Residents of Portland, Beaverton and six other Oregon cities will take to the streets on their bicycles tomorrow as part of the annual Ride of Silence.
They’ll join nearly 300 cities worldwide taking part in the event which seeks to raise awareness of bicycles on the road by remembering those who have lost their lives on two wheels.
The rides are somber, yet powerful for those who participate, and are done in a “funeral-like procession.”
As further testament that Cycle Oregon is a key component in our state’s cycling ecosystem, the organization behind the legendary week-long ride has announced their latest list of grant recipients.
Since the ride’s inception in 1987, a portion of the event proceeds have gone into the Cycle Oregon Fund. To date, the Fund has been the key catalyst in a myriad of projects — large and small — in cities throughout Oregon.
This just in from IMBA and the Oregon Mountain Biking Association:
Help Save Important Mount Hood Trails
Action Alert
Oregon mountain bikers need to take action and ensure important trails around Mount Hood are protected with bicycle-friendly designations. Representative Earl Blumenauer has proposed a comprehensive plan for Mount Hood, one part of which would close the beloved Boulder Lake area to bicycling. This important detail is a key divergence from the proposed Lewis and Clark Mount Hood Wilderness Act, which the mountain biking community supports.
Job Title
Mechanic/Salesperson
Company/Organization
Revolver Bikes
Job Description
We are looking for a mind reader/genius bicycle repair individual with multiple years experience working in an independent bicycle retail shop. This opening is not for a shade tree mechanic or a newcomer in any way shape or form. This individual will need to be able to walk in with both guns a blazin’. We are a commuting focused sales and service shop with an emphasis on custom builds for both transportation and recreation. Check out our website to see our lines, etc. Primarily this role will be completing tuneups and new bicycle assemblies, but everyone in the shop acts as a salesperson as well. If you have more than one season in an independent retail environment and love bikes please get in touch with us. Affinity for the dark metal or at least a tolerance of such is a definite plus!
The National Bike Bill — which was introduced back in February by U.S. Congressmen Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) — made its first appearance on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives this morning.
The bill (House Congressional Resolution 305, full text here) seeks to buoy the efforts of bike advocates nationwide and “recognize the importance of bicycling in transportation and recreation.”
Last week, the bill passed out of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee.
Ride start: Oregon Convention Center, Pub: Lucky Lab Brew Pub, 777 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd
3:00pm
We’re teaming up with WebVisions to bring Bike Hugger to Portland. Bike Hugger is bike culture blogged; find us at www.bikehugger.com.
We’ll start at the convention center downtown, ride the Waterfront Loop, the zoo, and end up at the Lucky Lab Brew Pub around 5pm for a Mobile Social reception with free beer, food, giveaways, and schwag o’ plenty.
Space at the reception is limited to the first 50 people to RSVP on our Upcoming site: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/496364/
Let us know you’re coming, and we’ll see you there!
Meet at: Alberta Cooperative Grocery, 1500 NE Alberta St Take Trimet
6:30pm – 9:00pm, Third Tuesday in May – September
The PPP returns for its fourth season–and this year we are extending the season! A casual bicycle ride traversing approx. 3-5 miles with a different route each time. The end destination is a mystery park or park-like setting. The term “park” will be used liberally here, so expect the unexpected! At the endpoint we’ll enjoy a picnic dinner. Eating will be potluck style, so please bring food and drink to share (preferably vegetarian/vegan). Please also try to bring your own silverware, plate, and cup. Stop in the co-op for supplies. Rain means covered location.
Shawn, urbanadventureleague at scribble daht comm, urbanadventureleague.blogspot.com, PO Box 14185, Portland OR 97293-0185
RIDE OF SILENCE CENTRAL PORTLAND
Internationally participated ride will be held in Portland, OR
On Wednesday, May 21, 2008, at 7pm, the Portland Ride of
Silence will start in downtown at NW Park and Everett Ave in the North Park Blocks.
The event will begin with a statement from BTA Executive Director, Scott Bricker. The
ride will commence at 7:15pm, is approximately 7miles long, and is expected to finish
between 8:15pm – 8:45pm on N Mississippi Ave between N Russell St and N Interstate
Ave. To ensure the safety of attendees the Ride of Silence in Portland will be supported
by an escort from the Portland Police Bureau’s traffic division. To view a route map visit
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Ride-of-Silence-2008.
Ride of Silence is an internationally participated ride that was founded in 2003 in
response to the death of Larry Schwartz. Chris Phelan organized the first Ride Of Silence
in Dallas after endurance cyclists Larry Schwartz was killed by a passing bus mirror on
an empty road. In 10 days the word spread of Schwartz’s memorial ride and 1000 people
attended. Now, the Ride of Silence is held in hundreds of cities across the globe.
The Ride of Silence is a slow, silent processional to first mourn cyclists who’ve died, but
is also to raise awareness amongst police, city officials, and motorists of vulnerable road
users such as bicyclists, as a reminder to respect and share the road with all users, and to
demonstrate that bicycling is an integral part of transportation.
– MORE –
This year’s Portland Ride of Silence will pass by the memorial ghost bikes of Tracy
Sparling and Brett Jarolimek. Both cyclists were tragically killed last fall and their stories
have captured the hearts of the cycling community.
Rides will be held in 8 Oregon communities: Beaverton, Bend, Corvallis, Eugene,
Medford, Pendelton, Portland, Salem. For a complete listing of all Ride of Silence
locations please visit www.rideofsilence.org.
Join us and cyclists around the world as we remember Tracy, Brett, and others who have
died on the streets and hope that our silent statement will bring safer roads to our
community.
The Bicycle Transportation Alliance is a statewide non-profit organization that works to
open minds and roads to bicycling. We represent bicyclists and the bicycle industry with
over 5000 members in Oregon and SW Washington, and have seventeen years of
experience in bicycle engineering, planning, education and advocacy.
The WashCo BTC is hosting the 2nd Annual “Westside Ride of Silence” on Wednesday, May 21st starting at 7pm in Beaverton. Come and join cyclists worldwide in memory of those who have been injured or killed while cycling on public roadways.
We will gather at 6:30pm a Beaverton City Library and at 7PM start the funeral-like procession of cyclists riding a 6-mile loop around the city. We will pass ghost bikes along the way, representative of those people killed on our streets and roads in Washington County. This is in conjunction with the nation wide Ride of Silence happening on the same date everywhere.
We cordially invite you to join us in this tribute to the memories of those lost and raise awareness about the relationship between bicyclists to motorists as evidenced in the “And We Bike” campaign.
Please try and make it to either the westside or downtown events. Both begin at 7pm this Wed night for 1 hr.. Come and join cyclists worldwide in memory of those who have been injured or killed while cycling on public roadways.
How does the the built environment influence bicycling behavior? What routes do cyclists take? Will cyclists go out of their way to use bike lanes and other bike-specific infrastructure?
Those are the questions Portland State University professor Jennifer Dill has set out to answer. Dill — who teaches at PSU’s Center for Transportation Studies — embarked on a bicycling behavior research study back in January and last week she began to share some of her initial findings.
To learn more about where (and why) people ride, Dill attached at GPS unit on the bikes of 164 Portlanders for seven days. The participants logged over 1500 total bike trips. The GPS device recorded the purpose of each trip and Dill followed-up with an online survey to fill in missing gaps of information.
Citybikes, a popular local bike shop with two locations in Southeast Portland, experienced a close call at their store on SE 8th and Ankeny on Saturday.
In what must have been a surreal experience, two men in the path of the slow-moving minivan were able to move before getting it, but a bike was not as lucky.
According to Citybikes employee Matthew Ceravolo, just before opening time on Saturday, a blue Nissan minivan traveling south on SE 8th ran a stop-sign and hit another car that was traveling west on Ankeny.
According to a nationwide survey, Portland motorists are no longer the most courteous in the nation.
Unlike last year — when Portland drivers topped the “Most Courteous Cities for Drivers” list compiled by AutoVantage (an “automobile benefits club” with over 500,000 members) — this year Pittsburgh was ranked #1 and Portland fell to #2.