🚨 Please note: BikePortland is currently on hiatus and only publishing guest articles. Learn more here. Thank you. - Jonathan 🙏

Year: 2013

The Monday Roundup

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

“The traffic was crazy… I really don’t do bicycles, but I will today.”
— Serena Williams

Let’s get right to it shall we? Here’s all the news and other interesting things we came across this past week…

— Add another major city to the bikeshare list: San Francisco has inked an agreement with Porltand-based Alta Bicycle Share for their system which is due to launch in August with 70 stations and 700 bikes (similar in size to Portland’s system).

— Bicycling is riding a wave of national attention right now. NBA superstar Kevin Durant features his love of bicycling in a major prime-time commercial for Degree deodorant and tennis champion Serena Williams biked to the Sony Open this weekend for a more practical reason — she simply wanted to avoid traffic. And don’t forget famous weatherman Al Roker!

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Job: Installation Tech – Rack Attack

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Job Title
Installation Tech

Company/Organization
Rack Attack

Job Description
Rack Attack is North America’s premier retailer of automotive, home storage, and bike parking rack solutions. We are experiencing significant growth, and have immediate openings for sales and installation associates who posses backgrounds in this specialized industry.

We cater to outdoor enthusiasts interested in activities such as skiing, snowboarding, cycling, mountain-biking, kayaking, windsurfing and camping. We offer a dynamic and diverse work environment, where our staff are involved not only in serving in-store customers, but also product installations, fulfillment of online orders, and participation in industry trade-shows.

Rack Attack offers competitive compensation, including sales performance bonuses and a flexible, enjoyable work environment. You can find out more about us at www.rackattack.com. This position is excellent for former bike mechanics or ski technicians. Preference will be given to candidates with prior Thule, Yakima or similar rack-related experience.

How to Apply
email employment at rackattack dot com

Dropping in at The Lumberyard

Visit to the Lumberyard MTB Park -14

Business partners Michael Whitesel (L) and
Will Heiberg (with his dog Sarah) have created something special
at The Lumberyard.
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Before this week, it’d been over a year since I last set foot in The Lumberyard, an indoor mountain bike park on NE 82nd Avenue in the Madison South neighborhood. Since then, business partners Will Heiberg and Michael Whitesel have been very busy. They’ve transformed a barren former bowling alley into a biking playground complete with a pub, full bar, retail and repair shop, event space, and much more.

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Oregon Senate says cab drivers should be exempt from cell phone law

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“These are people who are struggling and their livings are made by whether or not they can pick folks up… This is their life.”
— Sen. Larry George, the bill’s sponsor

The Oregon legislature made a strange move on Monday that is very likely to make Portland roads less safe for everyone. By a vote of 19-11, the Senate passed a bill that adds yet another exception to the state’s existing cell phone law. Senate Bill 294, sponsored by Senator Larry George (R-Sherwood), allows a taxicab driver to use a “mobile communication device”, a.k.a. cell phone, while driving.

This is despite widespread evidence that using a cell phone while driving is very dangerous.

SB 294’s sponsor, Sen. Larry George (yes that Senator) got all 14 of his fellow Republicans to join him in supporting the taxicab exemption. The five Democrats who voted in favor of the bill included; Lee Beyer, Chris Edwards, Betsy Johnson, Ernie Roblan, and Chip Shields.

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Black Kona Smoke 2009

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Year: 2009
Brand: Kona
Model: Smoke
Color:Black
Size:54
Stolen in Portland, OR 97205
Stolen:2013-03-20
Stolen From: 10th ave & SW Morrison outside “the galleria” (where the new Target is being built)
Neighborhood: Downtown
Owner: Ian Conway
OwnerEmail: Ianconway(replace with at sign)hotmail.com
Reward: Good karma & free hugs for life?
Description: Matte black Kona with black fenders and a rear rack. About a 54 (not 100% on the size, it was a little short for me)
Feel free to call me with any information. My numbers 203.219.4041
Police record with: Portland PD
Police reference#: 13-151862
This registrant does not have proof of ownership of this bike

Transportation wonks shine in trivia fundraiser

It was a packed out for the 2nd annual
Transportation Trivia fundraiser last night.
(Photo: Mary Nichols)

Portland is full of transportation wonks (a.k.a. geeks or nerds) and last night it seemed like nearly every one of them was packed into the Radio Room. The event that brought them all together was Transportation Trivia Night, a fundraiser for the Community Cycling Center.

Dozens of local transportation experts, consultants, researchers, engineers, bureaucrats, students, advocates, citizen activists — and even a few members of the local media (including yours truly) — donated $10 to join the fun. Among the many smiling faces in the crowd were: ODOT Pedestrian and Bicycle Program Manager Sheila Lyons; citizen activist extraordinaire and former City Council candidate Chris Smith; BTA Executive Director Rob Sadowsky; Portland State University Associate Professor Kelly Clifton; Filmed by Bike Founder Ayleen Crotty; and Portland Mayor (and former City Transportation Commissioner) Charlie Hales.

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Two local bike shops set to host fashion-focused events

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Flyer for Giro New Road launch event in Portland.

Seems like everywhere you turn these days there’s news about bike fashion. Whether it’s featured at the National Bike Summit or making major news headlines, bike brands and major fashion labels are falling over themselves to get a piece of the growing apparel pie.

Portland is an epicenter of stylish cycling so it’s no surprise that we’ve got our share of fashion-focused events. Two of them have come on my radar recently…

This Friday River City Bicycles will host a launch event for Giro’s “New Road” apparel line. Giro, a brand known to most people for their helmets, launched their new clothing line late last month and it’s being called a potential “paradigm shift” by the bike media. A local rep for Giro explained the new line as, “Giro’s take on a changing the traditional road clothing (lycra jerseys and such) to something a bit more understated but still performance based.” New Road features merino jerseys that look more like business-casual t-shirts.

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Williams Avenue project gets funded with $1.47 million state grant

N Williams Ave Open House-N Williams Ave Final Open House-26

Project rendering.
(Fat Pencil Studio for PBOT)

Changes are finally coming to North Williams Avenue.

After a long and arduous public process that began in January 2011, we can finally look forward to a host of much-needed traffic safety improvements on this busy bikeway corridor.

Yesterday in Salem the Oregon Transportation Commission approved a list of eleven projects that will improve biking and walking conditions across the state and among them is $1.47 million for the North Williams Avenue Traffic Operations and Safety project.

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Tourism org uses bikes to sell Portland

Travel Portland, our city’s official tourism and marketing arm, has debuted a new video that highlights bicycling. The goal of the video (watch it below) is to entice tourists to come here by showing them how bicycling is such a large part of our local culture.

The video features copywriter and illustrator Alexander Barrett, who opens the 41 second ad with, “As one of the country’s most bikeable cities, Portland has a ridiculous amount of bikes.” He then goes through a bunch of different bike types including a tall bike, a cargo bike, and even the “Pedal Powered Talk Show” bike built by Portland-based Metrofiets and piloted by show host Boaz Frankel. Check it out:

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A Portland road rage roundup

Keep calm and carry on.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

I hate to do this.

I get a lot of emails, Tweets, and sometimes even phone calls about collisions, close-calls, and other scary incidents involving people on bicycles. The vast majority of the time I just take in the information in and do nothing about it. After all, there’s a lot of traffic out there and I don’t think every time a person on a bike has an unfortunate experience it merits a blog post.

Not only that, but I constantly debate with myself whether posting about these things will only create more fear among readers, when overall, riding a bike is not dangerous.

However, earlier this month I received three emails in less than one week that shared three different and equally troubling road rage incidents. Given that, I felt that the community should know. I’m sharing the emails verbatim below in hopes of raising awareness that intimidation and harassment remains a part of Portland’s transportation culture:

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