Note posted 9/4 at 11:40 am: By request of the victim, I’ve deleted the video and all information about this crash from BikePortland. If I hear otherwise from the victim in the future, I will restore this post. Thanks for understanding. – Jonathan
UPDATE: For more on this intersection and the fallout from this collision, see this post and/or watch this video I posted on Instagram.
Remember back in July when a Portlander named Randy Philbrick led a “park-in” protest on Southeast Division to highlight opposition to recent changes to the street that included a bus lane, protected bike lane, center medians, and more?
Now some of the same folks who supported Philbrick’s protest are coming out for an encore, and it’s likely to be a much larger event this time around.
That’s because unlike the lone wolf advocacy of Philbrick and his tiny, almost imperceptible, online following, the latest protest is being led by Angela Todd of PDX Real. Todd is an interior decorator by day and is active in Portland political circles. In 2021 she was one of the first people to spread the false report that former Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty was guilty of a hit-and-run — an accusation made and spread by the Portland Police Bureau, which resulted in an apology letter to Hardesty issued last month from Mayor Ted Wheeler as part of a lawsuit settlement. Todd and her husband Jeff Church (who runs the PDX Real X/Twitter account), have built a legion of over 100,000 followers across TikTok and Instagram. While most of Todd’s focus has been on politics (her first posts were about encouraging people to vote out Hardesty and she was a major supporter of Commissioner Rene Gonzalez who replaced her) and social issues like crime and homelessness, Todd has now turned her attention to the Portland Bureau of Transportation and their work on SE Division.
Todd says she’s met with PBOT Director Millicent Williams and Commissioner Mingus Mapps. And for weeks now, Todd has been posting opinions about the Division project — especially about how she feels the center medians (installed by PBOT as a safety measure) make it hard to drive and limit auto access to businesses. In a recent post, Todd posted a video from someone who did a u-turn on Division (below). “I turned as hard as I could and I still have to go over the barrier,” she told her followers. As for business access, Todd likes to repeat a claim from sources who say they’ve lost 30% of their customers since the medians were installed.
Now Todd will take things up a notch with a protest planned for Thursday, September 21st — almost exactly one year since PBOT completed the Division project.
According to PBOT’s project website, they added a center raised median on Division from SE 80th to 174th (border with Gresham), “to reduce left turn crashes and improve safety for pedestrians.” Medians are a standard tool PBOT uses for what they call “access management” — a.k.a. limiting the amount of turning possibilities to make a street more calm and predictable.
In a post on Instagram today, Todd likened PBOT’s actions on the Division Project to the government of Russia during the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.
“I had a meeting with an immigrant of Slavic descent that has a business on Division who’s been impacted by a decrease in business after the $175 million dollar remodel of Division that includes almost a continuous median for 40 blocks or so,” Todd shared in the video. “They talked about their experience during the Soviet Union’s fall in the 90s and how many similarities there are to what is happening right now in Portland… They talked about the land grab going on on Division and also downtown. How the middle working class are losing more and more and the governing is more and more powerful and how essential services aren’t being provided. And they said they experienced that already.”
In an August 22nd post on X (formerly Twitter), PDX Real posted a mock PBOT graphic that says, “Remove the Medians PBOT: Bad for Business, Bad for Commuters, Bad for First Responders.” Accompanying the graphic was another reference to eastern Europe: “Tear down the walls! Tear down the walls! Tear down the walls!”
Then, in what started as a call for volunteers to hang flyers on doors to promote the protest, Todd called on her followers to “push against these things that don’t serve us,” and added, “what the hell are we here for if we can’t fight for that? None of us get out of here alive anyway, so let’s fight.”
It’s important to understand that for Todd and her followers, what PBOT did on Division transcends just a transportation project. They see it as emblematic of Big Government taking over their lives and forcing them to do things they don’t want to do.
“We need to push against these things that don’t serve us. What the hell are we here for if we can’t fight for that? None of us get out of here alive anyway, so let’s fight.”
– Angela Todd, PDX Real
After asking her followers, “What’s your life for?” Todd continued: “What’s going on in Portland, the trajectory is not good… I promise you that this is getting worse, and it’s coming for you. And so my question is, what are you made out of? Do you care about your neighbors?… Will you do it? And just assuming that the dollar is gonna’ crash and we’re gonna continue to allow the destruction of our city, we’re going to politically prosecute people that disagree with the narrative. You’re going to be eating bugs, living in a 15-minute city. Don’t you think it would be good for you to come out of your home and start meeting people in the community that might be able to assist you during said apocalypse?”
Notably, the protest event will be based at the Roman Russian Food Store on Division and SE 109th. That store is owned by Fatima Magomadova, a noted critic of the medians who’s spent at least the last year sharing her opinions during Portland City Council testimony and to the media. You might also recall that I spoke to Magomadova when she showed up and parked in the bus lane to support Philbrick’s protest in July.
“They are frustrating drivers, there is congestion and traffic, and there’s a huge chance that your car cannot make it,” Magomadova told me back then. “I have videos where trucks actually get on top of the medians, and cars flipping over medians.”
Ironically, a few minutes after that conversation, as I biked home from the protest, I saw one of Magomadova’s cars parked illegally in the bike lane outside her market.
Regardless of what you might think of Magomadova or Todd, they are very respected individuals in the community and wield influence on the current city council (they’re one big reason why Commissioner Dan Ryan has felt emboldened to complain about the medians and the Division project in general. In March of this year he described the changes as “scary” and asked PBOT if it would be possible to “re-assess” the project.)
Suffice it to say, it will be interesting to see if the protest on September 21st leads to any momentum for changes. Todd says they’ll have food, music, and “an impromptu parade that will be very fun.”
“We are asking our people to come out and support these business owners,” Todd said about the protest in her post today. Then she added a warning: “These projects like what happened on Division are planned throughout the city: 82nd 122nd are two that are right within purview right now. So come out, be supportive.”
CORRECTION, 5:01 pm: The initial version of this story said Angela Todd was the person who made the u-turn in the video. That was incorrect. The video was sent to her by a follower and posted to the PDX Real account. I regret the mistake.
We are just two days away from the start of the local cyclocross season, and it’s gearing up to be another massive year for Portland’s favorite cycling discipline. Three series dominate the calendar: Harvest CX, Portland Trophy Cup, and Cyclocross Crusade. Here’s a bit about each one to get you plugged-into the coming season…
It all kicks off at Sunday’s Het Meer CX event on the shores of Vancouver Lake. With its notorious beach section, it’s a course that makes racers curse and spectators crack-up as they watch all the spills and skills in the sand. If you’ve never been, check out my dispatch and photo gallery from last year’s edition.
Het Meer is one race in the Harvest CX series, which happens over seven Sundays (including one Saturday on the double weekend of 9/16-17 in Washougal) and is known for its diverse and challenging courses. In addition to Vancouver, Washougal, and Brush Prarie in Washington; the series includes stops in Boring, Madras, Dayton. Oregon.
On Tuesday September 12th, the Portland Trophy Cup kicks off its six-week run at Portland International Raceway in Kenton. This year’s series is back for its eighth year and looks to be better then ever with title sponsorships from Bikeflights and The Athletic. This series is known for its low-light shenanigans (later races happen in the dark and folks use bike lights to see the course), its strong community and inclusivity.
All beginners in the Women’s category (where trans women are welcome and encouraged to race) and all Junior category athletes, race free thanks to support from sponsors (but you still need to register). And there are free beginner skills clinics every week hosted by volunteers from BikePOC PNW and free clinics for juniors hosted by Grouptrail Cycling Team.
Trophy Cup is every Tuesday night from September 12th through October 17th. You can race the entire series for just $125 (one race is free!) or pay $25 per race if you pre-reg and $30 on-site. Get registered and hyped at the big kickoff party happening this coming Tuesday (September 5th) from 4:00 to 8:00 pm at High Order Studio (911 SE Salmon).
And of course no mention of cyclocross in Portland would be complete without the Cyclocross Crusade — the granddaddy of them all now in its 30th year! Back again thanks to River City Bicycles, this year’s six-race series starts on October 15th and runs through November 12th. For an extra bit of fun, don’t miss the traditional Grail Hunt. Each year, Crusade organizers bury treasures citywide and only an ancient map can unlock clues to find them all — including the True Grail. The Hunt is open to all registered racers and you can find out more about it here.
If you’ve recently gotten into gravel riding, if you love mountain biking but want a new way to hit the dirt, or if you just love playing bikes with friends — get into ‘cross this year. Check out nearly two decades of local ‘cross coverage (a whopping 145 articles!) in our archives and stay tuned for photos and race reports.
For further inspiration, I recommend taking a look at the new book edited by Drew Coleman. The Family Photo Album is a 96-page homage to the 2022 ‘cross season through the eyes of several excellent photographers.
Fresh off a year of remarkable growth, local bike bus advocates have wasted no time leading their corps into the new school year. The famous Alameda Bike Bus was bursting with bicyclists on Wednesday, the official first day of classes for Portland Public School (PPS) district.
But while over a dozen bike buses flourish across Portland, they’ll have to look somewhere besides PPS to fund bike bus organizers and other related expenses. That’s because — despite passage of a new state law that allows schools to be reimbursed for active transportation expenses (like bus buses, walking school buses, crossing guards, and so on) — PPS says they have no plans to end their current practice of spending their entire share of state school transportation funding on TriMet passes.
Undeterred, a growing coalition of bike bus advocates has taken their efforts directly to Portland City Hall and the transportation bureau.
Buoyed by growth and success over the past year-and-a-half, what started at one school in northeast Portland is now a bona fide, citywide movement. A new website launched this week at BikeBusPDX.org includes an open letter to leaders and elected officials signed by leaders of 13 bike buses (see above). The letter demands implementation of several projects aimed at making school bike commute routes safer.
The letter, sent to Portland Bureau of Transportation Commissioner Mingus Mapps and PBOT Director Millicent Williams and cc’d to Mayor Ted Wheeler and the rest of council, calls for a “Safer School Streets Pilot” program that would “contribute to the overall sustainability and livability of our city by reducing traffic, carbon emissions, and promoting community connections.” Here’s what the pilot would include:
- Placing permanent diverters (concrete planters) at the locations established during PBOT’s “Slow Streets” pilot, which prioritized equity across neighborhoods (see map).
- Lowering the maximum threshold for Neighborhood Greenways (NG) to 500 vehicles/day rather than the current maximum of 2,000 vehicles/day (Source: Neighborhood Greenway Assessment Report).
- Reducing speeds on Neighborhood Greenways and Safe Routes to Schools (SRTS) to 15 MPH, where feasible; placing Advisory “15 MPH / Shared Street” signs on remaining NGs/SRTS.
- Establishing a clear process for “School Street” permits to allow streets in front of and surrounding schools to be closed to vehicle traffic during drop-off and pick-up hours.
- Placing “No Turn on Red” signs at all signals intersecting Neighborhood Greenways/SRTS.
- Installing “curb extensions” with planters and paint on Neighborhood Greenways/SRTS to reduce crossing distances and improve sightlines for students and parents.
- Adding fixed speed cameras on High Crash Corridors (e.g. 82nd Ave) adjacent to schools.
- Funding a $75,000 grant for Portland State University’s TREC program to measure the impact of Bike Bus and Walking School buses on student’s physical activity, learning outcomes, and transportation pollution*. (*PSU tells me they have already initiated a research study that will focus on kids’ and parents’ perception of bike buses, a bike bus inventory, and more.)
“If PBOT can come up with $2.7 million for parking security, they can come up with a fraction of that to improve safety for children and families walking and biking to schools, libraries, parks and local businesses.”
– Sam Balto, Alameda Elementary School bike bus organizer
Alameda Bike Bus leader and PPS physical education teacher Sam Balto is spearheading the effort. Balto says he and other bike bus advocates had a “very productive” meeting with Commissioner Mapps last week.
“PBOT and PPS want more children and families walking and biking to school,” Balto shared in an email to BikePortland yesterday. “To do that we need to improve our city’s hardware and software. The passing of the Bike Bus Bill this year is the software of the social infrastructure to pay for active transportation initiatives like walking school buses and bike buses. Now we need PBOT to provide the hardware, the physical infrastructure to keep us safe from cars in the streets.”
Balto also says that if, “PBOT can come up with $2.7 million for parking security, they can come up with a fraction of that to improve safety for children and families walking and biking to schools, libraries, parks and local businesses.”
Balto used a tiny $500 grant from Metro to start his bike bus at Alameda Elementary School — an effort that increased the number of students biking to school from 1% to over one-third of students in just three months.
“We don’t expect the [bike bus] bill to really have an impact on us.”
– Valerie Feder, Portland Public Schools
A more significant funding and infrastructure boost from City Hall via PBOT could have a dramatic, positive impact on the number of Portlanders willing to bike to school, Balto says. And the City of Portland has adopted many policies to justify action on this issue — from plans to battle climate change, to a Comprehensive Plan with a goal to “make bicycling more attractive than driving for trips of three miles or less.” In a new Safe Routes to School Strategic Plan soon to be released by PBOT, they cite survey data that showed, “families who thought their school supported walking, biking and rolling were more likely to travel by one of those modes on their commute to school.”
When it comes to the role PPS might play in expanding bike buses district-wide, they say the passage of HB 3014 (the “bike bus bill”) won’t impact their 86 schools. PPS spokesperson Valerie Feder told BikePortland that’s because they already spend their entire 5% allotment from the state’s school transportation fund on TriMet passes. “We asked for the exemption to protect our current arrangement with TriMet,” Feder shared with us. “We hope the legislature will continue to build on this policy and expand opportunities for students to use active transportation and explore more ways to fund it.”
So for now, PPS staffers who dreamed of state funding for bike buses and related activities will have to wait. That will put more onus onto parent volunteers and should add even more urgency for the City of Portland to create streets that are so safe and welcoming that riding bikes to school is simply irresistible.
— For more on bike buses in Portland, read this new story in the fall 2023 issue of Portland Monthly Magazine.