Over the weekend someone sent me an interesting Instagram post. It showed a custom car parked on the Blumenauer Bridge. It was a striking image, not just because of the racey sports car, but because cars aren’t allowed on that bridge.
I wanted to have some fun with however posted the photos, and I figured folks would want to know about someone posing a car on the sacred space of our beloved new bridge, so I reposted the images and a link to the original IG post. The photos were taken by a photographer who goes by The House Ophidian on IG. The car was built by someone named Casey, whose Casey’s Garage IG account has over 47,000 followers.
Not surprisingly, some folks who follow BikePortland left some comments on the post that expressed their anger. I say it’s no surprise because carfree infrastructure has somewhat of a sacred space in the hearts of people who are forced to navigate scary, car-dominated spaces every trip they take. In some ways, the deck of that bridge is hallowed ground.
This exchange summed up these feelings:
fritglass: “I cannot belive [sic] people like that exist. What terrible lives they must have to be so mad over a photo of a car.”
– reply by kevkevshield: “It’s not “a photo of a car” it’s a car parked on a bridge that was specifically made for bicyclists and pedestrians. It’s insulting and infuriating how entitled motorists are with their private property.”
The folks responsible for the post implied they received permission to take the photos. Oddly, they also implied that BikePortland gave them that permission. “Thanks @bikeportland for all the support in capturing this photo,” said the post after it was edited following a burst of negative comments. I have no idea why these folks are saying we had anything to do with their stunt. It’s misleading and 100% untrue. I reached out to the photographer and to Casey to learn more about them to share in this post but never heard back.
I personally don’t have a beef with this — especially since it was taken before the bridge was officially open to the public (note the lack of pavement markings). Portland has a big car culture that shares many of the same traits are our bike culture. People love to trick out their cars, take photos of them, drive them together, race them. They love cars! And that’s fine with me (as long as they drive safely of course). And for what it’s worth, Casey seemed like an OK person in a short exchange of DMs I had with them.
Oh, and if you’re curious whether or not PBOT permitted the photos, I followed up with them on Monday. They say they did not give these folks a permit. So, either the people who arranged this got permission from construction crews on the ground. Or they’re lying.
I was hopeful they’d do a little Q & A with me because I think this episode was a potential bridge (ha!) to better relations between bike and car lovers. Or at least an opportunity for better understanding. And who wouldn’t want that? Having car lovers and bike lovers get even more mad at each other is something I have zero interest in being a part of.