Here’s the news that caught our eyes this past week…
– Former Metro President David Bragdon, now the Director of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability in New York City, had some inspiring words to share with city mayors from across the country. Sharing his perspective on urban planning, Bragdon explained that a city must adapt its resources and infrastructure to serve its citizens and when you’re talking about the life of a city, 25 years is a relatively short span of time.
– New York City reported a decrease in traffic deaths in 2011. Despite the over all reduction however, the number of bicycle fatalities has stayed steady from the previous year and the NYPD is receiving criticism for not citing the driver of a motor vehicle in a fatal hit-and-run collision involving a person on a bicycle.
– People who ride their bicycle over the Benjamin Franklin Bridge are upset after the Delaware River Port Authority scrapped plans to improve access on the bridge for people on foot and on bikes. Improvements to bicycle and pedestrian access were described as not “absolutely essential for safe and secure operations” of the bridge by the CEO of the Port Authority, John Matheussen.
– With revenues from the state gas tax falling, Portland might need to rethink the price of on-street parking. While other cities are introducing demand-based variable rate parking, Portland continues to charge rates far below market value, missing out on a source of revenue for the cash-strapped Portland Bureau of Transportation.
– Capital Bikeshare in Washington DC has come up with a solution for people who don’t have the requisite debit or credit card to rent bikes. Thanks to their partnership with Bank on DC, low income residents are being given access to bank accounts with low minimum balance requirements, something previously unavailable to them.
– Bike share programs aren’t just catching on in Europe and North America. Programs in Qatar, Egypt, Israel, and others are becoming more and more popular. One author believes that bike share programs may be the future of transportation in the Middle East.
– This Christmas a 14-year-old boy with autism and cerebral palsy was given a bicycle by his parents but sadly the bike was stolen just a few days later. Thankfully this story has a happy ending: hearing of the theft, one man stepped in and gave them a new bike to replace the one that was stolen.
– Ben Stiller might not be the first name you think of when someone says “bicycle” but recently the Meet the Fockers star stepped in to help get bicycles to people in Uganda. Bicycles for Humanity (B4H) was attempting to import donated bicycles into the country but faced about $12,000 in import taxes and fees. Stiller helped B4H pay the costs of transporting and importing the bicycles.
– Riding a bike through Birmingham in the UK has become a little confusing after the city council installed “no cycling” signs directly adjacent to way-finding signs for the National Cycle Network. The council defends its actions by saying the signs were only meant to discourage people from riding their bicycles on the sidewalk but residents in the area have pointed out that other options would have been more effective and less confusing.
– Four students have received scholarships from the USA Cycling Development Foundation. Brent Gillespie, Jill Behlen, Jack Tomassetti, and Andrea Napoli were the winners of the John Stenner Memorial Scholarships, awarded for academic excellence, athletic achievements, and service to their communities.
– One man from Nepal is riding his bike to share a message of world peace and sustainability. So far he’s traveled over 50,000 miles around 77 countries and hopes to visit at least 74 more.
– If you’re thinking about long-distance riding, it may be easier than you assume. Emi Berger made it all the way across the U.S., roughly 4,000 miles, and only had one flat tire.
– We’ve been hearing the word “separation” a lot lately when referring to infrastructure for bicycles. If you don’t think it’s for everyone, you might want to talk to 86-year old Raju, a veteran calling for separated bicycle infrastructure in his native India.
– After heavy holiday rainfall, some people on bikes in Eugene had to find ways around flooded underpasses. Pictures of the flooding make puddles around Portland seem paltry.
– A new fitness center opening in Tampa, Florida is advertising by locking up orange bicycles around the city. Orangetheory Fitness decided to use the bikes in the marking scheme because they “symbolize energy, fitness, affordability, and fun.”
Did you find something interesting that should be in next week’s Monday Roundup? Drop us a line.
Thanks for reading.
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Portland needs to ticket for parking violations. They do downtown but very rarely in the rest of the city. Vehicle too big to park on your street so you straddle the sidewalk? Too bad, park around the corner. It’s inconvenient for some reason to park on the street going with the direction of traffic? Park the correct direction or be cited. This stuff kills me. The city by not ticketing for this stuff is missing out on many, many thousands of dollars a day. Look out your window, I guarantee you’ll see parking violations (i see 2; wrong way parkers).
Cars parked backwards in this town, AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGG!!!
so much lost revenue. How did this situation come to be ignored by the Police? Has Portland always allowed it?
Call Parking Enforcement (503) 823-5195. Very satisfying.
they actually had a crew out enforcing this on klickitat the other day. i had gotten so used to seeing wrong-way parking in this town i thought maybe there was no ordinance on the subject. but there it is: 16.20.110.B
You seem convinced the city isn’t citing people for the violations you provided examples of. If so, what do you think is the reason such violations aren’t being cited?
Maybe…not enough parking enforcement officers. The city could hire more parking enforcement officers, which of course would mean paying out more for wages and so forth, eating further into the parking meter revenue. That would be creating more jobs though.
The city could raise parking meter rates, but it doesn’t. Interesting to consider why it doesn’t.
And how much revenue would be raised by a parking enforcement officer?
This is one of the few city jobs that actually produced revenue, and at a rate to pay for the employee, if not generate a profit.
I’ve talked with several of the parking cops downtown as I’m coming or going from PSU, and they say that it just isn’t a priority to not monitor parking violations except for where there is metered parking. They will send someone out to your block (or wherever) if you call a car in. Wrong way parkers are a priority on bus routes I’m told but I think that might have to do with TriMet drivers alerting them. Try to count how many wrong way and sidewalk parkers you see as you ride home today.
I work in Kenton and weekly, not daily, but weekly I will watch someone park facing north on the southbound side of Denver so they can go in the liquor store. Or they will block the bike lane, double park, or just park horrible. That happens daily. The city doesn’t enforce these rules so people disregard them. There is no consequence.
Are you saying that the violations you referred to and that you’re seeing (wrong way parking and straddling the sidewalk), are occurring but not being cited, outside of metered parking areas in the city?
I’m wondering how much attention the city is paying to parking violations in some of these parts of town. Non-metered parking restrictions probably vary around Portland, and I’m not familiar with all of them. Goose Hollow and Kings Hill doesn’t have meters, but it does have signs indicating specific lengths of time parking is allowed.
I’ve seen enforcement officers work those areas. Maybe the time limit signs rather than parking meters has the city patrolling areas of town with the signs less regularly than parts of towns with meters. It could change its routine though, and probably make a lot more money.
Question is whether it’s really a good idea to be enforcing time limits rigidly in sign regulated areas where people parking don’t have to plug the meter and get a receipt reminder to impress upon them how long they have to park.
Wrong way parking, sidewalk straddling, are most likely less common than overtime parking, but if the city had its officers in non-metered parts of the city enforcing sign limit violations more frequently, they could be more practically picking up on the other types of violations as well.
I’m exactly saying that these parking violations are occurring and not being cited. I have asked several parking officers, and you do the same and you’ll get this same answer, I promise it, that the priority for ticket issuing is in the downtown, metered area. Sure, that may extend into nearby west side neighborhoods where parking is tight. But it is absolutely ignored over the vast majority of the east side. They will tell you that if you want to report a parking violation to call the number that Elliott listed. I’m no expert on the parking regulations around the city, it just annoys the hell out of me that enforcing the existing rules doesn’t really happen. Parking is easy, if you can’t do that right you shouldn’t be driving.
O.k., from what you’ve said, it’s clear now that you’re talking about areas of the city where parking isn’t restricted by meters or signs, or where a need for more intensive enforcement hasn’t been recognized. It probably would be a problem for the city to have parking enforcement officers randomly cruising those areas looking for parking violations.
How quickly are staff contacted through the parking enforcement number Eliot provided in his comment, able to respond to a reported violation?:
http://bikeportland.org/2012/01/02/the-monday-roundup-159-64525#comment-2408406
Maybe the problem is either that people aren’t calling in violations when they see them, or that the staff can’t respond in time to catch the violators, meaning perhaps more staff is needed out cruising the street and responding to calls as they receive them, if that’s not what’s already happening.
What’s the beef with cars parked the wrong way on a residential street (provided they don’t have either end hanging out in the right of way)?
Does anyone know how many accidents happen in Portland per year due to people parking the wrong direction on residential streets? In nine years of living here, I have had no less than two/three crossings per year with drivers who do this, and I stay acutely aware of the situation while riding.
Because if I’m biking down the street on the side of the road I should be, and a car is pulling into traffic from the wrong side of the street they are temporarily coming at me head on, in my lane. And if they happen to be parked behind a larger vehicle they likely can’t see me but what choice do they have but to pull out blindly and hope no one is coming. This doesn’t happen often to me, but it does happen, and it’s because people are too lazy to park across the street from their house or turn their car around so they park the proper direction.
The driver is on the curb side of a vehicle parked the wrong way, making it hard for them to see oncoming bikes. (Right-hand-drive cars have the same problem when parked the correct way.)
The reflectors are also backward when parked at night.
ever been coming head-on at a car that suddenly decides to swerve onto the wrong side of the road to park? you start to swerve to avoid them not realizing they’re going to keep swerving to the same curb you are and then you have to swerve back out into traffic to avoid them… and it’s just as dangerous when they’re pulling back out…
I’m about to call in some people a couple blocks away from my house that ALWAYS park the wrong way on my street…
earlier this year I had to inform my dad that it was illegal to park on the sidewalk because I always made him move his car when he’d park it halfway in my driveway blocking the sidewalk…
so I’m guessing many people don’t realize that it’s actually illegal to park backwards on the street…
felix salmon believes onerous fees and holds charged by bank dc are a social equity issue (and i agree). disturbingly, i had not given the unbanked much thought.
one does not need a credit card to take a bus. one does not need to maintain a hundred dollar bank balance to ride a city bus. the same level of social equity should be an absolute REQUIREMENT for the bike share program. if this does not happen, i will be vehemently opposed to bike share in pdx. i hate public transportation that is not public.
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/12/27/getting-the-unbanked-on-bikes/
If the un-banked are residents of a county providing bike share services, and the speculation of theft is an issue, it would be simple for the governing body to provide a special I.D. card with applicable terms to allow those access that is both respectful and well managed. Imagine a “Oregon Trail Card for Bike share”,with picture I.D. If the share is abused in any way access and legal fines could be denied or applied.
the city (or some agency) will have to pony up for the insurance in case of theft.
You should also hate highways that are expensive to drive on, require that you have a car and gas to do so, and that people who don’t have cars and do not buy gas are also paying for their construction and maintenance.
I think there are other options for people without bank accounts to have access to bike sharing. The reason a credit card (and a bank account behind it) is so that someone can be charged if/when the bicycle they were using is lost or stolen. But what if community organizations can take on this risk?
For example, an organization can secure 10 memberships that can be loaned to 10 members, or have 10 memberships that can be loaned to all members, but only 10 people at a time. Like a museum pass from a library. The risk-taking organization can have its own agreement with its members who elect to borrow a bike sharing pass.
for other forms of public transport the poor pay a minimal fee while government absorbs the costs of maintenance. why would we involve a 3rd party community service subsides the poor when bike share funded by taxpayers? should government provide public transportation services that only server the wealthier classes?
after thinking more about felix salmon’s critique i am squarely opposed to a bike share program that does not fund equitable access for all citizens. anything else would make bike share just another subsidy for the wealthier classes.
“You should also hate highways”
off topic deflection (and the mother of all transportation subsidies for the wealthy).
garg! sorry for typos.
Yes, I agree that a ‘bike share’ would be closer to perfect if somehow responsible-but-economically-deprived people could use it, too, but the advantages of it as-is are big enough, and its userbase is socially wide enough, that I tend to see the social equity issue in the light of “Il meglio è l’inimico del bene.”
Still, having had the social equity angle pointed out, I have to wonder how big a deal it is, overall. Creditcards.com says that 70-80 percent of the US population has a credit card*. That leaves 20-30% in the ‘can’t bike share’ category and that’s quite a large fraction. What fraction of that group actually wants to use a bike share system? And of that fraction, how many have the responsibility to not abuse it? Any models or precedents for a public or non-profit NGO to step up and cover that risk?
*I grabbed that source only because it was easy to find; no idea how reliable. The range of % is due to different numbers in different parts of their report. More people have bank/debit cards which could be used in a bike share system, so the 20-30% is probably high.
Not much happened here in Portland this week, it seems…True?
Actually not much happened anywhere these last 2 days. I only had one bike wreck to report on this morning, a 5YO that was run over in an RV park in Oz on NYE.
On NYE at 8:30 pm one of the hundreds of cars that speeds up my street in Kenton every week rear ended a parked car 2 doors down, backed up, raced off sideswiping an SUV parked on the corner and kept going.
That was exciting. It happens about once every other year.
I suppose I should be happy that everyone who speeds wasn’t as drunk as that guy. Granted, that is an assumption on my part.
Domu, an apartment finding and listing website for Chicago, placed Republic Bikes around town (mostly at metro station) advertising their URL. Here’s a photo of one of the bikes’s message:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jhdennis/5103706816/ (sorry, couldn’t find a better one)
I also noted the New York City traffic reduction, but I failed to notice that cycling deaths had been steady. Although, if listed as a rate of deaths per cyclist or per miles traveled, I think the rate has gone down because the number of people cycling has gone up (especially in the last 5 years when they started building protected bike lanes).
http://tumblr.gridchicago.com/post/14988732986/new-yorkers-experienced-a-transportation-system
that fellow raju can have all the separated facilities he wants, so long as they get rid of the mandatory sidepath law.
My pet peeve for lack of enforcement is the failure to cite cars driving around without front license plates. I see several cars each day that lack front plates and have Oregon plates on the rear. Among other things, the lack of a front plate allows them to get avoid a citation from a “red light” camera. I’m told that the judges routinely throw out a citation if the driver has installed the missing plate, so the cops don’t bother issuing the citation in the first place.
I think that the front plate requirement in Oregon is complete BS. It doesn’t really serve any purpose other than giving the police a reason to stop you, and American license plates are horrible squat things that don’t go with the designs of cars from most countries.
My pet peeve? That privately contracted parking patrol officers can write you tickets for it.
Of course we should get rid of half the on-street parking, and charge way more for what remains.
And I find the “No Parking” sign confusing.
I love the fact that the police do not site people for parking the wrong way on residential streets. Its harmless. If people are boneheads and going to pull out in front of cyclists they’ll do it from either the right or wrong side.
My sisters who live in Berkeley could not believe it when they visited me in Kenton and saw that I was able to park conveniently on the left hand side of my street in front of my house. Its because Portland uses the police for things other than earning revenue with tickets for silly things.
Please stop doing this. As others have explained above, you are increasing the danger to those around you by doing this. You are hindering your ability to see and increase your odds of a head-on collision while pulling out. It also confuses cyclists and motorists around you. While I tend to agree that there are more important things to enforce (excessive speeding, for example), this is not a harmless act.
Don’t count on it, I’ve been ticketed for it on a residential street in close-in SE. I don’t make a habit of it, had moved the car for a service vehicle to get in and left it there overnight. Next day, ticket.
I think the neighbors called it in, but either way, you can definitely get ticketed for this.
So convenient! This straddles a fine line with absolute laziness. Or it doesn’t, it’s just lazy.
boo on you Orangetheory Fitness for taking up bike parking that actual people using bicycles could be using if you weren’t taking up the space with your advertising…
I really HATE when people do that…
I think it was a real estate agent or laywer that kept parking bikes at the Hawthorne New Seasons with their advertising on it every day for about a week… that’s how long it took people to get really annoyed at it and start flipping the signs over so people couldn’t read the advertising… thankfully the bikes stopped being parked there soon after…
One flat in 4000 miles?!?! How far did he ride on the rim? 🙂