One of my favorite pastimes is poking around the Portland Bureau of Transportation website looking for nuggets of interesting news and information. A few days ago on one of my daily hunts, I stumbled upon a nice little treasure…
The thing about PBOT is that they are really good at marketing what we have; but because their website (like mostly all government sites) is not super easy to navigate, much of their great work gets buried. Speaking of which, in a section of the site devoted to safety was a page titled, “Suggested bike rides around Portland.” On that page was a list of 10 (actually 11) expertly-crafted routes that take you through all corners of the city. In many ways, these 10 routes represent the best (and worst, depending on your outlook) of what Portland has to offer: great neighborhoods, interesting destinations, world-class parks, public art, excellent bike infrastructure, and more.
If there was a Portland passport everyone was required to have, we should aim to get it stamped with every one of these rides. Put another way, consider the completion of all 10 as a cheat code shortcut to instant official Portlander status no matter how long you’ve lived here. I plan to do all these rides in the coming weeks and months. If you do the same, I guarantee you’ll come away happier, healthier, and with a greater amount of pride and perspective for our city.
Check out all the routes below. And hope to see you out there!
Note: PBOT only offered PDFs of the route maps so I took the liberty of creating a GPS map for each route for folks that want to use a device or smartphone for navigation. Check the PBOT page for more details.
The Classic Waterfront Loop Ride
You’ll enjoy a scenic ride along Willamette River trails between the Sellwood and Steel bridges on this classic waterfront loop. START/END: Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade trail behind OMSI (1945 SE Water Ave)
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The Art of Foster Ride
This ride is like a treasure hunt of more than a dozen vibrant murals and street paintings that dot the Foster-Powell area. How many can you spot? START/END: Portland Mercado (7238 SE Foster Rd)
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(*Note: If you do this ride, refer to PBOT’s route map for clues on where to look for murals.)
Four Parks of East Portland Ride
This ride takes you on a tour of four East Portland parks and features the new HOP Greenway serving the Gateway District. START/END: Gateway Discovery Park (NE 106th Ave and NE Halsey St)
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Heart of St. Johns Peninsula Ride
Enjoy the views from Willamette Bluff, quiet Neighborhood Greenways and two great parks that bookend this tour of the St. Johns Peninsula. START/END: Columbia Park (N Lombard and N Woolsey)
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Ladd’s Key to SE Portland Ride
Unlock to discover the unique neighborhoods of Southeast. Experience bike infrastructure of new and old Portland and enjoy unique views from the Bob Stacey Crossing and Lafayette St overpasses. START/END: Ladd Circle Park and Rose Garden (SE 16th Ave and SE Harrison St)
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North Portland Bike to Books Tour Ride
Suitable as a family walk or bike ride, you’ll spy a strawberry, a family of chickens and a school of fish on bikes along this tour of 2020 Bike to Books street art, all originating from North Portland libraries. This route brought to you by biketobooks.com. START/END: North Portland Library(N Killingsworth St and N Commercial Ave)
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North Greeley and Greenways Ride
This 8-mile North Portland ride offers a little bit of everything. Discover Neighborhood Greenways of Albina and Arbor Lodge, the Bryant St bike and pedestrian bridge, enjoy views of the river from Willamette Blvd, and squeal with joy as you ride downhill on the new protected bike lanes on lower Greeley. START/END: DeNorval Unthank Park (N Kerby Ave and N Failing St.
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Parkrose Pedal Tours
A great route for families, this tour of the Parkrose neighborhood highlights the I-205 multi-use path in Maywood Park, with access to Gateway Green. START/END: Parkrose Middle School (11800 NE Shaver St)
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This route connects all Parkrose School District schools and adjacent parks. With bike lanes on busier streets, this loop is for families able to ride together in a straight line alongside traffic. START/END: Parkrose Middle School (11800 NE Shaver St)
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Roses, Parks and Greens Tour
Enjoy a tour along residential streets and greenways of northeast to the many diverse green spaces of the Rose City, including a community orchard and a hydro park. START/END: Rose City Park (NE Tillamook St and NE 62nd Ave)
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Sellwood-Moreland Nature Ride
Enjoy a short ride along the Springwater Corridor Trail through Oaks Bottom Wetlands and Wildlife Refuge and Neighborhood Greenways of Sellwood-Moreland. Take time for a picnic or visit nearby Westmoreland Park along the way. START/END: Sellwood Riverfront Park (SE Spokane St and SE Oaks Park Way)
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SW Multnomah-Vermont Ride
You’ll ride through the heart of the Hillsdale and Multnomah Village business districts, past Gabriel Park, and discover some Neighborhood Greenways in the quaint Maplewood neighborhood on this SW Portland ride. START/END: Hillsdale Library (1525 SW Sunset Blvd)
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Ok so not only is this list awesome for a new transplant who loves to bike and wants to discover more of the city (me) but you even included the RWGPS tracks? Awesome. Really excellent collection here and the easily digestible format is very much appreciated.
Indeed, another fun resource I’ve found to help get to know the city has been Portland Bike Tag. I enjoy looking up the previous tags that I don’t know and plotting rides to go see some of them.
You forgot the great naked bike ride
Woo-hoo! Thanks for the shout-out for these rides. And GPX tracks too?? Appreciate the nudge into the 21st century. It’s kind of strange to be here, but it feels o.k.
And of course only one is on the west side. I’m surprised to see even one. Like always, PBOT pretends that nothing west of the river outside of the downtown core even exists.
Okay this is a bit snarky but here’s my brainstem’s response:
It’s too white on the west side. PBOT can’t promote anything from that part of the city as it doesn’t meet their equity requirements. Having a west side route would go against what PBOT employees need for a promotion—everything has to be “anti-racist”.
That comment is a bit snarky and also comes across as anti-anti-racist (aka racist). I don’t know you so I don’t want to assume that of you but do want you to know this comment sounds a bit racist. Personally I’d be ok if the west is represented less because of racial equity/anti-racist perspectives.. However, I can think of many other reasons that the West HILLs have fewer routes on the PBOT site. Perhaps geography(lots of hills) and population density have something to do with the route distribution. The character of the roads (not quality but winding, steep, challenge of making loop rides of shorter distances) may also contribute. I might have added the Fairmont Loop to the list but other than that it’s pretty tough creating a family-friendly ride on West Hills’ roads. I think if you look at the other routes, there are several that go through other very white neighborhoods (Sellwood, Rose City Park, Ladds). AND, there IS a westside route included. So, the “too white” snarkiness just doesn’t fly for me.
My back neighbor is always shouting “drop it” to his dog, which I guess is dog-trainer for “don’t even think about it.” I guess I’m not well-trained either, so here it goes.
Anti-racism doesn’t conform to boolean algebra. Being anti-anti-racist does not mean that you are racist. Unless one follows policy closely, most people do not know what anti-racism means. One working definition is that it is a philosophical shift away from inputs to outcomes when measuring the success of programs and policies.
I first encountered this reorientation with education in the 1990s. I remember the principal of an experimental school in Queens telling our small group that he “didn’t care what a teacher said they taught, he wanted to know what the students learned.” A corollary to that was “test early and test often.” You tested on Monday to baseline, and you tested on Friday to see if what you taught “took.” If it didn’t, your lessons were not successful, and as teacher you needed to give the subject matter a second shot.
Similarly, anti-racism says, “I don’t care about how wonderful your program is, what results is it getting?” Until an outcome is indistinguishable between races, policy should give special regard to the race with the worse outcome.
You can be against this policy without being racist just like a lot of Portlanders are against testing and output-based accountability in education without being against education itself. Vox has done a lot of reporting on the anti-racism controversy that exists within somewhat liberal circles.
Here’s an interview from 2021: https://www.vox.com/vox-conversations-podcast/2021/11/2/22728801/vox-conversations-john-mcwhorter-woke-racism
Actually, barbaroo’s read is a pretty good one.
There are as many logics as there are definitions of racism. Boolean is just one of them, although many who study Boolean logic believe they have studied the One True Logic. On the anti-anti-racism policies being racist, the definition at work revolves around how to characterize policies, not people. But an analysis that says that one can be against or for some policy or other without being racist, the definition at work revolves around characterizing people. It’s often not useful to engage in debates about whether someone is racist, because they can always elide characterization by claiming some other, countervailing beliefs. It is very useful (and relatively easy) to characterize policies as racist or anti-racist. Similarly, it is relatively easy to point out that any policy that does not support racial equity is racist. There is no such thing as race-neutral policy. I don’t see a problem with saying that policies produce or sustain either racial inequity or equity, racial injustice or justice. So, it’s fair to say that an anti-anti-racist policy is racist.
But, not only do I think you two are talking past one another, we’re getting farther away from cycling.
Hi Phillip Barron! It might be clearer to call “anti-racism” Kendism. It should be possible to question aspects of Kendism without being called racist.
Can you be anti-racist without appeal to Kendism? Of course! That’s how we rolled in college in the 90s.
Agreed PB! It’s just that the phrase “anti-racism” in today’s political discourse refers to Kendi’s ideas. But yeah, it sets things up for “Whose on first” misunderstandings.
Jesus Christ. Can’t we just post a list of rides without it being a discussion of equity?
Of course. I haven’t noticed that BP comments sections get taken over with discussions of equity. (Usually it’s camping and police enforcement that get people stirred up.)
But if the discussion turns to allocation of resources it is appropriate to bring up equity. PBOT uses an equity matrix based on a combination of income and race as an input to their project prioritizations.
Also, the bureau declared itself as an “anti-racist” organization which means that they view all decisions through a racial equity lens. The term “anti-racism” was the key concept in Ibram X. Kendi’s influential 2019 book, How to be an anti-racist. I haven’t read the book, but I plan to soon.
So it is fair to ask how PBOT implements anti-racism, what it means in the context of that organization. I have no idea, I don’t have answers to that.
We need to begin to look at income differences (instead of race) as a marker for differing rates of “success”.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/29/us/richard-kahlenberg-affirmative-action.html
Lisa,
Is it race or class or income or education level (or a combination) that is causing different outcomes?
Can’t assume it’s 100% race which is what is often done by the far left.
An anti-racism that incorporates anti-classism is something that seems to be lacking in the “liberal” political establishment (no surprise, really). It’s great to support “black businesses” and cultural events but redistribution sufficient to ameliorate pervasive racialized capitalism is, apparently, a step too far:
https://www.opb.org/article/2023/03/22/portland-housing-bipoc-people-of-color-home-owner-black-native-american-latino-oregon-rent-affordable/
It’s an interesting discussion, Pierre Delecto. I tend to favor outcome-based accountability. One pitfall with it, however, is when the program/policy/bureau doesn’t control enough of the inputs.
For example, Vision Zero is outcome-based. But PBOT has no control over the size, weight, or speed capability of cars. That’s done at the federal level. So when Portland’s Vision Zero doesn’t reach zero, or improve fatality rate enough, it gets criticized as “not working.” That is unfair.
I realize you are talking about housing, so I’ll get to it. I think that subsidized housing and quality education are the most efficient local tools for lessening inequality. But once again, Portland is fighting federal policy which has grossly worsened inequality over decades.
I think how to use transportation to promote greater equality is not simple, because it involves networks that need to take account of not only where you live, but where you work. I thought TriMet’s Forward Together documents did a really good job of presenting that data. Transportation is not a zero sum game.
The economically comfortable have very carefully curated where they live so that these geographies provide them an economic and social leg up. This is just one of the many ways in which our prioritization of housing wealth/capital creates an in-virtuous cycle of wealth transfer upwards. While it’s true that federal policy plays a large role in the giant sucking sound of the rich hoovering up capital income, the state of oregon also greatly subsidizes housing/real-estate capital accumulation (e.g. state mortgage interest deduction and the bevy real estate deductions available to those that own/invest).
The solution that has worked elsewhere is to use taxation to fund housing for lower-income people in places where public transit and active transit allows them to access both jobs and decent places to live (e.g. closer to the urban center). Frequent bus service is great but if we can’t provide housing for working class people nearby the impetus for this service will ultimately be undermined by wealthier SUV drivers.
When people say VZ isn’t working in Portland, it’s not because it’s failed to get to zero, but because deaths have been increasing since the program was instituted.
Many of the factors are directly within the city’s control: street design, enforcement, camping along busy corridors.
It’s definitely not simple, mostly because transportation isn’t much of a lever to improving racial equity in a city like Portland.
Transportation is the second largest expensive for lower-income people who are disproportionately people of color. Reducing this cost for cost-burdened households and subsidizing lower cost and time-saving options for these households is a no-brainer (except for the fact that rich people don’t like paying taxes — see many blog comments on bike portland, for example).
If it’s a no-brainer, how should PBOT do this?
Anti-anti racist is not racist. “Anti-racism” is a specific ideology, not just a general opposition to racism. One can find racism highly offensive without adhering to the dogma of anti-racism. There’s not just one true way to oppose racism.
You think the east side of Portland is diverse or not white?
It’s not really snarky so much as misinformed or uninformed. There is no real diverse neighborhoods anywhere in this city compared to most so I really doubt this was on anyone’s mind.
I’m happy for Saltzman, Skyline, Cornell, Washington Park, Hewett, Humphrey, Council Crest, Fairmount, Terwilliger, Tryon Creek, River View Cemetery, Iron Mountain, Fanno Creek Greenway, and Corbett to stay the worst kept secrets that they are.
More seriously, thanks Jonathan for doing the work to translate the PDF to RwGPS.
The best riding in Portland is on the west side, get the map of The Ronde and go knock yourself out.
The best in views in the city are on the west side, IMO. Montgomery to Council Crest was always a good back-street climb.
This is a map of family-friendly, comfortable bike rides. There aren’t very many of those on the west side, so most of them are on the east side. It’s that simple.
Finally found this comment. So much wasted hot air in all of the comments above this, when the answer is obvious: SW Portland (within the city limits of Portland), is trash for family-friendly rides. The roads are dangerous, the hills are steep, and the connections are poor. If you see families riding in SW, it’s because they drove their bikes to Willamette Park or Fanno Creek.
I grew up in SW and even biked to high school as a kid, but I was an extreme outlier.
Chris, I would have pinned Atreus up top, but I can’t pin anything but top-level comments. Can’t pin a “reply.”
As far as hot air, I’m surprised by how many people don’t know anything about how PBOT decides to fund a project or not. That process very much determines which areas get facilities and which don’t.
Even PBOT doesn’t know how PBOT decides to fund a project or not. Ask each engineer and decider there and you’ll get an incredible variety of inconsistent responses.
I agree with you on this. But that’s a reason we should be investing more in the westside, while the inner eastside gets everything. I agree that the comments above are missing the point of my original comment, which is to simply draw attention to the fact that PBOT almost never even considers the westside in anything it does. I’ll say it until they actually start caring about the neighborhood where I grew up.
Wait, they are sending people along SW Multnomah Blvd? Where cars drive 40 mph and there is hardly a bike lane to speak of? What about a route featuring the new bike amenities on SW Captiol instead?
These maps were made at least a year ago which would explain why SW Capitol wasn’t considered. I saw these maps last spring and rode many of these routes as I tried to explore more of the city by bike. SW route here is by far the worst and is truly a testament to how disconnected the network is. The best they could do is have the route go along Multnomah Blvd, ride on SW Capitol Hill Rd, go through the awful intersection in Hillsdale at Capitol Hwy & BH Hwy, its all a joke.
Even if these maps were made with the recently finished SW Capitol project in mind, where would the loop be? The southern end is one of the worst intersections in the city, and theres zero connectivity on the northern end.
Classic pigeonholing. While riding for leisure is great, and a worthy pastime, a persistent bias in this country toward associating bicycles/bicycling with leisure, diversion, tourism, gaiety is an unfortunate holdover. Bikes are also for transportation and PBOT needs to not just understand this but instantiate this in their published materials. Not impressed.
I think it’s ok to have both. For many people who commute by bike, they began by going on leisurely rides like this where they found how easy/enjoyable it can be to get around by bike. PBOT also has print and interactive bike maps to find the best routes for commuting and trip planning.
“I think it’s ok to have both.”
Absolutely, and I didn’t mean to suggest otherwise, just that the touristic angle does always seem to get more airtime, come first, etc.
“For many people who commute by bike, they began by going on leisurely rides like this where they found how easy/enjoyable it can be to get around by bike.”
I suppose. But do we know this to be so? Has anyone looked into this?
“PBOT also has print and interactive bike maps to find the best routes for commuting and trip planning.”
OK, if they really do give equal air time to these two then I shall retract my complaint.
This is the “bike fun” premise. And it’s been proven to be a false premise as we now have 2.8% mode share in the context of a bike-party scene that has seen no drop off in numbers. If anything, the bike-fun movement is at all time highs while transportation cycling withers into the nothingness that is the norm in the USA.
What’s even worse is the pervasive belief among “bike funnists” that transportation politics is something to be avoided because it’s a downer or something.
That doesn’t prove anything. If it’s true that recreational biking is popular now, but bike commuting is not, that doesn’t prove that recreational biking isn’t a springboard for bike commuting, because the surge in commuting won’t be coming until the future.
Also, recreational biking was a a very high point in the 70s among children and young people, and a surge in commuting DID happen as those recreational bikers aged. Many commuters over the last decades are people who biked recreational when young in the 70s.
I also have never seen any evidence that there’s anything close to a “pervasive belief among “bike funnists” that transportation politics is something to be avoided because it’s a downer or something.” I often see the opposite–many people involved in “transportation politics” lobby for both better commuting AND better recreational riding, and often do both types of riding themselves.
Shift is/was notorious for this attitude. And the founders of TNR were notoriously opppsed to bike-politics. The crushing of critical mass by the city’s hyper-violent police led mostly-white “activists” to shy away from any conflict with the establishment.
In a mostly white city, I’d expect most activists to be white. I’m not sure why you say it like it’s some kind of slur.
Not a slur but a recognition that this scene is a homogenous group that prioritizes socialization over the politics of creating a less SUV-centric city.
Why is race the most important dimension by which to judge “homogeneity” of bicycle advocates in a city is, by that same measure, homogenous?
I’d think seeing advocates with a range of political views coming together on an issue, for example, would be much more significant than what the advocates look like.
If you can’t understand that whiteness is a dimension of political homoegeneity (e.g. overrepresentation) in this subculture then you are being intentionally obtuse.
Obtuse or not, I do not accept that race is a surrogate for political views. It has been my observation that when you listen to what people say (rather than focusing on how they look), you’ll find there is considerable overlap between the views of different racial groups, and that there is far more variety within groups than between them.
While there may be specific issues where a particular group may have a divergent opinion, I think similarity is especially true on issues such as transportation that do not have any particular racial valence.
Among “activist” circles it’s now gauche to be a “commuter”. Apparently the true cyclist is the one who rides meditatively and always stops to smell the roses on their “bon vivant” jaunts through twee Mr. Rogers-esque neighborhoods. People who only want to get from point “A” to point “B” efficiently and safely are now tainted with the exclusionary aroma of “commuting”.
This is an admittedly hot take, but a lot of commuters are really lousy at getting new people on bikes. They seem completely oblivious to how demanding infrastructure to save them from homicidal drivers who hate them for choosing to bike makes it look unappealing. “Join us! You can risk your life and people will hate you!”
Heaven forbid someone do the work of making cycling look appealing to people who do not currently cycle, cause a lot of commuters aren’t.
Strength in numbers was a great way to motivate new people to bike but at this point the streams of people cycling from point A to B are a distant memory. Apologies for the “hot take” but I’m still quite upset about this loss.
Some of us just want to ride, not evangelize.
I didn’t realize that. That fact must have been obscured for me by all the hundreds of times I’ve seen or read about cyclists lobbying for better commuting and non-recreational cycling conditions.
Leisure rides are the gateway drug to bike commuting. I wouldn’t be the lifelong cyclist I am without my parents taking me on “leisure” rides as a kid.
I, on the other hand, never really rode for leisure, and I mostly still don’t. Yet I am a lifelong transportation biker.
I would like to do all of these… preferably with somebody else. Usually I stick to the same route or I get lost.
Great maps! While there are no rides listed in outer SE, we hope to remedy that this summer with some rides in the Powellhurst/Gilbert neighborhood. The most diverse neighborhood in Portland.
We have new Greenways in the hood and are able to move north and south on “low stress” facilities with new crossings at all the high crash corridors.
Sad that our best MUP’s are not listed. Springwater and I-205 are premier cycling infrastructure in east Portland and useable with a group, or a friend tagging along.
There’s a bunch of fun loops through the Wilkes and Russel neighborhoods in extreme NE Portland and nearby Gresham, plus the gravel pond sections in Powellhurst-Gilbert, Centennial and Montevilla for those who like a bit of dirt.
That page used to be nothing but longer loops that were mostly on bike paths (which I much preferred), e.g. https://www.portlandoregon.gov/transportation/article/340027
I don’t know why they got rid of that all, and replaced it with these shorter rides on neighborhood streets.
Word of Warning:
if you ride with kids DO NOT go on any part of the I-205 MUP (even a short distance). I did that six months ago and it was a mistake.
100% agree. I was out with my partner on the 205 path last week and could not wait to get off it. Original plan was to go down to the Springwater but we gave up.
I gave up on the 205 path a few years ago, aside from the sections in Clackamas County. If I want to get to the Springwater, I choose the gravel-filled door zone bike lane on Foster. But thankfully we have that, at least.
Amazing how a simple change of boundary seems to have such a massive effect on the safety and comfort of our MUPs.