🚨 Please note: BikePortland is currently on hiatus and only publishing guest articles. Learn more here. Thank you. - Jonathan 🙏
Oregon state legislator Jason Atkinson (R-Central Point) sent out an email update to friends and supporters last week. It was regarding a freak incident eight weeks ago that left his right leg/kneecap in shambles due to a gunshot wound.
He’s undergone major surgery and the former bike racer (and supporter of several bike-friendly bills last legislative session) is just now looking down the road to recovery. Check out the photo and the email below:
In their most recent email newsletter to members, the League of American Bicyclists shared a new educational campaign aimed at fighting back against statements that discriminate against bicycles.
On their web page, Who’s Trash Talking Bikes?, the League has a list of recent anti-bike statements by politicians and pundits. For each one they include sections titled: “What he/she said”; “What’s the issue”; “What are the facts”; “What he/she could have said”; and “What you can do.”
The Deputy District Attorney for Multnomah County Chuck Sparks wants the community to know that upon further analysis, his office believes the injuries sustained by Steven Volz in a collision on July 31st in Gresham constitute “serious physical injury”.
In a story posted on September 4th, I reported that Gresham DA Ben O’Glasser had elected to not seek Reckless Driving charges against the motor vehicle operator in the case, Lance Waddy. I then asked O’Glasser if the Careless Driving charge came with the new Vulnerable Roadway Users portion of the statute (which carries much higher consequences).
O’Glasser’s answer was no, that because they felt Volz’s injuries did not rise to the level of “serious physical injury” as defined by Oregon law, the Vulnerable statute would not apply (“serious physical injury” is required to trigger the new law).
With crowds much larger than organizers expected, the first annual Tour de Parks, held yesterday in Hillsboro, was a smashing success.
My family and I made the trek out West (thanks to the MAX) for our first foray into the Hillsboro bike scene.
As the crowd milled about, kids on BMX bikes raced around the parking lot (playing a two-wheeled version of tag), Bruce Buffington and volunteers from the Northwest Bicycle Safety Council fitted helmets, gave a brief traffic safety presentation, and then we were off.
Wyatt Baldwin, the web programmer who created the bicycle trip-planning tool byCycle.org, has been hired by Portland’s public transit operator TriMet.
The announcement was made by TriMet communications director Carolyn Young during a presentation at the recent Pro Walk/Pro Bike conference in Seattle.
Baldwin starts today and he told me last week that he’ll be working with TriMet’s GIS & Location-Based Services team doing software and Web development. Back in June, TriMet unveiled their latest online trip-planning tool and TriMet developer Bibiana McHugh said she was working with Baldwin to incorporate bike routes.
This month at The Office of Transportation’s Bicycle Brown Bag series is a discussion on family biking.
PDOT employee Timo Forsberg will host a panel of biking parents for what is sure to be an interesting chat.
Here is more information:
Thursday, Sept. 18th, 12:00 – 1:00 pm
Portland Building
1120 SW 5th Avenue, 2d floor , Room C
(bring your lunch!)
With the return of summer sun, you might as well go big this weekend.
For some, with a penchant for self-sacrifice, that will mean heading out to Bald Peak for the inaugural Pain on the Peak cyclocross race. For others, that might mean getting out and enjoying a local park.
If a park is more up your alley, check out the Hillsboro Tour de Parks, a family-friendly event that promises an “enjoyable and relaxing” ride through some “overlooked gems” of Hillsboro’s park system.
Just a reminder – this Sunday is the Sorella Forte “Meet the Team” ride:
WHEN: Sunday, Sept 14 @ 9am
WHERE: Kettleman’s Bakery 2235 SE 11th Avenue
Sorella Forte is an all-women’s club/team based out of Portland. We encourage any woman who has been considering joining a team (or looking to make a team change) to please join us on Sunday for a ride to meet a few of us and to ask questions about our club, etc. This will be an easy conversational-paced ride.
For more information on Sorella Forte, visit http://www.sorellaforte.com
Meet at Bike-n-Hike, 156 SE 4th Ave, downtown Hillsboro
1:00pm – 3:00pm, meet early for tire pressure check, safety discussion, route maps, etc.
Go West, go way West!
Tour some of Hillsboro’s parks on your bike. Bring the whole family for an enjoyable, relaxing ride. We will explore overlooked gems of Hillsboro’s city park system while learning basic bicycle road safety.
Take the MAX to Hillsboro Central/SE 3rd TC MAX Station – start location is 1/2 block north on 4th St.
Friends Of Tour De Parks , www.tourdeparks.com/
The City of Portland Office of Transportation has just announced the agenda and details for their 2008 Transportation Safety Summit. The event is slated for October 6th in the Portland Building Auditorium (1120 SW 5th Ave).
The Summit is being organized by PDOT’s Community and School Traffic Safety Partnership (CSTSP in wonk-speak), a program created in 2003 that funds safety and infrastructures projects through traffic fine revenue.
MICROCOSM BIKE MOVE
50th/Powell to SE 9th/Main , SE 50th Ave and Powell Blvd (near to this intersection, get in touch for exact location.)
12:00pm
Come celebrate moving Microcosm Publishing (www.microcosmpublishing.com) into its new store–by bike! Plenty of boxes to roll down the hill from storage around SE 50th/Powell down to SE 9th/Main.
Further shelving to be moved from SE 29th/Holgate (possibly handled in advance). Celebrate afterwards with food and drink at The Lucky Lab, a mere block from the new store! Props to Shawn Granton for setting us up with the new digs!
Joe Biel, joe at microcosmpublishing daht comm, www.microcosmpublishing.com, adam at microcosmpublishing daht comm, 858-337-2920