Hi I’m Taylor, BikePortland’s new reporter

[Publisher’s note: Thank you BikePortland subscribers and financial supporters for making this hire possible! If you read and appreciate this site, please consider supporting us. We are building a better news operation and we need your help to do it. BikePortland.org/support. – Jonathan]

Hi! My name is Taylor Griggs and I’m excited to introduce myself as BikePortland’s new staff writer. I can’t wait to jump into reporting on everything bike-related in Portland, and also dig into topics like car culture, equitable transportation, climate and pretty much anything related to how we use streets and how mobility impacts our lives.

I grew up near Denver, where I spent a lot of time riding my bike around my neighborhood and the surrounding bike trails. And when I moved to Eugene to go to school (University of Oregon), I fully embraced Oregon’s bike culture, riding my purple road bike everywhere.

To me, biking has provided so many freedoms: it’s freeing to know you can get places without having to sit in mind-numbing traffic or worry about where you’re going to park when you get there. Being a cyclist has allowed me to develop rich relationships with the surrounding environment, and I want everyone to be able to experience the kind of relationship you can have with a place when you’re not always watching it go by from the driver’s seat of a car.

I have worked as a reporter throughout Oregon and realized my passion for transportation reporting after I started doing research for a seemingly mundan Eugene Weekly story about parking that was far more engrossing than I could’ve ever anticipated.

Since then, it has become my mission to bring attention to how things that may seem as dull as parking are actually extremely relevant to the well-being of our planet and everybody who lives on it.

Some of my other favorite stories I’ve worked on have been about things like dam infrastructure and wild salmon and the youth movement to push for climate action. I’ve also written for Street Roots about housing and homelessness, an issue that I think is really important to include with all discussions of infrastructure. It is possible to build a city where we all can thrive!

When I’m not poring over every last detail of a new infrastructure policy or riding my bike around town, I like to travel (preferably by train), ski and find new places to eat.

I am excited to bring my passions for the environment and equitable city planning to BikePortland and hopefully help expand people’s notions of what a great city — that cares about its people more than its cars — could be.

I am super grateful for the strong community of passionate BikePortland readers and I look forward to getting to know you all! If you have tips or story ideas, feel free to get in touch.