Year: 2017

The Monday Roundup: Pro-bike business group, NIMBYs, poop, pot, and more

Here are the best stories that came across our desks this past week…

Business group embraces bikes: While Portland’s chamber of commerce dropped off the anti-bike cliff last week, a business association in Vancouver BC has realized it’s much smarter to work with bike advocates.

Driverless cars to the rescue!: Is there anything cars can’t do? The media and corporations want us to think they’ll cure congestion and even help us reach vision zero.

Family 411: Bikabout shared a bunch of family biking equipment tips and online resources nationwide.

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Job: Mechanic/E-Bikes & Bikes – Cynergy E-Bikes

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Job Title *
Mechanic – E-Bikes & Bikes

Company/Organization *
Cynergy E-Bikes

Job Description *
We are looking for an experienced bike mechanic to service and build electric bikes. While experience with e-bikes would be useful, good general troubleshooting abilities and a desire to learn are even more important.

Responsibilities:
* Perform all types of repairs on both electric and non-electric bikes.
* Assemble e-bikes and perform adjustments.
* Install components and accessories – fenders, racks, integrated lighting, saddles and tires, etc.
* Install conversion kits on traditional bikes.
* Diagnose & repair electrical problems.
* Keep the department well-organized.
* Be part of the team for evaluating new bike models, new accessories, for building store traffic and generating sales.
* An occasional delivery of an e-bike to a customer.
* Assist on the sales floor.

Desired Qualifications:
* 2+ years of bike mechanic experience.
* Experience servicing e-bikes a plus.
* A team orientation towards improving the overall performance of the business.
* Knowledge of principles of electricity and electronics a plus.
* Enthusiasm for learning changing technology.
* An interest in getting more people out of their cars and into cleaner, healthier transportation.
* Driver’s license.
* A genuine fondness for pizza.

Location: Southeast Portland, OR

We offer a very competitive wage and bonuses based on the overall performance of the team.

How to Apply *
Forward your resume or an explanation of your qualifications to info@cynergyebikes.com.

Police say man was under the influence, “veered” out of bike lane before collision on SE 122nd

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

“Omar veered out of the bike lane and collided with Duffus’ vehicle causing him to crash.”
— Portland Police Bureau

Here’s something you don’t see every day: Both people involved in Wednesday’s critical injury collision on SE 122nd Avenue appear to have been operating their vehicles illegaly.

According to an update just released by the Portland Police Bureau, the collision involved 35-year-old named Abdikadir Ahmed Omar and 33-year-old Nicolette Ivy Duffus. Omar was riding his bicycle southbound on 122nd Avenue approaching Division when police say he, “Veered out of the bike lane and collided with Duffus’ vehicle causing him to crash.”

This use of the word “veer” is interesting. It’s legal in Oregon to leave a bike lane due to a hazard in the roadway and for other reasons. Given Omar’s current physical state, it’s doubtful the police have been able to question him about the incident. Therefore the “veer” allegation most likely comes from Duffus’ perspective and/or that of witnesses — none of whom are likely to appreciate a cycling perspective. “Veer” is a very judgmental word and it creates a perception of blame in a case where clearly the investigation isn’t complete. I also mention this because I read a lot of police statements about motor vehicle crashes and whenever someone crosses over the centerline or drives off the road, the police say that it was done, “for an unknown reason” — which is a much more neutral and fair thing to say compared to “veered out of their lane into oncoming traffic.”

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PBOT needs Sunday Parkways volunteers this weekend

Please consider lending a hand! See the alert below for the details…

You gave us 10 years of Sunday Parkways For it’s 10 birthday, we need your help again!

We need your help to bring Portland another 10 years of sunny open streets starting this weekend: we simply do not have enough volunteers for North Sunday Parkways.
Sign up to join us for a few hours this weekend in North Portland, and then tell the world why it matters so much to you that you’d give your time to help make it happen. Forward this newsletter, share our Facebook posts, spread the word on Nextdoor, call your family and friends. The forecast for Sunday is calling for temperatures in the high 90’s, making it harder for some of our regular volunteers to sign up for a shift and leading some others to withdraw– Sunday Parkways needs your help now more than ever before.

Today, we need you to show your support by doing two things:

1) Sign up right now to volunteer for a shift this Sunday as an Intersection or Mobile Superhero.

2) Commit to helping us create the next “generation” of Sunday Parkways volunteers. How? Share the registration link, and persuade a friend to sign up for a shift themselves. You can also find the volunteers of the future among your family members, co-workers, and social networks. You can find them at your neighborhood associations, walks in the park, book clubs, and at Sunday Parkways itself. Invite them to see Sunday Parkways for themselves if they’ve never been, and if they’re regular attendees, ask them to lend their support by volunteering their time.

Thank you, for all that you do. See you on Sunday!

(we’ll bring the sunscreen and the popsicles)

Click here to volunteer.

Portland Police won’t bust naked riders, as long they go with the flow

Official graphic from Portland Police Bureau.

Our local version of the World Naked Bike Ride isn’t just an amazing cycling spectacle and one of the largest clothing-free rides on the planet, it’s also an illustration of what makes our city so great. That is, the level of coordination and respect between volunteer ride organizers and the Portland Police Bureau is something to be proud of.

For years now, ride organizers have worked very closely with Police staff on route selection and other details. Both are trying to strike a balance between free, unfettered fun and safe and civil behaviors that don’t cause too many issues for everyone involved. These negotiations and compromises are why we don’t see the route spend as much time downtown anymore and why there’s a big push to attend one of the many free after-parties instead of hanging out in a huge crowd at the finish line. Police and ride volunteers meet months in advance to trade concerns and hash out differences.

But there’s one compromise more important than any other: The fact that the police are willing to look the other way when they see fully nude adult bodies rolling gleefully down our public streets. Yes, technically it’s illegal to for adults to be naked in public if there’s someone of the opposite sex within view. Of course this law isn’t ironclad and there are court precedents around free speech and protest; but the police could make the Naked Bike Ride a lot less naked if they really wanted to (sort of like how they could have let Critical Mass continue if they would have permitted the illegal — but safe and entirely reasonable — practice of allowing large groups to roll through stop signs; but I digress).

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Guest Post: Tell PBA Members You Support Better Naito

Better Naito observations -29.jpg

Portland commuters and business customers using Better Naito.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

(Publisher’s note: This article was submitted by BikePortland subscriber Joan. It comes the day after the Portland Business Alliance launched an email campaign against Better Naito. The campaign appears to have backfired as it has spurred dozens (if not hundreds) of emails to city council and social media comments in support of the project.

We shop, patronize, attend, work for, and support the organizations that comprise the PBA. It’s time to talk to these businesses directly. Do they know about this campaign PBA is running in their name?

As Jonathan wrote in BikePortland last month, the Portland Business Alliance (PBA), which bills itself as the chamber of commerce for greater Portland, has an aggressive campaign against Better Naito, the temporary lane change to SW Naito Parkway along the Waterfront Park that makes bicycling and walking and visiting festivals safer and better during the summer months. As the Portland Mercury notes in the headline to a story about this very topic, the PBA ‘is weirdly obsessed with ‘Better Naito.'”

This campaign has taken several forms, including a misguided editorial in the Portland Tribune and multiple contacts with elected officials. The Mercury said, “PBA brings Better Naito up in meetings with elected officials, and earlier this month, the organization drafted a strongly worded letter to Transportation Commissioner Dan Saltzman attempting to bring its monied heft to bear on the issue.”

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Meet Armando Luna, Pedalpalooza’s #1 fun seeker

Armando (center) at the Photo Booth ride Thursday night.

Armando Luna is everywhere. From monthly advocacy meetings to late-night party rides — this guy soaks up the cycling scene.

During Pedalpalooza — the month-long, grassroots festival of creative bike rides and events — he kicks it up a notch. So far this month (we’re 21 days in), he’s attended 29 rides.

I recently asked a few questions to learn more about him and his impressive Pedalpalooza prowess…

What’s your background?

I moved to Portland in 1996, fell in love with it and then fell into a job at OHSU, where I still work. I commute by bike every workday from my home in Hollywood. I am grateful for being able commute by bike, for OHSU partnering with Go By Bike bike valet, and for my work paying bike riders to ride to work. (And the tram rides!)

How long have you been doing Pedalpalooza rides?

I don’t really know! I don’t remember the early years, mostly because I was a new dad, that sort of took everything over. When the kids were young they ended up attending a daycare downtown, so when they were old enough I’d pull them in a trailer to daycare, then ride to work.

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Grab tickets to these guided bike tours for the ultimate total solar eclipse experience

TREO Bike Ranch Day 1-7

Desolate eastern Oregon — the stomping grounds of Treo Bike Tours — will be an ideal place to view the eclipse.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

Back in April we shared a post from BikePortland subscriber Tom Howe on how to plan a bike trip to see the total solar eclipse. With the Big Day — August 21st — just eight weeks away, it’s time to get serious if you want to make something happen.

If you’re looking for a bit more support and a guide to help you find your way to a viewing spot by bike, I’ve got some great news: Two trusted bike tour operators have just made tickets available for (nearly) all-inclusive experiences that will get you to a prime location, under your own power, and with all the comforts you could want.

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The Street Trust picks former TriMet planner and Charlie Hales staffer as new executive director

Jillian Detweiler.
(Photo: The Street Trust)

Jillian Detweiler is the new leader of The Street Trust.

The 51-year-old northeast Portland resident who lives on the Going Street Neighborhood Greenway and tells us she “cheered” when its sharrows appeared in front of her house, is a new kind of leader for an organization in the midst of transformation.

Detweiler is currently the interim development manager for Prosper Portland (formerly the Portland Development Commission). Before that she served three years as a policy director for former Mayor Charlie Hales — her second stint on Hales’ team after working with him out of college in the mid 1990s.

After earning a Masters degree in city and regional planning from the University of North Carolina in 1992, Detweiler worked on planning and permit issues for then Commissioner Hales from 1995 to 2002. After that she spent 12 years at TriMet — first as a planner and then as director of real estate. In that position she oversaw $240 million in property acquisitions as part of the MAX Orange Line project.

With her background of city hall politics, transit planning, and high-profile development work, the selection of Detweiler reflects The Street Trust’s goal of becoming a political powerhouse with an expansive portfolio and the funding streams to make it all possible. She has no experience in professional bicycle activism, and that’s likely part of the reason she was hired (we heard from sources that The Street Trust favored candidates with more political experience).

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From the Archives

The 10 busiest bicycling spots in Portland