No more left turns from SW Condor onto Terwilliger and no more left turns off of Terwilliger onto Condor.
(Photos: Armando Luna)
(Photos: Armando Luna)
Year: 2012
Williams project update: Media, meetings, money, and an end in sight?
Screengrab of Mercury article.
PBOT’s North Williams Traffic Operations Safety Project is heating up again — both the public process and the public spotlight.
The project found its way onto the cover of this week’s edition of The Portland Mercury. Reporter Sarah Mirk took a historical look at the Albina neighborhood and, given its history of racism and development, she arrived at the conclusion that the project is “Not about the bikes.”
Here’s a key quote in Mirk’s story that I think sums up feelings of some people in the community. It comes from Midge Purcell, policy director of the Urban League of Portland (a non-profit that advocates for African Americans):
Job: Seasonal Bicycle Mechanic (Citybikes Worker-owned Coop)
Job Title
Seasonal Bicycle Mechanic
Company/Organization
Citybikes Worker-Owned Cooperative
Job Description
Seasonal Mechanic at Portland’s oldest bike cooperative, Citybikes Worker-owned Coop.
We believe a work force consisting of people from varied backgrounds provides us with the strongest foundation for the informed decision-making. Citybikes hires people on the basis of the shop’s need, with gender balance and diversity as goals. Citybikes is a resource for information of all kinds regarding cycling, bicycles and cooperative business structure.
Job Description: Season runs from May 1st – September 30th. Applicants must be able to work ~30 hours a week. Worker will be scheduled as a mechanic, and are required to complete repairs, provide amazing customer service, perform day to day functions, and attend general meetings and 1 committee meeting per month.
Minimum qualifications: 2-3 years shop experience, cooperative experience is a plus.
Compensation is based on experience, generally between $10-12 a hour plus store perks.
Cheers,
Citybikes
How to Apply
Submit a resume to the Citybikes Annex at 734 SE Ankeny. Hiring until positions are filled.
Call 503-239-6951 or email for questions, ask for Noel, Kathy, or Ashley.
Zoobomb’s annual event, Mini Bike Winter, starts tonight
These guys could only be headed to
one thing… Mini Bike Winter!
(Photo © J. Maus)
one thing… Mini Bike Winter!
(Photo © J. Maus)
Zoobomb’s big annual event, Mini Bike Winter, starts tonight. Now in its ninth year, the four-day event promises a mix of performances, parties, and pure fun that is sure to help ease your winter doldrums.
This year, in addition to usual favorites like the “Ben Hurt Chariot Wars” (just what they sound like, only crazier and with more smoke and blood), the “Mini Bike Winter Olympics” (which includes “bike bowling” (see below) a launch into the Willamette known as the “Cupcake Challenge” and more) and the “Badass Challenge” (a race to climb up the hill to Washington Park on a 16-inch bike), the event includes a special screening of “Bike Smut,” a collection of short bike movies.
USDOT distracted driving efforts now aimed at auto makers
From Ford website.
I was happy this morning to find a statement from U.S. DOT Secretary Ray LaHood’s office that his war on distracted driving now includes new regulations for automakers. The proposals come as President Obama’s just-released transportation budget includes $330 million to combat the problem.
For the past few years, I’ve been disturbed at the trend to turn cars into one big gadget. Automakers, scared that their vehicles can’t compete with consumers’ growing adoration of smartphones and other devices, now offer all sorts of phone-like conveniences on-board. The result? More distraction, more crashes, more deaths and injuries.
Take the Sandy Ridge Trail System survey
Detail of trail map.
Since it opened in 2009, the Sandy Ridge Trail System — located about 40 miles east of downtown Portland (map) at the foot of Mt. Hood — has grown by leaps and bounds (or should I say by drops and berms) in both popularity and in sheer miles of fun trails to ride. The International Mountain Bicycling Association calls is “one of most extensive purpose-built, mountain-bike specific trail systems on public land in the United States.”
To keep it that way, partners on the project have launched an online survey to gauge user feedback.
Magenta Bianchi Sport SX 1989
Year: 1989
Brand: Bianchi
Model: Sport SX
Color:Magenta
Size:53 cm
Photo: http://velospace.org/node/3727
Stolen in Portland, OR 97202
Stolen:2012-02-15
Stolen From: Stolen from backyard around 39th & Holgate
Neighborhood: Woodstock neighborhood
Owner: Gabrielle Quintana
OwnerEmail: quintga@reed.edu
Reward: 100, no questions asked
Description: My 1989 53 cm Bianchi Sport SX was magenta with celeste greenish-blue tires and a black selle italia saddle. Looks almost like the picture I submitted, same frame and tires.
Police record with: Portland PD
Police reference#: 12-151107
This registrant does not have proof of ownership of this bike
Visualizing the Sullivan’s Gulch corridor
The view of the future Sullivan’s Gulch multi-use path looking east from NE Grand Ave. See how it will look once the facility is built in the images below.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)
Transit in trouble: Attend TriMet budget open house tonight
Time to get in front of
this TriMet mess.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)
this TriMet mess.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)
TriMet — and therefore transit as we know it in Portland — in trouble. The agency is under pressure to cut its budget, and so far, its seems to be leaning primarily toward service cutbacks and fare increases as the primary way to do it.
Less service and higher prices is the exact opposite direction our transit system should be headed. If that’s the route TriMet takes, they will be helping start a negative spiral of lower ridership that could darken what was once Portland’s very proud and bright transit legacy. Without good transit service, people who can’t afford to own a car and folks who ride bicycles will have one less option for longer trips. It will make Portland a much tougher place to have a low-car existence.
One man’s harrowing brush with a TriMet bus on N Williams Ave
Buses on Williams Ave. are a constant
concern for people on bikes.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)
concern for people on bikes.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)
In the coming weeks, the Stakeholder Advisory Committee for the North Williams Traffic Operations Safety Project will hammer out a formal recommendation to PBOT on how to improve bike access on the street. One of the considerations they’ll take into account is the safety of the bicycling environment and how people operating cars, bikes, and buses interact on the street.
Today I got an email from reader Craig H. that underscores one of the urgent public safety issues the Williams project aims to address — the dangerous proximity of humans on bicycles with multi-ton steel vehicles that pass by just inches away.
Here’s Craig’s story:
Teal Giant OCR3 2006
Year: 2006
Brand: Giant
Model: OCR3
Color:Teal
Size:Cloud Blue
Stolen in Portland, OR 97214
Stolen:2012-02-14
Stolen From: Alley behind SE 12th street, at SE Lincoln cross street.
Neighborhood: Ladd’s addition
Owner: Chelsea Kline
OwnerEmail: ckline03@yahoo.com
Reward: 100
Description: Teal-colored small women’s Giant OCR3 road bike, with rear rack and rear fender with an orange sticker on the fender.
Police record with: Portland Police
Police reference#: 12-151118
This registrant has documented proof of ownership of this bike
Bike friendly development spreads to outer east Portland
Glendoveer Woods will have a self-service bike repair shop consisting of work benches and tools for the project’s residents and community biking organizations to utilize.
— From City of Portland memo about the development
We’ve covered new housing developments (like the “Milano” coming to the Lloyd District) that actively seek bike-oriented tenants in the central city; but now the trend is spreading to a place not usually associated with bike-friendliness — outer east Portland.
According to a staff report on the project by the Portland Planning and Sustainability Commission, developers of a proposed 113 unit, four-story apartment building on NE 146th between Glisan and East Burnside (about 10 miles east of downtown Portland) plan to offer residents a large bike repair room, parking spaces for 124 bicycles, and even a “transportation coordination” center in the lobby for bus schedules, bike maps and more.