The latest installment in our ongoing People on Bikes series takes us to SW Stark St. in downtown Portland. These images were taken between about 5:20 and 5:45 pm yesterday evening just east of the intersection of SW Stark and 3rd.
This section of the street has two travel lanes — one of them is a standard vehicle lane and the other is a buffered bike lane. I’ve numbered the images to help you refer to them in comments. As with all the posts in this series, it was a lot of fun simply observing people riding their bikes and even more fun taking a closer look via the photographs.
Before you check out the images, a quick shout out is due to SKS for their sponsorship of this post. They’ve stepped up as our Get Together event sponsor in the past and it’s support from folks like them that allow me to keep BikePortland going. (Thanks SKS! Your fenders make biking in Portland much more pleasant.)
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I hope you enjoyed the photos. I hope this rain goes away and we see more people dressed like the young lady above very soon!
The bike in #30 is the fanciest Huffy I’ve seen in a while!
photo #5 – now that’s a happy cyclist, with a 100 watt smile. A good reminder to enjoy, & smile more, because, you know, cycling is fun.
Love the wide array of cyclists in Portland.
The contrast between the styles of the riders in 23 and 24 is Stark.
But both are on single speeds with front and rear brakes!
Forgive me if this question has been answered in previous installments of this column, but: have these people given permission for their pictures to be posted here?
I hate to sound like a killjoy — and it may even be an odd issue to flag up in an era where everybody has and is using cameras all the time, not to mention putting pictures of themselves up on one of a thousand different social networks. But still, it occurs to me that people may not like having relatively close-up pictures of themselves posted on a blog with a really high readership.
I’m not offended or anything, and I like these columns and think they serve a purpose, but I still felt it was worth mentioning.
If you’re in public, someone can take your picture.
I also suspect that if someone had their undies in a bunch over having their image published, they could ask Jonathan to take it down and my further suspicion is that he would. But as someone else said, he wouldn’t be require to. You’re out in public, you’re available to be photographed. Now if Jonathan were selling these images without consent, that might be a different legal matter.
This comes up all the time on photography forums. Your constitution protects the right to take public photographs. The issue comes into interfering with public safety, an iffy subject after 9/11
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/how-to/computer-security/taking-photos-in-public-places-is-not-a-crime
Love the series, Jonathan! Great work!
Great Pics Jonathan.
Thanks SKS.
I <3 buffered bike lanes!!!
I really enjoy this feature. When I’m commuting, I only get quick glimpses of other riders in passing. These photos remind me that every cyclist out there is a real person, going somewhere, with loved ones hoping and expecting for them to arrive safely. We owe it to them, and ourselves, to do everything we can to make certain that happens.
Oh, and 27 out of 30 have helmets, and every bike has brakes. So much for the stereotypes on OLive.
Beautiful photos, J! Thanks SKS for sponsoring this inspiration.
Whenever I see pictures from this great series, I am always shocked by the high percentage of helmet wearers (27/30) and low percentage of people with dedicated dynamo lighting systems (2/30). I think of these both as safety measures, with one being preventative of crashes (lights)and the other being protective (hopefully) when in a crash (helmets).
Do you try to take pictures of helmeted people, or does the general riding population in Portland have a 90% helmet-wearing rate?
No data to back this up, but I suspect that helmet usage, income level, and bike choice have a strong correlation. Look at riders 6 & 30. Both bikes could easily have come from W Mart. No helmets. Both bikes are cheap.
The reasons for a small # of dynamo lights? Cost and bike specs. Most bikes in the US are considered “sporting goods”. They are not considered transportation. Because of this they are not fitted out as transportation. More European style city bikes are making their way over here and more with dynamos as more people use them as transportation.
Loves me my dyno and lights. I will never own another commuter without them.
What’s up with the full moto helmet in 23?
Rider number 6 has a 150 dollar retail messenger bag (priorities ?), and rider number 30 appears to be enjoying a the first day without rain in months aboard her cruiser, ( which is probably fun to ride, not every one gives a hoot about technology). Class snobbery is not a path to bring people to cycling. Let’s not assume either of these individuals are cash strapped, besides cycling’s inherent cost restrictions. I live in a tent and own 3 Mondonico’s.
or possibly many of us use our bikes for tranportation but prefer to use far cheaper and far brighter lights that can be easily be transferred from one bike to another. my cygolite hotshots put out 100 lumens of blinding red light for $27 and are usb rechargeable.
I purposefully don’t want the brightest light because I know it has the equal chance of pissing off cars as much as helping me be seen. Not all bikers WANT to be in people’s face about their biking, we just want to get on the road, and stay the F out of people’s way.
there’s no data to back up the number of helmet wearers. JMaus could have easily taken 300 photos of non-helmet wearers and only 30 photos of helmet wearers and chose to post 23 photos of people wearing helmets including a full face helmet (!!) and 2 non-helmets to create some sort of discussion. I mean, that’s what this blog of his is for, after all. To stir up discussion and debate. Same way, I’m pretty sure he purposefully put the photo of the guy flipping the bird, the lady smiling brightly at the camera, the guy glaring confusedly at the camera (14) – all these photos were picked very carefully out of a huge pile to reflect the feel of the commute that day.
The helmet usage rate is much higher here than in other places I’ve lived. I’m willing to believe that 85% to 90% of people on bikes are using helmets, near downtown at commute hours. The rate are much lower in the outer edges of the city and in recreational and neighborhood areas.
Is #26 flipping you off?
that’s funny, when i saw it earlier I see a guy jamming along to his tunes.
I love this series so much! Thanks SKS!
It’s delightful to imagine where people are headed. Some are clearly going home from work, but others, like #8, spark my curiosity. What are you gonna do with all those hangers? Also, what a beautiful smile on #5!
It is interesting to see that most of these folks are choosing to wear a helmet, but I just want to cinch up quite a few of those chin straps. The trauma nurses say you should only be able to fit 2 fingers between your chin and the strap. Some of these folks could fit a whole fist!
I’ve noticed that my strap loosens up over time, especially during the winter when I’m forcing all kinds of hats under my helmet. But also, if I have the strap as tight as you’re supposed to, it’s super uncomfortable. I try to keep it as tight as I can without it gagging me.
25.5/30 with fenders(#11 only has a rear fender). I get the impression that many of these folks would be riding even if it were raining.
Looks like Showers Pass could do some better tailoring for #3
I have that exact jacket. It’s meant to be fairly large so it will fit over layers. It’s on their site as the touring jacket, and it looks like this even on the woman modeling it on their site. They have other jackets that fit closer if that’s what someone wants.
Rider 12 looks like a strong contender for a Cat VI podium! Love 23 with his full-face helmet.
cat-6 is about smoking roadies while on your fendered commuter.
Check your PSI on your real tire, #25…. and give me your phone number.
Agree on both counts 😉
Jonathan, love the people on bikes. Keep em coming. It is great seeing the other riders out there, the bikes and equipment. As someone else said, it is hard to check them out while riding.
I will never understand why regular cyclists would choose a messenger bag over a backpack to ride with. Why oh why would you rather have an asymmetrical bag that straps right across your chest and, you know, your lungs? Compressing the chest on an aerobic activity just seems…. wrong.
I don’t know… I mean, wtf #12?
Because a backpack pools sweat.
(I wear a backpack, and yeah it pools sweat, I just don’t really care.)
I can’t wait to see my picture in this column. I wish I knew where and when the next photo op. was taking place. I want to see myself on my bike…besides in the storefront windows. Great work!
My feeling about those who don’t wear helmets is that they probably don’t have anything to protect. It only takes once to make one a believer
@oskarbanks – ” I live in a tent and own 3 Mondonico’s. ” Love the priority system you have in place. My favorite T-shirt says, “Cycling is Life, the rest is just details.” If i had to own a car, i’d be homeless. Without a bike, i’d be hopeless.
Wow, only 2 fakengers. Freds, represent!
have you tried the flap jack pack from Osprey? I have the orange one… pretty awesome. http://www.ospreypacks.com/en/product/performance_1/flap_jack_pack
Only in the US.
Seeing number 30, I couldn’t help but wonder what might happened to a bare-footed rider in any type of crash, though I love the idea of direct contact between our feet and surroundings.
Holy cow. You must have a fast shutter speed to catch all those bikers that crisply. Great pics!