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.
In another BikePortland first, “Comment of the Week” has selected the same commenter two weeks in a row. What can I say? For someone who is square he sure is on a roll.
BikePortland has a few commenters who are, to put it neutrally, contrarian. Like pieces of orange rind in the fruitcake, they can be counted on to provide a bitter note.
This week’s comment by Squareman pivots off one of these bits of negativity to offer a wonderful list of bicycling privileges to counter our list of driving privileges.
Here’s what Squareman wrote:
Let me start:
[Bicycling privilege is when you…] — Can legally operate as a vehicle or a pedestrian in Oregon — Don’t have to fill up on gas or pay gas taxes — Don’t have to register the vehicle or use plates — Doesn’t require a license to drive — See the city all the better without it whizzing by — Can more easily fix your vehicle yourself — You’d have to try really, really hard to kill someone with a bike — Your brain health is better — Your heart health is better — Traffic will never immobilize you — You can put your vehicle on the bus or MAX — You can ride directly on the waterfront, along the river — Are legally allowed to roll stopsigns, provided there’s no one to yield to — Can carry your vehicle up stairs and over obstacles (not all bikes)
Reader board warning of congestion on westbound Hwy 26 just before the Sylvan exit. (Photo: Lisa Caballero/BikePortland)
I don’t have much reason to drive on Highway 26 anymore, now that I no longer have a dog who requires regular grooming. So I can’t tell you how long Oregon Department of Transportation’s reader board has been warning about congestion. But happily for drivers, the warning is actionable. If you are heading downtown, it is placed just before the Sylvan exit. What fool wouldn’t cut through local streets to avoid back-up at the tunnel?
ODOT installed its first Dynamic Message Signs (DMS) less than a decade ago after studying how the technology worked in other cities. What they learned was that the reader boards significantly reduced the number of crashes in those cities, and could hopefully improve Portland’s “unpredictable commute times.” A 2014 Oregonian article mentions that they would also give drivers “a chance to choose an alternate route.”
Street classifications map from ODOT transportation GIS. Annotated by BikePortland.
The “choosing an alternate route” part is becoming a bigger issue now with congestion pricing schemes under discussion and with neighborhoods worried that toll avoidance will lead to more cut through traffic on local streets.
Portland Bureau of Transportation’s (PBOT) response to area traffic has a push-me-pull-me aspect to it. Over the past few years, the bureau has installed traffic calming along several cut-through routes. At the same time, however, it has also maintained the speed limit on those residential streets at 25 mph, even though the streets lack bike facilities or sidewalks in many places.
Hikers scurry across SW Marquam Hill Rd at their trail crossing. The street is posted 25 mph despite lacking sidewalks and its classification as a “local” street. (Photo: Lisa Caballero/BikePortland)
Even on select local streets, PBOT has taken exception to its “20 is Plenty” speed reduction program and maintained a 25 mph posted speed. Where do you find those hand-picked exemptions? On the route from the Sylvan exit to OHSU: Marquam Hill Rd and Gibbs St.
Fairmount to Gibbs is the only route for people riding a bike or walking to campus from the neighborhoods to the west. Yet, as BikePortland recently reported, PBOT’s Development Review department ruled against a new development building sidewalks on its SW Gibbs Street frontage.
Maybe there is something like this going on in your neighborhood too. It is sure to become a more important concern as congestion pricing rolls out. But we aren’t starting from neutral. The purpose, in part, of these reader boards appears to be to encourage cut-through routing. And PBOT seems to be accommodating it with higher speed limits in some places.
Here are the most notable stories our writers and readers came across in the past seven days…
“Aggressively experimental”: When Boston shut down a major subway line, they boosted support and space for non-driving alternatives and it worked so well they’ve made some of the changes permanent. (Governing)
Bike share resiliency: As climate disasters befall more cities, those with high-quality bike share systems can rest easy knowing that municipal bike rental programs are likely to be the last mode standing. (Bloomberg)
Bike aid stations: New York City will launch a program to create aid stations out of old newsstands for bicycle delivery workers. (Time Out)
City haters: “Republicans don’t actually have any ideas about solving crime. They just want to revel in its rise,” pretty accurately describes a lot of city haters making noise in Portland these days. (Slate)
EV tax: Curious what gubernatorial candidates think about tolls? Both Tina Kotek and Christine Drazan agree that e-car drivers need to be paying more of their fair share. (Portland Tribune)
Bike lane money: Any city with a population of over 100,000 can apply for a $1 million grant to build bike lanes thanks to a new initiative from Bloomberg Philanthropies spearheaded by former NYC DOT commish Janette Sadik-Khan. (Guardian)
Vehicle arms race: As vulnerable road users, it behooves bicycle riders to know why police vehicle fleets are moving toward larger and larger SUVs. (Curbed)
Helsinki how-to: Decades ago, leaders in Helsinki made an intentional choice to not become a car-centric dystopia and they coupled that with strong anti-speeding policies and a solid transit and biking system so that today they have very safe streets. (Bloomberg)
Video of the Week: Don’t miss this detailed tour of the I-205 bike path from Bike Stuff:
Parkrose Pedal organizer Nichole Watson (middle) and other organizers at Saturday’s event. (Photo: City of Portland)
International Walk + Roll to School Day has been celebrated in dozens of countries around the world since 1997, and Portland has excitedly participated for years. But I suspect this year’s observance – set for this coming Wednesday, October 12th – will be even bigger than usual.
After more than two years of Zoom school cooping kids up inside, there’s a groundswell of enthusiasm for using active transportation to get kids to school. So is your school ready to celebrate next week? Here are some tips for people who want to participate.
Get inspired
Portland’s own Sam Balto has invigorated international excitement with his bike bus videos, which are racking up millions of views on TikTok and inspiring people across the country to create similar programs at their school.
Here in Portland, bike buses are spreading far beyond the Alameda neighborhood: Shawne Martinez celebrated the Walk and Roll day early with a bike bus at his daughter’s school this past Wednesday, and southeast Portland mom has also hopped on the bike bus by organizing a program in the Sunnyside neighborhood. And did you hear over 300 families turned out for the Parkrose Pedal last Saturday?!
The wheels of the bike bus are going ’round and ’round and won’t be stopping anytime soon, so hop on! Read up on Sam’s bike bus tips and be sure to hit the links at the end of his post.
Get funding
Metro has 25 $500 mini-grants to hand out to public K-12 schools in the Portland area to implement a Safe Routes Back to School strategy this year. Possible projects include:
Walking School Bus or Bike Train: An organized group of students who walk or bike to school together with adult supervision, following a designated route with stops where students join the group.
Park & Walk: Developing an off-site location for parents to drop their children off and walk to the school site to reduce idling, congestion, and increase student physical activity
School site amenities: Examples include: temporary traffic playground, additional bike/scooter storage, other ‘tactical urbanism’ on school site to enhance safety for walking/rolling
School choice!: Requires review by Metro SRTS Coordinator for eligibility, but Metro encourages unique and creative ideas to support kids in walking and rolling to school safely.
Grants will be given on a rolling basis, so there’s no deadline. But I’d be quick to try to snatch one if I were you. You can find more information and apply for the grant here.
People who don’t live within walking or biking distance from school are encouraged to participate in the festivities too. PBOT has a guide for parking and walking to school that you can find here.
Good luck to all who participate. And if you’ve done this before, share your tips in the comments! We hope to see many kids on their bikes next week, and hopefully for many weeks to come.
Thumbnail images of six videos created by the Bicycle Transportation Alliance in 2000. -Watch the videos below-
Usually the only window into this chapter of Portland’s history are photos, letters, and policy documents. But I was recently pointed to a series of videos created in 2000 that give us a fun view into a much earlier era of bike advocacy.
The six, thirty-second videos were created by the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (now known as The Street Trust) as part of a series of public service announcements (PSAs) that ran on our local NBC affiliate television station (KGW). A reader named Etienne Scott was around when they were made. He noticed a link to the videos from one of our stories in 2011 went to a dead webpage, so he grabbed the original files and uploaded them to YouTube.
In 2000, Portland was just starting to emerge as an epicenter for cycling. The BTA had a decade of experience under their belts and they felt there was a lack of public dialogue and awareness about how car drivers and bike riders should safely interact. Their leader Karen Frost wanted to do something about that.
“What better medium than the omnipresent television?,” shared the 26-page user guide the BTA created as a companion resource for the videos. “For good or ill, the lives of Americans have been irrevocably changed by TV. The catchy music, the images of attractive people in positions of desirable and attainable status, the repetition, the repetition, the repeti …. Television sells both the good and the not so good. We want to sell something very good—bicycling!”
They spent about $500,000 (using a mix of a Federal Highway Administration Grant and local match) to create the Oregon Bicycle Awareness TV Campaign. The videos were broadcast on KGW programs from June 2000 to August 2001 and the BTA also made them available for groups in other cities to use (hence, the user guide).
And as expensive and challenging to produce as they were, the BTA says it was worth the effort. According to their evaluation, 90% of the Portland population age 18+ saw the BTA PSAs at least six times. “Net recall of the campaign was 7.0% and at the end, the net recall was 12.6%,” reads their evaluation report. “Positive changes in attitude and awareness were observed regarding driving around bike lanes, stopping at stop signs, and riding safely in the dark and rain. The number of people learning something from the campaign was 26.5% for the midcourse survey and 26.8% for the final survey; an indication that a significant portion of viewers learned from the campaign.”
Today TV PSAs have been supplanted by social media videos. And while some videos can go viral, it’s really hit or miss and most content produced by nonprofit groups isn’t that widely consumed. New forms of media are exciting and important (ask me how I know!), but long gone are the days where one partnership with one TV station could garner such strong attention from an undistracted audience.
A “protected” bike lane. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Have you ever considered the idea that we are ordained with certain privileges when we drive cars and trucks that we simply don’t get when we choose to ride bikes?
This idea of “driving privilege” has bounced around my head for years and I often think about it as I ride around town. Any time we step into our cars (I own two of them and drive weekly), we benefit from driving privilege. It’s not something we have to opt into, it’s just always there. Because driving is heavily favored by the system of policies, projects, and people that influence how we get around.
The flipside of course, is that people who use the streets while not driving a car or truck, do not benefit from these privileges.
To help flesh this out, I’ve made a list.
Driving privilege is…
when you can lose control of your car, let it smash into other people and property, and then have the media excuse it as nothing more than an “accident.”
when you don’t have to worry that road debris will give you a flat tire and make you late for something important.
when you can know that any road street or highway that you’re on will never, just, suddenly, end.
when even minor road projects don’t create hair-raising work zones.
when loved ones don’t fear for your life every time you leave the house.
when you don’t have to spend hours of your time doing advocacy just to make road conditions a little better.
when your main concern about our growing population is that you won’t have anywhere to park.
when you’ll never be asked to get out of your car and walk around a busy area.
when politicians, judges, bureaucrats and cops will always sympathize with you.
when you can drive 11 miles over the speed limit and not get pulled over for speeding.
when you know that if you make a tiny mistake, you probably won’t die or get badly hurt.
when you don’t have to worry about strangers making lewd comments about your body when you drive.
when you’ll never have to get out of your car to push a button so the signal will change.
when every time you plan a route you don’t weigh the chances of dying versus directness.
when you just expect that your route to work will be plowed when it snows.
when you never have to worry about a random stranger throwing something at you just for fun.
I’m sure you can think of others.
To me, driving privilege is just another reason why I cringe when people act like our conversations about safe streets and policy issues are somehow a level playing field. They’re not. And we need policymakers to understand this and help us work toward a more fair and balanced system.
A photo from the 2019 Cyclocross Crusade opening event. (Photo: Drew Coleman)
Who’s ready for the weekend? Here’s our hand-picked selection of the best rides and events coming your way. For more suggestions, see the BikePortland Calendar.
Saturday, October 8th
Vvolt E-bikes Warehouse Sale – 9:00 am – 1:00 pm at Vvolt HQ (SE) It’s Vvolt’s first-ever warehouse sale! One day only, save up to $700 off MSRP on demos, customer returns, and cosmetically imperfect electric bikes. Every Vvolt ebike on hand will be at least $300 off list price, and select bikes will be discounted further. More info here.
Showers Pass Warehouse Sale – 9:00 am – 1:00 pm at Showers Pass (SE) Stock up for when the rain finally comes at the famous Showers Pass Warehouse Sale, which is back in person this year! This sale is held outdoors. (And it’s right next to the Vvolt sale, so who knows what you might end up with.) More info here.
PBOT Maintenance Operations Career Day – 9:00 am to 2:00 pm at Kerby Yard (N) If more bicycle riders worked on PBOT crews, we’d get cleaner, safer bikeways. So apply! They’re hiring! (Event also happens same time and place on Sunday) More info here.
Overlook Neighborhood Ride – 10:00 am – 1:00 pmatThe Stacks Coffeehouse (N) Join ride leader and Overlook Neighborhood Association transportation chair Nic Cota for this beginner-friendly, family-friendly social ride that stays under a few miles within the neighborhood. More info here.
Sunday, October 9th
Cyclocross Crusade Race #1 – All day at Rainier High School (Rainier, OR) Get ready, because it’s Cyclocross Crusade season, and the first race is this Sunday. Hosted by the Oregon Bicycle Racing Association at the classic and beautiful Rainier High School course. More info here.
Sandy Ridge Dig Day – 9:00 am – 2:00 pmat Sandy Ridge MTB Trail System (Sandy). Help get the Sandy Ridge mountain bike trail back in good shape after a busy summer season. More info here.
Bikes and Film Cameras Night Right – 5:30 pm at Location TBA Do you like shooting film and riding bikes? Connect with folks who share that passion on this ride lead by Shawn Granton of the Urban Adventure League. More info here.
See all upcoming events here. Promoting an event? Know about something we should boost? Please let us know and we’ll get it on the calendar.
Solid lines are level of service, dotted lines are ridership. Source: TriMet Forward Together, Jarrett Walker + Associates
With all those trees in the way, it can be really easy to miss the forest. So, last week, when TriMet released its Forward Together Draft Service Concept, many people, myself included, made a beeline to our neighborhood bus, and then immersed ourselves in the tangle of other nearby routes
Meanwhile, staring the reader in the face, and probably going unnoticed, was the fact that TriMet did not write this report. The document was the work of the Jarrett Walker + Associates, a Portland-based transit consulting company with a long list of clients from around the world.
But even if you missed the name, the tone of the writing was a tip-off. This document was different from the usual TriMet work product, and the consultants have brought a fresh eye and frankness to the project of a post-pandemic reorganization of TriMet service.
Transit consultant Jarrett Walker in April 2022. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
In Portland: Turning the Dial Toward Equity (How Far?), a recent blog entry on the firm’s website, Jarrett Walker himself talks about their TriMet project and the questions about what future service should look like. He asks, “And as we look at how much to invest in equity, we have a big question for the community to think about: How much redistribution of service toward lower-income areas should we do?” He then introduces the reader to trade-offs to consider, and makes the point that
The Service Concept we’ve released is just that, a concept. It is not even a proposal, and it’s certainly not a recommendation. We are not saying that we have it right. We are putting it out there to start a conversation.
Toward that end, TriMet has a short survey they would like you to take, and also several open houses this month.
In addition to the primary report, there are a couple of documents which will interest readers who want a deeper understanding of Portland’s transit challenges.
The Transit Existing Conditions Report is an incredible resource. It begins as a primer on transportation networks, and includes explanations of basic principles like the Ridership/Coverage trade-off. About a quarter of the way in, though, the document transforms into a fantastic book of maps. Even if you don’t want to read anything, scroll through them. Above are a few.
The Technical Memorandum from the Portland-based Parametrix consultants organizes transit trends into two time periods, before and after the pandemic, and also compares trends in Portland to regional and national trends. They look at gentrification, ride hailing services, congestion, road safety, driver shortages and declining transit ridership. Much of this will not be completely new information for readers who follow transportation news closely, but it was helpful to have all of it in one place, concisely reported, and with the local to national comparisons. Also, they cite sources, with links, which makes this report a valuable resource.
One fun tidbit was the local working trends by employer, compiled from employers surveyed in February and March, 2022 (pages 15-17). At Kaiser Permanente, 95% of administration was working from home; OHSU had 55% of employees working remotely; and at PGE 65% were remote. It also touched on the issues of safety, adopted driving habits and hybrid schedules.
In short, if you love the Portland area and are a transit nerd, these documents are a treasure-trove.
Looking north on the southeast corner of Powell Blvd and 26th. Markings in the road are from the police investigation into the collision. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Another senseless death of a vulnerable road user on an urban highway controlled by the State of Oregon has led to more pleas from advocates to make changes. And just now, the Portland city commissioner in charge of the transportation, Jo Ann Hardesty, added her voice to the chorus.
“Enough is enough,” Hardesty said in a statement Thursday. “In the immediate term… ODOT can make changes to Powell and other urban arterials today… ODOT must implement safety improvements as soon as possible for the safety of Portlanders and all who travel through our city.”
Hardesty said she wants to see changes like the ones suggested by The Street Trust in their statement yesterday. Specifically, they have called for a protected intersection design that would create physical separation for vulnerable road users.
Yesterday as I biked home from the intersection where Sarah was killed, I got a phone call from ODOT Region 1 Public Information Officer Don Hamilton. Hamilton knows SE Powell and 26th well. In 2015 he went so far as to attend a protest at the intersection held two days after a bicycle rider has his leg torn off in a collision with a truck driver at the same location.
ODOT Region 1 PIO Don Hamilton (with folder) walking across Powell Blvd on 26th, May 11th, 2015.
Hamilton said he was aware of demands for accountability from The Street Trust and Bike Loud PDX. “People are saying ODOT has to answer for what happened,” he said. “But we still don’t know what happened so it’s premature to blame us.”
“We need to know if Powell played a role, and if so, what role, before we can decide if there’s anything further we can do,” he added. “I don’t know if conditions on the road can be seen as a factor.”
According to our Fatality Tracker there have been 10 fatal traffic crashes on SE Powell between 24th and 62nd since 2017 — six of them are on the stretch between 24th and 37th.
(Graphic: BikePortland)
Regardless of what happened Tuesday, does ODOT not believe that the current design on Powell Blvd is inherently dangerous?
Hamilton carefully evaded that question and would only say: “If there’s something we can do we, we will do it. It is a busy road, there are a lot of dangers, and everyone needs to be very careful.”
Looking west from Powell toward 26th.
We still don’t know exactly what happened between Sarah and the driver of that truck. Because one party in the collision cannot speak for themselves, because there are many conflicting witness accounts that don’t add up, and because even video evidence doesn’t always show everything, there’s a chance we might never know.
What is clear so far is that the design of Powell Blvd at 26th Avenue and the safety of people who use it are completely at odds. It’s a ticking time bomb. And ODOT holds the fuse, a match, and a cup of water that could put it out. So why do they just stand there and let it burn?
As I talked to ODOT’s Hamilton, he kept saying “It’s a very busy road… it’s so dangerous,” as if the road is a force of nature his agency has no control over. The same way someone might look at a school of sharks and say, “It’s a lot of sharks… it’s so dangerous.”
The difference in those two examples is that one we have control over, and the other we don’t. We — or in this case specifically, ODOT — has control over this situation. They decide how a road is designed. And design influences how a road is used.
PBOT Freight Advisory Committee this morning.
In this case, so far it appears that neither person involved in this tragedy did anything egregiously wrong.
At the Portland Bureau of Transportation Freight Advisory Committee meeting this morning, The Street Trust Executive Director Sarah Iannarone said, “I want us to do everything that is possible to prevent these in the future. That is why I want to place blame on the infrastructure…. Because whether or not there is human error involved on anyone’s part, we need to do things as a community to prevent harm when human error is a factor. Humans err, that is what we do.”
The corner prior to early 2019.How it looks today.
ODOT erred when they made an intentional decision in 2018 to make SE 26th and Powell less safe for cycling, so did The Street Trust when they went along with the compromise (which Iannarone apologized for at today’s meeting). There used to be a large, green-colored bike box on the corner where Sarah Pliner was killed. ODOT chose to remove that bike box and strip the bike lane of its legal status in 2019 (even after their own consultants told them widening the bike lane would be a feasible option). The purpose of a bike box is twofold: Provide space between drivers and bike riders during red lights, and to give a visual warning of potential bike rider/driver conflicts. A bike box probably wouldn’t have kept Sarah alive; but it doesn’t change the fact that ODOT made this corner less safe and now someone is dead.
I asked ODOT PIO Don Hamilton why ODOT removed the bike box. “We were trying to direct bicycle to a safer crossing on 28th. We certainly were not intending to make bicycle traffic less safe,” he replied.
So why not just put up signs pointing to 28th and keep the bike box? I asked.
“I see what you’re getting at,” Hamilton replied, ever cautious with how he chooses words during our conversations. “We made a decision to make sure that the facilities that we had at 26th directed traffic as best we could to 28th Avenue… You understand what we were doing right? I see your point though, when you remove something, are you are making it less safe? I get that. I see what you mean.”
ODOT often has no trouble seeing what we mean. They just usually don’t agree with our solutions.
At the intersection where Sarah died, the solution must address how truck drivers turn (or if they’re allowed to continue doing so).
Today, the way truck drivers make the turn from northbound 26th to eastbound Powell is extremely dangerous. A ticking time bomb. Several very knowledgeable people I’ve spoken about this recently have said the same thing: “I can’t believe this doesn’t happen more often.”
(Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)(Photo: Lime)Electric micromobility power couple alert!
“It’s really cool that a big company like that was like, ‘yeah, this makes sense.’ It just validates what we’re doing.”
– Phillip Ross, B-Line Urban Delivery
This just in from the worlds of micromobility and urban freight delivery… Electric scooter company Lime has inked a deal with Portland’s B-Line Urban Delivery to decarbonize their scooter battery rebalancing system.
Lime has typically relied on cars and trucks to carry dead scooters to a recharging spot. Now that they’ve changed up the scooter design so the electric battery is swappable, they’re looking to make that process more efficient (and less reliant on gas-powered vehicles). Enter B-Line, which is swooping into many new opportunities with their 600-lb capacity electric-assist trikes to lessen the greenhouse gas emissions from last-mile freight delivery.
Starting later this month, you’ll be able to spot electric trike operators picking up Lime scooter batteries to get them charged-up and back out on the streets.
“One of our things that we like to do B-Line is to figure out how to decarbonize everything,” Phil Ross, B-Line’s Director of Sales & Marketing, told BikePortland. “One of the ways we do that is by helping out businesses that are labor-intensive and use gasoline or diesel automobiles. We give them an option to switch to our delivery system, and then we can take everything out the last-mile with our electric-assist trikes.”
The Lime crew also sees this as a move toward a cleaner future.
“We’re thrilled to partner with B-Line as part of our ongoing efforts to work with community leaders in Portland and to always be improving our efforts towards sustainability,” Hayden Harvey, Lime’s Senior Manager of Government Relations for the Pacific Northwest, wrote in a statement to BikePortland. “B-Line allows us to build on that major step forward by removing even more of the need for cars in favor of human scale vehicles, which is a core part of Lime’s mission.”
And as we mentioned in our story about a recent e-bike policymaker ride, B-Line’s headquarters on SE 7th and Salmon streets have a large, 150 kilowatt solar panel system on their roof, reducing the carbon footprint of their electric trikes even further.
This partnership between electric mobility programs conjures dreams of a self-sustaining electric transportation system that isn’t as far-fetched or futuristic as it might seem. The Jetsons may have had flying cars, but we have solar-powered electric trikes and scooters, and I think that’s a better deal.
Plus, B-Line’s trike carrying capacity does away with the outdated notion that electric vehicles are just cars. Electric-assist trikes, bikes and scooters all have the ability to be very useful vehicles that are more efficient and practical than cars in the urban environment.
Ross said he hopes other companies like Biketown, Portland’s e-bike share program, will consider using B-Line’s services as well.
“It’s exciting that a company like Lime has the option to do this now, and the fact that they took advantage of it is really heartening,” Ross said. “It’s really cool that a big company like that was like, ‘yeah, this makes sense.’ It just validates what we’re doing.”
Sarah Pliner (left) and her sister Jessica Pliner. (Photos courtesy Suzy Hoke and Jessica Pliner)
Portland is mourning the loss of Sarah Pliner. The accomplished chef was 50 years old and was in the process of opening up a new restaurant when she was tragically killed while biking across Powell Boulevard on her way to work Tuesday.
Today I talked to Sarah’s sister Jessica Pliner and family friend Suzy Hoke to learn a bit more about her.
According to Jessica, a lawyer who lives in San Francisco, Sarah moved to Portland from New York City in 1990 after graduating from high school. She attended Reed College, but dropped out and started working at restaurants. She found a spot in the esteemed kitchen of The Heathman Hotel, which was her first big opportunity in the world of fine dining. From there she traveled back to New York to gain experience working alongside notable chefs before returning to Portland a few years later. She opened Aviary in 2011 and it put Sarah on the map — although she never sought the limelight.
Aviary closed in 2020 during the pandemic. These days Sarah was chef at Fullerton Wines and also cooked at Bluto’s on SE Belmont (which closed today to try and “heal from the devastating loss”). She was on her way to Bluto’s Tuesday when she was hit. Her co-workers called the police when she didn’t arrive.
Sarah was dreaming of owning her own restaurant again. “She was looking at spaces for a new restaurant and meeting with the contractor about the buildout as we speak,” her sister said.
That new location would have very likely have been pretty close to her home near SE 28th Place and Holgate. That’s because Sarah didn’t own a car and she rode her bike everywhere. “I came up to visit her in 1995 or so and gave her my car and said, ‘I’ll teach you how to drive,'” Jessica recalled, laughing. “It takes quite a bit of patience to teach someone who’s never driven.” In the end Jessica said Sarah learned just enough to get her license, then gave away the car.
Suzy and Jessica shared another story about a 2019 visit when the trio wanted to try a pho restaurant near the Portland Airport. “We were driving and she’s navigating us, but the way she’s giving directions wasn’t the most efficient way to drive there, because it was how you’d bike there,” Suzy recalled. “It was hysterical.”
While driving directions weren’t her forté, Sarah stood alone when it came to cooking. You can find many accolades in local food media reviews and remembrances, but I think something Suzy shared with me was a great illustration of her talent:
“I have had a lifetime avoidance of fungi. Sarah insisted that I try them and prepared something I think called ‘hen of the woods.’ I tried to back out of trying them but she was persistent to the point that I took the tiniest bite and prepared to wash it down with a large glass of water. It was one of the most delicious things I ever tasted. We went back to Aviary for a second night and I got it again. I literally just shared this story on Sunday with friends. Can’t believe she’s gone.”
“She was highly respected in her field,” Jessica added. “And not just for her talent, she was so generous with her time in teaching people who wanted to learn.”
“This accident cut short the life of somebody really talented.”
Flowers for Sarah at the corner of SE 26th and Powell today. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
— A celebration of Sarah’s life will be held on October 23rd. Once details are finalized, we’ll post them here.
Before heading over to the scene for a closer look, I wanted to share a few updates on the tragic death that happened on SE 26th and Powell yesterday.
First, the victim was 50-year-old Sarah Pliner, a well-known local chef and former restaurant owner. Pliner was behind Aviary, a French-inspired spot on Northeast Alberta. Before closing in 2020, Aviary was named Restaurant of the Year by Willamette Week in 2012. In a review from Conde Nast Traveler, the food was referred to as “inventive… that’ll quietly knock your socks off.”
I’m in touch with a close friend of Pliner’s who’s traveling today with her family in California. I hope to share more about her and share remembrances from those who knew her in a separate post. If you knew her, please reach out and share if you are able to.
Advocates have raised red flags about the intersection where Pliner was killed several times. Local nonprofit group Bike Loud PDX held an emergency meeting yesterday to talk about how best to respond this time. Much of the energy thus far is focused on the Oregon Department of Transportation, given that Powell Blvd is a state highway that has years of death and destruction in its past (stay tuned for a post about recent traffic deaths nearby). Many volunteers said they plan to attend upcoming meetings of state and city freight advisory committees.
The Bike Loud board released a letter this morning calling on local policymakers to act to make Powell safer. Board members outline their vision for the corridor:
“We want all people along the Powell corridor to enjoy full lives, free of worry that they will be maimed or killed while crossing the street whether on bike, foot or in a car. We want Powell Boulevard to have slower speeds, bike boxes, safe crossings, mode separation, and daylighting for vulnerable users. Finally, we want Powell Boulevard adjacent to Cleveland High School to be designated a school zone. We need all this now, before another person dies.”
Bike Loud’s letter also said the group will be working with Pliner’s family and surrounding community on a memorial. We’re not aware of any protest actions or mass bike rides, but we’ll share details about the memorial and other actions as soon as more information is available.
Transportation advocacy non-profit The Street Trust also released a statement about the crash this morning.
“The Street Trust is tired of issuing statements and offering condolences for the loss of life and limb due to government inaction on SE Powell Blvd. in Portland and are demanding immediate action – today – from local and state government to prevent future injuries and deaths,” the statement reads. “The Street Trust is demanding that the City of Portland and State of Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) cooperate to immediately physically separate from motor vehicle traffic all vulnerable street users including people on bicycles, pedestrians, and transit riders until a full investigation of yesterday’s killing is completed.” (Emphasis theirs.)
Employees of a nearby Burgerville walked out in protest after seeing the crash Tuesday. In a tweet they wrote, “Workers have walked off on strike at 25th & Powell over safety concerns. After witnessing a child [sic] be killed immediately outside the shop, body in full view of crew, workers demanded the shop be closed for the day. Corporate/HR denied this plea for compassion.”
State Rep. Rob Nosse represents the district where the crash occurred. BikePortland received this statement from Nosse this morning:
“That intersection has been a traffic and pedestrian challenge for far too long especially given that Cleveland High School is right there along with Powell Park. The city and the state have got to figure out a way to make Powell Blvd safer. I have been working with a group of neighborhood activists and leaders trying to figure out how to make a jurisdictional transfer of Powell Blvd from ODOT control to PBOT control or more simply stated from state to city. This tragedy is a call to redouble those efforts to find a way to make a jurisdictional transfer both politically and financially viable. Making Powell a city road rather than a state road gives our community a much better chance of preventing some like this from happening again.”
State Rep. Khanh Pham, who represents the district directly adjacent to where this happened, has made a statement about Pliner’s death. “My heart goes out to Sarah’s family and community. This is the 3rd death on this stretch of inner Powell in the past year. We as a state and city must fund safety improvements and jurisdictional transfer so no one else has to die or be injured,” she wrote on Twitter.
That transfer Rep. Pham refers to is likely going to be the focus of much attention in the coming weeks and months. As I reported yesterday, Powell ranked highest by Metro in a listing of state highway that all parties agree should be transferred to City of Portland ownership. I’ll go further into this topic in a separate post, but suffice it to say there is a ton of political inertia around this idea — especially given the recent precedent of the 82nd Avenue transfer. One little tidbit I’ll share now is that in January 2020, PBOT Director Chris Warner sent a memo to ODOT Director Kris Strickler. Warner seemed a bit frustrated and claimed that ODOT had lowballed an estimate included in a report about what it would cost to bring the road up to a “state of good repair” (a requisite step before it can be transferred). “Portland has hundreds of millions of unfunded safety needs,” Warner wrote, “We cannot accept additional liabilities without weakening our ability to meet the needs on the streets we own.”
