April 2009 Archives

Bikes Belong hopes all-star team can bring biking mainstream

Bikes Belong Executive Director Tim
Blumenthal spoke at the Oregon Bike
Summit yesterday.
(Photos © J. Maus)

Bikes Belong Executive Director Tim Blumenthal shared a lot of inspiring news and information during his remarks at the end of the Oregon Bike Summit yesterday.

Blumenthal is a key figure in the national bike movement. He’s at the helm of arguably the most well-funded and well-positioned bike organization in the country and he deftly wears many hats including that of an advocate, a corporate fundraiser, a marketing expert, and a smooth political operator.

“I bike and walk a lot…I’m especially careful when people are on a cell phone because their attention is obviously on someone else and not me.”
–State Rep. Carolyn Tomei, sponsor of a bill to ban use of mobile devices while driving.

A bill that would ban cell phones and texting while driving passed out of committee earlier this week and the bill’s sponsor, State Representative Carolyn Tomei (D-Milwaukie), told me this morning she would be “shocked” if it didn’t become law this session.

The bill, H.B. 2377, would make Oregon’s existing cell phone use while driving law much tougher. Tomei’s bill would make the use of a “mobile communications device” (which includes text messaging) while driving a primary offense. (I regret that earlier this week I incorrectly reported that the bill would only make it a secondary offense. I have corrected that error).

Rep. Dembrow (right) with
Jay Graves (center) and Ray Thomas
in the State Capitol building yesterday.
(Photos © J. Maus)

Billing it as a “A new kind of town hall,” two Oregon State Legislators will lead a bike ride around their districts next month.

Representative Michael Dembrow and Senator Jackie Dingfelder — both of whom represent districts in Northeast Portland — will join their constituents for a bike tour around the Cully neighborhood on May 9th. The six-mile ride will make a stop at the Rigler School Community Garden for a brief work party and organizers are considering a stop at the site of the upcoming cycletrack (slated to go in on Cully Blvd between Killingsworth and Prescott).

Legislator bike ride at the Oregon Bike Summit-13

On the steps of the Capitol.
-Slideshow below-
(Photos © J. Maus)

This morning, as part of the Oregon Bike Summit, a handful of state legislators suited up for the first-ever Legislator Bike Ride.

About 50 summit attendees met on the steps of the Capitol building before taking a leisurely, five-mile ride around Salem. Joining the bike advocates from around the state were six state legislators: Rep. Jules Bailey (D-Portland), Rep. Tobias Read (D-Beaverton), Sen. Jackie Dingfelder (D-Portland), Sen. Ginny Burdick (D-Portland), Sen. Floyd Prozanski (D-Eugene), and Sen. Jason Atkinson (R-Ashland).

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Rep. Jules Bailey
(Photo © J. Maus)

The Portland Mercury’s Matt Davis is reporting that House Representative Jules Bailey (D-SE Portland) places blame for the demise of the Idaho Stop law on the way the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) handled the departure of Karl Rohde.

In an update to a story published yesterday on the Mercury blog, Davis reports that Bailey, the bill’s main sponsor, said there was a “little bit of a disconnect” when Rohde was let go by the BTA and that it created “enough of a lag” that Bailey (and others) decided to “let it go and try again next season.”

What: Real Estate tour by bicycle

When: Saturday, Sept 26, 10:00-12:00noon

Where: TBA, People’s Choice