such a well-written piece.

“Sharrows” coming to NW Portland streets

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Some great news about a new bike lane marking called “sharrows”.

From the Portland Tribune:

Sometime in the next few months, the city will start using shared-lane pavement markings, known as “sharrows,” along 12 city blocks, mostly on Northwest 18th and 19th avenues. The markings will depict a cyclist as well as arrows, indicating motorists may use the lane but must yield to bicyclists.

According to Roger Geller, Bicycle Coordinator for the city of Portland,

“The intent is to show cyclists where to position themselves in travel lanes away from parked cars and let motorists know to expect cyclists will be there,” “When it works, it will function well for people riding
bikes and still work well for automobiles.”

I have never seen these markings myself, but I’m curious to see how they work in real life situations.

Tags:

Reckless driver is “Rogue of the Week”

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

The Willy Week gets major street cred for choosing a reckless motorist their “Rogue of the Week”. Turns out one of their own reporters, Angela Valdez, was seriously injured by a motorist last week on NE 15th and NE Prescott. The driver turned right directly in front of her and still thought it wasn’t his fault. Sounds crazy huh? This quote from the cop on the scene isn’t any better:

“as with most collisions, there will be no prosecution. “It doesn’t rise to the level of a crime,” says Hussey.”

I guess nearly taking someone’s life isn’t a crime in this country. That’s ridiculous. This is especially appalling because, once again the driver is a repeat offender who should not be on the road to begin with.

Time for another mention of the Freedom from Cars Declaration. Sign it. Live it. If we don’t start to make our voices heard and demand a change, nothing will ever get better.

Willamette Week reports on St. Johns Bridge

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Ryan Hume at the Willamette Week did a great job with his story on the St. Johns Bridge and cyclists in this week’s Willy Week. I met with Ryan and exchanged several emails about the story and I can honestly say he is a solid reporter.

But I can’t resist commenting on his line that paraphrases Charles Sciscione, regional manager of ODOT.

he [Sciscione] doesn’t necessarily disagree [with an alternative plan that would be safer for bikes] but he believes there’s no better solution for a span that averages 24,000 cars and trucks a day.

No better solution? Wasn’t their a study done by an independent consulting group that said 4 full lanes will not reduce congestion and that the alternative was both safer and more efficient?

The real kicker is that Sciscione actually admits that the “lanes are too narrow,” than says, “but it’s a treasure.”

Mr. Sciscione, I realize you are just the messenger and that you’re heart may actually reside with the cyclists and pedestrians. But really, if the bridge is such a treasure (which I agree it is), than why would you follow through with a plan that doesn’t let anyone besides motorists to enjoy its grandeur without fearing for their life?

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