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Year: 2008

Lawyer creates DIY toolkit for citizen prosecutions

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Lawyer Ray Thomas during a press
conference earlier this month.
(Photo © J. Maus)

Portland lawyer Ray Thomas has released a do-it-yourself toolkit of resources and case studies meant to help anyone who seeks to bring violators of traffic laws to justice.

The process, known as a “citizen initiation of violation proceedings,” is based on an Oregon law (ORS 153.058) that gives a citizen the right to file a traffic citation against another citizen.

Back in February, we followed a high-profile example of this process.

In that case, Christopher Heaps (a lawyer by training) and several volunteers spent hours requesting paperwork from the police and negotiating the court system to force a driver of a car who had hit a woman on a bike to show up in court and face justice.

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Blumenauer shares his commute with NPR

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward
My ride with Earl Blumenauer-1.jpg

Blumenauer outside his office
in March 2008.
(Photo © J. Maus)

U.S. Congressman Earl Blumenauer shared his daily ride to his office on Capitol Hill with a reporter from National Public Radio yesterday.

Here’s one of the exchanges they had while riding the streets of D.C.:
NPR:

“Why hasn’t Congress been able to do anything on climate change?”

Blumenauer:

“There is a huge gap here on Capitol Hill — even thought the rhetoric has changed — the mindset is going to require some significant adjustment. This stuff takes time…”

Listen to the entire interview (4:19) at NPR.org.

Mountain bikers bristle at Blumenauer’s latest Mt. Hood proposal

“This has left many in the mountain biking community very frustrated.”
–Shane Gould, Portland United Mountain Pedalers

Mountain bikers throughout Oregon, with support from the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) and the Oregon Mountain Bike Alliance (ORMBA), are miffed at a recent proposal by Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Portland) to ban mountain bikes from the Boulder Lake and Twin Lakes areas near Mt. Hood.

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Pedalpalooza menu for Wednesday (6/25)

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

[This post is part of BikePortland’s ongoing coverage of Pedalpalooza 2008. See more ride reports, videos and photos here.]

Clown House bike wash

Clowns in action at the Bikini
Bike Wash last year.
(Photos © J. Maus)

Greetings intrepid bike fun lovers. Only a few glorious days of remain of this year’s Pedalpalooza, and there’s plenty of action still to be had.

Today’s offerings include a special appearance by Dingo the Clown; that bike-loving, tall-bike riding, banjo-playing former denizen of the Alberta Street Clownhouse. Dingo and his friends have re-made themselves into the Blood Sugar Circus and today they’ll be getting wet and wild in the name of bike fun.

Also on today’s ride menu are a parking spot reclamation ride, a hunt for sausages, a potluck to help choose new art rack designs for SE Belmont Street, and an evening outdoor movie and picnic.

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City seeks volunteers for expanded rider count effort

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward
Splash Dance Ride

How many bikers do you see?
(Photo © J. Maus)

The City of Portland is expanding the scope of their annual bike counts and they need volunteers to help them do it.

Denver Igarta, a transportation planner with PDOT, says they want to cover 140 locations this year. That’s an increase over the 98 locations they counted in 2007, which was up from the 60 locations they counted in 2006.

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Portland’s bike culture, from a San Francisco perspective

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

“Portland doesn’t have the same level nightlife of San Francisco, so they tend to make their own fun here, and the result seems to be a large community of bicyclists that has become very engaged with the struggle for street equity.”
–SF Bay Guardian reporter Steve Jones, after a ride in Portland

Steven T. Jones is a city beat reporter with the San Francisco Bay Guardian who recently got a dose of Portland bike culture.

Jones was sent here cover the Toward Carfree Cities Conference, but he ended up experiencing much more and has shared his thoughts in an article titled, From geeks to freaks, a look at Portland bicycle culture.

During a mobile workshop on the last day of the conference he joined the Transportation Geeks Ride to get a look at Portland’s innovative bike facilities and wallow in what he calls “transportation geekspeak”.

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Tis the season: A bike theft primer

bike theft sticker-1.jpg

This reminder brought to you by
your friends at the Lloyd TMA.
(Photo © J. Maus)

Since summer is the peak of bike theft season, and many newbies are taking to the streets (with shiny new steeds) for the first time, I thought it was time for a bike theft prevention refresher course.

The other day, while locking up at a business in the Lloyd Center, I got a nice reminder about the #1 bike theft tip.

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CRC: City Council pledges conditional support for new bridge with light rail

Artists rendering of new I-5 bridge.
(Graphic: CRC)

Portland City Council has added their voice to the list of agencies and organizations that want the replacement bridge and light rail option to receive further study in the $4.2 billion Columbia River Crossing project.

Their unanimous support comes in the form of a letter to the Co-Chairs of the CRC Task Force, who are set to vote on their choice for a “locally preferred alternative” (LPA) tonight in Vancouver.

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Pedalpalooza menu for Tuesday (6/24)

Dancing during sunset at the Rocky
Butte Sunset Picnic ride last year.
More photos here
(Photos by Dat Nguyen)

Today’s Pedalpalooza menu is another feast of bike fun.

There are two options for sunset picnics at two amazing locations: Elk Rock Island on the Willamette and Rocky Butte Park. There’s also a chance to learn about Portland’s Labor History (followed by a screening of Breaking Away), feed yourself forbidden “corporate tacos”, and connect with your fellow crochet and knit-loving friends.

Today’s events are listed below. For more info, see Pedalpalooza.org and don’t forget to check out all of the Pedalpalooza coverage.

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