(Photo: Iain MacKenzie)
A quarter-mile of Portlanders lined Southwest Naito Parkway’s temporary protected bike lane Thursday evening to form bollards with their bodies and call for the next “Better Naito” to be permanent.
Year: 2017
City has sketched up plans for a Better Naito all the way to Harrison
This stretch of Naito has never had a bikeway. One could become a crucial connection if it were added, but it’d mean making at least part of “Better Naito,” the temporarily improved stretch of road immediately to the north, permanent.
(Image: Google Maps)
(Image: Google Maps)
As Portland prepares to remove a temporary protected bike lane on Monday and biking advocates prepare to call for permanent improvements with a human-protected bike lane demonstration tonight, a separate discussion has been going on.
As part of last year’s voter-approved Fixing Our Streets program, the city has promised to reconstruct and repave Naito Boulevard between the Hawthorne Bridge and Interstate 405. But state law requires reconstructed roads to add bike facilities — and that stretch of Naito has never had bike lanes.
The result: The city has worked up a rough engineering concept that includes a bike path and protected two-way bike lanes between Salmon Street and Harrison Street, including on-street protected bike lanes beneath the Hawthorne Bridge onramp that would permanently repurpose one of Naito’s four auto traffic lanes for biking, at least at this crucial pinchpoint.
Subscriber post: Today is the big day for the future of biking, if we make it so
A person-protected bike lane in New York City last month.
(Photo: Streetsblog NYC)
(Photo: Streetsblog NYC)
This is a subscriber post by Kiel Johnson of Go By Bike.
At 6 p.m. tonight, join me and your fellow bike enthusiasts for what could be, if we want it to be, the biggest bicycling demonstration in Portland’s history. Together we will stand against the complacency that has told us that more biking is inevitable if we only do nothing.
We all know how to get more people biking, but it will only happen when enough people in Portland stand and demand it as loudly and as often as they can.
Each bike lane that we add or take away tells a story about who we are and what kind of place we want to live in. Are we a city that fosters health, community, and environmental stewardship? Or are we a city that breathes the same polluted air and sits in the same traffic as most of the rest of the United States? Tonight, I choose to help make a city where biking is accessible and safe for all; where we prioritize people who move through our city in ways that make us appreciate one another; where we build bridges that connect communities instead of rivers of cars to separate us.
Subscriber post: Ode to the Thursday Night Ride
It rolls from Salmon Street Springs every Thursday around 7:30 pm.
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)
The dream of the nineties is somewhat alive in Portland.
In Portland, cars most certainly exist. Except for once a week on Thursday, when people ride bikes or double-decker bikes. They ride unicycles. They ride skateboards!
No matter what our President tweeted, no matter what forest is on fire, no matter what ODOT has done that week to make it easier for people to use cars, the Thursday night ride rides on. It does not care about liberalism, conservatism, that week’s gross domestic product numbers, or really much of anything. You do not even really need a bicycle (as long as you are a fast jogger) or a cent to your name.
Blazers Bike Night is Oct. 28: Ticket sales close this Sunday
Blazers Bike Night in 2014.
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)
The NBA’s bike-friendliest franchise is again inviting Portlanders interested in bicycling to get discounted tickets and join a special bike-themed pre-game reception.
This season’s first Portland Trail Blazers Bike Night happens at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 28, when the Blazers will face the Phoenix Suns at the Moda Center in inner Northeast Portland. It’s being co-organized with the Community Cycling Center, the local nonprofit bike shop and bikes-for-all advocacy group.
200-level tickets that night are on sale for $58 and 300-level tickets are on sale for $28, with a $5 transaction fee per order. To get those prices and entry to the pre-game reception (“food, drinks, raffle prizes and an opportunity to learn more about the Community Cycling Center”), sign up at rosequarter.com/bikenight/ with promo code BIKE. The promotional sale ends this Sunday, Oct. 1.
In Brief: Walking fatality on Columbia Blvd. this morning
It appears a person walking on North Columbia Boulevard was struck and killed on Monday. According to reports, a man ran a red light in his Ford Mustang, striking a person who was in the crosswalk. The driver has been booked for Criminally Negligent Homicide.
Morrison Bridge bike path set to reopen by Oct. 22 (updated)
Detour signs on the east landing direct people walking and biking to the Hawthorne Bridge.
The Morrison Bridge’s biking and walking path should reopen three weeks from Sunday, a Multnomah County said Tuesday.
The path has been closed to walking and biking for much of the summer, as have various travel lanes. It’s related to a deck replacement that’s a do-over from a 2012 replacement job that didn’t prove nearly as durable as it was supposed to.
The physically separated path along the south side of the Morrison connects Water Avenue on the Central Eastside with Naito Parkway and 2nd Avenue downtown.
On Monday, the county had tweeted that the path would reopen Oct. 16, but county spokesman Mike Pullen said in an email Tuesday that another six days would be required.
An interview with Linda Robinson, a stalwart advocate for east Portland parks
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)
This is the third installment of our Women’s Bike Month interview series written by Steph Routh. This content is sponsored by the Community Cycling Center and Gladys Bikes.
Anyone who has enjoyed a park in East Portland likely owes at least a sliver of that experience to Linda Robinson. Linda was a founding member of the East Portland Parks Coalition, is a former member of the Portland Parks Board, and has been a voice advocating for parks throughout the Gateway Urban Renewal process in Gateway.
What does this have to do with cycling? Two words: Gateway Green. Linda retired in 2002 and jumped straight into advocacy and organizing for Gateway Green, which just opened this past summer.
I interviewed Linda last week…
The Monday Roundup: LA’s future lane capacity, America’s worst bus stop and more
The wide protected bike lanes are in green.
(Image: Perkins+Will, Nelson\Nygaard)
(Image: Perkins+Will, Nelson\Nygaard)
This week’s Monday Roundup is sponsored by Urban Tribe, the affordable family cargo bike.
Here are the bike-related links that caught our eyes this week:
Lane allocation: Check out the lane capacity charts on Lyft’s vision of LA’s future streets.
Against stoplights: Amsterdam flipped off the traffic signals at a busy multimodal intersection and saw startlingly good results. “People pay more attention,” said one man.
Private bike share: The 4,000 private shared bikes in Seattle have been “far more successful in two months than Pronto ever was in its two years.”
Rose Quarter freeway: CityLab’s headline calls our local expansion battle “the freeway fight of the century” and Mayor Ted Wheeler’s argument for it “rather disingenuous.”
Weekend Open Thread: your rides and Milwaukie-Sellwood Sunday Parkways
Westmoreland Park and 22nd Ave
Jonathan’s enjoying Europe, so I wanted to revive the Weekend Open Threads and ask what bikey or outdoorsy things you did this weekend. I got out to Sunday Parkways- maybe the first one I’ve been able to attend this year. Parkways was well-attended; I suspect that’s because people are feeling the “end of summer” pressure.
Half-hour ‘human-protected bike lane’ will rally support for permanent street improvements
A human-protected bike lane in San Francisco in May. A group of Portlanders are organizing a similar event on Naito Parkway next Thursday, before the protected bike lanes there are removed.
(Photo: Brandon Splane via Streetsblog SF)
(Photo: Brandon Splane via Streetsblog SF)
As the City of Portland prepares to remove the temporary protected bike lane along its downtown waterfront, some Portlanders see a one-time chance to grab the public imagination.
A group of residents and others who support protected bike lanes in the central city and elsewhere are planning to line up along the soon-to-be removed Naito Parkway protected bike lanes at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 28, to touch arms and create a half-hour “human-protected bike lane,” complete with music, then capture the image for a crowdfunded advertising campaign in support of permanent bike lane protections.
“I think it’s gonna be awesome,” said Emily Guise, the co-chair of advocacy group BikeLoudPDX. “We’re taking inspiration from people who have done them around the globe: Dublin, San Francisco, New York. … It’s going to be a really positive event.”
Weekend Event Guide: Sunday Parkways, Ninkrossi, Bike Town Hall, and more
Community Cycling Center Executive Director Kasandra Griffin (L) and ODOT Planner Jessica Horning are excited about the weekend!
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)
Welcome to the weekend.
I’m typing this from Schipol Airport in Amsterdam awaiting a flight to Paris. I’m having a great time so far! I hope all is well back in Portland.
If you need some suggestions for rides to do this weekend, we’ve got a few ideas for you. Don’t miss the Town Hall ride on Saturday. It’s a great chance to chat with your state legislators. And of course Sunday Parkways!
Saturday, September 23rd
Rapha Prestige – All day, starts in Yamhill
This team event promises to be an all-day adventure with a challenging 90-mile route from Yamhill County wine country up and over the coast range. Registration is closed, so if you aren’t already on the list you might want to flag this one for next year. More info here.