2022 Archives

PSU researchers: ‘Data fusion’ can help cities count bikes better

It’s always fun to see the Tilikum Crossing bike counter tick up as you pedal across the bridge, checking out how many other people have biked on the same route that day. But bike counters are an important tool beyond just novelty. People working to plan bike infrastructure projects – and acquire government funding and political support for them – need to know how many people are biking and where they’re going. In order to do that, they need to make sure they’re getting the most accurate count possible.

There are many tools to count bike trips; but each of them has its drawbacks. Ones that use smartphone data from apps only capture people who use them (and that have phones). Bike counters like the one above are expensive and don’t scale (they are also easy targets for vandals).

It’s a problem that has plagued cycling advocates for years; but researchers from Portland State University’s Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) think they might have a solution. They call it “data fusion.”

A project team led by Dr. Sirisha Kothuri wanted to find out what happens when data from different tools are mixed. Their work was based on the idea that a more accurate picture of cycling traffic can be made by combining, “traditional and emerging data sources.”

The team looked at three newer “big data” sources — the Strava smartphone app, Streetlight Data (and analytics firm), and GPS figures from bike share systems — in six cities (Boulder, Charlotte, Dallas, Portland, Bend and Eugene). They fused that data with more traditional bike counters cities have used for many years.

They then created three location-based models to run the data through. “In general, the various data sources appeared to be complementary to one another; that is, adding any two data sources together tended to outperform each data source on its own,” reads the project summary. The findings from this study indicate that rather than replacing conventional bike data sources and count programs, big data sources like Strava and StreetLight actually make the old ‘small’ data even more important.”

“At ODOT we just adopted ‘Bicycle Miles Traveled’ as a new key performance measure, and we need a way to measure it, so this project very much helps to fill the gap on how we’re going to do that.”
– Josh Roll, ODOT research analyst

Oregon Department of Transportation Research Analyst & Data Scientist Josh Roll sat on the project’s technical advisory committee and said the insights could help his agency get a better grasp on how well (or poorly) they’re serving bicycle riders. “At ODOT we just adopted ‘Bicycle Miles Traveled’ as a new key performance measure, and we need a way to measure it, so this project very much helps to fill the gap on how we’re going to do that,” Roll said in the project summary.

While creating this report, researchers uncovered another problem: despite support from agencies and jurisdictions, gaining access to the bike count data was difficult. Researchers noted that agencies appeared disorganized and were using questionable tactics when deciding where to place permanent count mechanisms, tending to “locate permanent counters in clusters of similar location types, resulting in little information about bicycle activity in different contexts.”

Portland is doing this better than most cities. The Portland Bureau of Transportation brought back its annual short-term bike counts this summer and Biketown has a transparent and robust data dashboard.

The lack of accurate bike counts and ongoing challenges in accessing the data are yet another way our system tilts in favor of car drivers. If we want to get more people on bikes and save our cities and our planet in the process, we’ve got to up our game when it comes to non-car traffic counting.

But don’t just take our word for it: “For transportation agencies wishing to support active travel to meet various sustainability, public health, and climate- related goals, quickly having accurate data for the entire network would be a giant leap in the right direction,” the report says.

Learn more and view the full report here.

25-year-old rider dies after being hit by a driver in Fairview

Early this past Saturday morning at 2:02 am, 25-year-old Timothy James Zehner was hit and killed by a car user while riding his bike in Fairview, about three miles east of the Portland border.

Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office says it happened near the intersection of NE Halsey and Fairview Avenue. Here’s more from their official statement:

A witness reported that the driver had initially stopped, then quickly left the scene. A responding deputy spotted a vehicle that matched the description of the involved car and initiated a traffic stop. The driver was pulled over and was arrested. The driver is identified as 56-year old Robert Lee Wilson. He was later lodged at the Multnomah County Detention Center.

Wilson’s car. (Photo: Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office)

Paramedics arrived and pronounced the bicyclist dead on scene. Due to the severity and criminal nature of the crash, the East County Vehicular Crimes Team (VCT) was called to perform the investigation.
Preliminary investigation shows that two bicyclists were riding eastbound on NE Halsey Street, approaching NE Fairview Parkway, when Wilson’s vehicle crossed into the bike lane and stuck one of the bicyclists.

In a follow-up email the Sheriff’s office yesterday, they confirmed with me that Wilson remains in custody and has been charged with aggravated assault, DUII, hit and run, and reckless driving.

NE Halsey is a major east-west arterial in this area. The bike lane in this location is unprotected and relatively narrow. It also merges across the adjacent traffic lanes before the intersection so that bike riders can be on the left of drivers prior to them making a right turn. It’s unclear what might have led up to this collision.

Checking out the new(ish) Linwood Avenue path in Milwaukie

With all of Portland’s bike infrastructure projects to discuss, exciting developments in our neighboring cities don’t always get the attention they deserve. With this in mind, I headed down to Milwaukie yesterday to check out the relatively new SE Linwood Avenue multi-use paths, and I was impressed by what I saw.

Linwood Ave is located in the easternmost part of Milwaukie about a mile and a half west of 82nd Ave. It’s a street with one vehicle lane in each direction, and while it isn’t an extremely busy corridor by Portland standards, it’s one of only a few streets that goes straight from Johnson Creek Blvd to SE Railroad Ave/Harmony Road. The 10-foot wide multi-use paths, which debuted last November, are located on both sides of the street, and have enough room for people walking and biking to share the path.

This $3.3 million project was partially funded by Milwaukie’s Safe Access for Everyone (SAFE) program, which aims to improve safety for people using active transportation in the city. The city also received a grant from the Oregon Department of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program to build the paths on Linwood Ave, which is home to Linwood Elementary/Sojourner School. The SRTS program is intended to get kids and parents using active transportation to get to school instead of driving, and projects like this one can make all the difference for people wary about their kids biking or walking to school.

From Johnson Creek Blvd at the exit of the Springwater Corridor Trail to SE Monroe Street, SE Linwood Ave does not feel like a safe place for people biking. There is a small bike lane on the side of the road with nothing but a thin line of paint separating people biking from adjacent car traffic, and the lane is uneven with grates and cracks in the pavement. In contrast, the multi-use path from Monroe Street to Harmony Road is smooth, wide and physically protected from car traffic with planting strips and trees.

This is the main problem with the Linwood Ave path: it’s less than a mile long. The stretch of street it’s located on is home to a school, a community garden and several churches, and it’s great that there is now a safe way to walk and roll right up to those places. But a lovely new path only does so much if it’s isolated in a neighborhood of otherwise dangerous streets.

North of Monroe, people biking (like this child ahead) have much less pleasant facilities to ride on.

I saw this play out on my ride. There were several kids running a lemonade stand on Linwood just north of the start of the path, where the bike facilities are negligible. I asked them if they use the new path, and they said yes and that they feel safer and more comfortable on it than other parts of the street. I saw a boy biking from the north to get the the lemonade stand to see his friends, and it made me nervous to see him riding in such a thin, unprotected bike lane.

I also saw a long line of cars idling in a pickup line at Linwood Elementary, spilling out onto the street. While old driving habits die hard and it might take more than a path to convince people to stop driving to school, I think people would be more inclined to use the path if it extended out further. A seamless transition from the Springwater Corridor trail to this path would be great, and would mean people could very well get from northern and western parts of Milwaukie without spending very much time on a street at all.

There is a Clackamas County project on the books to extend this path all the way up to the Springwater Corridor trail. Because Linwood north of Monroe is technically located in Southgate CPO, an unincorporated part of Clackamas County, the county has jurisdiction over this part of the street. However, although this project was planned for completion by November 2022, construction has still not begun.

Steve Adams, the Milwaukie city engineer who worked on this project, told me the “main reason the city constructed this path way was to encourage parents and children to ride or walk to school,” and although he and other planners worked hard on the paths, he hasn’t seen them utilized very much since they opened.

“I certainly hope it takes off and becomes a new way for people to get around,” Adams said.

Fake bridge bike ramp graphic causes confusion, raises issues

There are all types of ways to push back against a project you don’t like. As social media has matured in recent years, a lot of folks have become good at creating graphics that — when they go viral — can be a very effective way to establish a narrative. Look no further than someone like Tom Flood, who we had on our podcast a year ago and who’s now working on a book. Or there’s ex-Portlander Zach Katz whose @betterstreetsai Twitter account has blown up in recent weeks.

But as the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility.

Bob Ortblad, a retired civil engineer and self-described “Historian of 200 years of infrastructure” who we’ve featured as a source for his expertise on the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program, is also good at turning engineering data into compelling visuals. One of the graphics he recently shared was a bit too compelling.

One of Ortblad’s main concerns with the IBR project is that it will be too high to easily bike and walk up to. To create a recent graphic, he took data from official, draft proposals of the bridge design, then combined with a Dutch bike ramp design manual to come up with a mockup he feels is an accurate representation of what we can expect to see on a new bridge. It’s a striking image that shows eight spirals required to reach the bridge deck level.

As you can see above, he then shared that graphic on Twitter with the official IBRP logo and font, and added no disclaimer to suggest it was a just a mock-up.

The striking image immediately caught the attention of several of Ortblad’s followers (above), some of whom expressed outrage based on their assumption that the graphic was real. Confusion ensued. The reactions also included some people (including me) urging Ortblad to rethink his approach to using such a misleading graphic.

Yesterday, the IBR account responded to his tweet to clarify that the graphic, “Was not created by IBR & uses our logo without authorization. Multiple ramp designs are under consideration to connect the multi-use path to the bridge. The pathways will be built for all users & will be greatly improved over what exists today.”

While I don’t like Ortblad’s misleading approach, he does seem to have made a point: If the IBRP would be more transparent with the ramp design, he wouldn’t have to speculate and there’d be no confusion (for their part, the IBRP would argue that they simply aren’t able to provide more detail at this stage of the process because the Locally Preferred Alternative was only endorsed in late July).

Advocacy can work in mysterious ways. And given that absurdly spiraling bike ramps are actually a tool DOTs have used in the past, maybe Ortblad’s misleading graphic will help us avoid the fate it depicts.

Hallelujah! PBOT will address bikeway maintenance at upcoming meeting

Warning: The following contains a lot of my opinions that might be uncomfortable for some readers.

For a city with a rich legacy of cycling with aspirations to be even more cycling-centric, the lack of care and capacity that the Portland Bureau of Transportation spends on keeping cycling paths, shoulders, and lanes clean is unacceptable and embarrassing.

It’s an issue we have amplified countless times over many years here on this site. Whether it’s gravel in winter that litters bike lanes for months, piles of unplowed snow, forgotten leaf piles that turn to slippery muck, car-traffic detritus, or branches and overgrowth that spill into the street and force riders to mix with car users — this is a problem that needs a proactive, strategic solution, not just the complaint-driven, one-off system we use know.

That’s why I was very happy to see the following item on the agenda of the upcoming Portland Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting:

Jody Yates, new group director at PBOT’s Maintenance Operations (MO), and David Mulvihill, new manager for Maintenance Construction, will discuss with the BAC maintenance operations and challenges in regard to bicycle facilities. This will be an opportunity for the BAC to work with MO leadership to solve problems associated with declining maintenance resources and increasing transportation infrastructure.

This is big for several reasons:

Many folks don’t appreciate that PBOT is really like two bureaus. There’s Maintenance Operations (MO) and then there’s everything else. The MO folks have their own culture (ahem), headquarters, bosses, and so on. And because MO staff are mostly workers skilled in operating heavy equipment and doing physically-intensive jobs (think paving roads, fixing potholes, and so on), some of them tend to have a, let’s just say, slightly different socio-cultural-political perspectives than the planners, engineers, and marketing/outreach folks we typically highlight on these pages. It’s not that they are necessarily anti-bike, it’s just that keeping bikeways clean probably isn’t something most of the rank-and-file maintenance staff see as a high priority — especially when they’re stretched thin dealing with increasingly frequent severe weather events. And given their union and aforementioned bureaucratic separation, it’s tricky for PBOT leadership to change this dynamic.

I say all this because having the MO leader come to the bike meeting is a great sign that long-simmering tensions between these two camps is easing and better days are ahead.

Right now, PBOT doesn’t have a transparent, proactive approach to keeping bikeways clean. I know this, because I’ve pestered them privately for something like that several times and I’ve never been satisfied with the response. If we are going to lay down tons of gravel, we need to also budget to clean it up by a specific date. If we can publish snow plow route for driving routes, we can publish one for biking routes.

Whatever comes this meeting, BAC members and advocates should push for a binding, written agreement so we can hold PBOT accountable to specific outcomes.

Crappy bikeway conditions is a reason why more Portlanders don’t bike. Right now, top PBOT brass and even Mayor Ted Wheeler are scratching their heads trying to figure out why bike ridership has declined in the past eight years or so. They’re reluctant to admit the role dirty bike lanes play. Few things reek of modal disrespect more than pulling into a new bike lane only to see it covered in trash, water, leaves, gravel, or all of the above. And when people feel disrespected (and/or once they’ve gotten too many flat tires from broken glass or have had to swerve into other traffic to avoid a hazard), they change behaviors to avoid that feeling. I never come across such bad lane conditions when I’m driving my car!

I realize this is a tough issue. There’s never enough funding for maintenance and there’s always new infrastructure coming out. And PBOT’s ever-growing mileage of physically-protected bikeways that are impossible for larger sweepers to access have only complicated the issue. But if we want to be a legit major city, we have to get better at this.

And while I’m cautiously optimistic that PBOT is finally coming to the BAC to get help, I hope they realize it’s not the bike advocates’ problem to solve. PBOT needs to figure this out once and for all. Clear and safe travel lanes are a basic right everyone deserves — regardless of the vehicle they use.

Stay tuned for coverage from Tuesday’s meeting. Find the Zoom link and more details here.

Weekend Event Guide: Bon Voyage Mr. Igleheart, Rivendells, racing, and more

Here’s our carefully selected list of events and rides that are worthy of your attention this weekend…

But first… Thank you to our sponsor Gorge Pass, who’d like to remind you that you can get unlimited rides on all the Gorge transit shuttles for you, a friend, and your bikes through the of the year for just $40! Visit gorgepass.com/bikes for a map of trip ideas and routes.

Friday, August 5th

Breakfast on the Bridge – 7:00 to 9:00 am on Flanders Bridge (NW)
The B on B crew has been busy this summer because they are awesome, and they are celebrating 20 years of free coffee and treats for passersby. More info here.

Christopher Igleheart Bon Voyage Party – 4:00 to 7:00 pm at Breadwinner Cycles (N)
Christopher is a legendary framebuilder and Portland gem who I am kicking myself for never interviewing on the BP Podcast! Now he’s packing up and moving to France. Come join friends and fans for a party to wish him well. More info here.

Saturday, August 6th

Oregon Crit Championships – 10:00 am to 5:00 pm at University of Portland (N)
Fast and fun racing action on the beautiful U of P campus would be a great way to kick off your weekend. More info here.

PDX Love Fest – 11:00 am to 6:00 pm at Gladys Bikes (N)
Part pop-up maker faire, part shop party, and part social bike ride, this event will introduce you to cool products and cool people. Did I mention there will be yummy food? More info here.

Riven-delicious Ride – 1:30 at Willamette Park (S)
If you have a Rivendell or are just a big fan, this is the ride for you. Or maybe you just want to ride all of the bikeway updates on Naito Parkway? Either way, this cruise will end up at Rivendell geekery epicenter of Golden Pliers Bike Shop in NoPo. More info here.

Robbin Hood Rally: Archery Bike Ride – 3:00 to 5:00 pm at Wallace Park (NW)
Expel some economic and inequality angst by grabbing your arrows and riding to the archery range in Washington Park with like-minded friends. More info here.

Sunday, August 7th

Portland Bicycling Club Annual Picnic and Ride – 9:30 am at Columbia Park (N)
Looking for folks to ride bikes with? Come check out Portland’s oldest bike club for some riding and relaxin’ at an old-fashioned park picnic. Show up in the AM for the group ride and/or just meet at the park around 12 noon for the picnic. More info here.

Memorial Ride for Martin Crommie – 10:00 am at Mayfly Taproom (N)
Advocates from Bike Loud PDX will host this gathering to pay respects and to remember Martin, who was killed by a driver while he biked home on July 10th. More info here.

CCC Sidewalk Sale – 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at CCC HQ on Alberta (NE)
If you need a deal on new and used parts and accessories, roll over to the Community Cycling Center for a big sidewalk sale full of deep discounts. More info here.

Carefree Sunday – 11:00 am to 4:00 pm in Milwaukie
It’s like Sunday Parkways, only a bit further south in the wonderful city of Milwaukie. This is the best excuse you’ve had in a long time to finally venture beyond Sellwood, ride the new(ish) path along SE 17th and check out our neighbors to the south. More info here.

East Portland Bike Fair – 1:00 to 4:00 pm at Lincoln Park Elementary (E)
If you or your bike need help getting ready for the upcoming Sunday Parkways in east Portland, let the fine folks at PBOT assist you in those last-minute repairs, prep, and gear fitting. Geared toward the entire family. More info here.

As always, check the BP Calendar for more listings!

Four offset intersections, four different treatments

Just four of Portland’s dizzying array of designs.

As a cyclist, these offset intersections annoy me.

Portland’s street grid system is pretty tidy (with some glaring exceptions – I’m looking at you, Laurelhurst and Ladd’s Addition). But someone traveling around the city will notice there are places where streets join at a slight offset, which means you can’t go straight across an intersection to cross to a connecting street. This problem is at its most disruptive when a designated bike corridor is offset across a busy street, which is fairly common in Portland. In these situations, someone biking down the comfort of a greenway is suddenly made to interact with car traffic at a complicated intersection, which is inconvenient and adds kinks to an otherwise smooth and easy trip.

As a cyclist, these offset intersections annoy me. As a bike infrastructure nerd, however, they’re great. Planners take this street pattern hiccup as an opportunity to flex their creative problem-solving skills, and as a result, we have some very strange bike crossing designs. Let’s take a look at a few particularly notable offset intersection crossings.

SE Stark Street and 41st Ave

We looked at this particular intersection last year (and even made a video about it), so you can check that out for a more detailed explanation. But I wanted to discuss this design again because it makes for a good comparison with some of the others on this list. Portland Bureau of Transportation planners chose a very unique design here, which includes buffered bike lanes in the middle of the busy Stark St to protect people biking down the 41st Ave greenway at this wide, offset intersection.

These bike lanes are nicely visible to people driving on Stark – even more when paired with the yield signs on the street – and they make it so people biking only have to focus on car traffic coming from one direction at a time instead of constantly needing to look back and forth while crossing a wide intersection. It’s still a little snag in an otherwise smooth trip on 41st, but I’ve had good experiences crossing at this intersection compared to other places.

SE Stark St and 30th Ave

This intersection is just offset enough that if people biking were asked to use a sharrow in the middle of 30th Ave south of Stark, it would make for an awkward crossing. Instead, a short two-way bike lane on 30th – which is to the left of car traffic south of Stark and to the right north of Stark – makes the transition smooth. This isn’t a feasible design for a more wide intersection, but it works quite nicely here to create a smooth transition in either direction.

E Burnside and 30th Ave

The way PBOT has attempted to deal with this offset intersection is very interesting (and PBOT has used a similar treatment at NE 33rd and Going, 33rd and Mason (in progress), NE 55th/54th and Killingsworth, SE 129th/130th and Division, and several other locations). When crossing Burnside on 30th, people biking are directed toward a raised two-way bikeway that serves to separate bike, pedestrian and car traffic to avoid collisions. In my opinion, the problem with this design is that it’s too tight of a turn to get onto the raised bikeway from the north, and if another person was riding a bike in the opposite direction, I would be scared of running into them. This would be a good place for a similar solution as the one on Stark and 41st, but since Burnside is such a busy street, I think it would be difficult to implement that.

SE Belmont and 42nd Ave

Any attempt to solve the problems an offset intersection presents for people biking is better than nothing at all. This is most evident at the intersection of Belmont and 42nd, in which there is nothing to alleviate the pain of crossing the wide intersection by bike. This stretch of Belmont is busy with pedestrian traffic, and it would be helpful to have separate facilities for people walking and biking. Instead, people biking must choose between crossing at the crosswalk – which includes a tight turn between the hedges on the sidewalk – before getting back onto the street or just crossing their fingers that people driving will see them and stop at the crosswalk.

There is no signage here, and compared to the rest of the crossings on this list, I have had the most negative experiences at this intersection. It’s a shame, too, because the much more pleasant Stark/41st intersection is just a few blocks north of this! I think PBOT could figure out a creative solution here and make it nicer to travel through the Sunnyside neighborhood.

What do you think of these design treatments? Have any ideas for how offset intersections could be better to bike through? Let us know – and stay tuned for a video looking at these streets.

Former PBOT Commish Eudaly is back with ‘Street Wonk’ media outlet

Chloe Eudaly in 2019. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

I’ve been wondering for a while now: “What happened to Chloe Eudaly?” Now I know.

The former Portland City Commissioner and head of the transportation bureau left office with some very choice words for “the bike community” (and for me personally, but whatever) after losing a re-election bid to Mingus Mapps in 2020. After that, I didn’t hear anything about her or from her until this past weekend when she showed up to the Blumenauer Bridge opening celebration.

I bumped into one of her Facebook posts about the event and a few clicks later I had discovered that she has launched a new media platform via Substack called “Street Wonk“. I initially hoped the “street” part meant she had become a transportation nerd and I eagerly clicked around her first posts looking for insider-y stuff about PBOT. My disappointment was immediately overcome with interest when I realized what she’s actually creating is, “A new twice weekly newsletter about politics and policymaking from the street up!”

One thing I always liked about Eudaly was her candor (I even wrote an op-ed about it), so I’m thrilled she’s bringing that same vibe to Street Wonk and I think it’s something everyone should pay attention to. I don’t recall a former City Commissioner doing anything remotely as interesting as this.

In addition to articles and op-eds, Eudaly says she’ll launch a community forum site, host in-person events, and support progressive causes. “After we brush up on our media literacy, research, and debate skills, we’ll learn, discuss, debate, generate ideas, agitate, and champion change together,” she writes.

While Eudaly is just getting started (she says there’s a website launching this month), it’s already clear that her intent is to combine her knowledge of writing and publishing (she owned a bookstore before winning her council seat) with her experience inside government. Add in a recent fellowship position at Western States Center where she researched different methods of effective citizen engagement, and she has potential to add a very valuable voice to our community at a moment (with a pivotal election on the horizon) when we desperately need it.

“Be forewarned, I won’t be offering simple solutions to our biggest challenges because they don’t exist and I’m not running for office,” Eudaly says in one of her first articles. “Instead, I’m inviting you to join me on a community-wide quest to learn about the complexities and interconnectedness of our many challenges, discuss, deliberate and generate community-based solutions, and build momentum for progressive change from the street level up!”

One of the cool things she does each week is to take the Portland City Council Agenda and offer insights into each item. You get to learn about different policies, organizations, and people who showed up at council from someone who’s been on the other side of the dais. To me, as someone eager to learn as much as I can about how politics works in this city, that’s invaluable context and information. I’m a subscriber.

Check out Street Wonk on Substack if you’re curious.

Bike racing will return to downtown Portland, thanks to Mayor Wheeler

Hundreds of fans lined the streets around the North Park Blocks for the 2011 event. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

For the first time in nearly a decade, a major bike race is coming to downtown Portland — and we have the mayor’s office to thank for it.

The Portland Criterium is set for August 20th and organizers say they are being welcomed with open arms by City Hall and Mayor Ted Wheeler.

“I look forward to welcoming the Portland Criterium Bicycle Race after a nearly ten year absence from our city,” Wheeler shared with BikePortland this morning. “This race is an excellent opportunity for all members of the Portland community and beyond to come together… Please join us in celebrating our city’s Park Blocks and love of cycling!”

Why is the mayor so excited about a bike race? It’s a key part of their efforts to activate downtown and bring people back to the businesses and attractions many have given up on after years of crime concerns, negative media coverage, protests and the pandemic.

As Portland continues to rebound from some tough times, this is great news for bike racing fans and anyone who loves our city!

Check a few photos from previous editions of this event to see what a huge draw the event was:

Starting line in front of the Customs House building on NW 8th in 2010.

Some of you might recall the Portland Twilight Criterium, which was an annual event from 2002 to 2012 that brought thousands of people to Old Town Chinatown and the Pearl District. I was able to cover it several times (photos above) and it was absolutely amazing. The event always attracted massive crowds to watch top U.S. professional teams duel for wins on a tight course around the North Park Blocks.

If you’re new to bike racing, criteriums (also known as “crits”) are races that last around 45 minutes or so and consist of relatively short laps (less than one-mile). Racers use team strategy, smarts, strength and courage to fly around tight, 90-degree turns while reaching speeds of 30 mph. It’s thrilling to be a part of it — whether you’re racing or watching.

Add in a beer garden, vendors, food carts, music, fun rides, and so on — and you’ve got a big, bikey, block party!

There were a lot of bummed-out bike lovers when persistent sponsorship and funding woes forced the Twilight Crit to go dark back in 2012. According to organizer (and former Twilight Crit winner) Steven Beardsley (right), conversations about bringing it back started with interest from the City of Portland. People in Mayor Wheeler’s office know that cycling events can draw a big crowd and they reached out to the Oregon Bicycle Racing Association (OBRA, the statewide, regional sanctioning body of competitive events) to see if a race would be possible this summer.

Beardsley and OBRA jumped at the chance and now they’ve added City of Portland as an official sponsor.

Beardsley says the elite-level competitive events will just be one part of the event. There will also be Biketown Street Sprints, a Pedalpalooza Portland Criterium Sportif ride with awards for best non-cycling sporting costume, and more.

Mark your calendar for August 20th and check out PortlandCriterium.com for more information.

Video: Bike rider tries to engage a hateful driver spewing lies

A BikePortland reader sent in a video clip that shows what can happen when a bicycle rider and car driver interact with each other out on the road. As you can see above, I’ve taken the clip and added captions to it.

The interaction happened in Tigard (southwest of Portland) and was caused when the driver of a Jeep SUV saw a “bakfiets” style cargo bike emblazoned with “This Machine Fights Climate Change” in large letters on the side. That was apparently enough to make the driver mad, and the bike rider was more than glad to engage and have a chat about it. (I’m keeping the rider anonymous by request because they feared being targeted online.)

Unfortunately the driver wasn’t ready for a productive conversation. Instead, he spouted off on a bunch of false talking points and was extremely rude and disrespectful to the bike rider.

To me, the interaction was a good illustration of a few things:

Is it worth trying to engage with drivers? This is a timeless question among bike riders. Some folks think it’s impossible for anything good to come out of this context because both sides are often too emotional and heated. I’m personally more like the biker in the video (although often not as level-headed), and I am usually eager to talk to drivers. I find it fascinating to hear their perspectives and have had several experiences over the years where folks who are initially angry at me become much more moderate and friendly once we pull over and talk to each other.
What we are up against: And by “we” I mean us as Americans. The mainstreaming of lies and conspiracy theories, the extreme divisiveness of our politics, and the inclination to quickly stereotype others based on a bumper sticker and/or a mode of travel — are all unfortunately very common among the body politic. And bike riders face this type of s*** all the time. We are easy (and vulnerable!) cultural scapegoats and are victims of a lot of biased treatment. People who don’t bike have no idea what we experience on a daily basis. We have a lot of work to do to as Americans if we want to achieve anything together. I think it starts one conversation at a time. Which leads me to my next point…
He kept his cool!: The bike rider did an amazing job of keeping his cool. Despite a verbal lashing from the driver, the cyclist didn’t get rattled. Hopefully he landed some new ideas inside the driver’s brain that will last beyond this interaction.
Your mileage may vary: The biker in this video is very lucky. This type of interaction can escalate quickly, especially with so many people carrying guns and hateful lies in their head while in control of a very powerful weapon. And it’s worth noting the bike rider is a relatively large, middle-aged, white man. People who don’t look like him would likely get a different response.

Have you ever engaged with a driver (beyond a few words of profanity)? How’d it go? Did you learn anything from watching this video?

But wait, there’s more: NE Couch, 7th will get immediate Blumenauer Bridge-related bike upgrades

The Earl Blumenauer Bridge is now open as a link from Portland’s Central Eastside to the Lloyd District via NE 7th Ave, much to the delight of people who walk, bike and roll in the central city. But there’s room for improvement on the streets surrounding the bridge if it’s to become a cohesive, easily accessible part of the active transportation network.

The Portland Bureau of Transportation has started work this week on two projects south of the new bridge that will add bike facilities to adjacent streets with the goal of making it more seamless to access the bridge via 7th Ave. This work will include changes to NE Couch as part of a Rose Lane project as well as a new bike connection on SE/NE 7th Ave to make it easier to cross Sandy at SE Stark, which is necessary in order to reach the bridge.

Learn more about both projects below…

NE Couch Street Rose Lane

PBOT will provide a bus-and-turn (BAT) lane on NE Couch Street between NE 12th and 6th avenues. The BAT lane will improve transit speed and reliability for bus riders on lines 12, 19, and 20.
In addition, PBOT will improve the bicycle connection to the Congressman Earl Blumenauer Bicycle and Pedestrian Bridge by extending the bike lane from 6th to 7th avenues. People biking will also be allowed to use BAT lane between NE 12th and 7th avenues.
The project also includes traffic signal controller upgrades to better coordinate between approximately 30 traffic signals on NE Couch Street, E Burnside Street, NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, and NE Grand Avenue.
This project also includes a general travel lane reallocation and one block of parking removal. The right travel lane will be reallocated between NE 6th and 12th avenues for the bus-and-turn lane. People driving will still be able to use the lane to make right turns at driveways and at intersections and to access on-street parking. Parking along the north side of NE Couch Street between NE 6th and 7th avenues will be removed.

These changes to Couch are very significant. As you can see in our lead image, the current conditions require bicycle riders to share the lane with car users. While it’s downhill and there’s often little speed differential, the experience is not welcoming to less confident riders. This project will extend the bike lane (which currently only goes east to 6th) by one block to connect to the new bridge. Also note how PBOT explicitly says bike riders can use the “Bus Only” lane.

Also worth noting is that this red Bus/Bike lane on Couch will connect to existing Rose Lanes on the MLK/Grand couplet.

NE/SE 7th Avenue Neighborhood Greenway Project

Map of NE/SE 7th Avenue Neighborhood Greenway Improvements — (Source: PBOT)

This Central City in Motion project will create a new, half-mile long north/south bike connection on NE/SE 7th Avenue between SE Washington Street and the new Blumenauer Bicycle and Pedestrian Bridge. In addition, PBOT will install a new westbound bike lane on the north side of SE Washington Street.
Construction consists of speed bumps to calm vehicle traffic speeds and reflective wands at select intersections will discourage cut-through traffic.
Visibility and crossing safety will be improved by removing parking near intersections. In addition, parking will be removed on the north side of SE Washington between SE Sandy and 8th Avenue.
The project will result in improved safety for people walking and bicycling and a stronger connection between the Central Eastside and Lloyd neighborhoods.

If it’s unpleasant to bike to and from the new Blumenauer Bridge, people won’t be as inclined to use it, so it’s good PBOT is working to make it more accessible. Construction on these projects is expected to last through August – stay tuned for an update when the projects are complete.

Podcast: Live from the World Naked Bike Ride!

The podcast is back!

As I thought about how to cover the Naked Bike Ride this year, a podcast seemed like a fun way to do it. I’ve photographed and written about this magical event for many years, so I wanted to try something different. I also figured that a lot of people are getting less comfortable with having their naked bodies plastered all over the Internet these days, so doing a huge photo gallery and/or even a video, just didn’t feel right.

Then I got even more intrigued when I started thinking about how I could make a subtle statement by taking what is obviously a very visually entertaining event and completely hiding that aspect of it.

Here are just a few quotes from the episode:

“It provides dramatic social ritual that totally satisfies the latent desires of all of us.”

“Everybody’s body is different and everybody’s body is floppy in some different way.”

“I’m a thick motherfucker. I’m out here letting it hang out and everyone else should too.“

“You’d think there’d be one kind of naked, but everybody puts their own flare on it.”

“It’s incredible. Portland’s incredible. I love this city for stuff exactly like this.”

“This is how we were all born. We all got the same parts, just different different dimensions.“

“I’m from Alabama and it’s like kind of an oppressive place. So just being somewhere where you can be naked is great.“

“Skateboards are the ultimate naked transportation solution.“

“As a minor, trying to have fun here and celebrate a birthday party, I’m traumatized!“

Interviewing Cory Poole. (Photo: Megan Ramey/Bikabout)

Wearing only a hi-viz vest with “MEDIA” written in big black letters and a belt with my gear around my waist, I waded through the “sea of skin” (which is how one person referred to it) to try and capture the spirit of the ride from different perspectives.

After talking to folks in the park (including a group of people who were not happy with having their birthday party taken over by a bunch of naked people), I hopped on my bike and interviewed participants as we pedaled across Portland in the nude, several thousand strong.

As you listen, consider that this just might be the world’s first-ever podcast recorded by a naked person riding a bike. If that’s TMI, you won’t like this episode, because — disclaimer — this episode includes several mentions of body parts and profanity that might offend some listeners.

Enjoy the episode! (I’ll have a transcript ready soon.)

And thanks to everyone who was open to chatting with a dorky naked guy.

Browse more episodes of our podcast here.