PBOT joins the fight against big trucks and SUVs

The massive size and aggressive design of many trucks and SUVs are making traffic crashes deadlier than ever. The issue has been around for years, but has gained considerable momentum of late. In 2019 we covered a talk in downtown Portland by author and activist Angie Schmitt where she said truck size is one of the major culprits for the rise in pedestrian deaths and then illustrated the problem with a photo of her 4-year-old son standing in front of a Ford truck. The boy’s head came up to the license plate.

As research and awareness have grown, the issue is now common in large national media outlets and has turned the corner into an issue that’s even safe enough even for government agencies to address head-on. One of those agencies is the Portland Bureau of Transportation.

Oversized trucks and SUVs are now a key part of PBOT’s “Safe Systems” approach to road safety. In their latest Vision Zero newsletter, PBOT draws a clear line from a rise in traffic deaths to “increasing vehicle size trends.” “More large vehicles are on our streets despite their disproportionate likelihood to kill and seriously injure people,” PBOT wrote in the newsletter, under a provocative photo of an adult woman staring into the grill of a jacked-up pick-up.

On Monday, they elevated the issue further, with posts to their social media accounts. With 153,000 views and counting on X (formerly Twitter) alone, PBOT is now fully engaged with this issue. But beyond the internet, what does all this mean for Portland and PBOT?

So far, when it comes to taking action, PBOT says they’ve joined a national campaign (led by the National Association of City Transportation Officials, or NACTO) to pressure the US Department of Transportation to update new car safety ratings to include crash risks for people outside of the vehicle. This is the same campaign I mentioned in coverage of this issue from the Vision Zero Cities Conference in New York City last week.

The other step PBOT has taken is to specifically call out a need for “safe vehicles” as one of the four elements central to their Safe Systems approach.

Identifying and embracing the issue as a priority are a necessary first step. But there’s much more PBOT can and should do to put actions behind their words. If PBOT understands the clear and present danger of these large vehicles, they have an even greater responsibility to design streets in a way that can withstand their impacts. This means less paint and plastic flex-posts, and more concrete separators, metal bollards, and so on.

It also means taking every opportunity possible to separate vulnerable road users from car and truck drivers — and not going in reverse by taking protection away just to satisfy complaints from business owners.

In their recent newsletter, PBOT gives us a hint about one step they could take: They could work with Multnomah County to increase vehicle registration fees for some SUVs and trucks. PBOT linked to an NBC News story about a new policy in Washington DC that would raise fees for vehicles weighing more than 6,000 pounds from $155 to $500. Given the desperate state of the PBOT budget, any reference to raising revenue — especially one backed by a safety goal — is notable.

The other place where PBOT can show us how committed they are is in how they handle their own fleet of vehicles and the vehicles used by contractors.

NYC DOT Deputy Fleet Management Officer Eric Richardson at a panel on “mega-trucks” in Manhattan Friday. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortand)

At a panel I attended at the Vision Zero Cities conference on Friday, New York City DOT Deputy Chief Fleet Management Officer Eric Richardson didn’t just speak passionately about the need for safer vehicle designs, he shared several concrete steps his agency has taken:

“We require telematics on all of our vehicles, we require high-vision truck cabs, we require pedestrian alerting and collision warning, we are working with manufacturers to try to redesign the vehicles so that when we are making vehicles heavier by electrifying them, we’re also trying to make them also safer…”

Richardson also said all 4,200 trucks in the NYC fleet have truck side underrun guards and that, thanks to a new city law, all contracted fleets will be required to have them too. On this front, PBOT has a good record. They currently say side guards are standard on all new heavy trucks purchased by the City of Portland since 2019. And all garbage and recycling contractors were required to have them by 2022.

The next step after truck design is speed management. Richardson said his current top priority issue is intelligent speed assist. New York City began a pilot program with the technology last year. PBOT has done great work on speed-related issues over the years; but to my knowledge, they have not delved into any speed limiting technology (I’ll update this post if I learn differently),

Asked at Friday’s panel to share one last word with the audience, Richardson chose to talk about speed limiting technology and how larger vehicles make it an even more important tool:

“Bring back from me to where you live, intelligent speed assist — ways to slow vehicles down so that they cannot go above the speed limit. One of my concerns is all the information that we have on speeds is based on current vehicle weight, and we need to make sure we’re keeping vehicles at or below the speed limit, because as they get bigger and become more dangerous, we’re going to see more fatalities at lower speeds. And so getting people down to the speed limit is really, really important.”

New Yorkers on Bikes: A photo gallery

— This story is from my recent trip to New York City. See more coverage here.

I’m still going through photos, videos and notes from my trip to New York City last week. Still to come, I’ve got a story about Oonee, a very interesting company that builds and deploys modular bike parking pods. I also want to share videos and photos of the bewildering array of bike infrastructure I experienced. I might also share a story about e-bikes and “deliveristas” that I got from the Vision Zero Conference.

But before I get to that, I wanted to introduce you to a few more of my favorite characters. You met some of them on my first post; but I photographed so many more in the following three days. Call me strange, or whatever else you want, but I’ve developed an undeniable love for documenting people riding bikes in different cities and cultures. I’ve done this for years, and it hasn’t gotten old (hence my use of the word “love”).

Photographing people on their bikes in New York City was an absolute joy. I hope you love enjoy these images as much as I do. I’ve numbered them to make it easier to refer to specific folks in the comments. I’ve shared the location and other thoughts when possible in the caption. (Note: This doesn’t include delivery riders because I plan to share those in a separate post.)

1.

I chased this kid and his crew many blocks to get this shot. And I was biking the wrong way on a sidewalk when I took this! W 125th and Frederick Douglass Blvd in Harlem.

2.

This guy was having trouble getting his bike rolling when I came across him on 3rd Avenue in Spanish Harlem.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

1st Ave and E 14th, Gramercy Park area (I think).

8.

Somewhere on the east side of Manhattan. Honestly cannot recall.

9.

I didn’t plan this, but the colors make me so happy (he was riding in the same crew as the kid above him).

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

Barclay’s Center on Atlantic in Brooklyn.

18.

Hudson River Greenway. He’s trying to calm his dog down. It was barking like crazy!

19.

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Greenwich Village near Washington Square Park.

If you like these, check out more of them on this post. And stay tuned for my ode to delivery riders.

Adults learning to ride, and the allure of becoming a ‘cyclist’ in New York

— This story is from my recent trip to New York City. See more coverage here.

New York City (Manhattan in particular) is a place where the freedom bicycles bring is instant and often transformative. Unlike in Portland (where the opposite is true), the least efficient and most stressful vehicle to use is a car. Add the high cost and storage challenges, and cars are not a viable option for many Manhattanites. Walking is great, but one can cover only so much ground at 2-4 miles per hour. Buses? They get caught in traffic too. And subways can be efficient, but also unpleasant and — people-watching aside — the views are terrible.

That leaves bikes. For everyone fortunate enough to be able to ride one, bicycles unlock New York City’s potential. And with nearly 30,000 Citi Bikes and over 1,700 docking stations citywide, these two-wheeled marvels and their undeniable utility beckon on every block.

Given all this, it’s easy to see why there’s such demand for teaching adults how to ride. On Sunday I pedaled up the Hudson River Greenway to a park just south of the George Washington Bridge to meet up with True Sims. Sims, 66, a former Portlander who moved to Manhattan in 1980, is a bicycle instructor with nonprofit Bike New York.

When I rolled up to Riverside Park, Sims was with another instructor and a half-dozen students who braved the suddenly chilly and windy morning to become bike riders.

“I just love watching them go through the process and get past the fear,” Sims shared as she kept one eye on her wobbly students. Sims agrees that bike share has planted the cycling seed within every New Yorker. “Citi Bikes has really opened the world to a lot of people who see the opportunity and think, ‘Oh, I can do this, I can try it.’ People practice on them,” she said.

24-year-old Christina George doesn’t look like she’ll need much practice. While she couldn’t ride a bike at all prior to Sunday morning, she zipped along with confidence after just one hour of class (turns out being a skateboarder is a huge advantage). A self-described “bookey” child, George spent a lot of time inside and was never taught how to ride. Now she looks forward to joining the masses. “First the park and more practice, then the streets. One thing at a time,” she said, confidently.

That approach suits Yancy Coby, the 37-year-old Bike New York staffer who was leading the class with Sims. He didn’t learn to ride until he was 13, so he can relate to late-learners. “I tell them, practice first. Find a nice park and practice, practice, practice before you even dare go out there.”

43-year-old Wei Hsu was doing just that when I caught up with her during a break. On the bike, she was very focused and all-business. Off of it, she brightened up. “It’s not as easy as I thought it might be… it’s taking a bit more time than I thought it would,” she admitted, saying she is probably overthinking it. For Hsu, riding will help her stay closer to friends. “I have tons of friends who ride bikes and are, like, ‘cyclists’. Being able to ride with them would be great.”

Hsu still had some work to do when I left; but she’s committed to doing what it takes to become a ‘cyclist’.

Bike New York offers hundreds of free classes for adults. The sheer demand for the service is another sign that New York has become a true cycling city.

“Learning how to bike can really change lives here,” Sims said. “You don’t really need a car here anyway, but a bike really expands possibilities.”

Comment of the Week: Carrots, sticks, and carmakers

Today’s Comment of the Week is by SurlyOgre in response to a post Jonathan wrote from NYC after listening to Astoria, Queens Assembly member Zohran K. Mamdani on a panel titled Supersized SUVs, Mega Trucks, and Regulatory Failure.

My choice is personal. I recognized Mamdani’s name as being the representative whose office is within a couple of blocks from where a friend of mine was run over by a cement truck earlier this year. Tammy Kao was right-hooked while riding a Citi Bike east on 24th Ave, the driver turned right onto 29th St and crushed her. I lived a few blocks from the crash site for several years in the 1990s.

I hadn’t been in touch with Tammy since leaving NYC, but her death still came as a shock to me.

Although Tammy wasn’t mentioned in Jonathan’s post, it surely has been on Mamdani’s mind, as well as mine. SurlyOgre captured my feelings:

it’s about time an elected official is calling for regulation of an industry that manufactures missiles with 4 wheels. it is super bad news when an airplane crashes and hundreds of people die. Imagine if Tesla, GM, Ford, all had to pay 1% of their quarterly revenue every time a serious crash occurred. Reducing Crashes and Safety would become their focus, not luxury and speed. There was a time when people did not wear seat belts and look where we are now, nearly everyone wears seat belts. People used to smoke inside and look where we are now, smoking is not allowed in restaurants or airplanes. Culture changes when government realizes there is danger and/or financial loss. People can change when there are carrots and sticks. TAX LARGE VEHICLES NOW. TAX LARGE TIRES NOW. TAX LARGE ENGINES NOW. TAX VEHICLES THAT CAN EXCEED SPEED LIMITS NOW.

Sometimes my sessions of sweet, silent thought turn to all of the people I know, and their families, who have been severely injured or killed by cars. The injuries especially can affect generations of a family. My personal catalogue is long.

Thank you SurleyOgre for putting into words what many have been thinking for years. Read the comment in its original thread here.

A studio apartment in two parking spaces in Brooklyn (New York)

— This story is from my recent trip to New York City. See more coverage here.

“We’ve taken over two parking spaces and built a fully-furnished and usable studio apartment.”
– Sara Lind, Open Plans

You’ve read a lot about the connection between cities, auto parking, and housing over the years here on BikePortland. In fact, we launched our Real Estate Beat column 10 years ago with a tenet of, “housing that doesn’t require on-site parking is far more space-efficient.” Since then, Oregon has approved the largest rollback of parking mandates (rules that require developers to build car parking spaces, even when it’s not needed) in modern US history.

“House people, not cars,” was the mantra that seemed to sum it up best.

But even with all the amazing local activism to fix these outdated and harmful parking policies, something that happened in an underground parking garage in Brooklyn, New York on Saturday made the case in most compelling and visceral way I’d ever seen.

“We are in a parking garage of a residential building in Williamsburg that is one block from two train lines, but was required to build parking,” said Sara Lind, a co-executive director of Open Plans (a nonprofit and sister organization to Streetsblog). “So we’ve taken over two of those parking spaces and built a fully-furnished and usable studio apartment inside.”

Sara Lind (facing camera) and Chelsea Dowell

Lind and a few other Open Plans volunteers and staffers milled around a couch, TV, dining table, microwave — and there was even a box of Cheerios and a copy of Jane Jacobs’ seminal book The Death and Life of Great American Cities on the nightstand beside the bed. A BMW the size of the quaint living room sat parked on the other side of the garage.

Although the project was conceived to demonstrate the trade-offs between housing cars and people that many cities face, and no one was expected to live in the cold, concrete garage, Lind added, “Frankly, I think it’s a pretty nice sized space. You know, college me would have loved it.”

The installation was part of Open Plans’ campaign to lift parking mandates, which they believe are outdated, costly policies that force developers to hand over valuable space to storing private cars. In addition to the furnishings, a series of signs scattered around the room explained how parking mandates perpetuate a cycle of car dependence, make housing less affordable, suppress housing development, and so on. There’s a public comment period open now where New Yorkers can encourage the Mayor’s office to follow through with what city staff have already recommended. That is, a complete elimination of parking mandates citywide.

“If they change the zoning code, this parking garage wouldn’t have been required to be built,” said Open Plans Director of Communications Chelsea Dowell.

Open Plans doesn’t work on housing policy as a matter of course, but Dowell says they focus on things that affect the way streets, sidewalks, and public space feel. “And encouraging car ownership through things like parking mandates does impact the way that your streets and your public space feels.”

In a more practical sense, the installation helped drive pocketbook issues home in a fun new way. In a Streetfilms video from the event, one of the interviewees said, “I live in Midtown and I pay $500 for a parking space when my rent is way more than that and for the same same size as two parking spaces, so it’s pretty cool to see an apartment my size can be what I pay for my car.”

With the Portland Bureau of Transportation closing a major downtown parking garage indefinitely back in August, this kind of creative activism to show what’s possible in the future is needed now more than ever.

Monday Roundup: Worst PSA ever, e-car greenwashing, how to save lives, and more

Welcome to the week.

I’m home from New York City and can’t wait to share the rest of the treasures I uncovered. But first, let’s get to the roundup!

Here are the best stories we’ve come across in the past seven days — all from sources you can trust.

NYC mayor pressured on protection: Just like in Portland, bike advocates in New York City are dialing up pressure on city hall to build more protected bike lanes and stop scaling back road projects to satisfy disingenuous parties. (Streetsblog NYC)

EV loophole: One thing advocates are grumbling about is NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ decision to lift limits on the number of Uber/Lyft licenses as long as they are electric — as if simply the use of a battery makes adding all these cars to the system A-OK. (NY Daily News)

Cut through the biking data B.S.: There’s been a ton of attention on recent biking numbers and I’ve steered clear of covering it because of what bicycling data expert Ken McLeod thinks too: Our data on biking is not good, so drawing major conclusions is perilous. (League of American Bicyclists)

20 years at Ahearne Cycles: Seriously can relate so deeply to what local bike maker Joseph Ahearne shares in this thoughtful (as always) blog post about his 20 years with a torch. He’s a real one and I can’t wait to record an interview with him in his shop soon for the podcast. (Ahearne Cycles)

Road rager caught on dashcam: A Portland man who raged his truck into a parade was caught entirely on his own dashcam. (The Oregonian)

‘Promise of e-bikes in American culture’: Sorry, but I just cannot get enough of how major US media outlets are framing stories about electric bikes these days. As a real and viable substitute for cars! (Washington Post and The Atlantic)

Worst PSA ever: The best example of victim-blaming ever produced by a government agency rightfully outraged millions of people; but in the end, it was a win for advocacy because of all the negative attention it received. (CBC)

When middle-schoolers ride: Results of a new study show that middle-school aged kids (a particularly tough time of transition for some kids) can get a significant mental health boost by riding bikes more. (NPR)

Thanks to everyone who sent in links this week. The Monday Roundup is a community effort, so please feel free to send us any great stories you come across.

A visit to the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space, a shrine for bicycle activism

Sometimes I think the term “bike advocacy” doesn’t fully encapsulate the work we cover here on BikePortland. When I explain to people what I do, I often talk about how I cover “street culture,” a broader term that captures the breadth of topics I’m interested in (tactical urbanism, traffic calming, protests, land-use, open space, depaving, and so on)

After visiting the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space in the East Village area of Manhattan today, maybe I’ll start using “urban activism.” The small museum, housed in the historic “C-Squat,” refers to itself as “A living archive of urban activism.” It’s run by legendary environmental activism nonprofit Times Up.

I’ve always admired Times Up for their grassroots ethic and focus on direct action. They loomed large in the Occupy Wall Street movement, they organized Critical Mass to put cycling rights on the map more than two decades ago (and there’s still happens every month!), and when Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012, I saw first-hand how they sprung into action to help their community stay connected by charging phones for free with their pedal-powered generator.

A BikePortland reader tipped me off about this museum (thanks Jaimes!), and I’m so glad I saw it. It’s like a shrine to cycling activism.

Times Up has played a huge role in the cycling and safe streets movement since the 1990s and this museum was filled with information and artifacts that told the story. On the main floor they’ve got a cool old collection of zines, books, and shirts. The walls are filled with photos of campaigns they’ve worked on and the floor is stenciled with images from protests past.

But the downstairs is where I had the most fun. The stairway itself is a monument to cycling advocacy through the years. The side of the stairs are painted with “Bike Lane.” When you look at the treads from above, you see a bike path winding through a greenspace. When you look at the risers, you see a written history of bike activism in New York City. And as you walk down, they share notable activism campaigns and other bits of bike history on the walls.

In the basement they’ve got the original Times Up energy bike! They’re famous for using these at protests and in emergencies to create power. In one corner they even have a little exhibit titled, “Activist Tech” that tells the story of how they’ve used video cameras, texting, and live-streaming to document their events.

Perhaps the most memorable piece in the museum was a copy of a letter (above) written by Times Up. It’s titled, “Very Reasonable Demands Regarding the Future of Bicycling in New York City.” The card says it was written during the height of bicycling activism in 2005, when police were cracking down hard on Critical Mass and confiscating truckloads of bicycles.

The letter listed immediate, short-term, and long-term demands. “Bicycling should be viewed not as a problem for the city, but as a solution to the city’s problems,” it read. And according to the info card displayed above the letter, “Just a couple years later, every demand had been met.”

It was such an inspiring experience! And I grabbed two old t-shirts that I can wear at a future Bike Happy Hour T-Shirt night!

If you’re an urban activist (or just an admirer of the work they do), I highly recommend checking this place out next time you’re in Manhattan. For a video version of this story, see my Instagram reel.

— https://www.morusnyc.org/

The days of mega-trucks and supersized SUVs are numbered

Zohran Mamdani (with mic) at a conference panel this morning. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

“It is a sad fact, but you make a lot of money making cars that can kill people. And so we cannot hope that they change — we have to force them to do so.”
— Zohran K Mamdani, NY assembly member

There’s growing talk in advocacy circles about the need to regulate large vehicles. Right now, the auto industry is bathing in profits from selling absurdly-sized vehicles that are much more likely to kill and maim. With federal government regulation at least a decade off, it will be up to cities and states to take the lead and reclaim their streets from these unnecessarily large SUVs and trucks.

Before today I’d only heard concerns about this topic from transportation policy wonks and activists. Now I know there’s at least one elected official who’s not only serious about the issue from a legislative perspective, but who isn’t afraid to speak about it in strong and clear terms.

New York Assembly Member Zohran K Mamdani (who represents District 36, the neighborhoods of Astoria, Ditmars-Steinway, and Astoria Heights) was on a panel titled, Supersized SUVs, Mega Trucks, and Regulatory Failure.

Mamdani is frustrated by federal inaction and has introduced a bill that would tax vehicles based on weight. He wants to disincentive the purchase of vehicles that have, “a direct link to a higher likelihood of killing children and people on the streets.” “It’s up to us to make it clear to New Yorkers,” he said, “that when they purchase a vehicle of a certain size and a certain weight, that comes with an additional cost. And that cost should be a fiscal cost, not just a moral cost.”

Mamdani speaks with a candor that’s rare among elected officials (he even dropped an “F” bomb at one point). On the auto industry, he said:

“What we have is an industry that is almost entirely unregulated, that is pushing larger and larger vehicles, tying into notions of masculinity… vehicles that can’t even fit inside parking spots! And yet for some reason, they will continue to be allowed to be sold.”

Can government influence market forces? Mamdani thinks so:

“I often think about the development of the mini-fridge, and how that is closely tied to NYCHA [New York City Housing Authority] putting out an RFP [request for proposals] about this, saying, ‘These are the parameters they need for their housing units.’ And then that is what led to this this creation of the mini-fridge, that now we think of as market-driven and it is everywhere in our society. The state has a role in incentivizing the way in which the market acts. If the state puts additional costs on certain sizes of vehicles, then I think that it creates an opening for there to be smaller vehicles… I believe if there’s a clash between the market and the state, the state can and should win.

You must try and influence the market itself, because the market is driven only by profit. And it is a sad fact, but you make a lot of money making cars that can kill people. And so we cannot hope that they change — we have to force them to do so.”

Mamdani was joined on the panel by: Alex Engel, senior manager of communications at NACTO (National Association of City Transportation Officials); Jessica Hart with Families for Safe Streets; and Eric Richardson, the deputy chief fleet management officer for the City of New York. The panel was moderated by Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Danny Harris.

While Mamdani is focused on hitting consumers’ pocketbooks, Engel with NACTO says street design can also influence buying decisions (and in turn, what automakers build and sell):

“We’ve seen in our experience that the by far the most effective mechanism for reducing traffic deaths is street design. Even with vehicles getting bigger, if the vehicles are moving slower, if they’re having to drive more carefully, if you don’t actually have a way to speed into someone or go through a crosswalk, you’re going to make your streets safer.

… there are some mechanisms you can use, like narrowing lanes, making sure that turns are tighter, using real concrete barriers… We receive photos all the time from members who say that put up this concrete barrier and now all these vehicles are getting stuck on the concrete barrier. And we’re like, ‘Yes, that’s the point!'”

Jessica Hart, Families for Safe Streets.

You don’t need a political or policy background to support more regulation of oversized trucks and SUVs.

“I’m here because I don’t like big vehicles, I think that they are horrible and deadly and unnecessary,” said Jessica Hart, after sharing with the audience that her five-year-old daughter Allie was killed in 2021 by the driver of a large van while biking in a crosswalk.

Hart has channeled her grief into a campaign to revise the federal New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) star rating system so that it takes into account how safe a vehicle is for people who are not inside of it. Her petition on Change.org has 35,000 signatures so far, and she hopes to push to 42,000 — the number of road deaths in America the year Allie was killed.

NACTO, a group with a member list that includes hundreds of planners and engineers from 100 of America’s largest cities, is behind Hart’s proposal. Engel said they’re lobbying the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), but they’re a long way from major breakthroughs. So in the meantime, they’re focusing on educating car buyers. “We’re trying to show that a five star rating does not belong in a vehicle that’s much more likely to kill someone.”

One of the thorny problems with this issue is how cars and trucks are sold. Eric Richardson with City of New York, shared a jaw-dropping story that has led them to pressure car companies to decouple luxury and safety. “If I walk into a dealership, I should be able to get the highest safety package I can get, without having to pay for heated seats, massaging seats, a sunroof, a five CD changer, you know, it goes on and on and on.”

“We receive photos all the time from members who say that put up this concrete barrier and now all these vehicles are getting stuck on the concrete barrier. And we’re like, ‘Yes, that’s the point!'”
– Alex Engel, NACTO

On one occasion, Richardson was negotiating the purchase of several vehicles for the city fleet and asked for the package with the highest level safety trim. “I was told, the only way we could get it is if they put TV screens on the back seats. And I’m like, ‘Wait a second, I’m in city government, nobody’s going to use those TVs… So we ended up actually pulling them out when the vehicle got delivered, but we paid for them because they were part of the safety package.”

All this though talk around big SUVs and mega-trucks plays well at a Vision Zero conference in Manhattan; but the issue will likely stoke serious pushback among many Americans. That’s why, for the politician Mamdani, an anti-car framing might not be the best approach.

“I think that there’s a ceiling if all of these fights are framed as the ‘war on cars,’ Mamdani said. “I think there’s a lot more possibility if it is framed through the lens of safety.” He cautioned against framing it as a moral choice and said to resist engaging in culture wars. “What if our city government just did an advertising campaign saying, ‘How long would it take you to find parking if your vehicles was this big [holding his close together]? And how long would it take to find parking if your vehicle was this big [holding hands further apart]?’ Right? I think time is money — especially in New York.”

— Part of BikePortland’s special coverage from the Vision Zero Cities Conference in New York City, hosted by Transportation Alternatives. See more stories here.

Planning Commission set to weaken bike parking code next week

Source: Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability

A vibrant city has both affordable housing and access to safe transportation, the two go hand in hand — or at least they should. But in the face of Portland’s housing crisis, the city is pursuing a Regulatory Relief Project which “aims to increase housing production” through “temporary waivers and permanent changes” to certain building requirements — including bike parking standards. The Portland Planning Commission will hold a hearing about the proposed changes next Tuesday and is soliciting public comment.

Reports and bulleted lists can be mind-numbing, but this is the kind of insider baseball that determines how easily you will be able to park your bike. Put simply: code changes affect your life.

Here’s what you need to know…

Bike parking room at Central Eastside Lofts. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Background

The Regulatory Relief Project began with last winter’s Bureau of Development Services survey of developers and others involved in the permitting process. The purpose was to learn what were the obstacles to increased housing production. Readers might remember that survey respondents viewed bike parking as a key cause of delayed housing production, and that a consultant working for the city estimated that bike parking in particular can add 3 to 6% to a project cost.

The survey results, particularly the narrative responses, were informative. Keep in mind that for-profit developers did not make up the majority of those surveyed, even the group of city staff outnumbered them. Other respondents included: applicants for construction permits; non-profit organizations developing new housing; businesses and professionals involved in housing development (like lawyers and architects); and city employees from the seven bureaus who review permits.

Last month, the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability released a draft set of 16 zoning code amendments in response to what was learned from the survey. The amendments are intended to provide regulatory relief and speed up housing production. They included changes to “requirements for bike parking, ground floor active use and height, nonconforming upgrades, bird-safe glazing, eco-roofs, façade articulation, neighborhood contact, and onsite loading spaces.”

Proposed Changes to Bike Parking

The specific changes proposed to the bike parking requirements are:

Temporarily reduce the ratio of required bicycle parking from 1.5 to 1.0 spaces per dwelling unit in the inner pattern area and from 1.1 to 0.7 spaces in the outer pattern area.
Temporarily suspend the requirement for large (i.e. cargo) bicycle parking spaces.
Permanently eliminate the requirement for an alcove and proximity to the front door for bikes within dwelling units.

The Portland Bureau of Transportation made a presentation to the Bicycle Advisory Committee in August, and their slide deck explains the issues bulleted above.

But even with a helpful slide deck, land use and development are intricate subjects. Understanding the implications of the proposed changes is difficult for a lay person, partly because anyone with the technical expertise to really understand the issues probably also has a financial interest in a certain outcome. So figuring out who to listen to can be difficult.

My approach has been to do a lot of listening, to everybody, and to keep in mind the interests of the person doing the talking. Here are some of the people and groups I checked in with to balance out the survey findings and consultant reports.

Chris Smith

I reached out to Chris Smith, a long-time Portland transportation activist, who as a Planning and Sustainability Commissioner several years ago was deeply involved in designing Portland’s current bike parking code. Given his role in crafting the current code, I was surprised by how measured and moderate his response to the Relief Project was. He wrote:

There’s a very real policy trade off between building parking for the 15-25% bike mode share we want in 2030+ versus increasing housing cost now (and allegedly making some projects not pencil out now). I think adjusting the ratios temporarily is a valid thing to do in response.

Temporarily removing the cargo bike space (10′ x 4′) requirement is probably also reasonable until/unless we can demonstrate that folks who buy big front-loaders often live in multi-family housing. Most long-tail cargo bikes can probably squeeze onto a standard staple rack.

One of his specific concerns was the removal of the in-unit bike alcove:

The one that troubles me the most is the removal of the ‘alcove’ standard for in-unit bike parking. We know that before we introduced that standard a lot of in-unit parking was not in fact usable. [Ed: see the PBOT slide deck for photos of oddly-placed, unuseable bike hooks.] But I also concede that the alcove standard has proven challenging, particularly the way BDS has enforced it. I’d really like us to keep working on a better in-unit standard.

But mainly Smith viewed the project as an emergency package, one put together very quickly, and he is advocating for further study after the package is adopted, “I think there’s there’s a lot we could do if we had time to do a really good policy process …”

BikeLoud PDX

BikeLoud Chair Nic Cota told BikePortland that the organization is working with Portland Neighbors Welcome, an affordable housing group, as well as with Chris Smith, on a unified letter to the Planning Commission which recognizes that affordable housing and affordable and safe transportation “are two sides of the same coin.” The draft is currently being reviewed by all parties. Cota emailed that,

Overall our groups are asking that the Planning Commission and City Council assign a work group to review bike parking usage to understand how Portlanders use available bike storage, and look at how the code can be adjusted in the near future. We also want the commission to acknowledge how the code can best provide for the anticipated growth in e-bike ownership, especially as the city looks to roll out Portland Clean Energy Fund initiatives that gears to providing e-bikes to thousands of Portlanders in the next 5 years.

The Street Trust

The Street Trust (TST) wrote a letter and detailed technical memo to Commissioner Rubio, with a copy to PBOT, BPS, and the Planning Commission. This is the most prescriptive of the three approaches, and goes as far as to make dimensional, size recommendations to the code. TST Board Director Victor Duong signed the letter. Duong is a project manager at an architecture firm which might be why TST felt comfortable getting so deep into the design weeds.

The group also specifically brought up BIPOC inclusion at several points: “Finally, we ask all future regulations to be more BIPOC-equity focused because we can’t achieve 25% bike trips by 2030 if we are not including 25% of our population’s needs in our system design and execution,” and

Temporarily remove Design Review requirements for BIPOC owners/developers and consider a permanent removal until the city meets min diversity requirements for review board members. DR is a financial burden for small BIPOC owned projects.

And Duong ended the letter with some punch,

Commissioner Rubio, the time for bold action is now. We have a unique opportunity to redefine Portland as a city that leads with compassion, innovation, and inclusivity. Our plans, policies, and codes must be pro-human, not pro-bike or pro-housing. We are crafting a city for people, not just buildings and bikes.

Conclusion

Assuming that the Planning Commission approves the proposed code changes, the next step in the code change process will be a City Council hearing and vote to approve the code. According to the project timeline, the Council hearing will be in December.

The Regulatory Relief Project has an online tool for submitting comments to the Planning Commission, and so far 92 people have commented. A glance through the comments shows that there is much more on the table than just bike parking. As I eyeball the list, it looks like window glazing for protecting birds is a much hotter topic than bicycles.

The deadline for comments to be considered before Tuesday’s hearing is 5:00 PM Monday afternoon.

What do safe streets advocates need more of? Trust, says New York City leader

Danny Harris, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, New York’s leading safe streets advocacy group, opened the Vision Zero Conference this morning with an important insight for everyone involved in making streets safer.

In order to make real progress in the work, more people need to trust the intentions and messages from advocates and their partners in politics and city agencies. Harris’ remarks leaned on how people pushing Vision Zero need to remember that the core of the work is to lift those less fortunate out of danger, out of poverty and ask themselves, “How we can create a city where truly everybody can thrive?”

In a 10th floor pavilion overlooking Washington Square Park in Manhattan this morning, Harris said the lack of trust by much of the public is one of the key reasons safe streets measures are failing to take hold fast enough to save lives. (According to Transportation Alternatives, New York City is on track to have the deadliest year for bike riders since 1999.)

“All of us are here are navigating a world where there’s a declining amount of trust in the media, in our elected leaders, the ability to deliver on promises,” Harris said. “The fundamental challenge that we have, regardless of what the issue is, is just simply that of trust.”

Harris went on to explain how a lack of trust is the reason many communities bristle at things like traffic calming, bike lanes, and other things cities propose as ways to make roads safer. His remarks can help explain pushback in places like the North Williams Avenue corridor in Portland, where longtime residents strongly opposed plans for a bike lane in 2011.

“Going into a community that has been left behind for decades,” Harris continued. “Largely because they may be low-income, or communities of color, for communities that have largely undocumented individuals who’ve been given promises over and over again — and what it means to come in and make promises or to talk about new opportunities, when somebody may simply be waiting for a stop sign they requested 10 years ago.”

While Harris identified a trust deficit as a big problem among transportation advocates, he said practitioners should not be paralyzed by the challenge of overcoming it. “Our goal here isn’t to solve trust in the media or trust with elected officials; but simply trust in how we can engage with each other and communities that are on the frontlines. It’s a very big job. It’s a huge responsibility. But in order to move forward with Vision Zero, in order to create the conditions where all of us can thrive on the streets, each of us has a responsibility to come back and ask yourself that question. How is it that we are building and instilling trust in our partners?”

Harris then introduced one of his most important partners, NYC Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez.

“I’m not supposed to be here,” said Rodriguez, “My first job was washing dishes. I used to walk around this area on my break time.” Rodriguez built on Harris’ remarks about the perception of transportation reform from lower-income communities.

“For many decades poor people were told that riding a bike is equal to being poor,” Rodriguez said. “And that’s why when you see cycling in New York City, it’s mainly composed by the upper class and middle class. So we need to have this socio-economic conversation. How can we help all working class New Yorkers to understand that if you ride a bike, that’s not a luxury; that’s good for your health, that’s good for you environment, that’s good for your economy.”

Rodriguez also said if transportation agencies want to move forward on Vision Zero goals, they must look like the communities they serve. “When I got to DOT, I said, we need to diversify this agency if we want to be trusted.”

These remarks kicked off a full day of workshops and panel discussions. I attended sessions on e-bikes, the impact of oversized trucks and SUVs, and a panel on alternatives to police enforcement — all of which touched on how economic and racial inequality are playing into the fight for safe streets. Stay tuned for coverage of those topics.

— TransAlt.org/VisionZeroCities

‘Bullying works’ and other lessons from a tactical urbanist

I was surprised to bump into a volunteer from Safe Street Rebel (note: story updated 7/31/24 to keep person anonymous at their request) at the Vision Zero Cities Conference this morning. Given that the volunteer was listed as “anonymous” on a panel yesterday, and identifiable only by the name of the group they organize with, Safe Street Rebel, I figured folks like them prefer to stay in the shadows.

The volunteer is part of a what conference organizers glowingly referred to as “illegal,” “confrontational,” and “illicit,” and, “a new breed of tactical urbanism that has sprung up across the U.S. and is transforming city streets without the permission of city governments.” “Direct action gets the goods,” reads the title of a panel the Safe Street Rebel organizer participated in Wednesday.

Or, you might just know his group as the folks who garnered national headlines in August for sabotaging driverless taxis in San Francisco by placing traffic cones on the hoods.

Given that similar tactics bubble-up in Portland from time-to-time — most recently as a group called BlockOps that earned the ire of the Portland Bureau of Transportation for placing concrete curbs in a bike lane where woman was brutally hit by an errant driver who plowed right through plastic flex-posts — figured it would be fun to ask this person from Safe Street Rebel to share more about what they’re doing with Safe Street Rebel.

Screenshot of Safe Street Rebel Instagram account.

Jonathan Maus/BikePortland: What is your message to activists in other cities that, might just be a few folks with a social media account, but who aren’t as far along as your group?

Safe Street Rebel organizer: I mean, we started with a Twitter account, too, and a group chat, and just all it takes is a group chat to come together with your friends and get out in the streets.

BikePortland: Can you give me a sense of scale or context in terms of what you are up to?

Safe Street Rebel organizer: We have a big group chat with about 250 people on it. That’s not really for organizing. It’s more for just chatting about what’s going on, and keeping each other up-to-date. But then we have breakout groups for things like guerrilla infrastructure, for community slow rides, and we try to have actions that accommodate all risk levels.

And even with the cone campaign, you know, there were people who were instrumental in that, who never put a cone on a robo-taxi, the person who made that viral Tiktok video for us never did that, but still really wanted to get involved. So I think it’s important to create a welcoming environment, so that anyone, regardless of their risk tolerance, can get involved. Yeah.

But on the other end of the spectrum, we also do tactical urbanism and guerrilla infrastructure. We’ve been learning how to drill plastic, soft-hit post into the streets.

BikePortland: Tell me more about “risk level.” I mean, you’re breaking the law. What do you tell activists who might be afraid of getting into something like that?

Safe Street Rebel organizer: I think using your privilege is important. You know, there are a lot of people in our community who can’t take that risk of getting arrested, whether that’s for immigration reasons, economic reasons, or whatever. But there are some who can. And it’s important to step up for your community. It’s important to show the public that safe streets are worth taking risks for.

BikePortland: So, like a protestor who goes to an action wanting to get arrested?

Safe Street Rebel organizer: Well, I’d emphasize that the most important thing is for you to get out of there and have the action end safely — not to finish the action… Getting arrested is not ideal. It can be dire for a lot of people economically, it could be the reason why you lose her job. We’d rather people sort of get out safely, then finish the install.

BikePortland: Speaking of getting arrested, what’s your position on police enforcement and street safety?

Safe Street Rebel organizer:Safe Street Rebel is explicitly anti-police. We’ve seen efforts from a lot of traditional advocacy groups calling for increased enforcement. We see cops as a reactionary band-aid, and something that’s not a preventative solution. There’s a limit to the deterrent effect they have. We think it’s important that we focus on literal, concrete solutions, because infrastructure will always be more effective than enforcement.

“We say ‘bullying works.'”

BikePortland: Do you see yourself as being an antagonist of transportation agencies? Or partners? What’s that relationship like?

Safe Street Rebel organizer: We have a love-hate relationship with SFMTA [San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency]. Wee have good relationships with the lower-level planners, who definitely agree with us in terms of our goals. But then, sometimes it can be tense with the directors and appointees of the Mayor’s office, for example, or people who favor car access, or, you know, oppose safe streets.

But we’re not like a libertarian kind of group. We want the city to make these improvements. We don’t want to be the only ones doing this. It’s also not sustainable for the community to do this entirely. So, just like the Portland group with installing concrete, it’s really just a way to push the city in the right direction.

We say ‘bullying works.’ It’s not a way of antagonizing it’s more of just showing what’s possible — quickly. If we can install soft-hit posts in response to a four-year-old being killed within five days, there’s no reason the city shouldn’t.

BikePortland: Anything else you want to say?

Safe Street Rebel organizer: This is as much community-building and making friends, and having fun with your friends, as it is direct action. You’ll make some of the best friends you’ll ever have doing this work and it’ll change your life.

— SafeStreetRebel.com

The bike bus world came together in Brooklyn today

Dressed in uniforms of bright yellow jackets with “Bike Bus” emblazoned on the back, the foot soldiers of America’s burgeoning bike bus movement came together in Brooklyn today. But instead of leading kids, they led bike bus advocates and fans from across the country.

In just a few short years, the simple act of riding bikes to school together has gone from lone advocates in a few schools, to a bona fide national movement. At today’s ride, organized as part of the Vision Zero Cities Conference hosted by nonprofit Transportation Alternatives, there was a sense that the disparate efforts that have blossomed in the past two years or so are beginning to gel.

And leaders of bike buses in Oregon can take some of the credit for the momentum.

In February of 2022, Brooklyn school teacher Emily Stutts was cooking breakfast with her husband when a podcast featuring Hood River’s Safe Routes to School Manager Megan Ramey came on. “I hear her story and I said to my husband, ‘Someone should do that here,'” Stutts shared with me today as we gathered in Brower Park before the ride. “And he’s like, ‘Yeah, it’s you, you fool! Who else would do it?’ And I was like, ‘No, no, no, it’s someone else, not me,’ and he was like, ‘You’re a teacher, you know all the kids, you ride your bike — I’m pretty sure it’s you.'”

So a few months later, Stutts had created the Bergen Bike Bus. Each morning before school she rides the same, five-mile route and kids and parents from up to 10 schools hop on and off the bus.

Today Stutts and Ramey rode together.

“We all keep saying, ‘Thank you for inspiring me,'” Ramey shared while biking on Stutts’ route. “And I think the feeling is mutual; because without each other we wouldn’t have been able to do this.”

Ramey was inspired to start her “bike train” in 2020 after watching a Streetfilm video shot in Portland in 2013. And of course the person who made that film, the inimitable Clarence Eckerson, was also at today’s ride.

In addition to Ramey and Stutts, other bike bus leaders on the ride included: Sam Balto, leader of the Alameda Bike Bus in Portland; Luke Bornheimer from San Francisco Bike Bus; Andy Hawkins and Jessica Tillyer from Montclair (New Jersey) Bike Bus, and others.

The next stop for the bike bus is to create a national organization. A clearinghouse of sorts, that can guide would-be bike bus leaders and give them the tools to get rolling.

I ran into Luke Bornheimer as he scribbled his name and phone number on the bottom of fliers that had “Bike Bus World” in big red letters across the top.

What’s this? I asked.

“It’s a national organization that is helping people start and grow bike buses and support them from a national state and city level,” he replied. According to Bornheimer, a lot of people see a bike bus video online and want to start one, but they have no resources or advice on how to do it. “They’re basically reinventing the wheel every single time. And this is happening all across the country,” he said. “What we’re trying to do is solve that problem for people, help them start bike buses, and give them the tools and resources to do it, and advocate for the policy and infrastructure that helps support that.”

On that note, the group stopped by two “school streets” on the ride — carfree streets adjacent to schools that help make drop-off and pick-up safer while providing a larger space for play and community.

At the Brooklyn New School, parents and administrators worked together to get a permit to prohibit drivers from using the street outside the playground. Now they use the space to teach kids how to ride bikes. School principal Diane Castelucci called it, “Extended outdoor learning space,” on the permit paperwork. “And for us, what sort of came naturally and having a nice long open space was a biking program.”

Asked what type of volunteer effort it takes to keep the school street going, Castelucci said, “It’s made a huge difference for our school and being able to have much more outdoor space for our kids has been wonderful. We’ll do whatever it takes to keep it going.”

At another school street in Park Slope, the folks who made it happen said it became such a success that the school moved its main entrance off the busier commercial street and onto the newly carfree one.

There’s a clear nexus from getting more families biking to school, to vision zero. One of the most effective ways to reduce fatal crashes is to simply lower exposure to automobiles. Getting kids and families out of them, and creating safe routes and safe spaces near schools, can save a lot of lives.

And safety is just one of many reasons bike buses are taking off. Actually, that’s hardly the reason at all.

“The very first time I went on a bike bus ride, it was so joyful and uplifting,” Bornheimer told me at a happy hour mixer after the ride. “People talk a lot about policy and infrastructure and how, we hope things will happen. And this is very real. You see it in front of you and it’s like a visceral feeling of, like, knowing this is a very positive thing.”

— BikeBus.World

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Background

Proposed Changes to Bike Parking

Chris Smith

BikeLoud PDX

The Street Trust

Conclusion

From the Archives