🚨 Please note: BikePortland is currently on hiatus and only publishing guest articles. Learn more here. Thank you. - Jonathan 🙏
Somewhere around 5% of trips in Portland are made by bicycle. And less than 1% of local transportation funding goes to bicycle infrastructure. Clearly bicycling is a mode of transportation that more than pays for itself.
Meanwhile, cyclists’ taxes subsidize freeway and arterial projects that we don’t use much and that actually impede our ability to get around on bikes. Ditto for road maintenance that we do little to contribute to the need for.
I got home from DC late Saturday night. I had an invigorating ride home from the airport and woke up to warm, bright sunshine.
I spent Sunday with my family and managed to get a few minutes on a bike. I took a quick spin around the block with Danica (my one year-old daughter), I got a lift on the rear rack of a friend’s bakfiets (with three kids up front!), and I took a spin to the market for a six-pack.
The warm sun played games with my head. I’m ready for Summer, but I realize the sun was just a cruel tease before the darkness and rain rule for a few more months.
Did you get a chance to ride this weekend? We’d love to hear about your adventures…
With 20 representatives, Oregon boasted the second largest contingent of attendees at the National Bike Summit (California led the way with 50).
Below is a group portrait, followed by the names and affiliations of each person:
At the closing ceremony of the National Bike Summit, the Shimano marketing duo of Shannon Bryant and David Lawrence hit the stage to tell the story of Coasting.
Shimano embarked on this initiative five years ago when they teamed up with premier product design group IDEO. That was the start of on an unprecedented journey to research and then design a product — and marketing campaign — aimed to get America’s 161 million non-cyclists riding again.
Wednesday was the inaugural session of the new Share the Road Safety Class. This new class can be completed in lieu of paying fines for certain bicycle, pedestrian and motor vehicle infractions.
BikePortland reader Lev Tsypin, who runs Level Online Strategy, was in that first class and wrote up an account of his experiences (edited for brevity):
Here at the Summit we do a fair amount of introductions. Every meeting, every new person we meet.
Usually we say our names and what organizations we represent. It all quickly becomes a blur, until the refreshing introduction of first-time attendee Brad Upton,
I’m sitting in a Barnes & Noble in downtown DC (just off Pennsylvania Ave.). It’s 10:30pm.
My day started 17 hours ago. I got up at sunrise to finish some stories and be early to our rally that began at 8:00am up on Capitol Hill.
Now my shoes and socks are damp and my legs are heavy from pedaling a three-mile loop between the site of my wi-fi connection and Capitol Hill (three times, about 13 miles total riding, some of it in the rain).
On Capitol Hill, the House offices and the Senate offices are on separate sides of the Capitol building. The distance between the two is about 1/2 a mile.
That’s not much, but when you’ve got a full day of meetings, tired feet, and not much time to spare, it’s nice to get a lift.
Here’s the description of my Specialized Allez Pro Road Bike & Nike Bike Shoes that was stolen from the Nike Lance Armstrong Fitness Center. I notice it was missing on Wednesday, March 13 @ 1:30pm. I was not able to locate the serial #.
The Specialized Allez Pro Road Bike was value @ $2,100 when purchased. It now has black tape on the handle bars, bike computer, shimano pedals, black women’s seat, gold lettering, bike pump, bike bag, bike fenders front & back, bike light & reflectors.
More Info on Finetoothcog
A Bianchi GUSS
single-speed mountain bike with a RaceFace front crank and Maxxis HolyRoller tires. Stolen from my basement. Thanks for your help.
More Info on Finetoothcog