2015 Archives

Weekend Event Guide: Freak biking, disaster biking, women biking and more

The Disaster Relief Trials is a fun event, but the purpose behind it is very serious.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

This menu of delicious rides and events is brought to you by our friends at Hopworks Urban Brewery. Their support makes BikePortland possible.

If you’ve been wanting to ride new sections of the Historic Columbia River Highway, this weekend is a perfect opportunity to do it. You can ride out about 50 miles to enjoy a brewery party on Saturday or check out the cyclocross racing vibes on Sunday. If you stick around Portland you can partake in some freak biking or take a tour of the many excellent new murals that have popped up around town recently.

If you do head out, plan for some mid-60s weather and rain (forecast posted below)

Have a great weekend!

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Do you live, work or play in Vancouver (our lovely neighbors to the north)? If you do, and you want to help make biking better, Clark County is looking for a few people to serve on their Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee.

See all the details in the official press release below…

Contact: Gary Albrecht, Community Planning, (360) 397-2280 ext. 4318;
gary.albrecht@clark.wa.gov

Bicycle and pedestrian advisory group offers opportunity to serve

Vancouver, WA – Clark County is seeking applicants to fill seven positions on the 13-member Clark Communities Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee.

Volunteer service is a four-year term. Residents living anywhere in Clark County can apply. People with experience and expertise in advocating for biking, walking, transit, active transportation, mobility issues, public speaking or serving on boards and commissions are encouraged to apply.

Read more

A few words of advice for folks working to conquer hills

It’s a long way up, but you can do it if you want.
(Photo M.Andersen/BikePortland)

For a lot of us, Tilikum Crossing is a hill.

Portland’s newest bridge is 77 feet above the water at the peak, and that means there’s a steady grade of just under 5 percent for hundreds of feet. That’s different than Portland’s other bridges, most of which rest a bit lower and focus their grade into shorter climbs on either end.

Was riding north from downtown yesterday 10/14 approximately 5:15pm, stopped at the bike light for the steel bridge cross through to the colosseum. There were a ton of cyclists at the light. A lady, mid to late 20’s, was yelling loudly from the top steel sidewalk towards the bike light. She ran up to the queue and shoved the guy behind me, but didn’t knock him over, then meandered back towards the steel ranting along the way. Guy said he was fine and a couple of people were on the phone, appeared to be calling it in so I rolled when the light turned.

Nosey nelly alert, spent 5 minutes looking up arrests this morning while downing my morning cup. Didn’t see anything, was curious if anyone stuck around?

Weyerhaeuser enforcing gravel road permits amid confusion over public right-of-way

The logging roads northwest of Vernonia are spectacular, but not all of them are open to public access.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Several weeks ago a group of bicycle riders ran into a security guard while riding dirt roads outside of Vernonia. The incident shows that Weyerhaeuser Columbia Timberlands is actively enforcing the new permit program they launched back in July. It has also set off an effort by Columbia County Parks to create new signage that clarifies which roads the public is still free to use without a permit.

Willamette Greenway Trail through Riverplace-5.jpg

Riverplace has shops, restaurants, and lots of tourists.
It also has a popular path running right through it.
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

The Friends of Riverplace formed earlier this year to help reclaim South Waterfront Park and the Riverplace Marina from “loitering, drug dealing, and off-leash dogs.” The group, made up of property owners, condominium residents and business owners in the area, does regular foot patrols has had success in improving safety for the many tourists, restaurant-goers and others who frequent the area.

Now they’re focused on a different problem: people who ride bikes on the path with no regard for the safety of others.

The bike, with light tucked under the bars
for safe(r) keeping.

It started with a gut feeling and ended with a guy riding away shaking his head after his failed attempt to steal a light off someone’s bike.

A few minutes ago I was walking on SW Oak Street between 5th and 4th on my way to the post office with two big boxes in my hands (mailing out posters to our 100 first subscribers!) when I saw a guy riding toward me. The first thing that caught my eye was that he was biking on the sidewalk. I also noticed he had an old bag slung over his shoulders. I have spidey senses for everyone on a bike downtown. I notice them all. It’s what I do. This guy in particular set off signals in my head not only because he was riding on the sidewalk but his head was on a swivel as he seemed to be checking out parked bikes.

He could have just been a generally bike-curious dude like I am. Or he could have been a thief. It was just a hunch; but a hunch that comes from years of covering bike theft and seeing how this stuff goes down. As we both came closer to a nice new Kona cyclocross bike I thought to myself: If he stares at it and then stops, gets off his bike and approaches it, I’m going to watch him closely.

And sure enough, that’s what he did.

Golden scissors, a red ribbon, coffee and pastries, television cameras and a large crowd that included Bureau of Transportation staff, business owners and neighborhood advocates.

From the looks of this morning’s event at the intersection of North Vancouver and Cook you’d think the city was celebrating the completion of a major project or milestone.

A Hillsboro police photo from the aftermath.

Two police officers and the City of Hillsboro are on course to defend themselves in a jury trial over their choice to Taser a man who they’d stopped for biking illegally beside Tualatin Valley Highway.

The man who was tackled and Tasered in the 2012 incident, Jermaine Robinson, had been riding after dark without a front light on his bike, and the officer who stopped him says Robinson had been crossing the Southeast 13th Avenue crosswalk against a “don’t walk” light.

After the officer, William Blood, pulled his car over to confront Robinson, Robinson refused to give his name and (according to Blood, but not Robinson) seemed to be preparing to pedal away. Blood’s colleague Brian Wilber then shot him with a Taser twice.

Key concepts in the NACTO guide.
(Photos: NACTO)

After a year and a half of lobbying, the Oregon Department of Transportation has formally recommended that its street designers look for ideas in one of the country’s most progressive bikeway design books.

The Urban Bikeway Design Guide by the National Association of City Transportation Officials was one of the country’s first official documents to include design elements like protected bike lanes, bike boulevards, floating bus stops and bike-specific traffic signals. Some of its concepts are already in Oregon’s in-house bikeway design guide, but NACTO has asked allied states and cities to endorse its guide in order to lend legitimacy to the designs in less progressive states.

Metro volunteer Randi Wexler passes out a survey card at the west end of the Tilikum Bridge.
(Photo by M. Andersen/BikePortland)

Have you been wondering why someone shouted questions to you as you rode across the Tilikum Bridge today?

Weekend Event Guide: Freak biking, disaster biking, women biking and more

Advocate: Clark County wants you to serve on Bike/Ped Advisory Committee

A few words of advice for folks working to conquer hills

yeller yesterday @ ne oregon and ne lloyd blvd

Weyerhaeuser enforcing gravel road permits amid confusion over public right-of-way

Group proposes bicycling barrier on Willamette Greenway Trail through Riverplace

I just stopped a theft in progress

Why the new traffic signal at N Cook and Vancouver is such a big deal

Federal trial lined up for police who Tasered Hillsboro man after bike infraction

Oregon is 8th state to officially endorse progressive street design guide

Metro is doing a 12-hour bicycling survey on the Tilikum Bridge today

Latest Headlines

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From the Archives

The 10 busiest bicycling spots in Portland