Portland Police will target bicycling on downtown sidewalks

“police or special officers operating a bicycle in the course and scope of their duties” or “for employees of the Association for Portland Progress and companies providing security services operating a bicycle in the course and scope of their duties.”

Do as I say, not as I do.

How many Portlanders have been injured or killed by sidewalk riders?
How many Portlanders have been injured or killed by cars?

For the PBoT / PBAC…there are some recommendations for updating this important CBD safety policy:

1) how about adding small stencils or signs reminding citizens of this policy, like other cities do in high occurrence zones [most citizens either do not know about this type of law or where it is in effect/ or not in effect]; and
2) add language allowing rider to ride on sidewalks to reach bike parking that is often located on sidewalks. [Imagine if car drivers had to get out and push their cars across sidewalks or crosswalks to get to their parking spaces.]

Is this in response to collisions just being “more likely,” or which have actually happened? How frequent have they been and how serious?
I hate and avoid riding on sidewalks, but found myself doing that for a short distance, briefly, trying to get to a west-bound Max near Pioneer Place because it’s so hard to ride on the streets because of the bus lanes and Max and streetcar tracks. These and other difficulties, like the disappearing bike lane a few blocks past the Hawthorne Bridge, have come up in this blog before. Does the city have anything more positive in mind than keeping bikes off sidewalks?

a few years ago someone that looked awfully like amanda fritz shouted unintelligible things at me from her vehicle.

“real safety risks”

is there *ANY* actual evidence of this in portland?

I’ll be open to suggestions regarding how to operate my bicycle when traveling at less than 5mph, just as soon as I don’t witness cars going 40 in a 25 multiple times a day.

I have no issue with the enforcement of this city ordinance. The only problem is the fact that most people riding on the sidewalk downtown are 1) a tourist 2) homeless or 3) the cute little suburban family. Your day to day commuters know it’s faster and safer to ride with traffic.
It would also help if they could put some signage around calling attention the this bit of city code.
While your up on the bus mall targeting people bicycling on the sidewalk, would it be too much to ask if you could ticket all the cars making illegal turns?

As a side note, there have been at least two people that have been sent to the hospital after they rode into the front door of my work while riding on the sidewalk (one of which took the door off it’s hinges).

Good. Oregon should also make cycling on any sidewalk illegal like most states. Bikes are vehicles and belong where vehicles go. Sidewalks are for pedestrians. If you’re not comfortable on Portland’s streets with a bike, find another way.

My coworker was run down by a skateboarder on the sidewalk about two months ago, and had his wrist in a splint for about a month, so I can’t say there’s zero risk to this behavior. In my mind, sidewalk cycling should not be any faster than a fast walk, and you should only do it for that last half-block to/from your destination. Doing 10 mph on the sidewalk for a few blocks probably does deserve a ticket.

Having said that, I agree that I’d rather see Portland’s finest focus on motor vehicle operators, who are far more likely to cause serious injuries. And what is up with Amanda Fritz; did someone actually vote for her?

I’d love to see more enforcement downtown in general. Sidewalk riders are a menace—I’ve had to leap out of the way on the bus mall many times—but not nearly so dangerous as drivers that dash through yellow lights and block sidewalks; drivers who make right turns without looking for pedestrians; drivers who turn across the bike lanes on Stark and Oak, esp. without signaling; drivers aggressively crossing SW Alder; etc., etc, etc.

Bikers on sidewalks downtown is annoying and illegal (as it should be) but it is not nearly as big of a problem as people texting/looking at their phones while driving their cars downtown. How about we start to “raise awareness” for that much larger and more dangerous issue?

Quasi homeless looking, middle-aged white male riding a department store mountain bike, sans helmet down a sidewalk opposing traffic off the curb against the signal.

Is this a stereotype? (Can I really invent my own stereotype? )

However, they are a convenient scapegoat when people want to lambast those scofflaw cyclists disobeying the law downtown.

I think the enforcement’s good, although I’m not too sure about how one goes about getting the homeless to cough up fines. And despite the fact that 90% of the riding you see on the sidewalks downtown is that guy, be wary that the police will be seeking “high value” targets, ie those commuters who roll the last 20 feet from the curb cutout to their building entrance.

“Oregon should also make cycling on any sidewalk illegal like most states.”

I’ll accept this when all our streets are safe for cycling.

“Find another way.” All too many times, especially out here in Beaverton where I work, there isn’t one.

If PPB is so concerned about pedestrian safety, why not a LOT more enforcement of the implied-crosswalk law? One more time, PPB: cars kill more Portlanders than guns do. Get on it.

How desperate is the PPB to avoid busting speeding, phoning, and aggressive drivers? What a waste of time!

meanwhile the Parking Division refuses to write tickets for people parked on the sidewalk where I work because there’s no abrupt curb and still plenty of sidewalk space available…

jeff
false dichotomy. why can’t there be both efforts?
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Sounds like you have never had to work within a budget. Limited resources means making difficult decisions.

“Raise awareness” = “Raise revenue”

The caveat that allows police and security to ride sidewalks is hilarious. Exactly 100% of the times I’ve been mowed or nearly mowed as a pedestrian have been by downtown security guards with questionable control of their bikes.

Would this whole issue even exist if bicyclists rode responsibly on the sidewalk?

And yet out here in neglected East of 122nd , we see PPD …how many times a week ? once,,,,, twice..maybe.

downtown sidewalk 4 hour advance notice enforcement=low hanging fruit/little risk, but lots of TV/media exposure.

jeff
false dichotomy. why can’t there be both efforts?
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That’s a good question. Maybe you should ask PPB why they appear to barely care about the perpetual, constant, and much more dangerous behavior by area drivers.

Will this include cyclists that stop in the crosswalk instead of behind the line like the law says?

Will the PPB be putting out warning signs for bicyclists that say “Sidewalk Riding Enforcement Ahead”? That would mirror what they do for motorists. PPB puts out “Crosswalk Enforcement Ahead” signs to warn scofflaw motorists when they do the enforcement actions that seek to get motorists to obey the law and yield to pedestrians. They put up “Photo Radar Enforcement” signs to signal scofflaw motorists that they are enforcing speed limits. Just wondering.

Just gotta wonder how many drivers will get away with getting stopped in the middle of the intersections, or in the crosswalks while a police officer is standing right there handing a bike rider a ticket?

I’d rather see the police go down on the transit mall and bust a few bike thieves.

My preferred north-south routes in Downtown? I take the single auto lane on 5th and on 6th. As far south as Madison, it’s the only lane, and theoretically cars can’t pass you (though a few will swerve into the transit lanes to do so), so it feels the safest of the downtown streets, safer than the bike lanes on Broadway.

The closest encounter I’ve had, as a pedestrian, with a cyclist on a sidewalk was with two Portland police officers. The first one missed me by inches at a blind corner at a speed much faster than a walk. And the second hardly gave me a look, much less an ‘Excuse us’. I ride on the sidewalk just about every day, but if I need to rush I do it in the street.

Thanks for the warning, I’ll pass it around. The usual short attention span for all things bikey means it’s business as usual tomorrow.

Oh good, so now for the next few weeks, every time I’m on a multi-use path or coasting up the sidewalk, unclipped, to a business, some frothing winger will yell at me to get off the sidewalk. Yay.

Well I hope they enforce it for those bike tours. I got run off the sidewalk by about thirty of them yesterday, their guide had no idea what he was doing or how to wrangle 30 people who haven’t ridden a bike since they were ten. What a completely unsafe business.

While inconsiderate sidewalk riding is annoying and can be dangerous, I do find it interesting to consider the reasons why someone would ride on the sidewalk. I have little problem taking a lane in slow downtown traffic, but I understand there are those who don’t want to ride at 15 mph, or are unfamiliar with where the train tracks are, or are just intimidated by aggressive drivers, who aren’t paying attention, aren’t yielding to riders in bike lanes, are blocking bike lanes, passing unsafely, etc. It borders on a legal Catch-22: “you have to ride over there where driver lawlessness makes it scary. We’re not going to do anything about the drivers, but if you take refuge on the sidewalk, we’re going to bust you. So, decide now whether you would rather be intimidated and endangered by drivers or busted by the cops.”

I’ve been wanting – and sometimes asking for – signage at the main bike entry points to downtown. Most people simply don’t know that they can’t do in this one small section what they are perfectly free to do everywhere else.

Almost all bicycling in major Japanese cities is done on the sidewalk.

Watching the news last night, the PPB said it was going to mostly give out warnings, and in some case citations for people who ride on sidewalks.

http://www.kgw.com/news/Cops-to-ticket-skateboarders-bikers-on-sidewalks-269277151.html

I would rather see the cops focus on something else, but I am okay if the police are going to issue warnings and not ticket someone unless s/he is doing something really egregious.

The local news covered this story tonight and showed bikes & skateboarders being chased down by Motorcycle cops also on the sidewalk.