Summer stops by for a weekend, and Portland explodes with bikes

I disagree, Wells. I think the myopic focus on cycling ONLY as transportation is a BIG part of what’s holding Portland back. This is why cycling doesn’t have broad enough support in Portland to gain political traction to fund the big improvements needed to take things to the next level.

I say this having recently moved from Portland to Minneapolis – which has several times the density of recreational bike paths as the Portland area. The density is sufficient to make them actually useful for transportation as well as recreation – often, they are really a good way to get from one place to another, especially for longer commutes (though they do still impose beg-button delays at too many arterial crossings).

But not only that, having more bike paths gets more people out biking, and – this is really, really important – builds a broader base of support for biking. Agencies in the Twin Cities are confidently spending tens of millions of dollars this year alone to improve bike infrastructure — because they know they have the political support to do it. And in the Portland area they do not. I’m beginning to think that this is also reflected to some degree in the much higher degree of hostility towards cyclists seen in both the media and in drivers on the road, in Portland compared with MSP.

Efforts to promote transportation cycling in Portland have been successful (at least to a point), and have made Portland solidly #1 in transportation cycling. But it is not #1 in cycling overall: Minnesota is the #1 cycling state per capita, and Oregon is NOT. I think the friendliness of the infrastructure to casual cyclists is a big part of that. Bike lanes are nice for more enthusiastic and confident riders like myself, and those who ride exclusively for transportation, but they are only part of the picture. Especially if you ask the broader population whose support you need (and do not have). A few years ago I had a co-worker who had recently moved to Portland from Boulder and asked me, “Where are all the bike paths? In Boulder we have them all over the place! I thought Portland was supposed to be great for biking.”

And that brings me back to the original topic of how we all spent the weekend. I spent a good chunk of mine enjoying Portland’s few car-free bike paths, thank you very much. Didn’t feel like dodging speeding cars, especially since warm spring weather impairs a lot of drivers’ decision-making. And frankly, maybe I’m getting a little spoiled by all the wonderful trails in the Twin Cities. Saturday I rode the MAX line out to Gresham and biked all the way back to Hillsboro (40+ miles), taking in large stretches of the Gresham-Fairview and Springwater trails, and stopping at fun places like Cartlandia on the way (though of course I had to revert to roads once I hit the west side of the river). Yesterday I enjoyed a nice ride in the Gorge from McCord Creek to Cascade Locks and back. Also on no-car bike paths.

What in Hade’s name is a sowa and a sellwa? No, I don’t actually want to know, thank you very much.

Are you the same Wells who wrote this on the Portland Tribune’s page? “Mountain bikers exhibit callous disregard for the safety of pedestrians on both narrow trails and wide walkways. Forest Park should be considered a nature preserve, not a motocross playground.”