2015 Archives

Bike Farm launches pay-what-you-can wrench night for Spanish speakers

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Wrench time at Bike Farm.
(Photo courtesy Bike Farm)

Portland’s volunteer-driven do-it-yourself bike repair shop kicked off 2015 with a cool initiative: a night for people who speak Spanish or are learning to.

Bike Farm’s second monthly Noche Bilingüe is Tuesday, Feb. 10, from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Assuming interest keeps growing, it’ll continue on the second Tuesday of each month.

Bike Farm, located just north of NE Broadway at 1810 NE 1st Ave is a place where anyone can rent a repair stand for $5 an hour and use tools and free advice from volunteers and other users. You can also skip the hourly fees by purchasing a membership.

Commissioner Amanda Fritz in 2011.
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)

The 2016 election cycle is revving up all over the country, Portland City Hall included.

City Commissioner Amanda Fritz surprised many local political pundits yesterday when she announced her plans to seek a third term. The announcement came the same day that the once-marginalized city council member won a 4-1 vote to dedicate 50 percent of surplus money over the next four years to “infrastructure maintenance and replacement” for roads, parks and emergency services.

The Oregonian reports that Fritz’s proposal will apply to “one-time funding identified during the annual budget process or excess money carried from one budget to the next.” It’s apparently intended as a sort of make-up call for the city’s infamous failure to follow through on a 1988 plan to dedicate 28 percent of utility license fees for transportation.

Opposing Fritz’s measure was her colleague Dan Saltzman, who said the council was “setting ourselves up to be criticized” by attempting to tie the hands of future councils.

Grab your three-speed and head to Velo Cult on Saturday.
(Photo by J. Maus/BikePortland)

Welcome to your menu of weekend rides and events, lovingly brought to you by our friends at Hopworks Urban Brewery.

Seriously. Is this weather amazing or what? You better get while the gettin’s good when it comes to biking in winter because it doesn’t get any better than this.

And I hope you don’t have plans for Saturday yet because we’ve got a very full slate of rides and events for you to choose from.

Have a great weekend!

Friday, January 30th

New push-button beacon on Springwater path at 136th.
(Photo: Gretchin Lair)

Whenever biking/walking paths cross larger streets there can be a potential for conflict. Path users might get lulled into a false sense of security while users of the street — especially if they’re moving fast in a car — might not expect cross traffic.

We’re happy to report that one such crossing is now a bit safer thanks to the installation of a flashing crossing beacon. Reader Gretchin Lair sent us several photos of the new beacon that has been installed on the Springwater Corridor path where it crosses SE 136th (map).

They’re coming for you tacks!
(Photo: Multnomah County)

Three weeks after we heard our first reports of thumbtacks scattered somewhere around the ramps of the Hawthorne Bridge, fresh reports keep coming in.

(Image via ProspectPDX)

A downtown consulting firm is hosting a conversation tomorrow morning about one of Portland’s most persistent ideas: a cap over the Interstate 405 freeway.

Spinlister CEO Marcelo Loureiro (L) and CMO Andrew Batey in Portland earlier this month.
(Photo by J. Maus/BikePortland)

Portland is the market Spinlister could no longer ignore.

Crosswalk enforcement action NE Killingsworth-2

The warnings don’t seem to stop folks from breaking the law.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

While everyone likes to argue about which type of roads users break more laws — and we are currently being forced to have the tired debate all over again thanks to a well-intentioned but misguided legislative concept — the Portland Bureau of Transportation is doing their part to address the issue.

PBOT’s Crosswalk Enforcement Action program has been going strong since 2005. We checked in on one back in September and have reported on them many times over the years. The idea is simple: Place a human decoy (sometimes a notable politician but more often PBOT safety staffer Sharon White) in a crosswalk and wait for people to break the law while a phalanx of Portland Police motorcycle officers wait in the wings, armed with radar guns and quick twists of the throttle to chase people down.

The efforts are usually quite fruitful and they offer us a small window into the rampant disregard many road users have for the law.

Transportation Commissioner Steve Novick in 2014.
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)

When is a traffic study not a traffic study?

“Let’s work together to make Barbur safer,” Portland Transportation Commissioner Steve Novick wrote in October 2013, promising that “the Portland Bureau of Transportation will commit the time and resources to work with ODOT and engage the surrounding communities to see the impacts of a possible road diet and find the right solution.”

Now, some of the advocates who helped persuade Novick to make that commitment are saying it’s still unfulfilled.

Orange bikes seem a strange
way to promote a gym.
(Photo: Orangetheory Fitness/FB)

A marketing campaign that has generated backlash in several other cities for its similarity to ghost bikes has been launched in Beaverton and Tigard.

In the past two days we’ve received several reader tips about mysterious, spray-painted orange bikes locked up around Beaverton. One person thought they were a public art project.

Today we asked our friends on Twitter if they’d heard anything and we heard back from Tom at Seattle Bike Blog. He said the bikes were the work of a marketing campaign by a company called Orangetheory Fitness and pointed us to an article about the bikes published by The Stranger back in April 2014.

A few clicks later and we confirmed that Orangetheory has indeed placed the same orange bikes throughout the Beaverton area to promote their new Tigard location.

“With this decision, the future of mountain bike racing in state of Oregon has a somewhat brighter outlook.”
— Park Chambers, owner of Fat Tire Farm

A lawsuit many feared would have an ominous ripple-effect on mountain bike race promotion in the state of Oregon has been withdrawn.

As we shared earlier this month, Lisa Belair-Sullivan filed a lawsuit against a race promoter and sponsor after she crashed and injured herself on a log that had fallen across a trail. Belair-Sullivan was warming up for the Dog River Super D mountain bike race in May. Her lawsuit contended that event promoter Petr Kakes of Hurricane Racing and Park Chambers of Fat Tire Farm (a shop who was the title sponsor of the event) created a safety hazard that she was unable to avoid.

On January 9th, we confirmed with Belair-Sullivan that she withdrew the case. While she has yet to make an official public statement, Park Chambers issued one on January 23rd. We’ve pasted the statement below in its entirety:

Rolling through Hillsdale.
(Photo by J. Maus/BikePortland)

The second week of February (9-13) will be Southwest Portland Week here on BikePortland.

That entire week, News Editor Michael Andersen and I will be stationed in a secret bunker (probably a pub or coffee shop in Multnomah Village) where we’ll focus our editorial output on the issues, projects, businesses, and people of southwest Portland.

If you recall our East Portland Week last summer, you’ll have some idea of what to expect. The basic idea with these focused coverage events is to open our eyes to places that we don’t cover — or physically inhabit — as often as we’d like to. Sure, we have sources all over the region and we can cover places we never visit; but it’s just the not the same as being there.

Bike Farm launches pay-what-you-can wrench night for Spanish speakers

Amanda Fritz touts street funding plan and hopes for third term

Weekend Event Guide: Women’s only, 3-speeds, a bike party, and more

Friday, January 30th

New flashing beacon on Springwater path at SE 136th

County now using magnetic sweeper to pick up tacks off Hawthorne Bridge path

Meetup Thursday kicks off new push for land bridge over I-405

Spinlister sees Portland as key city for its peer-to-peer bike rental service

Entering 10th year, PBOT ‘crosswalk enforcement actions’ still going strong

Safety advocate to Novick: Where’s the Barbur study you requested?

Company places 14 orange bikes in Beaverton as part of marketing ploy

Lawsuit stemming from crash during mountain bike race is withdrawn

Get ready for Southwest Portland Week!

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