Pedalpalooza is on! Last night about 250-300 people gathered at Laurelhurst Park in Southeast Portland for the first big event of this year’s Pedalpalooza — a 17 day celebration with over 200 bike events.
The parade looped through Southeast and then headed into downtown via the Hawthorne Bridge. We took over Naito Parkway and then filled all the lanes on SW Broadway before headed back east via the Morrison Bridge. The ride ended up at Irving Park in Northeast.
Here are just a few of my personal highlights:
- I ran into Michael Andersen, the reporter behind new transportation magazine, Portland Afoot.
- Cargo bike builder Tom Labonty’s excellent beer keg bike was on hand.
- A Sven and Greta sighting (my first).
- Taking over the Morrison Bridge with bikes was a treat.
And one highlight that deserves special recognition is Timo Forsberg’s new bike, which is signed by none other than NYC’s DOT Director Janette Sadik-Kahn. Timo has an unabashed policy crush on Ms. Sadik-Kahn, so when his girlfriend Esther Harlow saw a limited edition signed Batavus up for sale, she bought it and had it shipped from NYC! Yesterday was the bike’s maiden voyage and Timo — clearly smitten — even carried with him a photo of Sadik-Kahn signing the bike and a certificate of Authenticity!
The signature.
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The proof.
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What fun! And a great way to get the Pedalpalooza juices flowing. Many more great rides and events ahead. Check out the calendar and stay tuned to our Special Coverage Page for all the latest news and updates.
For more of the faces and bikes in the parade last night, check out the slideshow below:
Thanks for reading.
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Thanks for the great write up Mr Maus! My Cousin Greta, says it was very nice to meet you.. You can Follow Sven & Greta’s international tour during Pedalpalooza here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Sven-Sparkle-Greta-Glitters-Silver-Gold-Mobile-Dance-Party/115446921806646?ref=ts
Don’t forget June 20th Silver & Gold Mobile Dance Party!
God that was fun! I shot a bit of vid, too, just to make those who weren’t there a little more jealous. http://bit.ly/cv11Ky
I wanna see mo’ velomobiles!
i couldnt make it yesterday due to family commitment. but it gave me an idea…
surely some/many bike geeks must have iphones or android phones. how about there be one or two general-use pedalpalooza ustream accounts — make the password available.
then for any event, some smartphone-toting cyclist can use the ustream broadcasting app to give a live-stream account of the event to us poor souls who have to miss 1 or 2 of the hundreds of events!!
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-10413255-233.html
who wouldnt want to tape their iphone to their handlebars or helmet, to give the internet that first-hand ride experience??
xb – Interesting idea. If anyone can do it safely and the video is worth sharing, I’d like to see it. Fun for those that don’t live nearby (we get traffic from 150+ countries). Note that there is an optional file upload in the ridereport form. File size limit is 10MB. Fire away!
One weird thing: After peeling off from the ride while being on the last block of Davis before hitting Naito, I was stopped by a police officer for riding next to my son, taking the lane to get him safely to the esplanade. There was no car behind us, yet the officer let us know, that we were “blocking the lane”…
Sounds like an officer who’s not familiar with the law. “Blocking the lane” is not an offense – “impeding traffic” is. On one-way streets, it’s harder to make the case that you’re actually impeding traffic, though that won’t stop an officer from ticketing you.
Matt, according to ORS 811.130: “Impeding traffic”
is only a violation for operators of motor vehicles.
Seeing the Mystery Night Ride outside my window on SE 52nd Ave in Woodstock made my night! Bring on the 50’s bikeway! That is my kind of traffic, swarms of colorfully lit bikes!