Let’s get together with volunteers from BikeLoud PDX and celebrate how we came together as a community to protect our protection from those who sought to sell it for political gain. Let’s ride Broadway together, tonight!
One of my theories for how the PBOT commissioner and director could have made such a gross miscalculation is that their judgment was clouded by the bandwagon of cynical people who think bicycling — and the people who do it and care deeply about it — is in retreat in Portland. That could not be further from the truth, and the way you all responded to this threat is just the latest proof of that.
Yes, biking’s reputation and political power in Portland has waned in recent years. But while political winds always shift, belief in bicycling — and the values it embodies for so many of us — is constant. It’s stronger than lazy headlines, false narratives, and especially the whims of elected officials and their petulant friends.
Join us tonight! We can share gratitude for each other, remind ourselves why we are so committed to safe streets, and ride together on a protected bike lane that is worth fighting for, and that is now — just like our resolve as a community — only going to be stronger in the future.
Let’s Ride Broadway!
Meet: 5:00 pm at N Broadway and N Wheeler Ave / Roll out: 5:30
We’ll ride Broadway over the bridge, through downtown to PSU, then turn around and find a place to hang that has outdoor food. (Cart Blocks on Burnside is first option)
If you’re on the West Side, just join us anywhere along Broadway between 5:30 and 5:45 or so.
Info contact: (503) 706-8804
Please celebrate this victory with grace, and courtesy
of course we will. why would you think otherwise?
Critical Mass comes to mind with cyclists blocking traffic and taunting motorists.
Society has become so polarized that a prevailing sentiment is that anyone who is not in my tribe is against it and a horrible person. There is an anti-capitalism subgroup in the BP community who have come right to the edge of vilifying the hotels and it is easy for me to picture them slow-walking through the hotel drop-off zone to gloat and obstruct off loading. I am happy to be proven wrong
Critical Mass hasn’t happened in Portland for almost 20 years. Things are messy in the U.S. right now. And people have every right to be pissed off at any number of things. I’m not here to police activists or tell people how to express themselves. Thanks for the concern.
WNBR uses these same tactics several times throughout the summer. The Thursday Night Ride is worse.
You’re right, you don’t police activists, you’re here to defend their destructive actions and then pretend like you’re not involved. Give us all a break.
But many of us are still here, waiting for its revival.
Why wait? Just do it.
I do! I AM traffic!
100% this. The cycling community is so much more than this, but BikePortland doesn’t cover much besides a tiny subgroup of “activists” who want to sabotage Portland.
We need a new outlet and Mr. Maus should probably get a job writing for the Portland Mercury.
BikePortland reported about the City dismantling constructed infrastructure (and acting against the recommendations of its own staff) that was approved in a public process, resulting in the City deciding instead to improve the design to work better for everyone.
What does that have to do with anybody “sabotaging” Portland?
You are inventing things to be mad at.
Thanks for the concern trolling.
That cyclists would even be a tribe is a problem — cycling will continue to lose appeal if being one carries political baggage.
Stuff like the Broadway brouhaha only contributes to marginalization and making cyclists look like a fringe group.
I agree. That’s why PBOT and Mapps shouldn’t have put bike riders in the position they did.
Mapps and PBOT–not cyclists–marginalized cyclists by undoing constructed infrastructure without including them in that decision.
Your blog literally encouraged people to deflate car tires a few months ago. It’s massively dishonest to pretend that you don’t approve of antisocial behavior that hurts the cycling community.
When all else fails, just make stuff up.
These comments are totally in line with the dishonesty coming from Mapps and Gonzalez.
This is a cool idea and I’m sad I’ll miss it. And thanks to Granpa for oddly suggesting that anyone would try to make this into something other than “graceful”.
Wishing I could join, but just saw the ride and it’s 4:30 now and I’m in Vancouver! Oh well, I hope to join PBoT’s BAC ride tomorrow and thank staff for all the work in PDX that they’ve done and I appreciate.
Can’t make it tonight but will be happily using the Broadway bike lane to get to the Schnitz to hear the Oregon Symphony play Mahler I tomorrow
Same!
Go Mahler!