Bike Summit: Day one in the books

Finally back to my hotel room after the first full day at the Bike Summit. My head is sort of spinning from all the new things I’m hearing and seeing. There’s something surreal to me about looking down the street at the White House U.S. Capitol Building (it’s just a few blocks from my room).

The day started out with an opening panel discussion all about Portland. Jay, Jerry, Evan and Mia got to gush about what a great bike city we live in. Jay kept everyone smiling with his anecdotes, especially the one about Commissioner Randy Leanord‘s metamorphosis from brawny firefighter tough-man to bike commuter. The Trek Portland also made an appearance when Congressman Earl Blumenauer rolled his out on stage.

I hoped to have some big mountain biking news (sorry, it has nothing to do with Forest Park), but I’ve decided to wait and bring you the full story when I know more details.

Here’s a few other bits from my scribbled notepad:

I ran into Jay Ferm. Jay is the advocacy guy from Planet Bike who has been supplying lights to the “Get Lit” program. I gave him a big “thank you” and he said many other communities have contacted him after hearing about this program from Portland.

I met Leah Shahum, the director of the San Francisco Bike Coalition and found out that just yesterday they introduced a bill to have Golden Gate Park be carfree on Saturdays. We should do this in Portland….but where?

I talked to the folks at BikeStation and found out that PSU is their top preference for placing one in Portland. They’ve also looked at Pioneer Square, the Lloyd District Transit Center, the Rose Quarter and Union Station as outside possibilities.

The folks at the League of American Bicyclists are reporting record turnout this year of about 375 attendees. That’s quite a jump from the 30 or so that I’ve heard attending the first Summit back in 2000.

I ran into Jim Sayer, Executive Director of the Adventure Cycling Association. He’s spearheading an ambitious plan to establish a national network of bike trails called the “U.S. Bicycle Route Corridor Plan.” Wow.

Tomorrow is the big day when we walk to Capitol Hill and meet with our Congressional reps. This will be a new experience for me and I’m a bit nervous about the whole thing….not to mention that we’ll be walking around all day and I’ve managed to get some heinous blisters (long story). Oh well.

Luckily the League had an advocacy training session to help newbies like me. Here are some interesting stats they shared:

• 10,000 bills are introduced each Congressional term.
• Only about 5% of those get passed.
• 33% of those that pass are for renaming a post office or federal building.
• The average meeting time with a member of Congress is 7.5 minutes.

So that’s it for now, I’ve got tons of other ideas and things I want to write about, but I’ve really got to get some sleep. Sorry to everyone who has emailed the past few days, I know I’m lagging on replies.