Month: August 2013

How legal loopholes and lack of stigma create a hit-and-run culture

Scene of fatal crash on SW Barbur Blvd-2

Barbur Boulevard is dangerous even when a
driver doesn’t decide to flee a crash.
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)

Nobody expects to kill a person with their car. This means that the moment you do, your only basis for decision is usually something you heard once from a friend.

And as Portland deals with two major recent hit-and-run cases involving people on bikes, some victim advocates are saying that Oregon needs to do more to spread the idea that it’s morally reprehensible to flee the scene of a collision.

“What’s happened is that Mothers Against Drunk Driving and all these other great organizations have done incredible work over the last 20 years,” Joshua Shulman, a Portland lawyer who works on civil injury cases and has researched the topic, said Friday. “And I’m so glad that they have, because drinking and driving is awful. But one of the side effects of harsh penalties is to make people more likely to avoid them.”

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ODOT in hot seat for dangerous Highway 101 repaving job

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

ODOT failed to extend a new layer of pavement
into the bicycle riding area of a long
stretch of Highway 101.
(Photo: Jeff Smith)

A recent repaving job by the Oregon Department of Transportation on the popular Oregon Coast Bike Route on Highway 101 between Yachats and Florence has raised eyebrows among veteran bike tourers, transportation department staffers, and national bicycle advocacy organizations.

It all started with an email sent yesterday from Jeff Smith, a veteran Portland Bureau of Transportation employee and a bike touring enthusiast, to ODOT’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator Sheila Lyons. Smith — who sent the message from his personal email account and not as a PBOT employee — included a photo and a detailed description of what he called an “extremely annoying at best and dangerous at worst” section of repaving.

According to Smith, a 25-mile section of the popular Oregon Coast Bike Route from Yachats south to Florence has been re-constructed with a new layer of pavement that abruptly ends just a few feet past the fog line. Here’s more from Smith’s email:

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Mychal Tetteh named new CEO of Community Cycling Center

CCC CEO Mychal Tetteh.

The non-profit Community Cycling Center has announced that Mychal Tetteh will be their new CEO. Tetteh takes over from former executive director Alison Graves, who left the organization back in March.

Tetteh is a familiar face in the community and at the Community Cycling Center. He worked at the CCC for six years from 2005 to 2011, rising to the position of Director of Shop Operations before leaving for a job at the non-profit Village Market in the New Columbia neighborhood. Tetteh is currently the Executive Director of the Major Taylor Cycling Club of Portland, a non-profit that promotes bicycling among African-American communities across the region.

In a statement released this morning, CCC Board Chair Kathryn Sofich said Tetteh can “hit the ground running,” because, “he already has established relationships with our partners and a deep understanding of the issues they face as it relates to bicycling, equity, health, and more, ensuring that our work remains relevant to these communities in the future.”

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Arrest made in Barbur hit-and-run case

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Portland police have arrested a Lake Oswego woman in connection with a major hit-and-run last week on Southwest Barbur Boulevard.

Here’s the news release from the Portland Police Bureau:

29-year-old M. A. Clinton of Lake Oswego turned herself in to officers at Central Precinct this afternoon. She has been booked into jail on two counts of Felony Hit and Run.

The charges come as a result of the hit and run crash on Friday August 16, 2013 at 12:50 a.m., that left the victim, 20-year-old Henry Schmidt, injured on the side of the road on Southwest Barbur Boulevard near the Capitol Highway ramp.

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How to build the world’s longest bike touring route: 8 questions for Jean-Francois Pronovost

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Quebec’s Route Verte. (click to enlarge)

Portland has a network of neighborhood greenways, and they’re great. But Jean-Francois Pronovost’s is 3,100 miles long.

That’s approximately the distance from Portland to Nicaragua.

The Greenway (Route Verte in Pronovost’s native French) is a bike route network running all over the Canadian province of Quebec. On Monday, the vice president for development and public affairs at advocacy group Vélo Québec visits Portland to share lessons from this project and others in the first annual Ann Niles Transportation Lecture, a major new series produced by Portland State University’s Institute for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation.

The event is free, though space is limited to 240. I spoke with Pronovost Thursday to learn more about his life’s work, the best parts of Quebec bike touring and how his hometown of Montreal managed to replace 320 auto parking spaces with a downtown protected lane that carries 9,000 bikes per day. (When you read his responses, be sure to imagine them in a dignified French-Canadian accent.)

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Commissioner Novick, PBOT respond to SW Barbur hit-and-run

SE 136th Press Conference-1

Portland Transportation Commissioner
Steve Novick wants to hear from
“suburban car commuters” before
proposing a road diet on SW
Barbur Blvd.
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

After yet another tragedy on SW Barbur Blvd last week, people are once again trying to push officials to make it safer.

So far, most of the attention has been focused on the Oregon Department of Transportation because they own and manage Barbur (except for the portions adjacent to downtown Portland) and they’ve been reluctant to significantly improve safety on it. But while ODOT has final say, the City of Portland can play an important role in this discussion. If the Portland Bureau of Transportation and/or Transportation Commissioner Novick and Mayor Charlie Hales wanted to, they could increase pressure on ODOT to move forward with a road diet or other measures that would have a dramatic impact on safety.

We haven’t asked Mayor Hales for a comment about Barbur yet; but we have reached out and gotten replies from Commissioner Novick and PBOT.

I initially asked PBOT for a comment from new Bureau Director Leah Treat. When I heard back from spokesperson Diane Dulken, Dulken made it clear that the comment was, “from PBOT, not specifically from Director Treat.” (Perhaps Director Treat still isn’t well-versed enough in local transportation issues to weigh in.) Unfortunately, the PBOT statement was really more of a non-statement. Here’s what they said:

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Bikeways at overpasses: Utrecht vs. Portland

A photo shared on Twitter the other day by London-based bicycling advocate and blogger Mark Treasure threw the differences between us and the Dutch into stark relief.

Mark pointed out how road designers in Utrecht (in the Netherlands) handled a situation where a road and its bicycle paths went under an overpass. The photo showed clearly how the quality and width of the bike paths were maintained — while the roadway was narrowed.

Here’s the photo:

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Photos of ODOT’s new Division Street undercrossing on I-205 path

New and smooth.
(Photos: Joe Hamilton)

Thanks to a newly built undercrossing of SE Division, people on bikes have one less stop to make while riding on the I-205 path. ODOT put the finishing touches on their $750,000 I-205 Shared-Use Path Division Undercrossing Project earlier this month and they’re hosting a “celebratory gathering” this morning to show it off.

As we shared back in October 2012, the new path takes riders and walkers down near the MAX light rail tracks under Division Street. South of division, the path begins at the MAX station and it re-joins the I-205 path at the intersection of SE Caruthers and 93rd. The project was originally planned for 2009 to coincide with the construction of TriMet’s Green Line MAX project. ODOT received a federal stimulus grant for path improvements but the funding ran out before the undercrossing was completed.

Reader Joe Hamilton sent us some photos of the new path…

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Portland Police donating bicycles for West African villages

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

This just in from the PPB:

PORTLAND POLICE DONATING BICYCLES FOR WEST AFRICAN VILLAGES

On Thursday August 22, 2013, at 10:30 a.m., the Portland Police Bureau will be donating approximately 100 bicycles to Alaffia’s Bicycles for Education Project.

This event will be held at and in partnership with Whole Foods Market Hollywood, located at 4301 Northeast Sandy Boulevard. Members of the media are invited to attend.

Members of the community may also donate adult sized bicycles in any condition at this location from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. All donations are tax deductible.

Speakers will include Portland Police Bureau Assistant Chief Donna Henderson and Alaffia Founder Olowo-n’djo Tchala (pronounced “Olo-Wanjoe Chala”)

The donated bicycles are from the Portland Police Property and Evidence Division and are unclaimed or disposed of property no longer needed.

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Police (finally) issue statement on Barbur hit-and-run case – UPDATED

Police are looking for a Subaru like this one.
(Photo: PPB)

The Portland Police Bureau just released a media statement about a serious injury hit-and-run that occurred on Friday, August 16th on SW Barbur Blvd. The collision left 20-year old Henry Schmidt with multiple injuries including shattered bones, damaged organs, and extensive road rash. Since first reported by KATU-TV, the PPB has come under fire from friends of the victim and other people in the community for their handling of the crime scene and a lack of urgency around their investigation.

Dave Cassidy, a close friend of the Schmidt family, has been sending emails to local media describing his concerns about the PPB’s lack of attention to Schmidt’s case. Here’s an excerpt from an email Cassidy sent to local media outlets yesterday:

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From the Archives

Portlanders show solidarity with Palestinians at ride for para-cycling team