Welcome to Monday.
This week’s Roundup is brought to you by Cycle Oregon’s Weekender (July 13-15) — a two-day bike bash based at University of Oregon in Eugene.
Here are the best stories we came across in the past seven days…
Year: 2018
City Council candidates talk transportation at packed forum
Last night proved that while transportation might not be a top issue in Portland politics these days, it still brings out the largest crowds.
There was barely even standing room at the Lucky Lab Beer Hall last night for the City Council Candidate Forum on Transportation — an event co-hosted by Young Professionals in Transportation, Community Cycling Center, The Street Trust, Oregon Walks, and OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon. The crowd impressed Commissioner Nick Fish, who said in his opening remarks: “This is the largest turnout we’ve had for an event.”
Invoking “emergency” law, Commissioner Saltzman will propose a lower speed limit on SE Stark
Almost exactly a year after Portland City Council unanimously supported an emergency speed limit reduction on outer Southeast Division street, they are now poised to take the same extraordinary measure on outer Stark.
Shaina Hobbs, a policy director for City Commissioner Dan Saltzman confirmed with us this morning that an emergency ordinance (view it below) will be proposed at City Council on April 11th. The ordinance would lower the speed limit on Southeast Stark from 35 mph to 30 mph for a period of 120 days. “Commissioner Saltzman has pushed for this ordinance to come to Council on an accelerated timeline,” Hobbs shared via email this morning.
The ordinance stipulates that the new speed limit would apply to the section of Stark from SE 109th to 162nd and would be effective as soon as new signs are installed.
Florida pedestrian bridge collapse
https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/04/dont-rebuild-that-miami-pedestrian-bridge/557165/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_content=20180405&silverid=Mzc2NzY1NzQ0NzI2S0
This link asks whether that pedestrian bridge was the right thing to attempt. Asks whether the bridge was just a sop to the car-centric culture.
Tell Multnomah County how to make their roads better for biking
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)
Everyone’s buzzing about the opportunity to tell Multnomah County what to include in their 20-year Roads Capital Improvement Plan (RCIP). OK, maybe it’s just all the activists in my feeds and inbox. Either way, they know a good thing when they see it.
The County is a sleeper agency. Even though they manage only about 1/8th the road mileage of the City of Portland, the County’s roads happen to be some very important bike routes. And as an agency, they’re much more accessible than their larger cousins at the city, region, or state level. For those reasons alone, the RCIP is ripe for input and we should embrace the opportunity to influence it.
Job: Transportation Ambassador – Portland Community College
Job Title
Transportation Ambassador
Company / Organization
Portland Community College
Job Description
PCC is hiring a person to encourage students, faculty and staff at the Sylvania and Southeast campuses to walk, bike, carpool, and use transit more often. Promoting these transportation options fosters community connectivity, promotes an active lifestyle, improves our environment, and helps people save money while accessing the services and destinations they need.
We are selecting an individual to serve as Transportation Ambassador to conduct outreach and administrative tasks for the program. The successful candidates will invite the PCC community to participate in the program through campus tabling, respond to questions about transportation to, from, and within their neighborhoods, assemble and deliver information packet orders, and identify other opportunities for outreach and partnership.
This job can be as fun as you want to make it and requires an outgoing personality.
Pay: $14.00 per hour
Hours of Work: 20 Hours per week with a maximum of 599 hours per school year.
How to Apply
Email mark.gorman@pcc.edu for a complete job description and job application.
Six questions for Portland illustrator and ‘Cycle City’ author Alison Farrell
(Photo: Zoey Abbott)
As often happens as I peruse the web for story ideas, I come across something wonderful and then forget how I ended up there.
That’s how I came across the work of Alison Farrell.
Your City Council Candidate Transportation Forum primer
Tonight is when many of us will hear what a new crop of Portland City candidates think about transportation for the very first time.
Before we all head over to the Forum on Transportation co-hosted by Community Cycling Center, OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon, Oregon Walks, The Street Trust, and YPT Portland (Young Professionals in Transportation), I wanted to at least give you a hint of where each candidate is coming from.
Weekend Event Guide: Art gallery tour, Gorge Gravel Grinder, Tweed Ride, and more
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)
The weekend is once again nearly upon us. Have you firmed up your plans?
And while the guide is usually all about Friday through Sunday, we’d be remiss not to mention the big events happening tonight: Do not miss the Filmed by Bike Poster Show opening night at Breadwinner Cafe and the big City Council Candidate Forum on Transportation, followed by the weekly Thursday Night Ride. As usual, all the details are on the BP Calendar.
Here are this week’s selections…
Cycling advocates pack meeting of Parks Board as they consider Off-road Cycling Plan
(Photo: Gabriel Amadeus)
Yesterday dozens of Portlanders took time out of their day to send a simple message to the Portland Parks Board: Our urban parks should have better — and more — opportunities for off-road cycling.
With lawsuit dismissed, Timberline will break ground on new bike park this summer
(Photos: Gravity Logic)
Fresh off the dismissal of a lawsuit that has tied up their mountain bike park plans for nearly six years, Timberline announced this morning that they are “moving forward.”
Come to the Kidical Mass planning meeting and help us build an all-ages bike network
(Photo: Madi Carlson)
Thank you for your responses to my question last week: What prevents you from biking with your young children?
It was eye-opening to read all the comments, Facebook posts, Twitter replies, and emails. I can’t wait to share them in a future column and dive into the barriers people face when they think of biking with kids.
I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but I had assumed the responses would all be about the expense gear or uncertainty as to what to buy. I hadn’t anticipated anyone would write about bike infrastructure. Not that Portland’s infrastructure is incredibly better than what my boys and I left in Seattle (though it is better!) and there aren’t a lot of point-to-point routes that are suitable all ages abilities (aka “8 to 80”). It’s just that I see so many more families biking here in Portland than I have in any other city (except Dutch cities I’ve visited) that I didn’t realize there were so many of you who aren’t riding.