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

Year: 2014

Holiday profile: David Lewis of Veteran Bicycle Co. is trying to invent a cheaper bike

david lewis

David Lewis believes that bike
manufacturing is ripe for disruption.
(Photos courtesy Lewis)

Portland is thick with indie bike frame builders. But the most audacious bike-design entrepreneur in town is focused on everything except the frame.

Ringed on three and a half sides by his tiny metal fabrication studio — a sort of blue-collar cubicle inside ADX, Southeast Portland’s coworking facility for people who make stuff — David Lewis described the product he’s slowly trying to design from the gears out.

“It’s an American bicycle that’s affordable and ready to ride,” Lewis said. “I don’t know what that bike looks like yet.”

The 37-year-old founder of Veteran Bicycle Co. just got his machine manufacturing certificate this fall. But he’s about to head into his second year of trying to come up with completely new and lower-cost ways to design and manufacture any and every part of the bicycle.

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TriMet project at Gateway Transit Center will impact bicycle access to I-205 path

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

A project to upgrade a rail crossing at the south end of the Gateway Transit Center will close bicycle access to the I-205 path from November 16th through the 26th. See more info from TriMet below:

TriMet will be making improvements to a rail crossing at Gateway Transit Center November 16 and November 23, 2014. The work will provide a smoother ride for MAX and bus riders, as well as create an improved crossing for pedestrians and bicyclists, but it will require a one-day disruption for MAX trains on Sunday, Nov. 16.

Crews will replace rubber panels with a more durable concrete structure. The improvements will cost about $261,000 and are part of TriMet’s ongoing investments to ensure our system remains safe and efficient for years to come.
Sunday, Nov. 16 through Wednesday, Nov. 26, access to and from the I-205 multi-use path at NE Pacific Street will be closed. Signs will direct pedestrians and bicyclists to the NE Multnomah Street access path. Please walk bikes in the transit center.
…
We will be placing detour signs for those on bicycle and walking/rolling to use the northern crossing during this time (that lines up with NE Multnomah) and try to catch riders closer to the NE 99th Ave and NE Pacific intersection, to encourage them to use the northern crossing. If riders come further west on NE Pacific, towards the crossing, they will be directed to walk their bikes northward through the Transit Center to use the northern crossing.

We know that this will be a inconvenience to some riders, but the northern crossing of the tracks (that lines up with NE Multnomah) will remain open to access the I-205 path.

Proposed changes to Lloyd Center Mall entrance will face protected bike lane

lloyd center entrance rendering

Plans for the new south-facing mall entrance also include a row of sidewalk-facing storefronts and 34 covered bike parking spaces just inside the garage.
(Images: Waterleaf Architecture via City of Portland. Click to enlarge.)

After decades of keeping its shops (and Portland’s most famous skating rink) behind the bars of its parking garage, the Lloyd Center is planning a change.

As we reported last winter, the new owners of the mall have planned a new “grand entrance” that will slice away part of the rarely crowded garage in order to welcome foot and bike traffic from Multnomah Street, Holladay Park and the Lloyd Center MAX station.

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The Monday Roundup: Beautiful bike parking, Magliozzi’s car freedom and more

planphilly

Nice corral, Philadelphia.
(Photo: PlanPhilly)

This week’s Monday Roundup is sponsored by North St Bags, celebrating their fifth anniversary of making great panniers and backpacks right here in Portland.

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

Beautiful parking: When businesses pay for their own bike corrals, they tend to look really nice.

Car-free mechanic: Tom Magliozzi, the late “Car Talk” host, didn’t own a car and said he preferred bikes and public transit.

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City’s new ‘Street Fund’ proposal would raise $46 million a year

streets-lead

PBOT Director Leah Treat, Mayor Hales, and Commissioner Novick at this morning’s press conference.
(Photo by J. Maus/BikePortland)

At City Hall this morning Mayor Charlie Hales, Transportation Commissioner Steve Novick and PBOT Director Leah Treat unveiled their latest proposal to raise new revenue for transportation. The “Portland Street Fund” would raise $46 million for maintenance and safety projects through a mix of business fees and personal income taxes.

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Car, freight, bike and transit advocates agree to back Oregon gas tax or fee hike in 2015

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The Oregon Trucking Association, AAA and petroleum industry agreed last week not only to back a possible gas tax hike but to support indexing the tax for future automatic increases.
(Photo: C.M. Keiner)

Oregon’s 2015 legislative session is sure to include lots of plot twists for transportation policy. But at least among the key lobbyists, a grand bargain has been struck.

A group of advocates for biking, driving, urban density, public health, the gasoline industry, truck freight, rail fright, cities and public transit agencies — Oregon’s broadest-based organization of transportation interest groups — voted unanimously Thursday on the basic terms of a proposed transportation bill.

The deal brokered by members of the Oregon Transportation Forum would use a gas tax and/or auto fee hike to raise hundreds of millions of dollars over two years for infrastructure around the state.

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ODOT releases ‘ORcycle’ smartphone app to collect biking data

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

The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and a research lab at Portland State University just announced “Orcycle” a smartphone app billed as a way for bicycle riders to share “valuable information” with the agency.

Here’s more from an ODOT press release that just hit our inbox:

Gathering valuable data about how bicyclists use the transportation system has always been a challenge. Starting Nov. 10, a new Smartphone app created by the Transportation Technology and People (TTP) lab at Portland State University, in partnership with ODOT, will provide data that can help planners and others make decisions based on users’ feedback and facts never before gathered in one place. The goal of the app, called ORcycle, is to get cycling data from people who ride bicycles voluntarily contributing via their Smartphone, from anywhere in the state.

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Is Portland the Indianapolis of the future? Six questions for Urbanophile Aaron Renn

aaron renn

Aaron Renn of Urbanophile.com is rarely
dull and didn’t disappoint.
(Photo: Jin Won (James) Park)

For years, people have been convincing Aaron Renn to share his nuanced opinions about Portland. So last week, he finally decided to visit.

Way back in 1998, Renn launched one of the country’s first blogs so he could cover the Chicago Transit Authority. In recent years he’s been based in Indianapolis, running a data analysis startup and sharing thoughts about cities on his website Urbanophile.com and elsewhere.

After Renn returned to Indianapolis, we caught up with him by phone to get his perspectives on the truths and fictions of Portland’s reputation, the ups and downs of our bike infrastructure and his intriguing theory that Portlanders have an existential problem: we might be too similar to each other to have useful disagreements.

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Job: Web Developer – Transportation Research Education Center at PSU

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Job Title
Web Developer

Company/Organization
Transportation Research Education Center at PSU

Job Description
The Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) is the transportation research center at Portland State University. TREC houses large federal grant programs, including the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) along with smaller research programs. The mission of TREC is to advance transportation through research, education, and technology transfer activities. TREC currently operates and maintains a number of complex and dynamic Websites that provide detailed information on grant programs, projects, professional development courses, events, and other essential information. Additionally, TREC will play a role in helping to operate and maintain Portal, the transportation data archive for the Portland-Vancouver region. Portal consists of a ~3 terabyte PostgreSQL transportation data archive and web interface that provides visualization tools for local transportation professionals. Portal is a key tool used by local tr ansportation professionals to help drive decision-making in the region. This position will:

• Assist in implementation, upgrade, integration, and support of TREC-related websites and databases.
• Developing code and scripts to ingest new data sources and an interface to monitor and assess data quality.
• Design, analyze, develop, implement, and maintain enhancements to these systems.
• Troubleshoot, research, communicate, and resolve problems for the TREC Websites and corresponding databases.
• Engage with staff in the implementation and ongoing support of core Websites and databases.

Minimum Qualifications from Classification
This classification requires a basic foundation of knowledge and skills in systems analysis and related programming support functions generally obtained by a bachelor’s degree in computer science, or an equivalent amount of training and applied experience.

Additional Minimum Qualifications for this Position
At least 2 years’ professional experience in web development and support.
At least 2 years’ professional experience with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
At least 2 years’ professional experience with PHP, Python, or Perl.
At least 2 years’ professional experience with MySQL, PostgreSQL, MSSQL, or Oracle.
Experience with all aspects of Drupal (setup, optimization and configuration), custom module development, views and feature modules.
Proven ability to work in a collaborative, technical, team-driven environment.
Bachelor’s of Science

Preferred Qualifications
CodeIgniter and HighCharts experience desirable.

Total Compensation Range
The starting annual salary rate for this position will be between $50,000-$60,000, dependent upon qualifications and experience. Compensation includes an excellent benefits package including 95% premium paid healthcare; a generous retirement and vacation package; and reduced tuition rates for employee, spouse or dependent at any of the Oregon University System schools.

How to Apply
Apply online at: https://jobs.hrc.pdx.edu/postings/14126

Contact: Hau Hagedorn hagedorn@pdx.edu

BikePortland Podcast: What if?

Policymakers Ride 2014-49

What would happen if every local bridge were tolled?
And other speculative but interesting scenarios.
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)

We spend all our time on this website writing about things that are true.

So we decided that it’d be fun to spend 40 minutes talking about things that aren’t.

In the latest episode of our monthly podcast, producer Lillian Karabaic, Jonathan and I sat down for a particularly fun game: inspired by this CityLab post, we took turns proposing improbable (but plausible) events that could change the future of Portland transportation and then making educated (though sometimes wacky) guesses about what would happen next.

We considered scenarios like these:

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