Year: 2023

Flexible plastic posts re-installed on NE 57th bike lane

Views of NE 57th Ave near NE Failing. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

The Portland Bureau of Transportation has replaced nearly two dozen plastic flex-posts that were uprooted from their place in the buffer zone of the bike lane on Northeast 57th Avenue in the Cully neighborhood.

We posted about the missing protective materials in this important curved section of the bike lane between NE Failing and Fremont on Tuesday. And by the end of this past weekend, new posts had been installed. I went and took a look at them yesterday just for good measure and was happy to see new, bright, white posts where there were previously none. This bikeway needs all the help it can get while we wait another three years (at least) before the city builds a more robust solution with concrete curbs.

For their part, a PBOT comment on social media yesterday made it seem like they simply were unaware the posts were missing. “Thanks for making us aware of this,” they wrote in response to the BikePortland story. I appreciate that PBOT is using this as an opportunity to promote their complaint-driven system for keeping roads maintained, but I find it hard to believe no PBOT employees had noticed this situation in the past several months.

Regardless, I’m just happy PBOT responded and acted to fortify the bike lane a bit. I hope the posts do their job of encouraging more people to bike and walk and protecting them better while doing so — while also discouraging people to drive dangerously. Of course, if these plastic posts were tall concrete curbs, I wouldn’t have to hope!

On that note, a reader sent me a photo taken earlier this morning that showed a PBOT crew at the scene. I’m not sure if they were already replacing uprooted posts or what, but hopefully these new ones stick around a while and don’t waste too much PBOT time and resources re-installing them.

If you see missing posts or other maintenance issues or road hazards, please call PBOT’s 24/7 maintenance dispatch hotline at (503) 823-1700 or email pdxroads@portlandoregon.gov. “If it’s not reported, we may not know it needs to be fixed!” PBOT says.

Podcast: Techpreneur William Henderson offers a new take on bike counts

William Henderson at a BikePortland Wonk Night event in 2015 (left), during our online interview on Friday (center), and at a Bike Happy Hour in April 2023. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

On Friday afternoon, I was only a few minutes into my interview with Ride Report Founder and former CEO William Henderson when I threw my notes aside and realized they’d be useless.

BikePortland has covered nearly every twist-and-turn of Henderson’s journey in the transportation data industry since our profile of him in 2015. So I prepped notes with a timeline of the past eight years that included: how he turned a passion for bike advocacy into a piece of hardware that counted bike trips (a gadget we proclaimed would “change bike planning forever”) and earned the interest (and investment) of the Portland Bureau of Transportation, to a successful app that set him on a different course; how he became a “smart city” darling and raised $13 million from venture capital firms; and how his company launched data dashboards to track bike share and e-scooter fleets for Portland and dozens of cities worldwide.

So imagine my surprise when Henderson said at the beginning of our chat that, “Bike counts are not the most important conversation,” and that, “we need to challenge that idea that quantification is the place to start,” when it comes to bike advocacy and pushing for systemic transportation reform.

Henderson’s self-reflective skepticism made more sense after I learned he majored in math and philosophy at Reed College, only got into tech (he worked at Apple and Square before creating the Ride Report app) to pay back student loans, described himself as a reluctant capitalist, and once dabbled in monasticism.

With flowing hair looking like it wanted to break free from his headphones during our online conversation, Henderson opined, “You can’t unbuild the house with the master’s tools.” An urbanist and bike advocate at heart, the “house” in this metaphor is America’s car-centric transportation system. “What I’ve come to understand is that bike counts are ultimately vehicle thinking translated into, ‘Okay, now let’s apply that to bike planning.'”

Henderson thinks the zeal advocates show for boosting bike counts is the same dead-end, “volume thinking” that has led to massive freeways and bloated transit projects.

Instead of being focused on a higher mode split percentage and a turnaround of our cycling decline, Henderson thinks the entire premise and practice of “bike advocacy” needs to be re-assessed in light of the new, post-pandemic reality where neighborhood proximity has replaced the old, hub-and-spoke model where downtown was the center of our planning maps.

Henderson still believes accurate and robust bike counts are essential tools for planners, but it’s clear he has moved to a different place, philosophically:

“We’re still thinking about the bike as, ‘Can it compete with the car as a way to bring people downtown and back home on their commute?’ I don’t think people actually believe that’s the best way to measure bikes, or that it’s the most impactful thing that bikes can do for our community. But that’s actually how the system works, because we just took car culture, car thinking and engineering, and translated it over to bikes.

We need to really step back and say, ‘What are we really trying to do here?’ We’re not trying to compete with the car on its own merits, because that doesn’t work.”

Hear my full interview with Henderson in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts. Visit the BikePortland Podcast page to browse more episodes.

The transportation upsides of Governor Kotek’s Central City Task Force recommendations

Waterfront Park is nice to look at, but it could be so much more! (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

A task force convened by Oregon Governor Tina Kotek with the goal of breathing life into downtown Portland revealed its recommendations this morning. While I’d hoped tactical urbanism or some sort of streets and/or transportation-related remedies would get more prominent billing, the group has decided to focus on more traditional approaches.

“Gov. Tina Kotek in the coming months will press to increase police presence downtown Portland, outlaw public drug consumption, take protective plywood off of buildings, and step up social services for those struggling on the streets of Oregon’s largest city,” reads an OPB story published this morning that summarizes the recommendations.

While anything that makes downtown streets look and feel safer will encourage people to use transit, their feet, and bikes downtown — there’s nothing transportation-specific in the 10 immediate priorities the governor wants to focus on.

A stronger — and safer — connection between the Park Blocks and the river on Salmon is a great idea. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

One of the recommendations that caught my eye was listed under the second of three priority tiers (which are referred to as, “Early 2024,” “Actions Throughout 2024,” and “The Decade’s Work”). It had to do with activating public spaces. The Task Force said they’ll work with Prosper Portland and Travel Portland to pursue grant funds and make it easier for people to hold events in public spaces and improve public space amenities to encourage people to attend them. Work like that makes downtown a more attractive cycling destination and could encourage more ridership.

Another recommendation listed under the “Decade’s Work” category was to, “Make downtown a worthy destination.” Under that heading, the Task Force suggested a “better activated” Tom McCall Waterfront Park. Folks in BikePortland circles have been shouting this from the rooftops for years! Let’s swap some of that grass for more programmed spaces and create a world-class park that lures bike riders from all over town. The recommendation also says the park should have, “flexible spaces for recreation,” which to me sounds like maybe a bike skills park and/or pump track? Or maybe a dirt trail that winds along the river and through the trees that could be shared by bike riders and runners?

And I loved this line: “The Salmon Street corridor could better connect the waterfront fountain and the Park Blocks.” How about a physically-separated green lane on Salmon for bikers, walkers, and other small, slow, low-impact transportation vehicles that connects direction to the future protected bikeway on SW 4th?

The only direct mention of transportation infrastructure was the (no kidding) very last item listed. Under the heading of “Support major transportation infrastructure to catalyze development,” the Task Force report said, “Realizing transformative Central City redevelopment projects over the next decade will require major infrastructure investments. Given the scale of infrastructure costs and local funding limitations, the City will need match funding from state and federal partners to move these projects forward with urgency.”

(We’ll remember this when Portland Bureau of Transportation applies for a big grant to fund the Green Loop and lawmakers say they don’t have money because they spent it all on freeway expansions.)

Overall, I’m glad the Governor took initiative to add urgency to getting downtown Portland get back on track. But given that the public outreach survey conducted by the Task Force included many responses from folks saying they’d appreciate better transit, walking, and biking downtown; and the Task Force website encourages people to go on a bike ride to aid downtown’s recovery — I think they could have gone further on the transportation front.

One saving grace here is that PBOT is already ahead of the game and has recently convinced City Council to make their street plaza program permanent. That policy groundwork will pay off big-time if/when the recommendations in this report begin to bear fruit.

— Check out the recommendations here.

Comment of the Week: An ode to going to work

Call it a litmus test, a Rorschach blot — maybe a new question for the Meyer-Briggs personality quiz? But the topic of working from home … well, let’s say it brings out a lot of personality. That personality was on full display in the comments to our post on Alta Planning and Design’s move to the west side of the river. As Jonathan wrote, the move was “part of their strategy to lure more employees into the office.”

WFH (work from home) can be such a hot-button issue that I hesitate to say anything about it. But at least let’s describe the range of the phenomena. It extends from taking one day a week at home, to making home in another state. Yep, some folks have put hundreds, even thousands, of miles between themselves and their employer, and are real happy with the arrangement.

PTB is not buying it. Here’s why PTB thinks going to work matters:

Not everyone loves WFH. My role at work won’t allow it, but there are some here that can, and during the height of Covid, did. I thought it sucked. I hated Zoom meetings. There’s something very human that is lacking when your only interactions are online. It would be one thing to Zoom with someone in a different time zone, but when that person is a couple miles from where you’re at, goddamn, something about it irks the hell out of me.

And it clearly irked my coworkers because once vaccines rolled out they did what I thought we were all waiting to do once they were available; they came back to work. Didn’t we all hate being home and not seeing people? Vaccines were gonna help us get back to normal life, yeah? Then a bunch of office workers decided, nah, fuck it, this spare room office life is legit…I’m staying. You’re the master of your own isolation, same goes for me. I’m going out and leaving the house, thanks.

And yeah, downtown workers help the vendors that sell sandwiches and coffee and work lunch buffets and all that stuff. All that stuff that made downtown a fun place to be before Covid. All those jobs are important, too. I worked those jobs for a lot of years. I like the random encounter you have with someone in line waiting to get coffee, or running into a friend that also just got off work and deciding to grab a drink. I continue to wonder why people deprive themselves of these human experiences and decide they’d rather stay home all day.

Hats off to Alta for their move downtown. I love it. We can’t abandon downtown and just let it rot. We do that and there will be horrible consequences for the region and the state at some point. What they’ll be, I don’t know, but it’s probably best not to try and find out.

Thank you PTB, that was a lovely comment. I bet your co-workers like having a coffee with you.

You can find the full range of opinions in the comments under the original post.

Monday Roundup: shared space downfall, Portland influencers, and more

Darkness and deaths: Portland is highlighted in this important article that explains why America has an exceptionally high number of pedestrian traffic deaths. There are some factors highlighted here — like how shift workers have moved into places with more dangerous roads — that I hadn’t considered before. (NY Times)

Where separation is mandatory: Cambridge (MA) passed a council ordinance that required protected bike lanes whenever a road is reconstructed and the results have been very positive. (Velo)

Why ‘shared space’ doesn’t work: The idea of ‘shared space’ pushed by Hans Monderman was supposed to usher in a new era of street civility and socialized public space; but it hasn’t quite turned out that way. (Global Cycling Network)

The state of the art: A deep dive into the challenges of building bike infrastructure in America, with mention of the protested bike lane removal on NE 33rd Ave in Portland. (The Verge)

Parking policy follies: Turns out some cities determine mandatory parking ratios with scant research, even though the decisions can have vast impacts on whether or not housing gets built. (Sightline)

Sensible reforms: In Ontario, Canada, policymakers are considering more stringent driving tests for older drivers and additional driver’s training for people who receive citations for stunt driving. (Global News CA)

HSR breakthrough: The US DOT has awarded a $3 billion grant to a private company to build high-speed rail between Southern California and Las Vegas. Let’s f’ing go! (Washington Post)

Chugging along: Meanwhile, the dream of Cascadia HSR won a paltry $1 million in planning grants from the same pot of funding. (The Urbanist)

Cycling at COP28: Learn about the sole cycling group that participating in the climate talks in Dubai over the past week or so. (Forbes)

Daylighting intersections: Moving parked cars away from corners with a mix of barricades and enforcement seems like one of the easiest ways to improve street safety. I’m sharing this link in hopes folks at PBOT will read it and remember their promise to daylight 350 Portland intersections! (Streetsblog NYC)

Portland influencers: A widely read list of the 50 most influential people in American cycling includes two Portlanders: bike bus leader Sam Balto and transgender rights activist Molly Cameron. (Escape Collective)

E-bike license push: There’s growing momentum in New York City to require licenses and registration for e-bike riders. Let’s hope no one outside the Big Apple thinks this is a good policy direction. (Gothamist)

‘Exit warnings’: Interesting safety news from Ford and Volkswagen as they are set to debut new tech that will warn drivers if there’s a bicycle rider approaching before they swing open their door. (Men’s Journal)

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.

Take survey to help design Red Electric Trail

Preliminary alignment of future Red Electric Trail.

The Portland Parks & Recreation bureau wants your help to design the future Red Electric Trail.

As we shared back in June, Parks won a $750,000 federal pandemic relief grant to finalize the design and planning for a half-mile section of the Red Electric Trail between SW Shattuck Road and SW Cullen Boulevard in the Hayhurst neighborhood. Since our last report, city staff have held several open houses and done other outreach and have come up with a preliminary design. A new survey that closes this coming Monday (December 11th) aims to iron out a few last details before the design can be completed and the city can come up with a cost estimate. Those two steps are crucial to getting this project funded and built!

The alignment of the paved path will head east from Shattuck (across the street from the Alpenrose Dairy site), through a community garden, park, part of Hayhurst Elementary School, then along SW Cameron Road.

Detail of options for how the path could go through Pendleton Park.

Parks planners have broken the design down into five segments. Starting from Shattuck and moving east, the plan for the trail would include:

  • Marked crossing from Alpenrose across Shattuck with signs and flashing beacons.
  • Two-way, paved multi-use path that will range from 10-12 feet wide with two-foot gravel shoulders.
  • Spur trails would be built around seasonal wet areas and to reach adjacent destinations (the school).
  • Connections to existing trails.
  • A new crossing at SW Fairvale Court and Cameron Road.
  • Shared-use path along north side of Cameron Rd separated by concrete curbs.
  • Speed cushions on Cameron Rd.

The project also plans to install trail amenities like benches, bike racks, wayfinding signage, new lighting, informal play structures, and more.

The survey asks for opinions on how best to design around a seasonal wet area, whether or not a spur trail in segment 1 should be prioritized for improvement, how best to design an accessible trail connection through Pendleton Park, and gauges interest in the planned list of amenities.

You can take the survey online until this coming Monday at 9:00 am. Learn more at the official project website.

A new bike for Cole

Here’s a dose of good in a situation that started out bad: Yesterday before Bike Happy Hour I swung by Ota Tofu on Southeast Stark to deliver a check for $1,215. That was the amount nearly 50 of you donated to Cole so she can buy a new bike after hers was flattened by an errant driver last Thursday.

Cole was getting coffee across the street from her job at Ota when she saw someone in an SUV swing off SE Sandy right into the on-street bike parking corral her bike was locked to. That now-destroyed bike was how Cole got to and from work, and when I talked to her about what happened, it was clear she could use help buying a new one. With the check I dropped off, and some donations that were sent directly to her, Cole should have enough to find a solid, reliable bike.

Thanks to everyone who stepped up to help a complete stranger. And to the handful of folks who offered to loan her a bike, or in some cases, even give her one! The generosity of our community helps restore my faith in humanity. I can’t wait to see Cole’s new bike and I’m glad we were able to keep one more person on a bike in Portland.

Here’s how I-5 Interstate Bridge Replacement engineer says project will address climate change

View of I-5 going over Hayden Island and the Columbia River from north Portland.

While the effort to expand I-5 between Portland and Vancouver and replace the Interstate Bridge (a.k.a. the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program, or IBR) lumbers on, many questions remain about the $7.5 billion project — especially how it will impact Oregon’s greenhouse gas emission reduction goals.

A question on that topic came up during an exchange last month between a Portland cycling advocate and the project’s engineering manager. It was a notable back-and-forth that shows how project staff justify claims that the freeway megaproject will actually lower vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and won’t be terrible for the climate.

The exchange took place during a meeting of the PBOT Bicycle Advisory Committee on November 14th. It was between committee member David Stein and Casey Liles, engineering manager for the IBR. Their comments have been slightly edited for clarity.

David Stein:

“You spent a lot of time talking about climate change and addressing climate impacts, and yet, all of the potential [project] layouts involve even more lanes for cars and none actually are going to be studying the current set. And it doesn’t seem to jive with the large impact that transportation has on not only carbon emissions, but on other impacts like particulate matter that goes into the air and into into our waterways. There’s also the cost stewardship part that’s completely missed.

I’m really missing how this project is going to meaningfully address climate impacts when you’re talking about building more lanes for cars — auxiliary or otherwise, it’s still more lanes — and then surrounding transit with parking garages rather than housing and other buildings that would actually allow people to not have to drive… It just seems like there’s not even a good story to take out of this. And I’m wondering why we aren’t studying things that that might help to shrink the impact of this.”

Casey Liles:

“David,

The program Investment is estimated about $6 billion. A third of the investment for the program is transit and active transportation. A third. So the improvement of active transportation in this corridor is to connect over 60 miles of the light rail transit in the Portland metro to Vancouver, in which case there are three BRT [bus rapid transit] routes that are connecting to that light rail route.

I did mention the park-and-rides in Vancouver. [We] are studying the need for zero, one or two park-and-rides. I didn’t mention that. But that is a possibility — whether there’s maybe no park-and-rides rides in downtown, or up to two park-and-rides.

And again, the increase in ridership and mode share for transit and active transportation — that connection [between Portland and Vancouver] is not great today — you will see those benefits coming and published in the SDEIS [supplemental draft environmental impact statement, due for publication in early 2024].

As far as greenhouse gases go… One of the key elements of that is emissions from vehicular traffic. And one of the best ways to address that is getting people out of their single-occupant vehicles and getting them onto transit. I forgot to also mention the bus-on-shoulder that increases the express bus service into Portland. The other part of that is the treatment of all of the water in the five-mile corridor that is not treated today for freeway runoff. That treatment allows for getting the particulate out of the water runoff that is hazardous to fish and to the marine environment. Additionally, we expect that VMT goes down with the program… We would expect that, because we’re looking for a savings [in GHG emissions] due to that mode shift. 

Again, to go back to the investments in the program: Major investments in opportunities for people to use other modes than their single-occupant vehicle, as well as the safety and congestion. We’re taking accidents, and hopefully a lift-bridge, off of the freeway where you have that additional congestion or additional rates of accidents — and the additional people sitting in congestion spewing their emissions.

So, all of those things are a very large part of the program to improve the air quality in the area.”

The next big milestone for this project will be the release of the supplemental draft environmental impact statement (SDEIS, a document required as part of the federal National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA). Project staff say it’s due for release in early 2024.

If you’re hungry for information about this major project, the IBRP is hosting a public briefing tonight (Thursday, December 7th). The event is billed as a “virtual public briefing” and will take place online from 6:00 to 7:30 pm. Event details and sign-up link can be found here. There’s also a joint meeting of the Washington and Oregon legislative committees that oversee the project scheduled for December 15th.

National environmental group ranks Oregon 4th in climate-friendly transportation policies

(Inset: Cover of NRDC report. Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Oregon’s transportation policies are among the best in the country when it comes to ensuring a massive influx of federal funding will improve the state’s march toward climate goals. Oregon earned the fourth highest ranking and placed behind only California, Massachusetts, and Vermont. Our neighbors to the north in Washington finished fifth.

That’s according to a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members. The NRDC’s scorecard ranked all 50 states on how their transportation, land-use, and air quality agencies are doing on five key metrics. Each metric was given a weight and there was a total possible score of 100. ODOT received 63.5 points, just shy of the 69.9 earned second place finisher Massachusetts, but over 23 points behind first place California who received 86.9.

Scorecard with red annotations by BikePortland.

The five metrics and their scores were: state planning for climate and equity (17), vehicle electrification (31), reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT) through expanded transportation choices (34), system maintenance (11), and procurement (11). While Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) policies figured prominently in the assessment, the Department of Environmental Quality and Department of Land Conservation and Development were also judged.

The purpose of the scorecard was to highlight how important policies related to those metrics will be when it comes to investing funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act. The BIL (passed in 2021) is largest single transportation investment in American history and will send $350 billion in transportation funding between 2022 and 2026.

“The aim was to identify a set of metrics that provided a useful, illustrative snapshot of state transportation actions relevant to equity and climate change,” reads the report.

The BIL will send a total of $4.5 billion to Oregon. ODOT says they have about $1.2 billion in additional funding per year through 2026. About $800 million is set aside for specific programs including $82 million for the Carbon Reduction program, $200 million for transit, and $30 million for active transportation. The rest of the funds (around $400 million) are flexible, meaning the Oregon Transportation Commission chooses what to spend them on. When the OTC was faced with how to allocate the funds last year, they chose to put 34% of the total into what they refer to as, “sustainable and equitable transportation investments.”

ODOT’s stated goal is that by 2050, they will reduce transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions to a level that’s 80% lower than what they were in 1990. Their latest data says they’re on track for a 60% reduction. Transportation is the largest sector of GHG emissions in Oregon, accounting for about 35% of the total. Of that 35%, over half of the emissions comes from passenger cars. The agency says reducing how far and how often people drive is the area where the most reductions can be made.

Unfortunately two categories ODOT received low scores on were per capita transit spending and how much federal funding they put toward bike and pedestrian projects. ODOT scored a 0.2 out of 5 on the transit metric and a 5.1 out of 10 on the bike/ped funding metric.

“We’re proud of our ranking and what we’ve accomplished so far with our federal and state partners,” said Susan Peithman, ODOT Climate Office interim director, in a statement released Wednesday. “There is much more work to be done, and we’ll keep pushing to realize our vision of a clean, safe and equitable transportation system.”

— Read the report here.

Weekend Event Guide: Rapha Archive Sale, OMTM social, and more

It’s do-whatever-it-takes-to-stay-dry season. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Welcome to the weekend.

Hope you’re hanging on through repeating rivers of atmosphere pelting down on our city. If the rain has got you down, consider one of the events below to brighten your mood.

This week’s guide is sponsored by the Rapha Archive Sale, a great opportunity to score deals on quality gear. See details on the event below.

Friday, December 8th

Friday Morning Hill Ride – 10:00 am at Portland Orchestra HQ (SE)
Like the steep stuff? Show up and ride with others who are so inclined. More info here.

***Rapha Archive Sale – 3:00 to 6:00 pm at Chris King HQ (NW)***
Grab deep discounts on classic Rapha gear, including throwbacks from past seasons and gems to give your kit a bit of pop just in time for the holidays. More info here.

Saturday, December 9th

***Rapha Archive Sale – 10:00 am to 6:00 pm at Chris King HQ (NW)***
Grab deep discounts on classic Rapha gear, including throwbacks from past seasons and gems to give your kit a bit of pop just in time for the holidays. More info here.

PSU Farmers Market Ride – 10:00 am at SE Clinton & 41st (SE)
Weekly ride welcome and open to anyone who is looking for a slow, short, social ride and an excuse to grab goodies at the biggest farmers market in the area. More info here.

OMTM Winter Social – 12:00 pm at Chris King HQ (NW)
Roll out with the wild, fun, and welcoming group of gravel lovers known as OMTM (Our Mother The Mountain) on their annual social ride. The route starts from the Rapha Archive Sale and heads into classic Forest Park territories known and unknown. More info here.

Inn Between Holidays Ride – 12:30 pm at Goose Hollow Inn (SW)
What better way to mark the holidays than with a jovial jaunt to pubs that have the word “inn” in the name? More info here.

Sunday, December 10th

Monthly Overlook Ride, Bike Sweeper Edition! – 9:30 am at Stacks Coffeehouse (N)
Connect with Overlookers for a north Portland adventure and see the very cool bike lane sweeper trailer in action. More info here.

***Rapha Archive Sale – 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at Chris King HQ (NW)***
Grab deep discounts on classic Rapha gear, including throwbacks from past seasons and gems to give your kit a bit of pop just in time for the holidays. More info here.

Sunday Social Ride – 10:00 am at Woodstock Park (SE)
Join an experienced Portland Bicycling Club ride leader for an intermediate-paced (13-15 mph) ride that will explore the city. More info here.

— Don’t see an event? Please tell us about what’s going on in your neighborhood by filling out our contact form!

Biking our way to a slower family life

I recently took out my grandmother’s sewing machine, after 10 years of storing it under the bed. I was inspired by the Sew Many Bikes Pedalpalooza ride, which life has twice prevented me from attending, but I am keen to learn from anyway. In addition to the sewing machine, I also had a friend teach me a knit stitch, and on a recent evening I put on an old record (yes, on a turntable) — one that had been unopened in its package for decades — and I sat in a chair to listen and knit.

It struck me particularly (as I bemoaned my inability to join the summer’s Sew Many Bikes ride) that sewing and biking is a most fitting combination. Folks who sew are doing something slow in the face of fast fashion. They could more easily buy their garments, yet they are doing the slow work of making their own outfits, not unlike a person riding a bike, who could ride in a faster car, but who chooses the slower way. Something slow, something lovely, something that takes work. But is totally worth it, both in the achievement of the end, and also for the joy of the journey.

Yes, a Pedalpalooza bike ride got me thinking about an entirely slow life, and how much it might be preferred to a fast one. Slower things, like biking, books, old records, and sewing machines. 

“Maybe choosing to bike is only part of what we need. Maybe we have been trying to fit biking into a car-centric lifestyle. And what we need is a completely different framing.”

Amid the holiday rush, I find myself hesitating. I look at my bike, and now at my sewing machine, and my record player, and an entire library of un-read books and think: Do we have to start rushing from now to Christmas? And in any season, do we really want to schedule so many things that we always feel overwhelmed and crazy-busy? If I sign my kids up for another extracurricular, another team, another formal activity, will we feel stressed and reduce our family time to fast food dinners because our lives are too busy to cook, eat together, and enjoy our family life?

I’ve begun to wonder if this rushing-around lifestyle is due to a car-centric society. Would we always feel so stressed and rushed, would we pack our schedules so full of far-away activities, if we were bike-based instead of car-based?

Maybe we can make different choices, and live differently, even during this notoriously “busy time of year.” Maybe choosing to bike is only part of what we need. Maybe we have been trying to fit biking into a car-centric lifestyle. And what we need is a completely different framing, a completely different idea of “normal.” Something as different as sewing an outfit, instead of ordering one online. Something as different as biking, instead of driving. 

So before the “holiday rush” returns, we’re taking time to slow down and to make a deeper examination of what we value and how we actually, intentionally, want to live out our family life. I asked my older kids (ages 10 and 8) to think about how they want to live, and how we should spend our time together, before they grow up and move out. To my surprise, both of my older children considered carefully and then answered, each in their own way, that we should read more books, make more tea, and spend more cozy evenings at home. 

Indeed. 

I think that’s just the sort of change I need this holiday season. We don’t have to try to keep up with a car-driven lifestyle, or any lifestyle that we don’t actually want. Biking has taught us that we can be happier If we live more slowly, consciously, intentionally, and locally. For us, biking is our mode of travel on what has become a happy journey to a slower life.

Traffic diverter on NE Fremont a success, PBOT says

Looking northwest at the diverter on NE Fremont and Alameda. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

The City of Portland says a neighborhood traffic diverter that was vehemently opposed by many residents of a northeast Portland neighborhood is working as planned.

When the Beaumont-Wilshire Neighborhood Association put the planned diverter on Northeast Fremont at Alameda on a meeting agenda in March 2022, over 70 people logged on. Many of them voiced concerns that the expected safety benefits of the project would not be worth a loss of convenience while driving and/or an increase in cut-through traffic.

The Portland Bureau of Transportation proposed the diverter to improve safety on NE Fremont (a neighborhood collector street), make it easier for bikers and walkers to cross at Alameda, and reduce the amount of drivers on the Alameda/37th neighborhood greenway route. Even though PBOT’s plan was to only make it a pilot project, the BWNA board voted it down 7-4.

View looking north across Fremont from Alameda.

After months of back-and-forth with members of the board, PBOT decided to push forward with their plan despite the neighbor’s concerns. The project included a diverter made with plastic delineator wands and curbs placed in the middle of the intersection with gaps for walkers and bikers to cross. The diverter prohibits car users from crossing north-south on Alameda and from making left turns from any direction. PBOT also added green cross-bike markings.

PBOT released results of an analysis of traffic counts on streets in the area earlier this week (see below). In a statement posted on the project’s (rather comprehensive and large for a project this size) website PBOT said, “The project is meeting success factors outlined before implementation.”

According to PBOT data collected at 22 locations before the project and 15 locations after installation, there’s been a significant decrease in car users on the Alameda greenway and there have been “no significant impacts” to nearby local streets or to traffic on NE Fremont.

PBOT analysis. Colored circles by BikePortland.

In May 2022, PBOT counted 1,073 cars on the Alameda greenway north of Fremont (blue circle above). In September of this year (about seven months after the diverter was installed), PBOT counted 701 cars at the same location — a 35% reduction. (PBOT’s guidelines say traffic volume, “should not exceed 1,000 cars per day” on neighborhood greenway streets.)

When PBOT installs a diverter, they expect some additional trips by car on adjacent local streets. That’s why they do so much analysis: If the daily auto volume rises above the threshold amount of 1,000 cars per day, PBOT will consider additional changes and/or more diversion until the traffic moves to the highest order street in the area.

On that note, there are two streets PBOT says they’ll continue to monitor due to a worrying trend of too many cars: NE 38th south of Fremont and NE Klickitat west of Alameda.

The increase of drivers on that section of Klickitat (see orange circle above) is notable because not only is it a neighborhood greenway, it’s also the route of the World Famous Alameda Elementary School Bike Bus. In May 2022 PBOT counted 650 cars per day on Klickitat just west of NE 37th. After the diverter went in, they counted 1,005 trips by car on Klickitat just east of Alameda. This 35% increase is troubling and PBOT says they’ll continue to monitor the location.

This and other issues related to the project will be discussed at a meeting of the BWNA on December 11th where PBOT staff will present results of this report.

Latest Headlines

Portland City Councilor gave up $75,000 of his own office budget for safer streets

Monday Roundup: Shared streets, a true HAWK signal, flex posts, and more

Podcast: In The Shed Episode 39

Opinion: It’s time to reflect on River View Cemetery access

From the Archives

The good, the bad, and the ugly on the Oregon Coast Bike Route