Two great opportunities were listed this past week on the BikePortland Job Listings.
Portland Pedal Power is looking for a bicycle operator for their human-powered delivery business and Pedaltown Media Inc. (that’s us!) is looking for a news intern. Learn more at the links below.
Four members of Oregon’s House of Representatives have put forward a new bill that would require all bicycles in Oregon to be registered.
House Bill 3008 would establish a “bicycle registration and licensing system.” The bill would also create new offenses for altering bicycle serial numbers or licenses and for failure to register your bicycle.
In addition, the bill states that, “bicycle ownership information” would be made available to law enforcement agencies and that registration, renewal and other fees would go into a Bicycle Transportation Improvement Fund that would then be used to fund “bicycle related transportation improvement projects”.
Portlanders continue to rally around the tragedy the tragic fate of bike dancer Hollis Hawthorne.
Hawthorne, a founding member of The Bay Area Derailleurs bike dance troupe, suffered a serious brain injury over a week ago while operating a motorcycle in India. Hawthorne started the Derailleuers with former Portlander and Sprockette Eliza Strack and they performed together in Portland last summer.
Thankfully, the latest update from India is that Hawthorne’s condition is improving. She is breathing on her own and doctors are showing signs of cautious optimism about her recovery.
Remember Steve Brown? He’s the independent businessman-turned-advocate who has spent the last two years trying to get a new velodrome built in Portland.
After taking his vision for a velodrome public in December of 2006, Brown admirably worked his idea through the legislature in Salem. He made some major progress, and his “velodrome bill” was even expanded by enthusiastic lawmakers to include facilities throughout the state. It ultimately got stalled in a committee and never became reality, but Brown has not stopped working toward his vision.
I caught up with him at the Get Together event near his home in Multnomah Village on Tuesday night and he shared more about his latest idea.
The Willamette Greenway Trail project, that would connect the Eastbank Esplanade at the Steel Bridge with Cathedral Park in St. Johns, was approved for $444,800 in funding by Metro this morning.
The funds, awarded as part of $68 million available in “Regional Flexible Funds” through the Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program (MTIP), will go toward a planning study. According to a Metro summary of the project:
“…The study will focus on sites that have challenging topographic and land ownership issues. The project also involves an update of previous budgets and potential phasing of design and construction.”
The BTA’s proposal for an Idaho-style stop sign law will get its first public hearing and committee vote later this month.
BTA lobbyist Karl Rohde told me this morning that the bill, HB 2690, is scheduled to go in front of the House Transportation Committee at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 18th.
Arizona’s attempt to adopt an “Idaho-style” stop sign law for bikes has come to a complete stop. According to an article published yesterday in the Tucson Citizen, the bill — which would have changed Arizona’s stop sign law to permit bicycles to treat them as yields (a.k.a. “Idaho-style” because Idaho has had this law on their books since 1982) — failed to get out of committee.
The state rep who proposed the bill, Doug Quelland (R-Phoenix) reportedly wore his “cycling garb” in front of the committee prior to the vote. Spandex and all, his bill was voted down 5-3.
The experience in Arizona is interesting to watch because a very similar bill (HB 2690) is currently being pushed through the Oregon legislature by the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA).
“I didn’t realize I had such hatred for these people… All I know is I have a weird desire to make quick right hand turns in my Honda without checking the side-view mirror. Just kidding.”
— Stover E Harger III, staff writer for the PSU Daily Vanguard
Portland State University’s Daily Vanguard newspaper has published a very negative review of the new film, Veer: A documentary film about bicycling culture.
Vanguard staff writer Stover E. Harger III gave the film 1 star out of 5 and wrote that, “it’s really awful”. Harger also wrote that filmmaker Greg Fredette has created “a self-indulgent piece of fluff that plants its feet way too close to its subjects to be anything but clichéd and boring.”
Reading his review, it’s obvious that Mr. Harger III is no fan of some aspects of Portland’s bike culture, or the people who are a part of it. Here’s a snip from his review (emphasis mine):
Bike Gallery — a company that runs six bike shops in the Portland area — has been named a Platinum-level Bicycle Friendly Business by the League of American Bicyclists.
The family-run shops, now headed by Jay Graves, are one of only two businesses in the country to achieve the Platinum designation, which — similar to their Bicycle Friendly Community program — is the League’s highest honor (the other is New Belgium Brewing based in Colorado).
The Bicycle Friendly Business program is in its second year and 34 businesses have been chosen so far. Other Portland area businesses that have been recognized through this program are; Alta Planning + Design (Gold), Portland Providence Medical Center (Silver), and Beaverton-based Easystreet Online Services (Bronze).
On Friday, the Columbia River Crossing Project Sponsors Council will meet to solidify the lane configuration of the new I-5 bridge. According to a press release sent out by the CRC project, the meeting will result in “a recommendation on the number of add/drop (auxiliary) lanes on Interstate 5 in the CRC project area.”
There has been a lot of public and media attention given to the CRC lane decision after Mayor Adams and Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard put forth a compromise lane proposal last week.
That proposal was supported 4-1 by the Portland City Council, giving Mayor Adams the authorization to vote “yes” on a bridge that could accomodate up to 12 lanes (although there’s no specific mention of 12 lanes in the CRC press release).
When organizers of the “De Ronde van Oeste Portlandia” (or, Tour of West Portland) first did the ride back in 2007, they were shocked when 100 people showed up.
Last year, despite the guarantee of 8,000 of climbing (depending on whose GPS you looked at) over 45 miles, an estimated 400 people showed up on a rainy day to challenge themselves on the steep and unforgiving course.
I think this “Get Together” idea just might have some legs. I honestly did not expect many people to show up, but I was very pleasantly surprised when about 50 people came out to the Lucky Lab in Multnomah Village last night just to talk bikes.
You don’t hear about it as much as inner southeast and other neighborhoods closer to the city, but there is clearly a big, pent-up demand and lots of energy for biking in outer southwest. The turnout last night — both in quantity of people and the quality of the conversations — was a testament to that.