2017 Archives

It’s just a u-lock, but its recovery shows power of kindness (and Twitter)

Ever see something in the roadway as you pedal by and think to yourself, “I wonder if someone’s missing that?” Happens to me pretty often. I see things like gloves, glasses and keys. I usually don’t stop to pick things up. I’m either in a hurry, or I figure the person who dropped it might roll back to that general area and find it themselves, or I simply don’t feel like getting involved.

Besides, what are the chances of finding the person anyways?

Well, with today’s use of social media so widespread, the chances are actually pretty good.

This week’s Monday Roundup is brought to you by the Worst Day of the Year Ride, coming up February 12th!

Here are the best stories we came across last week…

The NYC “nightmare”: A news outlet in New York City dug into this very important question: “Just how much space are cyclists taking away from drivers?” At lease they make the extremely biased reporting easy to spot.

Trump and transpo: NextCity has a good roundup of where the transportation funding debate stands in the Trump administration.

Repeating mistakes from the past: Tampa is trying to rally support for a $6 billion highway mega-project that would go through areas where 80 percent of residents are black or Latino.

Hearing matters: An auto user in a town in England was fined and found guilty for careless driving because he had the volume turned up too high in his car when he hit a bicycle rider then failed to stop.

Governor Kate Brown on activism: Oregon’s governor garnered national attention with a story in The New Yorker where she encouraged citizen activism and was framed as a progressive leader and “radical feminist governor.”

A man has died after being involved in a collision with a truck operator while bicycling on North Interstate Avenue this morning.

It happened around 9:00 am at the intersection of Interstate and Farragut (map). The initial police statement said the man “may have been on a bicycle.” I was able to confirm that by going to the scene this morning.

From what I saw it appears the collision was a classic right-hook. The operator of a large, white (unmarked) box van was driving northbound on Interstate and then turned right onto Farragut. The bicycle rider also appears to have been going northbound prior to the collision. As of 10:20 am the bicycle was still lodged completely underneath the truck — toward the rear and just in front of the rear axle. From east of the collision I could still see the bicycle’s white front light blinking.

Interstate in this location is relatively narrow due to the presence of a center-running MAX light rail line. In the northbound direction there is one standard vehicle lane directly adjacent to an unprotected bicycle-only lane. The bike lane is five-feet wide.

On Thursday the Metro Council unanimously adopted $30 million in grants for 12 transportation projects around the region. Portland won big by garnering $12.8 million of the total awarded. The funds will go toward five different projects — four of which ($10 million worth) are focused specifically on making it easier and safer to bike and walk.

Yesterday’s decision comes after a year of public feedback and analysis of dozens of projects that vied for the money. It’s part of Metro’s regional flexible funding process that happens every three years. Out of this pot of around $130 million, $33 was up for grabs in a suballocation that Metro decided to split 75/25 between “active transportation/complete streets” projects and freight projects respectively.

Although one of Portland’s projects was in the freight category, it also includes several elements that will improve biking and overall traffic safety.

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Job Title *
Operations Manager

Company/Organization *
Left Coast Bicycles Mobile Repair

Job Description *
We are in search of a Operations Manager to join our mobile repair team and lead our bicycle service events for our network of forward-thinking workplaces, and to provide occasional home repair visits. Are you an experienced bike mechanic that is great with people, looking for independence, a flexible schedule, weekends off, and competitive hourly pay + sales commission? If so, we’d like to hear from you!

You will be responsible for moving our shop-on-wheels to each location and providing friendly on-site bike service. Each event typically lasts 2-5 days. You will be responsible for tracking our inventory of parts, accessories and supplies to ensure that each of our fleet of bike repair kits is always stocked and ready for the next event as well as overseeing our other mechanics to ensure the highest level of work. We offer competitive starting pay, compared to traditional brick and mortar shops, plus a generous sales commission.

Our ideal candidate exudes warmth and friendliness, is independent and confident, with a deep knowledge of the bicycle industry. You have a rich and varied experience in the bicycle industry and are comfortable working on all varieties of bikes from clunky commuters to carbon race machines. You have excellent customer service skills, are able to communicate the nuances of each bicycle’s needs in an approachable, friendly way. You are independent, a good problem solver with a can-do attitude, but you also work well as part of a team.

Key Responsibilities

Transport and setup of bike-shop-on-wheels to repair events in central Portland
Thorough, personalized bicycle repair estimates and tune-ups
Lead a team of mechanics to complete repairs in a timely manner
Inventory management of repair parts, maintenance supplies and accessories at our headquarters in NE Portland
Maintain our fleet of bike-shops-on-wheels and NE PDX workspace

Qualifications

At least 5 years experience in bike shops repairing a variety of bikes
A people person and good communicator
Proactive leader and troubleshooter
Excellent time management
Independent and able to perform an accurate bike repair estimate efficiently
Mature, responsible, team player
Prompt email access and effective digital communicator
Regular bike commuter able to use personal bicycle to transport equipment
Excited about the bike lifestyle and culture
Experience managing inventory

How to Apply *
Check out our website to see what we are all about and visit our full job description at: www.leftcoastbicycles.com/employment

Email your resume to aaron@leftcoastbicycles.com

Tell us a little bit about yourself and why you think you be a great addition to our team as Operations Manager.

Community rallies around man paralyzed in north Portland collision

It’s been almost a year since Brian Duncan’s life changed forever. On March 30th the 37-year-old was on his bike, rolling across North Rosa Parks Way at Delaware when another man, 84-year-old Louis Hellbusch, failed to stop his car for a red light.

The impact left Duncan paralyzed and facing a new direction in his life and that of his wife and three-year-old daughter. That new life now includes a new home — one built to handle Duncan’s lifelong needs.

Duncan was a board member of the Arbor Lodge Neighborhood Association and this crash reverberated throughout the community. Last September his friends and neighbors held a candlelight vigil to raise awareness of street safety in the close-knit north Portland neighborhood — which was the site of two traffic deaths in the six months following Duncan’s collision.

Today the Duncan family is supported by an A-list team that’s helping them build a new, ADA accessible home. The project is called Two Blocks North and they’ve already raised over $40,000, nearly one-third of their goal.

“Biking was a major part of our lives and that’s been taken away,” Duncan said in a statement released through the project. “I feel lucky to be alive but that doesn’t change the reality of our situation.”

ODOT Director Matt Garrett listens to a presentation about the audit from Tyler Duvall of McKinsey & Company.
(Photos: J. Maus/BikePortland)

Oregon Department of Transportation Director Matt Garrett sat silenty for nearly two hours today while members of the Oregon Transportation Commission (OTC, ODOT’s governing body) probed deeper into an audit of the agency he has led since 2005.

ODOT got solid marks from auditors in some categories — like organizational culture and building and maintaining highways. But auditors also found the agency needs a clearer short-term plan and more effective coordination with its governing body, the OTC.

We love bike event flyers!

This Weekend Event Guide is brought to you by The Street Trust, who reminds you to check out their 7th annual Live the Revolution on February 10th, a bicycle-themed storytelling event that benefits their Safe Routes to School education program.

Here we go again with the weather. The forecast calls for yet another bout of snow and ice. It shouldn’t be too bad; but of course that’s what we thought last time.

Good thing we have several indoor events in the guide this weekend! And the fun starts tonight with our friends from Surly Bikes in Minneapolis invading one of our favorite haunts, Velo Cult.

No plows coming soon.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

After severe storms unleashed havoc on our roads and heaps of criticism on the City of Portland’s response, Bureau of Transportation Commissioner Dan Saltzman laid out a new plan at a city hall press conference a few hours ago.

PBOT Director Leah Treat told us last week the City was, “Specifically going to look at expanding our de-icing and plow routes to include neighborhood greenways.”

Unfortunately, this new plan doesn’t do that. Instead of plowing residential streets that are the backbone of our biking network, Commissioner Saltzman announced two other changes to the City’s storm response plan. After resisting the use of salt due to environmental concerns, PBOT now says they plan to use up to 100 tons of it on at least three major roads during upcoming storms. This “largest use of road salt in the modern history of Portland,” will be a test to see how effective salt is at keeping roads free of ice and snow. In addition, they’ve announced an 30 percent expansion in the number of lane miles that will be plowed.

We knew the salt decision was coming; but it’s the plow route we were most curious about going into today’s press conference. As we reported last week, not only were bike lanes and bikeways left piled with snow during the storm, they’ve been covered in gravel for weeks.

The Street Trust is part of a large coalition of nonprofits working to make sure the upcoming transportation package gets passed with adequate funding for biking, walking and transit. Safe Routes to School funding will be a major focus.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

(Note: This article is written by Gerik Kransky, policy director for The Street Trust (formerly the Bicycle Transportation Alliance). It’s the first in a three-part series about their work on a major funding package that will be debated during the 2017 Oregon legislative session.)

We deserve a better ODOT before we hand them new revenue.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

This guest essay was written by Joe Cortright, an urban economist with Impresa Consulting who also runs CityObservatory.org.

There are a lot of big questions about the Oregon Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) competence and capability. Unfortunately the new $1 million audit undertaken by McKinsey and Company answers none of them.

The audit is misleading, inaccurate and omits key facts about ODOT’s substantive management problems. In effect, the audit actually conceals some of ODOT’s most expensive blunders.

An audit that doesn’t acknowledge, much less analyze, obvious problems can’t provide meaningful solutions. For example, auditors who can’t even correctly identify the cost of the agency’s largest construction project—and who purposely omit it from their one statistical chart showing cost overruns—aren’t worth the money they’re being paid, because they haven’t done their jobs.

Why does this matter? Because the Oregon legislature is about to begin a debate over transportation funding that could result in hundreds of millions of dollars flowing through ODOT’s hands.

bike parking at Central Eastside Lofts-4

New city code could require developers to build better bike parking.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

Do you live in an apartment? If so, where and how do you park your bike?

The Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) is refining and updating the portion of our city code that regulates bicycle parking in residential buildings and they want your input. Because this is Portland, they’ve also assembled a stakeholder advisory committee that’s grappling with code revisions that could dictate a new number of new policies such as: whether or not a fee should be charged for bike parking rooms; how high bike racks should be installed; what type of security and signage should be used in bike rooms; the quality of access routes to bike rooms, and more.

It’s just a u-lock, but its recovery shows power of kindness (and Twitter)

The Monday Roundup: Walking while black, NYC’s “nightmare” and more

A bicycle rider has died in a collision with a box truck driver in North Portland – UPDATED

Portland wins $10 million in federal grants for biking/walking projects

Job: Operations Manager – Left Coast Bicycles Mobile Repair

Community rallies around man paralyzed in north Portland collision

Audit says ODOT is misaligned with governing body, commissioners vow change

Weekend Event Guide: Chefs Cycle Show, Surly invasion, illuminated bikes, and more

City’s new snow and ice plan still doesn’t include greenway plowing

The legislative session, The Street Trust, and you (a three-part series)

Guest opinion: ODOT management audit misleads, omits key facts

PBOT wants your input on apartment bike parking

Latest Headlines

Dispatch from hiatus and update on the future

Reminder: No riding through River View Cemetery during Memorial Day Weekend

Guest Article: Demand a pause on PBOT’s SW Alder decision

Guest Opinion: The bike beat lives on in all of us

From the Archives

The 10 busiest bicycling spots in Portland