The “Laughs Last” section on the back page of Portland Monthly magazine’s October issue features an eye-catching illustration (see it below).
It’s a make-believe movie poster for Collision Course, which is “Coming this Halloween to a Theater Near You” and stars “Bikers vs. Cars”.
Under the movie title is the tagline:
“Feel the spine-snapping suspense as two-wheeled warriors challenge horsepower-mad mutants for the right-of-way. Will anyone survive?”
If you’re looking for a great opportunity to combine your bike mechanic skills with one of America’s premier non-profit organizations, this might be your lucky day.
Check the link below for more information about a position just posted by the Community Cycling Center:
Alta Planning and Design and the City of Portland’s Office of Transportation have collaborated to develop “Cycle Zone Analysis”, a powerful new modeling tool that could have a significant impact on how Portland plans its future bikeways.
PDOT’s bike coordinator Roger Geller presented the Cycle Zone research and methodology at the International Symposium on Walking and Biking in Seattle back in September. He also shared the work with a packed room of Portlanders during PDOT’s monthly Bicycle Brown Bag discussion series last week.
Reader Galen S. sent along a link to a story from MIT about an interesting project they’ve launched in Copenhagen:
MIT researchers unveiled a major new project on Oct. 10 in Copenhagen aimed at transforming bicycle use in Denmark’s largest city, promoting urban sustainability and building new connections between the city’s cyclists.
And here’s the awesome part:
“We have developed a Facebook application called ‘I crossed your path,’ which creates a social network for cyclists, allowing them to link up with people they may have ridden past during the day and potentially establish new connections,” explained Christine Outram, the principal research assistant on the project.
The smart tags will also allow individuals to monitor the distance they travel while cycling as part of a citywide “green mileage” initiative, which is similar to a frequent-flyer program.
This would be very cool to have in Portland!
The Portland International Airport (PDX) hopes to become the first airport in the United States to offer bike assembly areas and other services for two-wheeled travelers.
Already in existence at airports in New Zealand and British Columbia, the idea is to set aside a dedicated facility where people could re-assemble their bicycles before they hit the road, or take them apart and pack them up prior to getting on a plane.
According to PDX aviation planner Jason Gately, who I confirmed the plans with this morning, the idea (which sprang from a brainstorming session at the Oregon Bike Summit back in April) is to have the facility on the lower level near the MAX light rail station and baggage claim area. Gately says it would be placed outside (under cover) and would include at least two bike clamps and an air pump (bolted to the ground).
Seoul, South Korea, a city with just 1.6% of their population regularly using bikes (Portland is at 6% by comparison) has set an aggressive plan to bump that up to 10% by 2020.
They’ve launched several initiatives to reach that goal (like parking and shower facilities at subway stations, bike elevators to get to bridges, and more), but one of them in particular caught my eye because it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot myself – re-allocating existing roadway space to bike traffic.
This just in from the Multnomah County Public Affairs Office:
Hawthorne Bridge to close Sunday for maintenance
The Hawthorne Bridge will be closed to road and sidewalk traffic on Sunday, October 26 from 7:00 am until as late as 5:00 pm so that electrical controls for bridge openings can be upgraded. Motor vehicles, pedestrians and bicyclists will not be allowed on the bridge, which will be in the raised position much of the day. The bridge lift span will remain open for river traffic to pass. The work is not weather-dependent.
Alternate river crossings include the Burnside, Morrison, Marquam and Ross Island bridges. TriMet bus lines that normally cross the Hawthorne Bridge will be rerouted across the Morrison Bridge during the closure.
The bike lane on SW Broadway between Montgomery and Harrison will be closed for up to a week due to a busted sewer line.
Here’s the story from KGW:
The city is just beginning its investigation into the burst pipe but says auto traffic will narrow to two lanes and a popular bike route along the SW Broadway corridor will be closed for up to a week, according to city spokeswoman Sheryl Cook [correct spelling is Cheryl Kuck — Ed.].
A reader (thanks Andrea) brought a sad story from Los Angeles to my attention.
Here’s the snip from a report in the LA Times:
“A woman in her 60s died this morning after being hit by a teenage bicyclist in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles police said.
The woman was crossing the street in the 600 block of Palisades Drive just north of Sunset Boulevard shortly before 7 a.m. when she was hit by the 16-year-old boy riding his bicycle…
“He’s just devastated,” Thomas said of the boy, who sustained cuts and bruises.
It was not immediately known how fast the boy was traveling, but it was still dark outside when the accident occurred. Authorities also did not know if the woman suffered fatal injuries when she was struck or when she fell to the ground.”
It doesn’t happen very often, but it does happen.
Full story at LATimes.com.
Close readers of this site might recall that on several occasions I’ve written that, “cars are the new smoking cigarettes.”
It’s something that came from my continued bewilderment that, while most everyone realizes the multitude of negative impacts that come with America’s love-affair with cars, we are just now (and hardly still) beginning to think of them in the same way as cigarettes. That is, as something that is very dangerous, has broad public health implications, and claims the lives of thousands of people each year.
Way back when, cigarettes were cool. Everybody smoked them. From housewives to movie stars, nobody considered the negative impacts of puffing away (like lung cancer, asthma from secondhand smoke, and so on). But, as people started dying by the tens of thousands (including two Marlboro Men), suspicions grew.
I was wondering when we’d hear from AASHTO — the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (the “voice of transportation” a.k.a. the highway lobby).
This just in (via Traffic World and Carfree USA):
“AASHTO is weighing a $544.5 billion proposal for the next highway reauthorization bill…
Such a proposal would be almost double 2005’s $286 billion surface transportation bill, which was seen by many in the transportation community as a disappointment.”
It will be important to monitor how AASHTO and Transportation for America both position themselves for the upcoming funding battle.