Month: February 2017

Job: Full Time Mountain Bike Sales – Fat Tire Farm

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Job Title *
Full Time Mountain Bike Sales

Company/Organization *
Fat Tire Farm

Job Description *
The Fat Tire Farm is the Northwest’s premier mountain bike shop and was recently selected by Bicycling Magazine as one of the top 100 bike shops in the country. We’re a small shop with a highly-skilled, tight-knit staff, and are looking for a full-time salesperson who’ll be able to mix well with our crew. This is currently a seasonal position with the potential to be a full-time, year-round position. We’re a mountain bike shop, but we ride everything: downhill, street, road, DJ, trail, XC, BMX, ‘cross, and don’t judge riders of any discipline.

QUALIFICATIONS:
Previous bike shop mechanic experience (at least 2 years).
Extensive current knowledge of a wide variety of bike types, particularly full-suspension mountain bikes, accessories, tools, etc.
Oral and written communication skills.

RESPONSIBILITIES:
Produce consistently high quality work in a fast-paced environment.
Maintain high level of customer service.
Maintain a clean and organized workspace.

How to Apply *
Please email resumes to barry@fattirefarm.com

Job: Full-Time Suspension Technician – Traction Works Suspension Shop

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Job Title *
Full-Time Suspension Technician

Company/Organization *
Traction Works Suspension Shop

Job Description *
Traction Works is the Northwest’s premier mountain bike suspension service center. We’re a small shop with a highly-skilled staff, and are looking for a full-time mechanic who’ll be able to maintain a high level of work in a fast-paced environment. This is currently a seasonal position with the potential to be a full-time, year-round position.

QUALIFICATIONS:
Previous bike shop mechanic experience (at least 2 years).
Extensive current knowledge of a wide variety of suspension forks and shocks.
General mechanical aptitude (ability to understand how things work and apply concepts to practice).
Proficiency with at least basic service on Fox and RockShox forks.

COMPENSATION:
Generous pay, medical and dental, 401k match, paid vacation after 1 year of FT employment.

How to Apply *
Please email resumes to jeff@traction-works.com

With $8 million up for grabs, Portland kicks off series of Safe Routes to School open houses tonight

Bike to School Day in NoPo-6

(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

Have traffic safety concerns in your neighborhood that prevent you and your kids from biking to school? Listen up…

Thanks to the voter-approved, 10-cent increase in the local gas tax, the City of Portland Bureau of Transportation expects to raise about $64 million over the next four years. The money will be spent on a wide range of projects between now and 2020. About $8 million of that total amount is set aside specifically for making it safer and easier for people to walk, bike, and roll to school. This is important because safety concerns are a major barrier to people when deciding how they’ll get their kids to school. The most recent City survey of people who live 1-2 miles away from their school found that 51 percent of respondents were concerned about traffic safety — more than any other limiting factor in their travel choice.

Now PBOT wants to hear your feedback to make sure this $8 million helps ameliorate those concerns.

Read more

Help TriMet make transit better

Bus and bikes

As transit goes, so goes biking.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

Like flowing water that takes the path of least resistance, so too will people when deciding how to get from point-A to point-B. Unfortunately in Portland today, driving a private car is still way too cheap and easy so it’s not surprising that the majority of people still prefer to drive.

To get the transportation results we need in order to save lives, save time, save money, and save our health; we must make options to driving more attractive. In Portland that means we must get more out of our significant investment in transit.

While they’re good at chasing mega-projects (including ones that have nothing to do with transit), TriMet is not doing enough to make bus service great. The result is fewer people taking transit — and more importantly, more people opting to drive.

Read more

Register Now For The 2017 Bike Tourism Summit

Travel Oregon will be hosting the 2017 Oregon Bike Tourism Summit on March 21, 2017 at the Oregon Zoo in Portland. As with the inaugural Oregon Bike Tourism Summit in 2016, this event will be held in conjunction with the 2017 Oregon Active Transportation Summit.

You can register for this event on the 2017 Oregon Active Transportation Summit website (http://https//www.thestreettrust.org/active-transportation-summit/).

The 2017 Oregon Bike Tourism Summit aims to continue to build upon the ongoing work of the Oregon Bicycle Tourism Partnership. This year’s conference will dive deep into the emerging discussions on the formation a statewide trails association in the morning before moving into a keynote on world-class cycle routes from Louise Böhler of the German National Cyclists’ Association focused on the AFDC “quality routes” certification program and an update on the Oregon Timber Trail. The afternoon will focus on small group work considering how to build out world-class routes. The program will end with a reception featuring bike tour operators, guides and outfitters.

Bicycle tourism stakeholders, including bicycle tour operators, event producers, land management organizations, transportation and land use planning organizations, destination marketing organizations, trail organizations, advocacy organizations, and marketing and media organizations, are all encouraged to attend.

Learn more and review the draft agenda on Travel Oregon’s website (http://industry.traveloregon.com/industry-resources/product-development/bicycle-tourism-development/oregon-bicycle-tourism-summit/)

The Ride: A return to Timber’s snowy, logjammed backroads

(Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

The Timber Logjam ride is a symbol of modern adventure cycling culture. Without formal organization or promotion, word of the ride spread through social media. And by Saturday, as welcome sun beat down through frigid air on the Banks trailhead of the Banks-Vernonia State Trail, about 70 people were on their bikes and ready to ride.

Read more

The Monday Roundup: Hairdryers, the folly of “fixing congestion”, Sweden’s bike-friendly apartments, and more

Ominous cloud: In what appears to be the most tangible impact so far of Trump’s influence on infrastructure, his administration has cancelled a project that was set to electrify a popular commuter rail line in the California bay area.

DIY anti-speeding trick: A town in Scotland has happened upon a novel method of cracking down on fast drivers: Hairdryers.

Don’t widen roads. Please: As Oregon appears set for another road-widening binge, it’s worth brushing up on your reading about why this method of “congestion relief” is a bad idea. We came across two great explainers this week: One from The Plaza Perspective and one from Driving.ca.

More housing = less congestion?: As Portland girds for freeway widening debates, it’s time to consider the link between congestion and the lack of affordable housing.

No to red light cams: As Portland expands its automated enforcement programs we’re watching how other states handle the issue. In Florida, a place with the worst road safety record in the nation, a ban on red light cameras is moving forward.

Read more

After year of tragedies, City returns to outer Division with an apology and a plan

Outer Division Safety Meeting-12.jpg

PBOT’s yard signs were very popular last night.
(Photos: J. Maus/BikePortland)

Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman apologized to residents of the Jade District in person last night for a spate of fatal traffic crashes on outer Division Street.

Speaking as the new commissioner-in-charge of the transportation bureau, Saltzman stood in front of a mostly Chinese-speaking crowd and said, “We’re sorry and we’re bound and determined to do something about that.”

18 months ago in the exact same room as the meeting Saltzman attended last night — the Jade/APANO Multicultural Space on the corner of 82nd and Division — the City of Portland launched their Vision Zero effort. The Bureau of Transportation didn’t plan on coming back, but since that celebratory launch five people have died and three others have suffered life-altering injuries on outer Division. When two Chinese immigrants died trying to cross the street in separate collisions within just hours of each other back in December, PBOT swung into action and has been listening and formulating plans ever since.

Last night in a meeting hosted by the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon, PBOT kicked off a community process slated to end with a plan adopted by City Council this fall.

Read more

City moves forward with plan to rent adaptive bikes as part of Biketown system

Adaptive Bike Clinic-25.jpg

Biketown program manager Steve Hoyt-McBeth (right) at an Adaptive Bike Clinic in June 2016.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

The City of Portland took another step today toward fulfilling a promise they made last summer: To make the Biketown bike share program more accessible to people who are unable to ride conventional bicycles.

If all goes according to plan, adaptive bikes should be available for use by this summer.

To refresh your memory, this issue caught the Portland Bureau of Transportation off-guard last summer, just weeks before the scheduled launch of the Biketown program, when a local advocate for people with disabilities began to question the equity of a bike share system that wasn’t accessible by all of Portland’s bicycle riders. That advocate was Chloe Eudaly, who notched a victory on this issue when PBOT promised to find a solution and then went on to earn a victory at the ballot box when she became a Portland City Commissioner.

Eudaly’s prodding set PBOT on the path toward researching options and gathering information from adaptive bike users.

Today PBOT launched a survey to garner focused feedback on their plan. According to a press statement, PBOT will make adaptive bicycle rentals available through existing bike rental businesses that located near popular bike paths. Once the system is up-and-running, people who ride hand-cycles, three-wheeled trikes, and side-by-side tandems, would be able to rent one of the bikes near paths like the Eastbank Esplanade or the Springwater Corridor through a City-subsidized program.

Read more

Reward offered for Hawthorne Bridge hit-and-run caught on bike-cam

Bike-cam footage nabbed this crazy driver seconds before impact. Watch the video below.

Portland Police are looking for a tan SUV after its driver was involved with a high-speed hit-and-run crash last month.

It happened about 2:30 pm on January 27th in the eastbound lanes of the Hawthorne Bridge just east of the Willamette River near the TriMet bus stop on the viaduct. Amazingly, so far the biggest lead the police have in the case is footage from a handlebar-mounted camera taken by a person who happened to be cycling nearby.

As you can see in the video below, the driver was going very fast and was unable to control his/her vehicle. They ran into two other vehicles, causing one to roll, which, according to police, “nearly struck a person riding a bicycle.” Luckly there were no injuries. The driver didn’t stop and is still on the loose.

Read more

Latest Headlines

Podcast: Evan P Schneider and Mark Alan Hoffman on ‘A Simple Machine’

Guest Opinion: Here’s how to fix Portland’s regressive transportation utility fee

Monday Roundup: Doug Ford’s war on cars, tactical urbanist arrested, and more

Where to send your kid for bike summer camp

From the Archives

With six kids and no car, this mom does it all by bike