🚨 Please note: BikePortland is currently on hiatus and only publishing guest articles. Learn more here. Thank you. - Jonathan 🙏
The Economist published an interesting blurb and graphic on Monday.
They took a look at bicycle and car production since 1950 and found that,
“…Bicycle and car production grew pretty much in tandem in the two decades beginning in 1950. But since 1970 bike production has nearly quadrupled while car production has roughly doubled.”
Just got a heads up about what looks like an interesting event coming to Reading Frenzy (921 SW Oak St.) on Thursday, October 9th at 7:00pm.
A former Portlander, now living in Amsterdam, is working on a book about Dutch bicycle culture.
Here’s the event description:
If you think it’s hard to find a bike parking spot around town, try finding one at an event (especially if it’s bike-related). Last March, a local entrepreneur set out to solve that problem and so far his business has been “amazing”.
Jeff Castro, a former product designer (with stints at Harley Davidson and Yakima), took a bit of a gamble when he invested in a concept called BikeRacker. The idea was to provide a turn-key, secure, easy-to-use, temporary bike parking solution.
[View update at end of story.]
Portland’s new on-street bike parking corrals are the subject of an editorial in the Hillsboro Argus today (Hillsboro is about 17 miles west of Portland).
In OK Bike Corral, Argus publisher Clark Gallagher shares concerns from delivery truck drivers about the new parking. Mr. Gallagher overheard one such driver recently tell a TV news camera,
The Multnomah County branch of the Barack Obama campaign has a bike event planned following this Friday’s presidential debate.
First, they’ll host a viewing party of the debate at the Laurelhurst Theater in Northeast Portland.
A man who ended up in the emergency room after a serious crash while riding on the Eastbank Esplanade last Friday (9/19) is looking for witnesses to help him piece together what happened.
Richard B. (he didn’t want to share his last name) says it was about 3:45 pm and he was riding south on the Esplanade just past the Fire Station near the Hawthorne Bridge. Here’s how he describes what happened next:
“It was one of my regular rides. I remember going by the fire station, then except for one brief blurry memory of an EMT lifting me into the ambulance, the next memory is being in the emergency room at OHSU after CT scan and evaluation.”
I may not be at Interbike (the big bike industry trade show going on right now in Las Vegas), but I’m still looking to share as much as I can from local companies who are at the show (read my story from last week for what other local professionals and companies are doing in Vegas).
On that note, I just heard from Ed Dalton, co-President of Portland-based Showers Pass.
Since he took over the company (it was originally founded in 1998 in Arcata, California) in 2005, Dalton has overseen a major revamp of the brand and the product line.
As I mentioned last week, Portland General Electric (PGE) has created a new sticker to promote bike/truck safety.
Hi folks. Welcome back from the weekend.
I’ve got a lot of great stuff to share this week, but unfortunately things have gotten off to a bumpy start. If you tried to visit earlier today, you might have noticed some weird things going on with the design and/or server.
It wasn’t you. It was me.
Even though the kids are back in school and its feeling like fall, the weekend is still full of bike events.
Once again, there’s something for everyone; families, racers, easy-riders, you name it.
What are your plans? Share your adventures in the comments below. If you need some ideas, I’ve listed a few events below:
“On-street bicycle parking can provide many advantages… These advantages, which accrue to businesses and citizens, also support several city policies and objectives.”
— from a PDOT press release
Since some folks seem determined to find something negative about the new on-street bike parking facilities, I thought I would share the PDOT perspective.
Yesterday afternoon they issued a press release that stated their case for the new bike corrals.
With the title of the release, Downtown Business Owners Support Swapping Auto Parking for Bicycle Parking, it’s clear that PDOT is trying to flip an old controversy on its head.
I don’t usually post rumors, especially when they have nothing to do with Portland. But hey, this is Page Two so here goes…
Check out this story just posted by Joe Lindsey of Bicycling Magazine (whose work I really respect). He writes:
“As if Lance Armstrong’s return to racing weren’t already shocking, now comes a serious rumor that Armstrong is part of a consortium which plans to purchase the world’s greatest bike race and possibly replace several key top executives at its parent company.
