🚨 Please note: BikePortland is currently on hiatus and only publishing guest articles. Learn more here. Thank you. - Jonathan 🙏
On Friday afternoon the Portland Police Bureau issued a statement about the crash in May that killed 23-year old Reed graduate Mark Angeles. The woman who was driving the truck at the time of the collision, 40-year old Jolene Friedow, has been given a traffic citation and will not face criminal charges for her actions.
Portland’s current mayoral frontrunner says that if he wins next year, he’ll take over the transportation bureau and rewrite its budget from scratch.
In an interview with Oregonian columnist David Sarasohn, mayoral hopeful Ted Wheeler said the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s current budget is “byzantine” and that its street system is “a patient on the table bleeding to death.”
“As mayor, Wheeler would assign himself the transportation bureau (along with the mayorally expected police bureau), and start redesigning its budget from zero,” Sarasohn reported in a column published Friday afternoon.
Portland’s mayor doesn’t have many actual powers beyond those of the other four commissioners on the city council. The main difference is that it’s up to the mayor to decide which commissioner gets administrative authority over each of the city’s 19 bureaus and offices.
This week’s Monday Roundup is sponsored by Walnut, the Portland-based leather goods maker whose new Travel Dice set is perfect for taking along on your next bike tour.
Here are the bike-related links from around the world that caught our eyes this week:
Death map: A new online map shows 373,377 dots — one for every person who died in a motor vehicle crash in the United States from 2004 to 2013. You can filter for incidents related to alcohol, speeding and distracted driving.
#NoCarForMe: NPR’s hashtag campaign offers an impressive variety of offbeat and/or appealing ways to get around.
The woman who was driving the car that killed Mark Angeles back in May has been given a traffic citation.
The Portland Police Bureau announced today that the Multnomah County District Attorney has decided to not pursue criminal charges in the case against Jolene Friedow. With their investigation concluded, Ms.Friedow has been issued a ticket for making a dangerous left turn, a violation that carries a maximum fine of $260.
Here’s more from the official statement:
On November 3, 2015, a Portland Police Bureau Traffic Division Fatal Investigator issued a traffic citation to a driver involved in a fatal crash with a bicycle rider in May 2015.
40-year-old Jolene Friedow was issued a traffic citation for Oregon Revised Statue 811.350 (Dangerous Left Turn) as a result of the investigation into the traffic death of 22-year-old Mark Angeles. The violation carries a fine of up to $260.00.
More and more Portlanders are choosing to bike.
That’s the great news being confirmed this year by one data point after another. The latest: a city auditor’s survey released Friday, which estimated that fully 9 percent of Portlanders bike to work during the summer — the second consecutive year of increase.
Road racing legend Eddy “The Cannibal” Merckx turned 70 this year. To mark the occasion he had 70 very special bikes made and offered them to his worldwide fan base at the cool price of $17,500 a piece.
Only 10 “Eddy 70” bikes have been sold in the United States and two of them ended up at Burlingame Bikes in southwest Portland.
The Portland Police Bureau has released a new video that aims to explain why they do speed enforcement. Put simply, the video’s narrator Officer Ron Hoesly says, it’s because “speed kills.”
Portland-based bicycle parts distributor Cyclone Bicycle Supply is experiencing a major growth spurt. The company just finalized the purchase of Action Bicycle USA, a distributor based in New Jersey. The acquisition will significantly expand Cyclone’s dealer network both in terms of volume and geographic coverage.
Cyclone currently has about 2,000 dealers with most of them west of the Rockies. Add that to the 1,000 dealers on the east coast they just took over as owners of Action Bicycle and Cyclone now has over 3,000 dealers nationwide.
In addition to growing their dealer network, Cyclone is also doubling their Portland warehouse space from 50,000 to 100,000 square feet and hiring new sales reps.
Portland State’s football team isn’t the only thing getting national attention these days: the school is now ranked among the top five in the country in terms of its bike-friendliness.
One of the cool things about having a good friend or a partner with a different knowledge set than you is that it gives you access to expertise without having to be an expert in everything yourself. Since my partner is a bike mechanic, it means I don’t have to master a headset press — and he doesn’t have to master WordPress.
Although I’m very familiar with basic bike maintenance, I’m by no means an expert. Sure, I understand how to adjust my derailleur, but I’m always going on guesswork. And un-expert guesswork, at that.
That’s the problem that the new derailleur tuning system from OTTO DesignWorks, a startup based a few miles south of Portland in Wilsonville, is trying to solve. Their OTTO Tuning System uses an iPhone’s camera, visual alignment technology, and a set of gauges to help you quickly adjust your derailleur. It’s compatible with most Shimano and SRAM 9-, 10- and 11-speed cassettes, and costs $39.
This menu of delicious rides and events is brought to you by our friends at Hopworks Urban Brewery. Their support makes BikePortland possible.
This weekend there are three big sales to choose from so it’s a good time to get a jump start on your holiday shopping or fill out your riding wardrobe with a few key pieces. If you’re smart, you’ll make sure you have some great rain gear because we’ve got many more wet days ahead.
What are your plans for the weekend?
Here’s the weather forecast:
Slowly but surely the Portland Bureau of Transportation is re-claiming Southeast Clinton street as a place where bicycle riding is prioritized.
