As a weekday commuter to OHSU, I am admittedly excited for the tram to be out of service until July 30th. Why? Because I will have a chance to shake up my normal bike commuter from the Hollywood neighborhood to the tram. Most of the commute will be the same but once I cross the Tilikum bridge I will have a few options on getting to the hill.
What’s happening with the tram? The track ropes need to be shifted. This is scheduled about every 10 years. Here’s a video about the process and you can also learn more from Jonathan’s post last week.
Today I rode into the Whitaker lot. The is the lot nearest to the tram’s regular Go By Bike lot, which is where I usually park. Shuttles queue up here to take employees, patients and guests up to the hill. The wait this morning was short, but if you don’t want to stand in line and wait there’s a cornhole game set up to pass the time.
As I was parking my bike with Go By Bike, Lime Bike was unloading their ebikes for folks to use to ride up the hill from the South Waterfront. They are joining the Jump ebikes that have also been made available for people wanting some e-assistance in riding up the hill.
Since today was my first day, I decided to take one of the shuttles up. The shuttle I rode did not have a bike rack, but as I reach the Kohler Pavilion on the hill I saw that the shuttle behind me did, so I could have loaded my bike if I wanted to bring it with me.
Tomorrow I am planning on leaving my bike at the Schnitzer Lot and riding an ebike up to the OHSU Student Center, where one of the auxiliary bike valet locations is located.
As I reached the tram level of Kohler Pavilion, I got to see some of the rope workers out for a walk.
Let me know if you have any questions, and I’ll try to answer them.