August 2008 Archives

I pledge allegiance to my bike…

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

The Salmon Street Fountain provided a nice
respite from Saturday’s sun.
Slideshow below
(Photos © J. Maus)

Despite scary-high temperatures last Saturday, the Portland stop of New Belgium’s Tour de Fat still drew an enthusiastic crowd.

Things kicked off with a bike parade and an estimated 300 people wearing all manner of silly outfits and freaky bikes took part. Before the parade rolled out, the event’s emcee had everyone raise their right hands and recite a Pledge of Allegiance to our bikes.

Press play on the slideshow below to hear the pledge and view some photos from the parade.

Does your dreamy vision of Portland include bikes (I know mine does)?

If so, check out My Pretty Portland, the Portland Mercury and the Art Institute of Portland’s short film contest.

They’re looking for a few shorts that showcase, “what you love, what you cherish, what makes Portland special for you.”

I know there are many talented artists and filmmakers that read this site and it’d be great to get some bikey content into this contest. The deadline is August 27th and the best 10 films will be shown at an event on August 30th.

More details here.

Kidical Mass: A slideshow from North Portland

Ready to ride.
(Photo © J. Maus)

Kidical Mass continued to stoke the family biking revolution with several rides all over Portland tonight.

I joined a healthy group of families at Peninsula Park for a pleasant, few-mile ramble over to Arbor Lodge Park where the kids played, the parents chatted, and everyone nibbled on potluck offerings.

Did anyone join the main ride downtown? How were the root beer floats?! How about the Sellwood ride? Did anyone show up in Southwest?

Share your reports in the comments. I’m very interested to see how/if this new group ride takes hold.

Inside the Sapa factory.
(Photo: Sapa)

A company based in Northeast Portland that produces tens of thousands of bicycle frames per year might be on its way to Vancouver.

A story published on July 30 in the The Columbian, Aluminum company might bring 900 jobs to Vancouver, details that documents filed with the City of Vancouver for a new development near Vancouver Lake point directly to (but do not specifically mention) Sapa Profiles Inc..

(Photo © J. Maus)

Here in Portland, the “bike fun” movement is alive and well.

What is bike fun? Well, it’s sort of a broad term (not sure who coined it, but I suspect it was popularized by an early pioneer of Shift) that encapsulates the fun-loving, free-spirited, enjoy-yourself-at-all-costs approach to riding bikes that is so common here.

Bike fun is important X factor that helps foster Portland’s bike-friendly status. It allows people to make a subtle statement (“we’re having fun, join us!”) that is an appealing option compared to more traditional bike activism and advocacy. It’s so subtle in fact, that many people partake in bike fun for the fun itself, and couldn’t care less about any statement it might be making.

On July 31st, a high-speed collision between a car and a bike on Stark Street in outer southeast Portland struck a nerve with readers and the incident left many with questions about how the law was applied.

The collision itself was horrific. The man driving the car, 23 year-old Lance Waddy, was going an estimated 40 mph (consistent with speed limit) when he struck Steve Volz from behind, ~~launching~~ throwing him 138 feet in the air.

LA Times’ “Road Sage”
Steve Hymon.

One of the reasons some Portlanders take our bike policies so seriously and passionately (and are not shy about defending them) is because we realize that the microscope is on us. Portland is an important model that many other large cities look to (with even more urgency these days) when they want to learn how to manage, create, and foster a more bike-friendly urban environment.

The choices we make about bike planning here, reverberate far beyond the Portland city limits.

A reader sent me a link (thanks Charles!) to a company that has found a way to make helmets look cool — in a stylish Portlander sort of way. Check out the designs available from Copenhagen-based Yakkay:

They call it, “Brainwear for smart people.”

If you want to work in the bike industry, this might be your lucky day. Team Estrogen (the top online retailer of cycling apparel for women) and Burley Design (based in Eugene) have both listed top-notch opportunities on the BikePortland Job Listings this past week.

See below for more information (and good luck if you apply):

Apparel Buyer – Team Estrogen, Inc.
Apparel Product Photography – Team Estrogen, Inc.
Product Manager – Burley Design
Design Engineer – Burley Design

It seems I jumped the gun with my story about the former McCall’s Restaurant site in Waterfront Park being turned into a cafe and bike retail, rental, commuter facility operated by Bike Republic.

I published my story after reading a story in The Oregonian that I interpreted as meaning it was a done deal. I should have held my story and contacted a few sources because now I’ve learned that the deal is far from done.

Low-traffic, tree-lined conditions will help
make NE Going a great bike boulevard.
(Photo: Google Streetview)

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) has announced that NE Going Street will become the first street to receive funding for improvements as part of their Bicycle Boulevard Campaign.

The announcement today of the new “Get Going!” campaign comes just over two years since the launch of the campaign. Since then, they’ve been working to build awareness for the bicycle boulevard concept and to gauge community feedback as to which route should be chosen.

I pledge allegiance to my bike…

What does your “Pretty Portland” look like?

Kidical Mass: A slideshow from North Portland

Is major Portland frame maker headed to Vancouver?

Ad watch: The emergence of “carfun”

A look at enforcement policies in dramatic Stark St. collision

Portland’s bikeway system, from a Los Angeleno’s perspective

Too hip for a helmet? What if it looked like a hat?

Jobs of the Week

Update: Bike Republic not quite “official” just yet

BTA: NE Going Street will be focus of bike boulevard effort

Latest Headlines

Is this the end? State transportation commission could defund I-5 Rose Quarter project

Debunking a CEO’s opposition to bus lanes on 82nd Avenue

Jobs of the Week: Velotech, Oregon Walks, LifeCycle, HGNR, InterCity Transit

Monday Roundup: Vehicular cycling, daylighting pushback, bloated cars, and more

From the Archives

Protestor blocks bus and bike lanes on Division with his car