🚨 Please note: BikePortland is currently on hiatus and only publishing guest articles. Learn more here. Thank you. - Jonathan 🙏
This is a story about bike theft that’s not really about bike theft at all.
It started yesterday morning when I saw a tweet showing a photo of two suspicious men waltzing calmly down East Burnside with a bike and pair of bolt-cutters.
The unfortunately named new federal transportation bill, the FAST Act, is headed for a presidential signature after passing the House of Representatives Thursday.
While biking and transit advocates are sounding two cheers for the latest extension of the status quo (rather than the complete car-centrism favored by Koch-funded advocacy groups), it’s a good time to consider the ways transportation differs in cities across the country.
This menu of delicious rides and events is brought to you by our friends at Hopworks Urban Brewery. Their support makes BikePortland possible.
With the hustle and bustle of the “holiday season” on the horizon, it’s time to seize the weekend. Now is the time of year when every chance to ride is something to be cherished, so it makes sense to plan ahead.
What are your plans? Check out our suggestions below…
Global Fat Bike Day Ride – 9:00 am to 1:00 pm at Frenchman’s Bar in Vancouver
Come and ride the shores of the Columbia River with fellow fat bike lovers near and far. Bring snacks and drinks (outdoor coffee kits encouraged). If you need a fat bike rent one from Ride Yr Bike. More info here (FB).
It happened at SE 59th and Powell this past Sunday night at around 11:30 pm. 45-year-old southeast Portland resident Erik Craven was biking home from work when he was hit by a car. The person driving did not stop and has still not been found.
The driver left Erik lying on the street with severe injuries. With no one around to help and with critical injuries to his face, he dialed 911 himself. “He couldn’t even see his phone through the blood,” his friend Tanyastar Kim shared with us via email today.
Next November the tenth annual Singlespeed Cyclocross World Championships — a completely unsanctioned event more commonly known by its acronym SSCXWC — is coming back to Portland.
Some days it’s impossible not to love the City of Portland, where transportation geekery and fun often intersect in memorable ways.
Remember that new signal at NW 11th and Couch we told you about last week? To celebrate it’s activation the bureau of transportation is hosting a dance. A barn dance to be exact. And it will happen in the intersection.
A flurry of end-of-year activity at Portland City Hall Wednesday led to changes in three different stories we’ve been tracking on BikePortland.
With Commissioner Amanda Fritz playing a key role in all three votes, the council agreed to delay changes to pedicab rules that would have required pedicab operators to hold driver’s licenses and have a year of continuous driving experience; to require a one-time “defensive driving” training for taxi, Lyft and Uber workers rather than retrainings every two years; and to allow small accessory dwelling units to be built near the edge of properties as long as they’re no larger than the garages that have long been allowed near property lines.
A new position currently being offered by the Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) bureau could have a huge impact on the future of off-road cycling.
PP&R’s new Land Stewardship Division Manager will be a senior-level manager who will make between $95,000 and $128,000 and will report directly to bureau director Mike Abbaté. Currently when Parks approaches a large policy or project they use a number of different types of planners and managers who all report to one project manager. This new position would, “bring together all land management expertise, knowledge and strategies under one manager.”
Here are the responsibilities of the new position as taken from the official job description:
Responsibilities include planning, organizing, directing and evaluating the programs, activities, and personnel of the division of approximately 150 employees who protect, maintain, restore and enhance the 11,000 acres of land managed by the Bureau that are part of a regionally ecologically significant system of open spaces, ranging from natural resource areas to highly developed parks to active recreation facilities. This position also oversees ecologists, horticultural services, community gardens, a plant nursery, turf and irrigation maintenance, environmental education, the integrated pest management program, and the recreational trails program.
As we shared last month, the Oregon Department of Transportation has finished the first draft of a major update to our Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan.
Update 1:25 pm: This article was based on a Nov. 2 interview, but we didn’t check with the city again before publishing; we should have. Since Nov. 2, the city has done new research and is also speaking about the issues differently. We’ve changed the headline to reflect that. See the bottom of the post for more information.
Making bike-share systems useful to poorer people has been one of the thorniest problems in North American bike sharing.
One reason is probably that you need a credit or debit card to access most bike-share systems, and almost 20 percent of American households that earn less than $30,000 a year don’t have bank accounts. Another reason, presumably, is that bike share memberships cost upwards of $100 a year or (in Portland’s case) $2.50 per nonmember ride.
https://vimeo.com/146133783
Welcome to today’s post-Thanksgiving video roundup! Today we’re starting with video from downhiller/4Xer Katy Curd. Lean back and enjoy a video without music or overediting.
What’s the best way to separate bike and auto traffic?
Portland hasn’t built many protected bike lanes yet, but the ones it has include dabbles in every major separation method, from the mountable curbs on Northeast Cully to the plastic posts on the Hawthorne Bridge viaduct to the thick fence on the Morrison Bridge to the big round planters on Northeast Multnomah to the parked cars on Southwest Broadway.