SALEM, Ore.— The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD) and Cycle Oregon are seeking to establish a list of candidates to serve on the State Scenic Bikeway Committee for two at-large positions.
Two at-large seats are open on the 11-member committee. Members of the committee are appointed by the OPRD director to a four-year term and are eligible for reappointment. The committee meets four times per year, three remote and one in-person, with additional field trips throughout the state to evaluate proposed and designated Scenic Bikeways. The at-large positions are volunteer appointments and authorized for travel reimbursement.
Those interested in serving must submit a Scenic Bikeway Committee Interest Form by Jan. 31, 2023. To submit an interest form, go to https://forms.gle/VPka3SfVa4EMLzHp6 or contact Clint Culpepper, at clint@cycleoregon.com or 971-235-5994.
The Scenic Bikeways Program is currently managed under a partnership agreement between Cycle Oregon and OPRD. The committee advises Cycle Oregon and OPRD on the management and designation of routes, and on the long view of strengthening the existing program and proponent groups associated with each designated Scenic Bikeway. Its members include citizen representatives, tourism organizations, local governments, and state and federal agencies involved with bicycle recreation or transportation.
The ideal candidates would have experience working with proponent groups of designated bikeways, bicycle tourism, community groups, or representing the interests of underserved groups, but being a cyclist and riding proposed routes are not requirements.
Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD) is seeking a volunteer to serve on the Oregon Outdoor Recreation Committee (OORC), to represent Tribal governments, or the interests of an historically underrepresented community. The OORC evaluates, scores and ranks project applications seeking funding assistance from the Land and Water Conservation Fund Grant Program.
The OORC is a nine-member committee appointed by OPRD’s Director, and represents various interests. Committee members serve a four-year term, and may be eligible to serve a second term. The OORC generally meets once a year, virtually or in Salem. Time commitment varies and includes evaluating approximately 15-20 grant applications each annual funding cycle. Interested applicants must submit a Committee Interest Form to the LWCF Program Coordinator by November 14.
The Land and Water Conservation Fund Program is a competitive grant program funded by the National Park Service and administered by OPRD. Grants are awarded to local governments, federally recognized tribal governments, and eligible state agencies for land acquisition, development, and rehabilitation projects for public outdoor recreation areas and facilities.
For more information about the advisory committee or application process, contact Nohemi Enciso, LWCF Program Coordinator, at nohemi.enciso@oprd.oregon.gov or 503-480-9092.
Considering recent traffic fatalities in Portland, and similar trends across the country, I am feeling pretty low. As I try to understand these tragedies, I am all too aware that each data point represents a life cut short.
These tragedies are not directly my own, but I am grieving them still. From my own near-misses, I am grappling with the risks of being on (or near) the road, and trying to figure out how to use the roads more safely, and advocate to make them safer. Shaken by the serious and fatal consequences of collisions, I’m grasping at the larger picture, a better understanding that might provide some guidance, some insight, some safer path forward.
For myself, I am wrestling with our near-misses that didn’t result in crashes, but that still haunt me. On two occasions we were almost hit while crossing the street at an intersection with a signalized crosswalk.
My grim comfort is that if walking could kill us too, then I guess biking isn’t any worse.
In the first instance, I was riding my giant electric cargo bike, fully loaded with four children in the front box. We had been in the roadway, in the left-turn lane, but realized we were stranded at a red light that wouldn’t change for a bike. After two full light cycles, we had to shimmy our way across right-turning traffic to get up on the narrow sidewalk and press the signal button. We were hot, tired, frustrated, and running late. I had been scared too, after feeling stranded in the middle of a busy intersection with four kids in my bike box, stuck in a left turn lane with an unchanging red light, cars moving about me on all sides. So when we made it onto the sidewalk and waited through another light cycle for our walk signal, we were more than ready to take our long-awaited turn to cross the street.
But I had seen a car approaching our intersection over my left shoulder, a car that would be turning right, a car that had a red light, a car that was supposed to stop for us while we crossed.
Instead of entering the crosswalk, I forced myself to take a second look at that car, to make sure he saw us and stopped. He didn’t. The driver didn’t even glance at us. Instead, he accelerated right through the crosswalk we were about to occupy, a space we had the right to occupy, and if I hadn’t been a “defensive walker,” a space we would have occupied.
If I had pulled into the roadway when our signal changed, if I had failed on this occasion to look twice, to make sure I made eye contact with the driver before entering the street, if I had followed my hot and tired desire to just go — it was our turn! — my kids would have been hit by his accelerating car.
Our second near-miss was an almost identical occasion. This time, I was wearing my baby, pushing my 3-year-old in the stroller while lugging his scooter, and supervising two other kids on scooters. As we approached a busy intersection, I commanded my older kids to get off their scooters and walk — a command that may have saved a life.
We arrived at the busy corner and turned to push the walk button, only to see our crosswalk signal illuminate.”Oh!” I said impulsively, “we can go!” Across the busy street, a pedestrian on the opposite corner was already walking our way, about ⅓ of the way across. I turned us towards the road and was about to step forward, along with my stroller and two scooter-kids, when a black pick-up truck cut us off, rambling right past our toes, through the crosswalk and on his way.
I stood stunned.
The person walking in the crosswalk toward us yelled and waved her arms at the truck. She saw what almost happened. I felt sick to the bottom of my stomach. My older daughter was headed first into that crosswalk. If she had hopped back on her scooter to ride across, to scoot a few paces into the street, instead of obediently slow-stepping while dragging her scooter, she would have been crushed under that truck, right in front of me. My imagination leaped to that worst scenario…holding her limp, crushed body in my arms, having to say goodbye to my daughter on a street corner…
Terribly, I know some families have suffered that very thing. My dark imaginings are someone else’s terrible reality.
It’s heavy to wrestle with. When I put my babies on the bike, I try to stuff down the thoughts, the fears, the questions. “Will my new hobby kill my children?” Shhh! Quiet darn mind! Don’t go there.”
Unexpectedly, our near misses have brought me a grotesque kind of comfort: they have reminded me that traffic deaths are far too high and far too common. Our two close calls as a biking family have come when we used the sidewalks and crossed the street as pedestrians. And while I know plenty of people condemn my choice to ride a bike with my children–because of the dangers of crashes–I have never in my life heard anyone criticize a mother for walking with her child in a stroller.
“Oh, you shouldn’t do that, it’s too dangerous!” said absolutely no one to someone pushing a stroller through a signalized crosswalk in bright daylight. “Where was your helmet? Were you wearing high-viz clothing? How could you take such risks with your babies?” Nobody says that to a parent out for a stroll.
So yes, my grim comfort is that if walking could kill us too, then I guess biking isn’t any worse.
Dark humor, dark thoughts. Until now, I have largely shoved them aside. I have looked at only one statistic: that the leading cause of death for children in the U.S. has consistently been motor vehicle crashes. Cars, even riding in cars, is a leading cause of child death. (Oh dear, double-checking, I see that firearms recently surpassed cars as a leading cause of child death!)
Our near-misses surprised me, because the danger met us in a place and way that I didn’t expect, a place I had previously thought was safe: signalized crosswalks. When imagining how we might be hit, and how to avoid the most dangerous situations, walking a bike or scooter through a crosswalk had not entered my mind.
Perhaps I should look at the data. Perhaps I can learn more about what is causing these deaths, both with the hope of avoiding collisions ourselves, but also so that I can become an effective advocate for safer streets for all. That means looking at the data and details that I wish didn’t exist. But if we are going to change this horrible reality of traffic death, if we are going to seriously push for Vision Zero, then we have to examine the current tragic reality with attention and care, and eyes wide open. These are not things I want to see, or know, or think about. But it is a responsibility I am going to take up, with the hope of making a contribution to changing it.
To all those who have suffered loss from a traffic collision, I am so terribly sorry for your loss. I am thinking of you.
It’s eye-opening to see exactly which interests have the most direct access to the halls of power, and which entities encourage or prohibit bold leadership. And, as an exhausted dad on the campaign trail, I certainly learned about the structural limitations that make it harder for many Portlanders to ever consider running for office.
It’s with this background that I’m endorsing Measure 26-228, the campaign to reform Portland’s City Charter on the November ballot.
As a nonprofit director, a two-time candidate, and now a Metro Councilor-elect, I’ve spent the last five years with a front row seat to how local governments, electoral campaigns, and advocacy movements interact. Each of these experiences have given me opportunities to reflect on both where we’ve made strides towards transportation justice, as well as what systemic barriers are blocking us from solving ongoing challenges including investing in East Portland, reducing traffic fatalities, and ensuring more Portlanders live in safe, walkable neighborhoods. It’s eye-opening to see exactly which interests have the most direct access to the halls of power, and which entities encourage or prohibit bold leadership. And, as an exhausted dad on the campaign trail, I certainly learned about the structural limitations that make it harder for many Portlanders to ever consider running for office.
It’s with this background that I’m endorsing Measure 26-228, the campaign to reform Portland’s City Charter on the November ballot.
Anyone who wants to see safer streets, more bike lanes, and a government more responsive to the campaigns of active transportation advocates should be voting to adopt a new charter for Portland’s city government. Despite wholly inaccurate rhetoric from the measure’s skeptics, Portland’s charter reform consists of three simple components; professional, centralized management of our bureaus, ranking candidates in future city elections, and creation of four City Council districts each electing three representatives. Each of these changes will not only make our local government more efficient and accountable, but each will also make it easier for us to make Portland a more safe, walkable, equitable city for everyone.
Anyone who wants to see safer streets, more bike lanes, and a government more responsive to the campaigns of active transportation advocates should be voting to adopt a new charter for Portland’s city government.
Professional bureau management pays massive dividends
It will be a complete game-changer for city bureaus to possess the long-term stability of oversight from a nonpolitical City Administrator. PBOT, for example, has been led by four different Commissioners over the past six years; and in our current charter the Mayor could change commissioner assignments despite election outcomes, a fifth could take over post election. The constant churn of leadership slows our ability to build long-term campaigns for the bold, visionary changes to our streets that we need. Eliminating the commission form of government will also resolve political tensions that have historically discouraged collaboration between bureaus. We need better coordination so that Portland’s bureaus work together to, for example, build bioswales, crosswalks, and improved lighting simultaneously without months of red tape.
It’s worth noting that under our current system, nobody running for City Council knows what bureaus they’ll be assigned by the Mayor. Even a candidate who prioritizes transportation improvements currently can’t promise they’ll have any power to enact change. Measure 26-228 means that all of the 12 Commissioners who get elected have power to influence transportation policy.
Ranked choice voting cultivates new leadership likely to support transportation reform
Have you noticed how many of our campaigns for safer streets, affordable housing, and better transit service seem so popular with the public, but somehow rarely translate to the priorities of city leadership? Research shows that elections run with ranked choice voting are more likely to elect women, people of color, the working class, and renters. Under Measure 26-228, City Council will better reflect the full preferences of Portlanders.
Not every person who gets elected with this model will share all of your values – in fact, I’d expect plenty of opportunities for all sorts of Portlanders to win elected office. But that is actually the point – greater representation of perspectives will bring new voices to city hall. Many of them will care deeply about safer streets in every neighborhood.
East Portland needs better representation for true investment
In my work with Oregon Walks (who endorsed Measure 26-228 this month), I’ve seen the disconnect between the city’s decision makers who mostly live in the central city and the communities in east county who continue to struggle. It’s hard to articulate the hopelessness that so many East Portlanders feel with regard to gun violence, economic hardship, rising rents, and anxiety around crime and homelessness. East Portland is home to so many of Portland’s communities of color(including my family), and there’s so much work to be done to tackle lingering inequalities.
Historically and currently, East Portland has lacked the political clout to demand investments to address these challenges. Only two people living east of 82nd Avenue have ever been elected to City Council in Portland’s history. Measure 26-228 would ensure that East Portland would not only have three elected officials from East Portland – they would directly answer to an EastPortland-specific electorate. Thanks to multi-member districts, it’s likely that at least one (if not all three!) East Portland councilors would incorporate mobility justice and safer streets into their political platform. If we want to reverse the trend of skyrocketing traffic fatalities, East Portland in particular needs substantial political representation to get the investments in safer streets that are commensurate with the challenge.
I don’t want to claim that charter reform will fix all our problems – we must be clear-eyed about the challenges Portland faces. But passing Measure 26-228 to empower everyday Portlanders to tell city council it’s time to advance reforms for transportation and racial justice is a crucial first step. We must empower city hall to be more effective, transparent, and accountable. In my forthcoming role as Metro Councilor, I’m excited to collaborate with a reinvigorated city government that is better prepared and equipped to fight for safer streets and walkable communities for all.
Join me in voting Yes on Measure 26-228.
Ashton Simpson was elected to the Metro Council in May 2022 to represent District 1, and his term begins in January. Ashton is the former Executive Director of Oregon Walks, the state’s pedestrian advocacy organization.
PBOT Planner Zef Wagner talked about potential changes in the Hawthorne-area greenway system on a Bike Loud ride last weekend. (Photo: Taylor Griggs/BikePortland)
This past Saturday, PBOT Planner Zef Wagner joined the Southeast Chapter of Bike Loud PDX to lead a tour of upcoming greenways around Hawthorne. Wagner is leading PBOT’s plan to build several new greenway routes intersecting with Hawthorne in an effort to make the area more bike-friendly despite the lack of bike facilities on Hawthorne itself.
There’s no animosity between Bike Loud members and Wagner (he’s attended several of their rides), but it was evident from this weekend’s ride that people haven’t entirely moved on from the Hawthorne decision.
The area surrounding the bustling commercial main street is rife with car traffic in a way that’s inhospitable to people biking and walking, and it spills onto the nearby greenways. People attempting to cross at the newly upgraded crosswalks appear anxious and rush across the street even when they have a green light.
When I’m riding through the area by myself, I might overlook some of the major issues on Hawthorne, but riding with a PBOT staffer and a group of passionate bike advocates, they were impossible to ignore.
Even though some greenway upgrades are better than nothing, they pale in comparison to what advocates think is necessary in order to make this area better for biking. And this focus on Hawthorne-area greenways brings back the same debates that were present when PBOT first decided against bike lanes on the street, citing the nearby Lincoln/Harrison and Salmon/Taylor greenways as viable alternatives.
“The neighborhood greenway network is rather hidden, especially to people who are newer to town.”
These days, Portland’s greenway system is made up of more than 100 miles of neighborhood streets citywide which are supposed to provide people a safe, low-stress network of routes they can use without having to deal with a lot of car drivers.
Think of the greenway system is as a shadow network of the city’s “major” streets – a.k.a., the ones filled with shops and restaurants. This means people on bikes don’t have direct and easy access to destinations, and bike traffic is largely hidden from the non-biking public. If you were sitting outside one of Hawthorne’s many coffee shops or strolling between its thrift stores and boutiques, you might never see a bike rider. And if you did see one, it might seem sketchy to ride without a dedicated bike lane next to so many cars. It’s not exactly a great advertisement for cycling.
Even PBOT Bike Coordinator Roger Geller thinks this is a problem. In February 2020 he told the city’s Bicycle Advisory Committee, “If there was a big green bike lane next them as they were driving with a lot of people biking on it, they might say, ‘Oh, I can see the way to bike. Instead of driving these streets, I just get on my bike.’ But that’s not the case because the neighborhood greenway network is rather hidden, especially to people who are newer to town.”
Bike share and scooter traffic on and around SE Hawthorne Blvd. (Source: PBOT/Ride Report)
A sign topper on the NE Going neighborhood greenways. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
On Saturday, ride participants pointed out that most people aren’t privy to the greenway system shadowing Hawthorne. Heat map data shows people using bike and scooter share often travel along more dangerous corridors instead of taking the detour to greenways – how much of that is because they don’t know the greenways even exist? This could be an opportunity for more wayfinding along the Hawthorne corridor so people – in cars and on bikes alike – actually know where the good bike streets are.
Wagner said there’s potential for more of this, which could come in the form of special toppers (a.k.a. “rider signs”) on street name signs (at right) or more green crosswalks to indicate bike crossings. These might be good places to start, but in my opinion, a lot more needs to be done to make sure people are aware of Portland’s greenways.
Because most greenways are just residential streets without destinations, a new Portlander may not discover them if they don’t know what to look for, and therefore may not know about the bike network the city has spent so much time and money to develop. And if you never see anyone riding a bike, you’re probably not going to feel compelled to take up cycling for the first time. That’s just basic marketing, and it results in a self-perpetuating downward spiral of bike riders.
When I first learned about the push for bike lanes on Hawthorne, I thought it was a bit overblown: I lived a block away and didn’t have much trouble navigating the greenway system. But I’ve realized now the strong feelings around this topic go deeper than that. I was already a frequent bike commuter when I moved to the neighborhood and so I was willing to go out of my way to figure out the best routes to get around by bike. Not everyone is going to do that. And that’s exactly the problem.
If we continue to hide our best biking streets, we’ll never find the increase in ridership we desperately need.
If one thing was clear from the Bike Loud ride, it’s that the community fire for Hawthorne bike lanes is still burning.. So who knows? Maybe the saga isn’t over yet.
They’ve got the card. Let’s teach them how to use it. (Photo: Adah Crandall)
Adah Crandall at the Alice Awards last month.
Story by 16-year-old Grant High School student Adah Crandall.
Last fall I had the opportunity to participate in PBOT’s Traffic and Transportation Class. I was at least a decade younger than everyone else there, but as a youth climate organizer, it was a dynamic I’m all too familiar with.
As a final project for the class, each student presented a proposal to solve a transportation issue in our community. The ideas ranged from cleaning up leaves in bike lanes to creating safer intersections, to improving local walkability.
My proposal was to create a series of workshops or a school curriculum to help incoming high school students get oriented with Portland’s transit system, and teach them how to better utilize the resource of free transit passes provided by Portland Public Schools.
When I surveyed my peers last fall, a striking number of them said that they either didn’t know how to or didn’t feel safe using the bus or MAX. The safety piece was disproportionately true for female, transgender, and BIPOC students.
“It is crucial we educate the next generation so they understand cars are not — and should not be — the only mobility option. We have driver’s ed, but we don’t have transit rider’s ed?”
In order to build an equitable, multimodal transportation system, it is crucial we educate the next generation so they understand cars are not — and should not be — the only mobility option. We have driver’s ed, but we don’t have transit rider’s ed?
As a high school student, I’ve spent the last few months watching many of my classmates get their driver’s licenses. That little plastic card is a coveted ticket to independence, one that students crave and the media glorifies.
As a climate and transportation justice activist, I’m faced with a moral dilemma: getting my license feels like giving into the status quo; but I am also acutely aware of the fact that the climate crisis is not the fault of individuals like me, but of systemic failures to reduce emissions at a global scale. (And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t envy my classmates’ ability to easily go on day trips to the woods or the coast, or get to school without it taking 40 minutes and two different buses!)
Slides from my presentation.
My proposal for transit workshops is inspired by the fond memories I have of participating in Safe Routes to School programming when I was in elementary school. In fourth grade, my classmates and I took part in a multi-week bike safety program where we were taught how to be safe cyclists and encouraged to use biking as a primary mode of transportation.
Students who biked to school on certain days would receive prizes, and the class that did the most walking/biking/rolling to school by the end of May got an ice cream party. Of course, I was most definitely thinking about ice cream and not about emissions reduction, but the impact was still the same.
To me, this program is representative of the start of what valuable transportation education could look like for our students. But it’s only the beginning. I recognize now the inequities within the program — I, a privileged, white student, had access to a bike and lived in a neighborhood with safe crosswalks and sidewalks, while the same was not true for many of my peers. In turn, I was rewarded for walking and biking to school, and students who couldn’t were not.
I now attend Grant High School in northeast Portland, where the majority of the student body is white and affluent. Many of my peers have their own cars, and some have never taken the bus in their lives. This is part of the problem.
At my school, and in our society, taking the bus often comes with negative connotations. Car culture is a symptom of classism and white supremacy that is directly fueling the climate crisis by stigmatizing “alternative” modes of transportation and equating car ownership with social status.
This doesn’t have to be the reality. What if instead of teaching students to associate taking the bus with poverty and inferiority, we started teaching them to view it as a powerful way to interact in community and reduce carbon emissions?
In my mind, I can imagine a world of transportation and climate justice. As a young person, I consider this to be my superpower.
Less worn down by the status quo of what is considered “politically possible,” I see a future where the bus comes every five minutes, where cities are built for people and not for cars, and where each and every one of us has access to the fundamental right of mobility. These things are not radical, they are necessary if we want to maintain a habitable planet.
Achieving this world starts with robust transportation education for our students. I have sent dozens of emails about this project, collected more business cards than I can count, and spent much of the little free time I have on Zoom meetings with various PBOT, Trimet, and ODOT employees. The sentiment is there — most everyone agrees that transit workshops for students are a good idea.
The execution, however, is where it falls short, perhaps because the vast majority of our government’s transportation energy goes to fueling the status quo instead of breaking through it.
So here’s the rub: I’m too busy organizing climate strikes and trying to prevent ODOT from expanding a freeway into my middle school to make this project happen. I am an exhausted, 16-year-old organizer on whose shoulders this work should not fall, which is why I am asking for your help.
Building a better world is going to take all of us, and we each have a different role to play. An organizer I look up to once told me that the climate movement is not a marathon nor a sprint—it’s a relay race, and that every once in a while we must pass on the baton. For this project, I feel I have done my part. Now, I am putting it out into the world in hopes that someone will take the next step to make transit education a reality.
If you’re interested in learning more about this, or even taking the baton, contact me via adahrae32@gmail.com.
Peterson in 2019. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Metro Council President Lynn Peterson will look to burnish her low-car bona fides with a new book due out in December.
“In Roadways for People, Lynn Peterson draws from her personal experience and interviews with leaders in the field to showcase new possibilities within transportation engineering and planning,” reads the blurb from publisher Island Press. The book was written with Elizabeth Doerr.
Peterson, 54, has held the Metro Council presidency since 2019. Prior to that she was Secretary of Transportation for the state of Washington. She has also served as a Lake Oswego city councillor and a commissioner for Clackamas County. Here’s more about the book from the publisher’s website:
The car-only approach in transportation planning and engineering has led to the construction of roadways that have torn apart and devalued communities, especially Black and Brown communities. Forging a new path to repair this damage requires a community solutions-based approach to planning, designing, and building our roadways. When Lynn Peterson began working as a transportation engineer, she was taught to evaluate roadway projects based only on metrics related to driver safety, allowable speed for the highest number of cars, project schedule, and budget. Involving the community and collaborating with peers were never part of the discussion. Today, Peterson is a recognized leader in transportation planning and engineering, known for her approach that is rooted in racial equity, guided by a process of community engagement, and includes collaboration with other professionals.
In Roadways for People, Lynn Peterson draws from her personal experience and interviews with leaders in the field to showcase new possibilities within transportation engineering and planning. She incorporated a community-solutions based approach in her work at Metro, TriMet, and while running the Washington State Department of Transportation, where she played an instrumental role in the largest transportation bill in that state’s history. The community solutions-based approach moves away from the narrow standards of traditional transportation design and focuses instead on a process that involves consistent feedback, learning loops, and meaningful and regular community engagement. This approach seeks to address the transportation needs of the most historically marginalized members of the community.
Roadways for People is written to empower professionals and policymakers to create transportation solutions that serve people rather than cars. Examples across the U.S.—from Portland, Oregon to Baltimore, Maryland—show what is possible with a community-centered approach. As traditional highway expansions are put on pause around the country, professionals and policymakers have an opportunity to move forward with a better approach. Peterson shows them how.
It’s notable that the blurb references highways expansions being put “on pause.” In practice, Peterson has supported the I-5 freeway expansion
both across the Columbia River and through central Portland with her recent “yes” votes on both the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program and I-5 Rose Quarter projects respectively. At the Oregon Active Transportation Summit back in April, she told the crowd, “We can’t let ‘no’ get in the way of progress.”
It will be interesting to note how — or if — she handles these projects in this book. We’ve requested a media copy and will share a more detailed review once it arrives.
Royal Johnson (glasses) and fellow Timberwolves at a recent meetup. (Photo: Instagram)
“I felt if I can do this for myself why not evolve the idea into something bigger?”
– Royal Johnson
With a major decrease in bike theft recovery and prevention work from the Portland Police Bureau in recent years, and with thieves feeling little to no resistance from authorities, volunteer activists are stepping up to fill the void.
Everyday folks have always been willing to sacrifice their own time, and often safety, to help snag bikes back from thieves. And these days with social media platforms to help organize and inform, the potential for do-gooders to make an impact is stronger than ever. (Last month The Oregonian profiled a group of volunteers who track down stolen cars.) I recently heard about a local group that’s not only ferreting out stolen bikes, but is also trying to train up a new legion of volunteers to help them scale up operations.
The group calls themselves the Sith Lord Vader Squadron (SLVS) Timberwolves. A few days ago I tracked down their leader, Royal Johnson…
BikePortland: What’s with that odd name?
Royal Johnson: SLVS stands for Sith Lord Vader Squadron, the SLVS Portland chapter is one of five chapters in four states. We originally started in Austin, went west to Los Angeles, then from Texas up to Oregon and then over to Colorado. We have been active since June, 5th 2011. Royal Johnson (me) is National President over all five chapters. In Oregon the SLVS is known as the Timberwolves. All five chapters make it their mission to recover bicycles and help the cycling community by managing rides and events.
What’s your background in terms of riding and living in Portland?
I have lived in Portland since 2014. I moved here to go to school and live on my own. I flew the nest. I love Portland very much and I have ridden my bike here since I moved. It’s a very beautiful place, it has the potential of being a modern day utopia. I like challenges, so when I moved here I wanted to have a long lasting impact in this city.
Why’d you get into bike theft recovery?
I got into bike theft recovery because someone stole my bike long time ago before there was a SLVS. I tracked and recovered my own bicycle and I felt if I can do this for myself why not evolve the idea into something bigger?
What has your group done so far?
The Timberwolves have recovered many bicycles in the city since 2014. We have also assisted in getting camps cleared out with stolen property, mainly bikes. We’re working on a theft prevention tactic, and a strong offensive that raises awareness of how and why cyclist should understand the severity of being vigilant.
You focus on a lot of homeless camps. How do you make sure you don’t hassle innocent people?
We do not to disparage or falsely accuse the homeless of bike theft. We treat everyone with respect no matter who they are. They are very willing to help us with the information and recovery of bicycles upon request. If you treat people with dignity no matter where they are in life it is assured that you will get the same in return.
What are your events about?
The Overwatch Bike Recovery Workshops are the link between us recovering bikes and our community getting a full understanding of how this works and what they can do in a safe manner to effectively report cycle theft. Also, we would like to be transparent in our activities so we would like the community to be present as much as possible for accountability. We do the Overwatch workshops twice a month every month during the fall and winter.
Welcome to the Comment of the Week, where we highlight good comments in order to inspire more of them. You can help us choose our next one by replying with “comment of the week” to any comment you think deserves recognition.Please note: These selections are not endorsements.
Commenter ITOTS has been swinging for the bleachers all week. I had already picked a comment of theirs when they wrote another one that was even better. Given that several of you nominated it (thank you), I switched my pick at the last minute.
I liked how ITOTS stepped back from the specific, local problems at SE 26th and Powell to ask for sweeping change.
And we have yet to mention the importance of voice when it comes to quality comments. I don’t even quite know how to define it, but I know it’s there when I actually hear a voice speaking, with a timbre, tempo and range as I read. Try it yourself: Read ITOTS’s comment below a bit more slowly, and imagine someone talking. The speaker I hear is eloquent.
The moral clarity of the comment builds to the end where ITOTS asks for a profound change in priorities from those with power and authority.
Here is what ITOTS wrote:
It’s wonderful safety is getting so much attention—if only every death on Portland streets got the same kind of intense response, both from the powerful and the community.
The not-wonderful thing is all this energy, which only seems to come together once every few years, is being expended on fixing one spot, responding to one crash. You’ve got multiple institutions quickly working together to more holistically understand and solve the problem—to move bus lines and stops, upgrade signals, repaint intersections, adjust aprons, install new school zone signage; whether these things are effective is less material to me than that our institutions are actually factually trying, which seems rare.
And yet this spot is not even close to being the most heinous in town. And yet state, regional, and local officials are suddenly able to get money, ideas, and employees put to work addressing this location. I’m not here to bellyache about why that is (though I will if prodded), but to ask: Where is the similarly urgent response for other known dangerous spots? For other recent deaths?
It is predictable that 40-60 people will die on Portland streets in a given year. And we know today roughly where and how most of those deaths will take place.
It’s clear institutional attention and resources can be quickly refocused and the Overton window shifted when leadership wants them to be. How can this temporary attention and willingness from leadership be leveraged for more sweeping systemwide changes? What low-hanging fruit (like the School Zones and Leading Pedestrian Intervals for Powell/26th) can be plucked across Portland’s high-crash network today that might make the difference tomorrow? Let’s not wait for the next death to play another gruesome, dreadful round of whack-a-mole.
Another life needlessly lost is much too high a price to pay so an institution can learn lessons long apparent, to rebalance the equation of mobility and safety in favor of life, to shift resources whose sudden abundance brings angry tears and frustration even as it validates. We owe it to Sarah and the rest not to charge anyone else the highest of costs for the hard-headedness and -heartedness we allow to persist in our institutions and leaders.
Directors Strickler and Warner: this is the kind of “all hands on deck” response we expect henceforth. This is your highest priority. Not saving logistics companies three minutes on I-5, whose savings will not go to Oregon consumers as you will claim but to the companies’ shareholders as precedent demonstrates. Not making sure no one ever has to wait in their car more than one signal cycle. Not even filling potholes.
Help us find a better balance. Help us all be safer.
Here are the most notable stories our writers and readers came across in the past seven days…
Sad but true: Parody about DOTs and crosswalks that is so close to the reality and so timely that it’s almost not funny. (The Onion)
Idaho Stop for all!: At a major Vision Zero conference, a federal administrator who works for NHTSA said they’ve analyzed data from places with “stops as yields” laws for bike riders and they like what they see. (Streetsblog USA)
E-bike style: For an American e-bike brand to truly go mainstream it must be stylish and sexy like the brand VanMoof. (New York Times)
Great question: I’m just happy to see the automotive media even asking whether or not a separate license should be required for driving some types of consumer vehicles. (The Drive)
Transit attitudes: This large survey of Washington D.C.-area commuters should be a wake-up call for city planners and add even more urgency to efforts to make driving worse while we improve transit service substantially. (Washington Post)
Tech, part one: Audi thinks they’ve found a way to make cycling safer through a high-tech communication protocol that can ping drivers and bike riders before a collision. (Curbed)
Tech, part two: As part of their vision zero campaign, London city planners worked with a company to insert sensors onto bikes in a bid to find hot-spots and other danger warning signs. (See Sense)
Tech, part three: Noted transportation journalist David Zipper says despite enthusiasm from carmakers, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems won’t lead to safety utopia. (The Verge)
Bike subsidies: The City of Denver has spent over $4 million to help people by e-bikes and it’s been so successful backers of the program are asking for more money to keep it rolling. (Fast Company)
Cycling through Covid: Researchers John Pucher and Ralph Buehler give the City of Portland high marks for helping folks continue cycling through the pandemic. (Streetsblog USA)
Video of the Week: The inimitable filmmaker Casey Neistat returns to one of his pet peeves with a proposal to finally fix it…
Poison Waters, a.k.a. Kevin Cook, at the Pride Ride in June. (Photo: Taylor Griggs/BikePortland)
“I wouldn’t be able to spend what I spend and look the way I look if I had a monthly car payment and insurance and gas and all that crap.”
Anyone who has experienced a Poison Waters performance or had the chance to talk to the beloved Portland drag queen knows her connection to the community is legit. But in addition to the performance chops and charisma she’s been bringing to the local entertainment scene for decades, there’s something about Poison Waters — whose name is also Kevin Cook — that really raises the bar for all other local icons: he’s been carfree and a proud public transit rider for life.
Before his drag alter ego came to be, Kevin Cook was a kid growing up in east Portland’s Parkrose neighborhood. His family survived on meager incomes, and without money for a car, they had to figure out other ways to get around.
“TriMet taught me that all of our city is accessible if you knew which bus or train to get on.”
“We were very poor, oftentimes living on no income. We didn’t have a family car the majority of the time,” Cook told BikePortland in a recent Zoom interview. “It wasn’t an option to get a car when you turned 16 in my family. That just wasn’t a reality.”
At first, Cook mostly relied on walking to get where he needed to go, which kept him pretty limited to the Parkrose neighborhood. But then he discovered the bus – and eventually the MAX train when it launched in 1986 – and the whole city opened up.
“I took the system anywhere it would take me,” Cook said. “This sounds so cheesy, but TriMet taught me that all of our city is accessible if you knew which bus or train to get on.”
When the MAX blue line launched, Cook shared that he would take the MAX from the Gateway Transit Center near Parkrose to downtown Portland and hang out in Pioneer Square, encountering a side of the city he’d never experienced before.
(Photos: TriMet)
“It was really fantastic to me to look out the window and see all these neighborhoods I never really paid attention to because I never left Parkrose much,” Cook said.
Cook would people watch at Pioneer Square, awed by the punk and New Age crowd who wore leather jackets and had piercings and multicolored hair. This was around the time he started discovering downtown nightclubs and finding out about the world of drag that existed at places like Darcelle XV Showplace and (the now-closed) Embers Avenue.
“It really was like Alice going through the looking glass,” Cook said. “This train brought me to this kind of wonderland.”
Over time, Cook began to get more involved in the entertainment world and adopted the persona of Poison Waters. But he didn’t see a need to get a car, instead walking or taking the streetcar downtown to shows.
With the rise of social media came Poison Waters’ big break as the transportation icon she is today. In the early days of Instagram, Cook started posting photos documenting trips on the Portland Streetcar, which was eventually noticed by local transit higher-ups. Things really took off during the pandemic when TriMet hired Poison Waters to do some public service announcements about wearing masks on the bus. The agency got other local icons (like the Blaze the Trail Cat) to participate in the campaign too, but it was Poison Waters’ ads that really made waves online.
“I have to show the bus is literally for everyone; all genders and races and generations. It never occurred to me that there was a bad stigma about riding the bus. I thought it was a privilege to have this service.”
From then on, she was the de facto face of TriMet, which is all the more meaningful if you know about Cook’s lifelong relationship with Portland public transit. Other people in local transportation took notice, too. The Street Trust recently started getting Waters onboard for big events – she hosted their first annual Pride Ride back in June and was a wonderful emcee at the Alice Awards last month.
Cook said if he had to rely on a car, Poison Waters might not even exist. (At least, she certainly wouldn’t be able to look so good.)
“I spend so much money on my professional stuff, like costumes and wigs, which costs a lot of money,” he said. “I wouldn’t be able to spend what I spend and look the way I look if I had a monthly car payment and insurance and gas and all that crap.”
Cook wants to combat any negative stereotypes that surround public transit by showing the diversity of people who use it for all kinds of reasons. A lot of times, celebrity endorsements like this can feel a forced, but with Poison Waters, you know you’re getting the real deal. So next time you’re standing out in the rain waiting for the bus and feeling very…unglamorous, just know that there’s at least one local icon who would beg to disagree.
“I have to show the bus is literally for everyone; all genders and races and generations,” Cook said. “It never occurred to me that there was a bad stigma about riding the bus. I thought, ‘oh, this is so cool.’ I thought it was a privilege to have this service.”
