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Year: 2010

Police Bureau budget cuts could lead to more officers on bikes

Portland’s Mounted Patrol Unit.
(Photo: Police Bureau)

The Portland Police Police Bureau, like all City bureaus, is facing another year of budget cuts. The PPB must reduce their budget for the coming year by 2% (other, non public safety bureaus have to cut 4%). One idea that has been proposed is to dissolve their Mounted Patrol Unit and transfer the officers to bicycle patrol.

The idea was mentioned last night at the City’s Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting by acting Captain of the Traffic Division, Bryan Parman (who’s filling in for the still injured Eric Hendriks), and we confirmed the news today with the PPB’s Public Information Officer Mary Wheat.

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Grey LeMond Wayzata 2003

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Year: 2003
Brand: LeMond
Model: Wayzata
Color:Grey
Size:55
Serial: WW 0694643
Photo: http://www.bikepedia.com/Images/image.aspx?filename=2003-Lemond-Wayzata.jpg
Stolen in Portland, OR 97210
Stolen:2010-01-11
Stolen From: From my effing house! NE 19th & Weidler. Some crackhead smashed at the wooden railing out front with a huge board until it splintered enough to slip my Kryptonite lock off the railing and take the bike with it.
Neighborhood: Inner NE/Sullivan’s Gulch
Owner: Devon LePage
OwnerEmail: devonlepage@mac.com
Reward: A case of really nice beer, or I’ll give you two free guitar lessons
Description: Slim road bike that’s black and grey. Few accessories, except for a red reflector in the back and white front light that doesn’t work. I was broke, and didn’t have enough money to fix it. You can email me or call me at 503 833 2493 (cell). Thanks
Police record with: I’m waiting for the cops to call me back as I write this
This registrant has documented proof of ownership of this bike

Greenway Trail in the mix of Centennial Mills redevelopment

Centennial Mills as it sits today
on the west bank of Willamette.
(Photo: PDC)

Next Tuesday (1/19), the Portland Development Commission will hold a public open house for their Centennial Mills redevelopment project. This project is important to anyone who cares about Portland’s bike network because running smack dab through the parcel to be redeveloped is the Willamette Greenway Trail.

The PDC bought the 4.75 acre property, which sits along the west side of the Willamette River just north of the Broadway Bridge, back in 2000. In 2006, the Portland City Council adopted the Centennial Mills Framework Plan and in March 2008 the PDC chose Orange County, California-based LAB Holdings to develop the site.

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LIGHT BLUE/WHITE CANNONDALE BIKE,10, F9 FEMININE, MEDIUM WHITE 2009

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Year: 2009
Brand: CANNONDALE
Model: BIKE,10, F9 FEMININE, MEDIUM WHITE
Color:LIGHT BLUE/WHITE
Size:MEDIUM
Serial: UM82163
Photo: http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/402/project1087.png
Stolen in PORTLAND, OR 97203
Stolen:2010-01-12
Stolen From: THE UNIVERSITY OF PORTLAND CAMPUS. IN FRONT OF SHIPSTAD HALL ON 1/11-12/2010
Neighborhood: UNIV. OF PORTLAND
Owner: CAITLIN STEINBERG
OwnerEmail: STNBD@AOL.COM
Description: IT IS A CANNONDALE WOMENS BIKE NORTH CAROLINA COLORS, LIGHT BLUE AND WHITE WITH WIDE KNOB TIRES
Police record with: STILL WAITING
Police reference#: FOR IT
This registrant has documented proof of ownership of this bike

Ballot measure in Damascus would prohibit public mass transit

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“To insure that the City of Damascus is open as much as possible to the free flow of vehicular traffic and citizen travel within the city…”
— Text from a ballot measure that would prohibit public mass transit in Damascus

A ballot measure to be voted on in March in the city of Damascus, Oregon — a small town just 20 miles southeast of Portland — seeks to prohibit public mass transit.

Measure 3-350 (full text below) would amend the Damascus city charter in two important ways: It would direct the City to not “grant monopoly status” to any agency that wants to operate “public mass transit” in the city, and it would directly prohibit public mass transit within the Damascus city limits.

According to the text of the measure, prohibiting transit is necessary, “To insure that the City of Damascus is open as much as possible to the free flow of vehicular traffic and citizen travel within the city…”

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Editorial: My year as a woman in a city of bikes

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But even here in Portland, particularly in parts of the bike scene with a strong connection with sports and business, assumptions about gender often remain unquestioned.

February: I am asked to volunteer on a committee for a bicycle organization “because we need more women.” The person who invites me says that he had been frantically calling every woman he knows in the bike scene, and explains that at this point, expertise matters less than gender.

April: A local bike shop opens a new women’s section. I attend the grand opening and am one of only a few women present. The section has a separate entrance and features house and home decor and a selection of pastel hybrid bikes.

August: I email an acquaintance to tell him it isn’t okay to call other commenters “pussies.” He responds angrily. “Are you really that prudish? Seems like you’re just picking on me. Do you have some sort of problem with me?” he asks. Jonathan reads this and is surprised. “I don’t think he would have reacted that way if I’d been the one to tell him that.”

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Velodrome part of leading Memorial Coliseum proposal

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Cross section of the MARC (there’s
a velodrome in there somewhere.

The City of Portland recently ended its call for concepts to redevelop the Memorial Coliseum. There were 80 different concepts received — ranging from a world class bowling arena to “a museum that celebrates the bygone era of the automobile.”

Among the concepts, there are two that include a velodrome. One of them was proposed by Steve Brown; the racer, business consultant, and velodrome activist we’ve covered since back in 2006 when he worked a velodrome bill through the State Legislature. That effort ultimately stalled out, but Brown’s enthusiasm for bringing bicycle track racing to Portland is still going strong.

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Brussels, benchmarks, and Portland’s 2030 Bicycle Plan

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Who knew the Charter of Brussels
would figure so prominently in
Portland’s Bicycle Plan?
(Photo: Greg Raisman)

Benchmarks are important in order to know whether or not a plan is successful, especially when a plan — like the Portland Bicycle Plan for 2030 — has a 20-year horizon. That plan has a highly-publicized goal of 25% of all trips by bike by the year 2030. But what about near-term benchmarks, which can be useful to make sure a plan is headed in the right direction?

Back in November, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) expressed concern that the City of Portland’s Public Comment Draft of the Bicycle Plan for 2030 had no near-term benchmarks whatsoever.

In their official comments on the plan, the BTA wrote, “We will not know if the City has succeeded or failed to complete this plan until the year 2030. This makes any corrective action impossible if the City is not following the plan.”

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Newswire: Public comments sought on Mult. Co. transportation capital plan

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Public comments sought on transportation capital plan

Multnomah County welcomes comments on its public review draft of the Transportation Capital Improvement Plan and Program (CIPP) for Fiscal Years 2010-2014. The purpose of the CIPP is to ensure limited public funds are invested in transportation projects providing the greatest public benefit. The CIPP is updated every five years.

The CIPP is a two-part process. The Capital Improvement Plan identifies and ranks transportation improvement needs on County roadways and bridges over the next 20 years. Multnomah County maintains 300 miles of roads and bridges. The network of roads and bridges lies outside the cities of Gresham and Portland, with the exception of five Willamette River bridges within Portland. Projects that accommodate all modes of transportation — motor vehicle, transit, pedestrian and bicycle, and improvements to fish passage culverts — are considered. County staff uses objective criteria to evaluate and score potential projects. Criteria include safety, congestion relief, support of regional land use goals, and community support.

The Capital Improvement Program assigns anticipated revenues to the highest priority projects for a five-year period. The program is reviewed by the County Transportation Division biennially, for programming corrections. The biennial updates adjust anticipated capital revenues to more current projections, and ensure capital project expenditures are allocated appropriately.

The public review draft of the CIPP compiles the list of uncompleted projects and new projects identified through the update process. Candidate projects were identified through public comments, from staff at the cities of Fairview, Troutdale and Wood Village, the County’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Citizen Advisory Committee and from the County’s Road and Bridge staff.

The review draft of the CIPP can be reviewed online at www.multco.us/cipp. Please send comments or questions about the CIPP update to cip@co.multnomah.or.us or by mail to: CIPP Comments, 1600 S.E. 190th Avenue, Suite 116, Portland, OR 97233. Public comments are welcome through February 8, 2010. The Board of County Commissioners is tentatively scheduled to hold a public hearing to consider adopting the CIPP on February 11.

The Monday Roundup

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Here’s the news that caught our eye this week:

China, car capital of the world; Tweeting and driving; immobilizing the poor; Potestio speaks; Jacquie Phelan speaks; garbage bikes; burning cars; motorized wheelchairs on the loose.

– The high-profile “road rage doctor” case has concluded; ER doctor Christopher Thompson, who was found guilty of intentionally slamming on his brakes in front of a group of people on bikes “to teach them a lesson” was sentenced Friday to five years in prison.

– Transit ridership is shrinking in some cities but growing in others during the down economy.

– Meanwhile, rampant transit cuts in cities across the US have been affecting the mobility of many; this story profiles stranded night shift workers in New York City.

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Latest Headlines

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From the Archives

The 10 busiest bicycling spots in Portland