Month: August 2014

Fatal collision spurs new calls to complete the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail

Ellen Dittebrandt.

The death this past Sunday of Ellen Dittebrandt, killed while bicycling on Interstate 84 west of Hood River, has stunned her large community of friends in the Gorge, many of whom are now focused on completing the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail in her memory.

Dittebrandt’s death also comes on the heels of a scary month in Oregon. Just last week we reported that there were four major rear-end collisions in the span of just one week.

This latest collision happened early Sunday morning. According to Oregon State Police investigators, Dittebrandt, a 52-year old volunteer firefighter (named Firefighter of the Year in 2010), artist and triathlete who lived in Mosier, was riding westbound in the shoulder of I-84. Friends say she was training for a triathlon and was riding from Rowena Crest to Crown Point and back.

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Arrest made in hit-and-run on SE 82nd in Clackamas County

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The Clackamas County Sheriff’s office arrested a man today after a hit-and-run on SE 82nd just south of King Road (about 12 miles southeast of Portland).

Here’s the story so far from the CCSO:

On August 26, 2014 at approximately 3:00 p.m., Robert B. Hyer, age 30, was riding a bicycle in the bike lane southbound along SE 82nd Avenue. As the bicyclist began riding in front of the entry to a gas station on the west side of SE 82nd Avenue, a Ford pickup driven by Leodan Juarez Belton, age 49, from Clackamas, turned into the gas station and struck the bicyclist, knocking him to the ground.

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First look at new, left-side buffered bike lanes on NW Everett

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There’s a new, 10-foot wide bike lane on NW Everett (and as you can see not everyone knows it’s for bikes only).
(Photos by J. Maus/BikePortland)

PBOT has completed a lane “reorganization” project on NW Everett Street between NW 25th and I-405. As we reported back in May, this project is the result of two factors: An understanding by the bureau that the intersection of NW Everett and 16th is unsafe due to its history of right-hook collisions; and a repaving project that gave them a golden opportunity to do something about it.

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As Congress drops Safe Routes to School, advocates ask Metro to step in

A Safe Routes to School ride in Portland in 2010. A new BTA campaign suggests tapping federal funding allocated to the Metro regional government to offer the program in suburban schools, too.
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)

Second in a week-long series about the BTA’s five new advocacy campaigns.

Over the last two years, people trying to reverse the spectacular 40-year slide in the number of kids who bike and walk to school have come to a gradual realization: dedicated federal funding for the Safe Routes to School program is probably gone for good.

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Q&A: How Minnesota saves lives by spreading safety money thinly

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Sue Groth, director of traffic, safety and technology
for the Minnesota Department of Transportation,
has been nationally recognized for overseeing rapid
drops in traffic fatalities.
(Photos: MnDOT)

Sue Groth’s job: use math and millions of dollars to stop injuries before they happen.

The team Groth leads at the Minnesota Department of Transportation has probably saved a few hundred lives over the last 10 years. In that time they’ve reinvented “highway safety” spending and seen traffic fatalities fall almost twice as fast as they have in Oregon and the rest of the country.

Groth is the plenary speaker at the Sept. 15 Oregon Transportation Summit hosted by OTREC at Portland State University. I caught her by phone last week to talk about MnDOT’s daring decision to give up some of the “gobs of money” it gets for highway safety and hand it to local agencies instead.

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National org wants to know: What should we call this thing we do everyday?

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward
pfbsurvey

People for Bikes, a national advocacy group funded by the bicycle industry, wants to change cycling in America by coming up with a new name for it. Specifically, the group wants help figuring out what to call everyday cycling in order to differentiate it from recreation and fitness riding.

Here’s the set-up from People for Bikes via an email they sent out today:

“Lots of people ride bikes for recreation, exercise and sport. But there’s another kind of bicycling that’s becoming more and more popular in communities across the country. It’s difficult to quantify, because folks call it a lot of different things. And it doesn’t have an official name…

Imagine you’re rolling out on your bike right from your garage—no spandex involved, you’re wearing normal, everyday clothes.

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A community on bikes rallies against violence in the streets of north Portland

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Take Back the Streets Ride-41

Samuel Thompson led calls for peace on the streets of the New Columbia neighborhood on Sunday.
(Photos by J. Maus/BikePortland)

“Occupy the streets! Until we get peace! Occupy the streets! Until we get peace!”

Reeling from a (yet another) violent summer where gang members have ruled the streets with guns, about 150 people joined the Take Back the Streets Ride in New Columbia on Sunday. Armed with bicycles and a powerful sense of unity, they stood up to their fears. As they pedaled, chanted and smiled, they started a new narrative about the public space outside their doorsteps and showed how bicycles can be an effective tool for grassroots, social change far beyond the central city.

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The Monday Roundup: Biking to the Emmy Awards, removing lanes for safety & more

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Simpler times.
(Photo: Midtown Partnership)

Here are the bike-related links from around the world that caught our eyes this week:

When Hollywood and biking mix on the red carpet: It’s a great sign for cycling in America when venerable movie industry paper The Hollywood Reporter covers an Emmy nominee who biked to the closely watched awards event (in Rapha no less!).

Mistaken for Uber: “Basically anytime I’m pulled over on the side of the street, someone tries to hail me or just opens my car door,” says a New Yorker who just wants to drive his car in the age of Uber. One person told him: “Are you Uber? Well can you just be? Can we go?” “It’s kind of immoral to have a car in New York anyways, so I feel like this is my tax for doing that.”

When lanes are less safe: Removing center lines on London streets (something Portland has been doing for some neighborhood greenways) reduced average speeds by 5 to 9 mph.

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Comment of the Week: A good review for Director Treat

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Transportation Director Leah Treat at a city
press conference in April.
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)

Like her predecessor Tom Miller, Portland’s top transportation bureaucrat is part of a class of bike-friendly Generation Xers who, after working up the ladder for years, are moving into the top perches of government.

Hired last year, Director Leah Treat turned out to be the first of three such faces on the West Coast alone. Last month, Seleta Reynolds of San Francisco’s livable streets division was tapped to lead the vast Los Angeles transportation department and Scott Kubly, who like Treat was a top lieutenant to fellow Xer Gabe Klein in Washington and Chicago, was named to the same role in Seattle.

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Weekend Event Guide: Parkways, community building, a kermesse, and more

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward
Sunday Parkways Southeast-59

You never know what you’ll see at Sunday Parkways Southeast.
(Photo J. Maus/BikePortland)

Welcome to your menu of weekend rides and events, lovingly brought to you by our friends at Hopworks Urban Brewery.

Summer might be waning, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to stop riding bikes!

Whether you miss Pedalpalooza or you want to test out your fitness for the upcoming cyclocross season, there’s a great selection of activities this weekend, and even a few for tonight…

Friday, August 22nd

Rocky Butte Sunset Dance Party Picnic – 6:30 pm at Irving Park (NE 11th and Klickitat)

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Latest Headlines

Central Precinct Commander lays out police case for diverter removal

Man behind wheel in northeast rampage dies in hospital as family of victim grieves

Weekend Event Guide: Fast crit racing, sewing, cargo bikes, and more

‘Firsthand’ framebuilding school and shop space set to open in Portland

From the Archives

What five people say about living outside along the Springwater path