Month: April 2006

“Spring Thing” kicks off street fair season

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

[Event flyer]

I love street fairs. Besides meeting people and hanging out, closing streets to motorized traffic just makes me happy. This Saturday (10-5pm), the City of Portland, Kaiser, the Concordia Neighborhood and the Fox Chase Business Association, will kick off summer street fair season with The Northeast Spring Thing.

In addition to a ton of great performances (including Capoeira) and live music, the Spring Thing is the official kick-off of the City of Portland’s Northeast Hub Project, which I covered last week. The Transportation Options crew will be on hand to give out free bike helmets for kids, lead a neighborhood family bike trailer ride, and give away free bike maps and other goodies.

Read more

OMSI gives 2-for-1 for biking

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

[Click to enlarge]

OMSI is offering a 2-for-1 or half-price ticket deal for anyone that rides to this Sunday’s showing of “Wired to Win: Surviving the Tour de France” at their OMNIMAX Dome Theater.

This IMAX movie explores the brainwaves of elite professional cyclists as they push their bodies to the limit. Looks like an interesting movie and it’s great that OMSI is encouraging cyclists to “ride-in”. This special offer is good for the 11am, 1pm, or 3pm showings.

**Note to all you racers and speed demons, remember that the Esplanade is a multi-use path and it will be full of people. Please be careful and make your presence known when you pass.

Springwater development update

[The lot in question.
Click to enlarge.]

SK Northwest‘s plans to develop on the Willamette River, and their opposition to an existing trail easement (see this comment) a potential trail that would connect a popular portion of the Springwater Corridor Trail, has been met with serious concern from the community. Last week’s post has generated over 40 comments and many groups – including the HAND neighborhoord association, the BTA, and the Wasabi Paddling Club – have written letters and expressed strong opposition to their application.

[The public comment period ends this Thursday, here’s a handy mailto link that will email all the necessary contacts.]

According to an SK Northwest representative, the company has received “a lot of negative feedback about this.” However, despite the huge outcry and negative PR (KOIN-TV also paid them a visit), they don’t seem to be backing down from their application.

Read more

Shift jerseys in the works

[Relax, it’s just a mock-up.]

Volunteers with Shift to Bikes – the local group behind Pedalpalooza, Breakfast on the Bridges, and bike moves – aren’t usually seen wearing lycra. But Patrick Bardel hopes to change all that.

He’s working with a friend (who designs shoes for Nike) to produce the first-ever Shift jersey. The design on the right is just a rought draft and they won’t be available for a few months…but I have a hunch these will be popular, so I wanted to put them on your radar screen.

Read more

CHUNK holds framebuilding workshop

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Last Saturday CHUNK DCLXVI (666) held a framebuilding workshop. The idea was to invite local framebuilders and show them the fine art of building a bike, CHUNK-style. Here’s more from the event invite:

“You know how to build a bike. We want to teach you how not to build a bike. A sorta monster garage with no cameras and more beer. You are encouraged to bring raw materials (old frames, wheels, beer, etc.) and safety equipment (gloves, gogs, beer, etc). You are not allowed to bring or use poofter stuff like brass, flux, virgin steel or calipers. I think we will allow files since were a little short on those but limit it to one or two. All jigs will be made of 2x4s and old innertubes or whatever else you can find lying around. All welds will be made with an oxy torch and coat hangers.”

Read more

Stolen: Green Norco

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

[Posted by “Moose”]

Our daughter’s green 16 and a half inch NORCO bike was stolen from the Sunnyside Environmental School covered bike rack on 4/20 in the evening. The model is: Berretta. There is a Canadian flag sticker on the frame. It has an aluminum back rack and a kickstand. Serial number is: UC&J000445
Our email: mrm@integraonline.com or 503-232-8024

Bikes and more at Earth Day

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward
Bikes at Earth Day

[Your friendly bike valet.]

Spring is here and with it comes hordes of Portland cyclists, eager to ride without gloves and rain jackets. Saturday’s Earth Day Celebration at Sellwood Park was overrun with bikes. Luckily, volunteers from Shift to Bikes were on hand to offer free, attended bike parking.

The bike parking area was part of the Better Transportation Fair which featured lots of bikey fun. Get Lit’s Jeff Bernards was on hand giving away free bike helmets, Citybikes’ Tim Calvert was showing people how to make bike buckets, volunteer Carl Larson was manning the Shift table, and there was a place to test-ride utility and cargo bikes.

Read more

Cyclists fight back in court…and win

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Allan Folz is the third cyclist in as many weeks to successfully defend himself in court. Earlier this week, he fought a citation he got while riding to work in Beaverton back in February (read his story in the Forums). His victory follows the cases of Sean Barrett and Mike Reuter who also took the initiative and won respect from a system that still caters to car culture and leaves cyclists guilty until proven innocent.

We’re still many years away from garnering the same respect in the system as motorized vehicles, so it’s up to us to demand it. We need to educate ourselves and be willing to fight for our rights when necessary. Here are some great tips from Allan about how your can increase your chances of victory in court:

Read more

Another stolen bike recovered!

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

I love when I wake up to emails like this:

“Jonathan,

Wanted to let you know I recovered the bike yesterday.

I can’t be sure, but it looks like the response posted on BikePortland.org had a lot to do with the bikes current “owner” contacting me to arrange a return. It was a pretty sketchy dealing, with cops involved and stuff, but my baby’s back home again.

So thanks again for keeping this website running. It’s a great public service.”

Read more

City planner takes on bikes in the budget

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward
Trek Portland and Platinum lauch

[PDOT Transportation Planner,
Paul Smith]

City Transportation Planner Paul Smith just submitted a guest post over on Sam Adams’ blog. It’s in response to a “small but vocal” group that has been giving Sam flack because they think bike projects get too much love in the transportation budget.

Sam has asked Paul to look more closely into this and come up with the hard numbers. Not surprisingly, it turns out that bikes receive only “a tiny fraction of PDOT’s total budget” according to Paul.

Read more

Latest Headlines

Weekend Event Guide: Illuminated, All Bodies on Bikes, new library and more

Portland will daylight 200 intersections over next two years

Bike travel tales slideshow series kicks off Tuesday!

Woman killed on SE Cesar Chavez was Tuyet Nguyen, and she’s not latest victim

From the Archives

Escape from Portland with this easy loop on quiet forest roads above Trout Lake