🚨 Please note: BikePortland is currently on hiatus and only publishing guest articles. Learn more here. Thank you. - Jonathan 🙏
With walkers and in strollers, on hopalongs and (in the case of quite a few happily panting dogs) on leashes, Portlanders packed a series of previews Sunday of Tilikum Crossing, the first bridge in the United States to carry buses, bikes, trains, streetcars and people walking but no private cars.
For at least one last time, the squeaky wheel known as Jim Parsons has gotten some grease onto the gears of government.
After the veteran Portland-area bike advocate’s unsanctioned paint job of two sunken grates in Barbur Boulevard’s bike lanes landed them on TV news for two consecutive days, the Oregon Department of Transportation said Friday that it’ll follow his recommendations for addressing the problem within the next week or two.
An agency spokesman added that ODOT owes thanks to Parsons, who recently finished a degree at Portland State University and is planning a move to China.
Southeast Foster Road feels a long way from the heart of Portland’s transportation conversation at the moment. But that’s not going to last long.
Next year, right in the middle of Portland’s mayoral election, Foster is scheduled to be the site of the city’s most ambitious road diet yet, a conversion of passing lanes to bike and turn lanes that’s widely expected to create auto spillover onto other streets even as it dramatically improves the safety of driving or crossing Foster, which is currently one of the city’s 10 high-crash corridors.
The new bike lanes will be nothing more than paint, but six-foot-wide or buffered. And in a comment beneath Tuesday’s story exploring how to divvy up Portland’s bike-infrastructure budgets, BikePortland reader Gutterbunnybikes made an interesting case that those bike lanes will be more important than you think.
Why? Because unlike almost every other bike lane in Portland, they’re going to run right through commercial districts.
The annual Hood to Coast running relay is understandably celebrated as a signature Northwest event. But if you’ve ever participated, you know that it involves a lot of motor vehicles.
What a hassle!
Two weeks from today, a squad of Portlanders is inviting a few people to join a trial run of an interesting experiment: a Hood-to-Coast style running relay that relies on bikes, not vans, for support. Here’s the description of the “Peak to Rising Tide” relay from organizer Jamey Harris:
This menu of delicious rides and events is brought to you by our friends at Hopworks Urban Brewery. Their support makes BikePortland possible.
Highs around 80, lows in the 60s and partly cloudy — now that’s what I call Portland summer. Which makes it extra perfect for an event like Bridge Pedal. Whatever we’re up to, let’s enjoy it.
Portland Bicycle Studio Mountain Bike Demo – noon-5 p.m. at Skibowl on Mount Hood
Test ride new Giant-brand mountain bikes on the mountain Friday and Saturday. Includes trail access and a $20 all-day lift ticket. (Also see below.) Shuttle available. More info here.
Grill by Bike – 5 p.m. at Laurelhurst Park (3700 SE Ankeny St)
The fire-fueled bike-fun club meets for a ride to a live taping of the Sprocket Podcast’s 250th episode. Meet with grillables at the north-central corner of the park and get ready to ride on fire. More info here.
We’ve had one new job listed this week. Learn more about it here…
Job Title *
Bike Warehouse Person
Company/Organization *
Midwest Bicycle Supply
Job Description *
Shipping, Receiving, Inventory, work up New catalog. (it needs it bad). Let your imagination go wild, we need you.
Our pay is $10.00 per hour. If you stay with us we will pay for 1 week next winter. Plus 7 days ie, Jan 1, Pres. day July 4th, Memorial day, Labor day. Thanksgiving. and Christmas. General cleaning of office , warehouse
It would be nice if you know basic computer language,
call for more info or if you have questions
Thanks for reading this.
How to Apply *
To apply you can either call or e-Mail }@ mbs@midwestbicycle.com} us here. Our phone is #651-646-9716. We are located at 809 Carleton Street. one block north of university ave and one block East of Raymond Ave.
Portlanders on cargo bikes and trikes will deliver soup, fresh produce, food cart meals, beer and (of course) tamales to your door.
This summer, add another item to the menu: fancy ice cream.
For $24 a month, you can now be a member of King Creamery’s Ice Cream Club and get a bike delivery of three pints of the Northeast Portland-based King family’s latest ice cream concoction. This month’s flavors: “Banana Stand,” “Peaches & Cream” and “Mint Cookies.”
One-month purchases are also available for $25.
“I’ve been making ice cream for, gosh, it’s been eight years or so,” said Jason King, who co-founded the company this spring with his wife, Yvonne. “My wife wanted to have an ice cream party for her birthday one year, so I bought an ice cream machine, and I really got kind of obsessed with making it.”
Central-city apartment dwellers might want to start looking into that whole car-free thing pretty soon.
An advisory committee composed almost entirely of residents of residential zones gave a general thumbs-up Wednesday night to a city proposal that could let residents of residential zones vote to prevent people who live on commercial streets from buying overnight parking permits in their neighborhoods.
Because most of Portland’s commercial main streets are zoned for mixed-use or employment, the proposed parking permit system — which would also charge residential permit holders a yet-to-be determined monthly or annual fee for curbside parking — would effectively let residents just off of commercial corridors remove curbside parking rights from residents of most nearby multifamily buildings.
The city’s idea is that such a system would lead developers of buildings on commercial corridors to include more on-site auto parking in their new buildings, or else to market their buildings more successfully to car-free residents.
Update: After this and other media coverage of Parsons’ action and ODOT’s repsonse, the agency has announced plans to fix the grates and says it is grateful for Parsons’ work.
A local man who says he’s been warning state officials for seven years about a sunken grate in the middle of Barbur Boulevard’s northbound bike lane has finally gotten some action from the agency.
After he marked the grate himself with yellow warning paint and with the letters “ODOT KNOWS,” the agency is planning to visit the site … to erase his paint.
In a Wednesday email to the man, Jim Parsons, an Oregon Department of Transportation staffer with the title “citizen’s representative” scolded him for what she said would make the street more dangerous.
The organization that supports and coordinates the country’s state and local active transportation advocacy groups has a new boss, and she’s a Portlander.
The Alliance for Biking and Walking, which counts the Bicycle Transportation Alliance and Oregon Walks among its many affiliates, announced Monday that it’s named Breen Goodwin as its new executive director. Though the Alliance has been based in Washington, D.C., since its founding in the late 1990s, Goodwin will be based in Portland.
“This is a special place for my family,” Goodwin, who grew up in Tacoma and who still has family there, explained in a brief interview Wednesday from her current workplace.
As redevelopment proposals for Northwest Portland’s big post office have moved forward, some insiders have been talking about an exciting concept for the site: a flyover ramp that could directly connect the bridge’s 30-foot-high Y-shaped west landing with a new north-south bikeway through the Park Blocks.
Envisioned as a key link in a proposed Green Loop biking path around the central city, a well-designed route through what’s supposed to become a major mixed-use employment and residential development would certainly be costly if it took the form of a floating path — but would also seem likely to become one of Portland’s most iconic pieces of bike infrastructure, reminiscent of Copenhagen’s new Bicycle Snake.