August 2013 Archives

Tours will highlight Portland’s bike cultures, historic parks, and murals

From bicycle culture tour flyer.
(Illustration by Shawn Granton)

If you are in love with bicycles, there’s simply no better city in the world to live in than Portland. Case in point are three upcoming bicycle tours — all happening on August 24th — that will showcase three things that many bike lovers cherish: our rich and diverse culture around bicycling, urban parks, and public art murals.

A tour developed by the non-profit Know Your City and held in conjunction with the Portland Art Museum’s Cyclepedia Exhibition, will introduce you to our vaunted bike culture. Dubbed, America’s Bicycle Capital: A tour of Portland’s Many Bike Cultures, the ride will leave from PAM at 10:00 am and visit sites and personalities that, “define our city’s bike culture — from bike advocacy to Zoobombers.” Guest speakers on the ride include: PBOT staffer Timo Forsberg (also a veteran volunteer with Shift); Ayleen Crotty, who edits ORBike.com and organizes many well-known bike events; Dingo Dizmal, the man who made the (now defunct) Alberta Clown House famous; and Rex Burkholder, a former Metro councilor who helped start the Bicycle Transportation Alliance. The tour is free and everyone is welcome.

Morning sunrise behind me, the dream-like Hail Ridge Road in front of me.
It would be a very good day on the bike.
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland unless otherwise noted)

Spending three days riding some of the most exhilarating roads in our state has left me with many fond memories and new excitement about the bike tourism potential of eastern Oregon.

But there’s one thing that happened on my last day that was particularly memorable: a tense encounter with a huge angus cow.

On Tuesday, my last day at TREO Bike Ranch in Hardman, Oregon, I attempted to tackle the “TREO Century.” The route is one of a seemingly infinite number of routes mapped out by TREO owner Phil Carlson and his crew. I set out from the ranch and headed northwest toward the sweet little town of Condon. After about 15 miles of dreamy, carfree, hard-packed gravel on Hardman/Hail Ridge Road, I popped out onto highway 206 with about 14 miles to go until Condon. Right after the intersection of Hail Ridge Road and 206, I finally got to experience the “Condon Curves,” or what former Cycle Oregon Ride Director Jerry Norquist refers to as, “The best downhill in all of Oregon.”

A man who was trying to cross Interstate 205 under the NE Killingsworth Street overpass was struck by someone driving northbound on the freeway. According to the PPB, the man was on his bike prior to the collision. He has “traumatic injuries” and his current condition is unknown at this time.

It’s not yet apparent yet why the man would have been attempting to cross the freeway. It’s worth noting that the I-205 multi-use path comes within just a few feet of the freeways lanes as it goes under the Killingsworth overpass.

View from outside Bike Farm this morning.
(Photos: Melinda Musser)

The non-profit, all-volunteer Bike Farm celebrated its opening day at its new location yesterday. Then this morning, volunteers awoke to news that an overnight fire destroyed all their tools and caused significant damage throughout their space at 1810 NE 1st Avenue.

Bike Farm board member Momoko Saunders said the cause of the fire was grease-filled rags that spontaneously combusted overnight. “It’s pretty intense,” she told us via telephone a few minutes ago, as she surveyed the damage. “It burnt the entire nine-foot workbench. There’s just one 2×4 left.” It addition to the workbench, the fire melted and destroyed all their workstands and tools. Fortunately, the side of the shop with a selection of used and new parts and accessories didn’t burn.

Will it be rendered powerless?
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Mayors from 22 of the 25 cities represented by Metro are pushing to make the Regional Active Transportation Plan (ATP) relatively powerless. The plan has been in the making for over two years, and Metro has been showing off the 70-page review draft via public open houses since May.

Lake McTighe, the Metro project manager in charge of the ATP, had planned to have a resolution pass by Metro Council by next month that would have moved the plan to its next step toward implementation. However, a power struggle between Metro and regional mayors became evident last month as they feared the plan would give Metro too much power and would force their hand in implementing new bicycle pathways, walking facilities, and other active transportation projects.

German product veloSTRAIL might offer promise
for safer urban rail crossings.
(Image from Strail.de.)

Twelve years after Portland Streetcar added its rails to city streets, it’s still a Portland rite of passage to crash your bike on its tracks — and it’s still a maddening problem for the handful of people trying to solve it.

“I just can’t believe that in a place like Amsterdam or any number of European cities where they have had girder rail — I can’t believe that somebody hasn’t figured this out,” Portland Streetcar consultant Carter MacNichol said in an interview Wednesday. “But apparently they haven’t.”

MacNichol, who occasionally researches the issue on his own time, said he’s currently hoping for an email reply from veloSTRAIL, a German company that makes plastic inserts for urban rail crossings designed to collapse beneath a streetcar wheel but not beneath a bike. But veloSTRAIL, he said, seems to be designed for T-shaped ballasted tracks — not the C-shaped girder rail used by Streetcar.

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Job Title
Mechanic, Salesperson, Bar Tender

Company/Organization
Velo Cult Bicycle Shop and Tavern

Job Description
Velo Cult is looking for full time and part time Mechanics, Salespeople and Bar Tenders. Bike shop and/or Bar experience is a big plus.

We are also looking for someone with inventory experience.

If you feel like you would be a good fit please email us your resume.

Velo Cult Bicycle Shop and Tavern
1969 NE 42nd Ave
Portland, OR 97213
www.velocult.com
info@velocult.com

How to Apply
Please email your resume to info@velocult.com

Want wider shoulders on Hwy 26? ODOT seeks feedback on Mt. Hood area projects

ODOT has created an interactive map of the projects.

The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has revealed their list of projects that could get funding through their Mt. Hood Multimodal Transportation Plan (MHMTP). Along with the list is an online survey where you can tell them which of the 40 projects you think are most important.

As we first covered back in March ODOT is putting a renewed focus on the highways that lead up to Mt. Hood (US 26/OR 35 between Sandy and Hood River) in an effort to improve safety and give people more options for traveling to and around the popular recreation area. This Multimodal Plan is a $650,000 effort to plan and then implement a number of small-scale projects that will make transit, walking, biking, and driving easier and safer.

This just in from our Vancouver, Washington correspondent Madeleine von Laue:

If you’re suffering from Sunday Parkways withdrawal, relief is in sight. Vancouver is hosting its first open streets event this coming Sun, August 18, 11am-4pm. Sunday Streets Alive will open up the downtown, Officers Row through the National Historic Reserve, streets by Marshall Center and Clark College and the uptown neighborhood. The route goes near a lively Farmers’ Market, and fun activities are planned in parks along the way – Zumba, circus classes, pet shows stilt walking, disc golf. Music of course will waft through the air, and food booths will feed hungry participants.

The route and one of the activity centers are just a short five blocks from the I-5 bridge. Vancouver is also served by public transportation; the yellow line Max stop at Delta park has a C-TRAN bus connection to downtown Vancouver.

Organizers still need volunteers to make the event a success. In addition to providing critical support, volunteers will of course also have time to enjoy the fun! To find out how to volunteer or get more information about the event, visit www.sundaystreetsalive.org.

Friends of Barbur asks for signatures to support fixing narrow bridges

When are two auto lanes not two auto lanes?
(Image by Friends of Barbur)

If you want to understand how two key bridge crossings on Southwest Barbur Boulevard are working today, take a look at the screen capture to the right.

Or even better, see the stretch in action at 0:55 of the short video below. The shots show why Barbur Boulevard is arguably the most nerve-wracking of Portland’s major bike routes.

Bike staples at the North Williams and Fremont
New Seasons were torn up so they could
be moved further from the wall.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

It’s always nice to see a retailer going the extra mile to improve their bike-friendliness, and for us, it’s even nicer when the business was alerted to the problem by BikePortland commenters.

In this case, the action is coming from grocer New Seasons, which is tearing up and reinstalling a set of bike staples that turned out to be too close to its new building on North Williams.

“Your blog commenters were right on so we asked the architect/builder to review the install of the racks,” New Seasons spokeswoman Elizabeth Nardi wrote in an email Tuesday morning. “The person installing the staples had them too close to the building. They needed to get new hardware, but they will be reinstalled shortly at the correct distance from the building. Pretty incredible your readers were able to spot that mistake from the picture.”

Some commuters and exercisers used the upper
sidewalk of the Steel Bridge Tuesday morning.
(Photo: M.Andersen/BikePortland)

Update 3:59 pm: The bridge lower deck is now open, and the city’s Diane Dulken writes to confirm that the city, not Union Pacific Railroad, is responsible for the lower-deck cameras related to this closure.

Portlanders’ unscheduled trip into the 90s extended into its fourth day Tuesday as the lower deck of the Steel Bridge, built for $10 million in 2001, remained closed due to a camera failure.

City spokeswoman Diane Dulken said Monday that Union Pacific Railroad runs the cameras, and that the problem is UP’s. The next morning, UP’s California-based spokesman Aaron Hunt said that this was not true, and that the city has been working to repair them. Update: Dulken confirmed, late Tuesday afternoon, that the railroad was correct, and the cameras are the city’s responsibility.

Dulken said Tuesday that she had no information about whether Union Pacific had been in contact with the city. She said she wasn’t aware of detour signs other than the ones at the Steel Bridge’s lower-deck gates themselves.

Tours will highlight Portland’s bike cultures, historic parks, and murals

An unforgettable eastern Oregon en-cow-nter

Man on a bike struck while trying to cross I-205 – UPDATED

Opening day fire causes serious damage at the Bike Farm

Regional mayors look to neuter Metro’s Regional Active Transportation Plan

Will Portland Streetcar ever find a way to prevent bike-rail crashes?

Job: Mechanic, Salesperson, Bar Tender – Velo Cult Bicycle Shop and Tavern

Want wider shoulders on Hwy 26? ODOT seeks feedback on Mt. Hood area projects

‘Sunday Streets Alive’ is this weekend in Vancouver

Friends of Barbur asks for signatures to support fixing narrow bridges

Williams Avenue New Seasons moves staples to improve bike parking

After much finger-pointing, the Steel Bridge’s lower deck reopens – UPDATED

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