Are you interested in joining our well-rounded crew of talented and diversely-skilled mechanics? At Joe Bike, we pride ourselves on providing excellent service and communication with every customer. We like making personal connections and finding solutions to meet customer needs and budgets. Our team also knows how to have fun and enjoys collaborating on projects. We offer competitive wages based on experience, paid time off, health benefits, and a retirement plan.
How to Apply
If this sounds like you, please send an email to info@joe-bike.com with your resume and answer the following questions to help us get to know you:
1. What are your best mechanical strengths when working with bikes, and what areas are you less confident in?
2. Our bike shop is a busy and dynamic environment. How would you prioritize your time when deciding between working on bikes, helping customers with test rides and product selections, and working on cleaning, organizing, and completing side projects around the store?
3. What is your ideal bike shop environment and why?
Corkers during a protest in Portland in July 2020. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
“I could see blocking a road or directing traffic or doing the other things that corkers do be interpreted as threatening to use a weapon.”
-Sarah Alvarez, CLDC
A bill in the Oregon House currently moving through the legislature has some advocates concerned that protesting while riding a bike could soon be seen as “paramilitary activity” in the eyes of the law.
HB 2572 was introduced by Representative Dacia Grayber (D-Tigard) in response to rising extremist violence in Oregon and across the country. The bill would expand the definition of ‘civil disorder’ “for purposes of crime of unlawful paramilitary activity.” It also “creates right of action for person injured by paramilitary activity and authorizes Attorney General to bring civil action for injunctive relief against paramilitary activity.”
The bill text redefines “civil disorder” to include “acts of intimidation or force by assemblages of three or more persons while armed with…dangerous weapons that obstruct, impair or hinder the administration of law or other governmental or judicial function; assert authority of purport to assert authority over one or more other persons without the consent of the persons; or prevent the exercise of constitutional rights by one or more persons.”
The bill defines “dangerous weapons” to include firearms, explosives and incendiary devices. But could the definition also include bicycles. Portland environmental lawyer Nick Caleb, who works with climate justice advocacy team Breach Collective, is concerned about that possibility.
“Because it’s unclear what so many terms in this law mean, it’s possible that someone could claim they are injured by sign, bike, or shield-wielding protestors because they were stuck in traffic and sue,” Caleb wrote on Twitter. “Because this is civil, you don’t have to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Sarah Alvarez, a staff attorney at the Eugene-based Civil Liberties Defense Center (CLDC), is also keeping an eye on this bill. She told BikePortland that she thinks since it’s possible a bike could be used to cause injury, they might be grouped in with other “dangerous weapons”.
“I’ve seen people really seriously injured by police officers using bikes as a tool for crowd control… you can definitely cause serious physical injury with a bike if you wanted to — not that a corker would want to,” Alvarez said. “I could see blocking a road or directing traffic or doing the other things that corkers do be interpreted as threatening to use a weapon.”
While bike corkers do not often injure people, especially not intentionally, their actions have been known to agitate car drivers. Since the definition of “personal injury” is loose, it’s possible that someone could claim personal injury if they were stuck in traffic behind a group of bike corkers.
Lawyers and advocates from the CLDC, Breach Collective and other environmental groups have asked legislators to rethink their support for this bill in its current state. They recognize the real threat of right-wing extremism, but want the bill to be tailored to make sure it can be used against anyone the Attorney General sees fit. But they say they’ve had a difficult time getting through to officials in Salem, and though the bill’s language has been altered slightly, they want to see more.
In a statement to BikePortland, Grayber wrote that this bill will not impact bike corking.
“To the specific concern of bike corkers, the legal experts on our team are confident that if cyclists are not using their bicycles as weapons, or using any other weapon, and are not part of a paramilitary organization, they will not come within the prohibited acts,” Grayber wrote in a statement to BikePortland. “Again, this statute could only go into effect for those acting as part of a paramilitary organization, which has its own set of parameters, and is separate from peaceful forms of protest or civil disobedience.”
But these statements haven’t done much to alleviate concerns about how the bill’s language could be interpreted. And Alvarez said that even if it’s very unlikely that a bike corker would be punished for innocently participating in a protest, the knowledge that it’s a possibility might keep people away from exercising their first amendment rights. This could even mean people eschewing the World Naked Bike Ride — technically a protest activity — for fear of retribution.
“People might say they don’t want to participate because they don’t want a civil injunction for causing personal injury. So even though it’s probably safe…it makes people anxious or unsure and basically opt out of expressing their First Amendment rights, which includes the Naked Bike Ride,” Alvarez said. “That only has to happen once for people to start being freaked out.”
HB 2572 is currently in the House Committee on Rules awaiting a hearing. Since there’s significant Republican opposition to the bill as well, it’s not guaranteed to pass. This is only one of the Oregon bills that has lawyers and advocates fearful about crackdowns on protest activity — House Bill 2772, or the “domestic terrorism bill,” is of concern for similar reasons, but doesn’t have such a direct relationship to bike riders. As these bills go through the legislature, opponents will continue to push for changes.
“We share lawmakers’ concerns about the rise of violent, right-wing extremism in Oregon. Many of us have experienced it firsthand in our advocacy in both urban and rural settings,” a letter to lawmakers from the CLDC, Breach Collective and more reads. “This said, we, and the advocates we work with, have also been subjected to government surveillance and repression while participating in constitutionally protected protest and issue advocacy, giving us direct experience in the ways that law enforcement and criminal justice agencies selectively administer, or refuse to administer, their authority over social and political movements. As such, we urge you to reconsider the passage of these bills in any form.”
(From left, seated: Desue, Jr., Auten, Iannarone, Breault)(Lightsey-Walker, Roth, Niemi, Quintero)The two panels. (Photos: Taylor Griggs/BikePortland)
Most Portlanders are probably familiar with some of the issues regional public transit agency TriMet has been dealing with lately: ridership declines, dire operator shortages, public safety concerns and budget issues — all of which agency leaders hope to solve with a controversial fare hike. Turns out, other transit services across the state (and beyond) are facing similar challenges.
On Monday at the 2023 Oregon Active Transportation Summit (hosted by The Street Trust at Lloyd Center Mall) attendees heard from both transit agency leaders who manage systems from a high level, and the community advocates who see how people experience these services. Both perspectives are important for understanding the current state of public transit and where it will go from here.
Executive Director of The Street Trust (TST) Sarah Iannarone served as the moderator for the first panel of transit agency leaders. She said TST has been “thinking multimodal for quite some time now” (moving beyond its former name of Bicycle Transportation Alliance) and they wanted to hold a conversation about Oregon’s evolving public transit systems.
“Transit is in a dynamic state right now. It needs our support,” Iannarone said.
The first panel consisted of three transit agency leaders from across Oregon: Sam Desue, Jr., who leads TriMet; Lane Transit District (LTD) General Manager Jameson T. Auten; and Andrea Breault from Cascades East Transit in central Oregon. Each provided a different perspective on what it’s like to run a transit agency in their distinct part of the state.
Following their panel conversation, we heard from a group of four transportation advocates: The Street Trust Planning and Policy Manager André Lightsey-Walker; Better Eugene-Springfield Transportation (BEST) Program Manager Claire Roth; and SEUI Local 49′s Meg Niemi and Renato Quintero. Moderated by Josh Laurente from OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon, these four people brought unique insights on a range of subjects, and it was especially interesting to hear their thoughts in relation to what the agency leaders had to say.
The pandemic’s impact
“I was afraid to ride transit from a Covid perspective. That pushed me, a daily transit commuter, away from using our transit system.”
– André Lightsey-Walker, The Street Trust
Many of the problems currently impacting public transit agencies were present even before the pandemic hit a little more than three years ago. But Covid certainly exacerbated these issues, forcing agency leaders to rethink their operations and make some big changes.
“Everything changed during the pandemic for TriMet,” Desue, Jr. said. “One thing that was vital to us was making sure that transit continued to roll to get our emergency workers and our transit-dependent personnel to appointments and services.”
Because of the shift to remote work during the pandemic, peak ridership hours evolved. TriMet had to figure out their riders’ new schedules and has recently moved to accommodate those changes.
But it wasn’t just remote work that kept people off of public transit during the pandemic. Many former passengers — and operators — were now afraid of being in an enclosed box with strangers who could infect them with a deadly virus. While this fear is understandable, some transit advocates think it was harmful to spread the message that being on a bus was any more dangerous than being anywhere else in public, and some riders may never return to the public transportation system because of it.
During their discussion, advocates talked about how the pandemic impacted their own ridership and what they saw from others.
“I was afraid to ride transit from a Covid perspective,” Lightsey-Walker said. “That actually pushed me, a daily transit commuter, away from using our transit system.” Lightsey-Walker said he switched to using Biketown instead, which he felt was a safer option in the midst of the pandemic. (Considering Biketown’s success in the last couple of years, it looks like lots of people agreed with him.)
Auten said that LTD has begun working with local bike and scooter share programs in Eugene and Springfield to accommodate this shift toward other modes of transit.
“We’re starting to figure out how all these pieces connect,” he said.
Public safety
Public safety is a very hot topic within the transit conversation, but the discussion is often narrowly focused on only one idea of what public safety is. In Portland, people often mention the prevalence of people on public transit who may be experiencing mental health crises or even using drugs on the MAX. These concerns are real, but there are other public safety problems related to transit that are often neglected.
“Safety is subjective and the things that make people feel unsafe are different,” Lightsey-Walker said during the community advocate panel.
Lightsey-Walker recounted the story of when he felt most at risk while using public transit.
“If you didn’t realize, I’m a young Black man in Portland, Oregon. So you may have an idea of where safety concerns actually emerge for me,” he said. “The most scared I’ve ever been in a transit situation was actually being followed by an officer…having an encounter with a individual who has the ability to shoot me on site is a pretty jarring experience and, and certainly more scary than any situation I’ve ever experienced riding the bus with someone have a mental health issue.”
Meg Niemi is a union rep and a safe streets advocate in Portland. She said she thinks public safety on transit encompasses many different things, including the ability for people to walk to the bus stop without the threat of traffic violence and to be able to get on their bus or train quickly so they don’t have to wait a long time in dark, isolated areas.
Niemi said two members of SEIU Local 49 have been killed in traffic crashes while trying to get to the bus.
“I think the issue of safety is is multifaceted… there are a lot of issues that need to be addressed around safety to make all of us feel safer using public transit and other modes of of transportation besides cars,” Niemi said. “We have to work together to make it so people are who are walking and biking feel safe getting to and from transit.”
“The freedom to choose mobility options belongs to the people and transportation is a human right. The privileged vocal opposition can’t take that away from us.”
What do transit leaders and advocates expect — or want — the future of public transit to look like?
Auten brought up a point that is often overlooked in conversations about public transit — that maybe ridership data isn’t everything.
“Ridership is an important indicator, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not the only one,” Auten said. He said he wants to direct LTD to look at other outcomes as well, like whether or not people are able to get where they need to go on public transit. “I think it’s important for us to… understand how our public is using us and how we need to change and make sure that we have real mobility options.”
During the second panel, BEST’s Claire Roth added to this point.
“Opposition claims that empty buses mean that people are not riding transit. We know that that’s not true, or else I would use the same argument when I see empty streets and I would say ‘Well, people aren’t driving cars,'” Roth said. “The freedom to choose mobility options belongs to the people and transportation is a human right. The privileged vocal opposition can’t take that away from us.”
Roth is familiar with this vocal opposition to bus service — she and other local advocates have been fighting back against a group of people who were so upset about a proposed bus rapid transit project in Eugene that they led a successful campaign to oust a pro-transit city councilor. To Auten, this was a learning experience about public engagement strategy.
“We have to assess how people are receiving information now. How are we gathering that information and turning that into decision-making and then communicating what comes out of that?” Auten said. “As we [study our engagement strategy], I think we’ll learn that what our public really needs us to be, not what we want to be.”
Auten said serving such an engaged community can be a double-edged sword, but it’s better than the alternative of being part of a community that’s indifferent to change.
“I like to joke that I can’t order a ham sandwich without going to five different councils or committees…but the opposite [would be] worse,” he said. “We have an engaged community that we’re going to work with.”
And even if public transit isn’t your primary focus when it comes to transportation advocacy, Roth said a well-functioning public transit system is crucial to the entire transportation ecosystem.
“If we see a transit system that’s working well that means we should also see pedestrian and bicycle networks working well,” Roth said. “Transit doesn’t just serve people who take transit. It serves everyone. And honestly, transportation is a human right.”
Bike Clark County is a non-profit organization that creates opportunities for empowerment, education, and social change through bicycles and bicycle repair. As a nonprofit, we run a full-service bike shop and repair bicycles donated from the community, and redistribute them through our charitable programs and affordable bike sales. As a community-focused bike shop, we teach the community how to repair their own bicycles in our shared-use shop space. Our charitable programs seek to make bicycles, and bicycle repair/safety education available to the entire community regardless of income.
BCC’s many charitable bike safety education programs are made possible by its community oriented shop operations.
Job Duties and Responsibilities:
Contribute to a fun, friendly, and welcoming environment for all customers and staff.
Maintain a clean work environment for customers and staff.
Intake, assess, repair, and check over new bicycles.
Refurbish used bikes in a timely manner to normal specifications.
Educate customers on how to properly maintain their bikes
Examine parts donated to ensure quality products will be on the floor for sale
Qualifications needed to do the job successfully:
Excellent mechanical skills (preferable bike shop experience/training)
The ability to problem solve functional issues and find cost effective solutions
Excellent communication skills that will enable you to work with a wide variety of clientele, including those new to bicycling.
Ability to interact in a friendly manner with all customers regardless of their bicycle knowledge.
Good organizational skills in a fast-paced, fun environment.
How to Apply
To APPLY: Email resume and cover letter to info@bikeclarkcounty.org or drop one by our Bike Shop and meet our staff.
Congressman Earl BlumenauerRob Zako, Better Eugene-Springfield TransportationJack Blashchishen, Springfield School District Safe Routes to SchoolClaire Roth, Better Eugene-Springfield TransportationMary Lee Turner, Portland Pedestrian Advisory Committee(Photos: Taylor Griggs/BikePortland)
“Let’s end socialism for the car.”
– Earl Blumenauer, U.S. Congressman
The 2023 Oregon Active Transportation Summit, hosted by Portland transportation advocacy non-profit The Street Trust, is officially a go. People from all across Oregon’s transportation industry — from advocates to transit agency officials — have convened in the Lloyd Center for three days of panel discussions and networking events about all things related to getting around.
The event officially kicked off yesterday with a multimodal scavenger hunt and opening reception. This morning, the Summit got down to business with its first plenaries and panels. First, the Street Trust’s Executive Director Sarah Iannarone introduced the Summit’s theme — “Move Into Action” — and welcomed a surprise guest, U.S. Representative Earl Blumenauer, to the stage.
Blumenauer said he’d prepared a written speech for the morning but decided to wing it instead and “speak from the heart.” He praised The Street Trust for hosting an event like this one and emphasized the importance of transportation reform in Oregon and across the country.
“You’re on a holy mission here. Really, you’re going to help our communities save us from ourselves,” Blumenauer said. “This is literally a matter of life and death.”
Blumenauer covered a range of topics in his introduction speech, from getting rid of minimum car parking mandates to making active transportation options more affordable for everyone. Though he said he is not in favor of “declaring war on the automobile,” he was very direct about the problems our society faces as a result of car-centric planning.
“We have to recognize that how the automobile is so intrinsic with how people think and how they live. And we have to find ways to unwind that in a thoughtful fashion,” Blumenauer said. “There’s a lot of talk these days about socialism. Let’s end socialism for the car.”
This morning’s panel discussions were focused on public transit. First, we heard from a panel of transit agency leaders from around the state: Sam Desue, Jr., who leads TriMet, Jameson T. Auten from the Lane Transit District in the Eugene-Springfield area and Andrea Breault from Cascades East Transit in central Oregon. Then, several advocates provided a “community response” to this conversation, offering different perspectives on the issues the transit agency leaders discussed. (Look out for a full recap of these panel discussions soon.)
In between these panel discussions, I talked to several attendees to find out what they were looking forward to in the days ahead.
Jack Blashchishen, the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) coordinator for the Springfield School District (and one-time BikePortland contributor!) said he was eager to meet statewide colleagues from the SRTS program. School transportation has become a key issue for many advocates recently, and there is quite a large SRTS showing here at the Summit.
“I’m just looking forward to seeing everyone who’s part of the statewide transportation community,” Blashchishen said.
Rob Zako and Claire Roth, both from southern Willamette Valley transportation advocacy group Better Eugene-Springfield Transportation (BEST), said they see the Summit as an opportunity to cultivate relationships with people from across the state so they can work together to influence transportation legislation in the future.
“My personal mission is to break down siloes as much as possible and encourage people talk to each other across disciplines,” Roth said. “The pandemic hit advocacy like a ton of bricks, and it took a toll on transportation. This is the spring of transportation, we’re blooming again.”
Mary Lee Turner, a disability and pedestrian advocate (and current member of the Portland Pedestrian Advisory Committee) told me she wants to make sure there’s a presence of people with disabilities who rely on walking to get around at events like these.
“People with disabilities are everywhere, and if we aren’t, that’s because we can’t get there,” Turner said.
Stay tuned for more BikePortland dispatches from the Summit in the days ahead.
Kids riding to school with the Abernethy Elementary School bike bus. (Photos: Taylor Griggs/BikePortland)
“There’s a lot of excitement and identity that’s forming around it, which is really fun to see…people just think it’s a highlight of the week because it’s a super fun way to get to school.”
– Aaron Stoertz, Abernethy bike bus
We all know about the world-famous bike bus at Alameda Elementary School by now: the massive and joyous troupe of kids led by P.E. teacher-turned-influencer Sam Balto who fill up the NE Klickitat Greenway every Wednesday morning. Well, the Alameda bike bus is still going strong — and we’re happy to report that it has had a ripple effect throughout the city.
There are bike bus or walking school bus programs at schools all over the Portland area. I recently joined a couple of them, and talked to the organizers of a couple more.
By my count, there are 10 bike bus or walking school bus programs across the Portland region: James John, Cesar Chavez and Sitton elementary schools on the north Portland peninsula. There are also programs at Rose City Park, Creston-Kenilworth, Maplewood and Metzger (Tigard) elementary schools Tigard as well. And I’m sure there are even more! (Let me know and I’ll add them to the list.)
Balto wasn’t the first person to start a bike bus in the Portland region — Kiel Johnson started BikeTrain PDX back in 2010 after interning with the City of Portland’s Safe Routes to School program, and Megan Ramey has been conducting the Hood River Bike Train since 2020 — but thanks to his knack for online content creation and his persistence and dedication for helping the bike bus movement grow, he has certainly led this wave of new programs across the city.
Southeast Portland (Sunnyside and Abernethy)
The Sunnyside bike bus. (Photo: School parent)
“I don’t care if this [cold, damp weather] is what it takes to have fun and ride my bike.”
– Sunnyside school bike bus rider
Aaron Stoertz is one of the parents who started the bike bus at Abernethy Elementary School. He said Balto provided crucial insight with his advice for getting it started, and after Stoertz visited the Alameda bike bus with his daughter, he felt confident about being able to replicate it a few miles away at Abernethy.
“[Going to the Alameda Bike Bus] helped so much. I got exactly how you need to cork the streets and how to stop and start the music and just all these little logistics things,” Stoertz told me. “It just gave me a lot of peace of mind to like see it all in action.”
The mom who started the bike bus at Sunnyside Environmental School, expressed a similar sentiment about seeing Balto’s content on the internet.
“All the tips for route planning and stuff were really helpful as we were kicking it off. And it was encouraging to realize that it wasn’t actually very hard to start,” she said. “We just had to pick a day and a meetup time and share it with people.”
I joined the Abernethy Bike Bus on Wednesday morning — which happened to be a particularly freezing and wet morning — and I was amazed by what I saw. The kids held their annual “Tour de Ladd” later that day, so more people were bringing their bikes to school than normal, and the group was huge: more than 100 kids had joined by the time we arrived at school.
We started the ride at Joe Bike on SE Cesar Chavez Blvd and Lincoln St and headed west on the Lincoln-Harrison Greenway for about 20 blocks, with more and more people adding to the group as we went. The kids were toughing out the cold weather very admirably — I overheard one boy say, “I don’t care if this is what it takes to have fun and ride my bike.”
Scenes from the Abernethy bike bus. (Photos: Taylor Griggs/BikePortland)
Stoertz told me that the bike bus has taken on celebrity status at Abernethy.
“There’s been a huge amount of excitement about it. I walk on campus now and people want to talk about it, to tell me they’re riding next week. There’s a lot of excitement and identity that’s forming around it, which is really fun to see,” he said. “And that’s all natural — I haven’t been passing out flyers or anything. People just think it’s a highlight of the week because it’s a super fun way to get to school.”
The mom said the Sunnyside bike bus brings her a lot of joy, too.
“That’s one of the main reasons I’m doing it — it’s just fun. It leaves me feeling good for the rest of my day,” she told me.
While it’s true that Alameda, Sunnyside and Abernethy are all located in wealthy, central Portland neighborhoods where the city has historically focused their bike infrastructure investments, the bike and walking school bus movement is now expanding out into farther reaches of the city (and even outside of Portland city limits). There could be more of these programs in different parts of the city if there was funding dedicated to it, as a current Oregon House Bill aims to do. The mom I spoke to for this story pointed out that parents at the schools in wealthier neighborhoods like Sunnyside are more likely to have flexible jobs that allow them to volunteer time out of their mornings to assist with the bike bus.
“For schools with like less resources or parents with less job flexibility, it would be really nice to get people paid [to lead bike buses],” she said.
North Portland (Sitton, Cesar Chavez, James John)
Peterson and another teacher headed to begin the Sitton walking school bus.Two Sitton students on their way to school.The Sitton walking school bus.(Photos: Taylor Griggs/BikePortland)
There are different reasons that schools choose to start bike and walking school bus programs, too. At schools with a wealthier demographic, a lot of the focus is on exercise and environmentalism. At other schools, like Sitton Elementary in north St. Johns, those things are important as well, but the bike or walking school bus programs are targeted at addressing chronic absenteeism and helping kids get to school on time.
This morning, I accompanied the Sitton walking school bus, which is in its second week. This program is led by teachers who come in before school every single day, going above-and-beyond their job description to help kids get to school. Sitton received a donation of two Rad Power electric bikes, and the teachers take them across Pier Park to an apartment complex where about a third of all the students live. After circling the sprawling apartment complex and looking for kiddos who might want to join the walk to school, the group heads back through the park.
Why opt for a walking school bus instead of a bike bus? Abby Peterson, Sitton’s School Climate Specialist and the walking school bus coordinator, said some kids have joined the group by bike occasionally, but a walking school bus makes more sense for Sitton because so many of the kids live so close. Plus, unlike at schools like Alameda and Abernethy, Sitton doesn’t have a secure place for kids to store their bikes during the day, and two kids had theirs stolen recently.
Peterson said sees a difference in how kids act throughout the day after they’ve walked to school. It’s a short walk, but the extra encouragement of going in a group helps to make the trip even easier.
“The mood of kids coming to school is more positive, it helps to build a community,” Peterson said. She told me she’d like to see parents getting paid to help lead the program so they can join the community as well.
“I like to smell the fresh air,” one Sitton third grader told me as we walked through the forested Pier Park.
It is a beautiful way to start a morning!
Tigard (Metzger)
A photo from Metzger’s Walk and Roll to School Day last fall. (Photo: Shawne Martinez)
These programs aren’t just relegated to the city limits, either. Last fall, parent and local bike advocate Shawne Martinez started a bike bus at Metzger Elementary School in Tigard, which he says has been a success so far.
“With some encouragement from both Balto and Ramey, I decided to set up an Instagram account for our bike bus and plan a route. I had some experience helping with the annual Walk and Roll to School Day at our school and decided to follow the same route starting from our local park,” Martinez wrote in an email to BikePortland. He said he handed out flyers to people in the neighborhood and shared information with families at the school pickup line, and the school staff helped promote the bike bus as well.
“We have some amazing families that join us quite often and are a tremendous help. Having to cross the ODOT facility that is SW Hall Blvd has it’s challenges but with safety in numbers and taking the lane where there is no walk/roll infrastructure we have made it work!” Martinez wrote. “I expect participation to increase as the weather warms up and can’t wait to see a hundred (two hundred?!) happy kids riding to school!”
So, what does Balto have to say about the rise of the bike bus? He deferred to a quote from President Barack Obama: “It’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.”
“We are living this quote right now in Portland and around the world with the bike bus movement,” Balto said.
Welcome to the Comment of the Week, where we highlight good comments in order to inspire more of them. You can help us choose our next one by replying with “comment of the week” to any comment you think deserves recognition.Please note: These selections are not endorsements.
Last week’s article about a witness who was nearly hit by an alleged car thief who drove recklessly on the Springwater Corridor path engendered a lively discussion in the comments section. Several commenters wanted to know how someone with such a long rap sheet could be caught yet again, only to be released while awaiting trial. Isn’t someone with this history of run-ins with the law considered dangerous? One reader decided to try to get to the bottom of it, and he did the unthinkable.
Joseph E. jumped out of the bowl!
He sent an email to the DA’s office “expressing my concern about the release of the suspect too soon,” and he got a response.
But Joseph E. didn’t stop after receiving a response, no, he sent followup questions — and the DA’s office responded to them too! The DA’s office answers (which came from former executive director of The Street Trust, Jillian Detweiler who now works for DA Mike Schmidt) are informative, and serve to move the conversation forward, but they are not the final word on this complicated issue. If you are interested in delving further, two topical BikePortland interviews from a couple of years ago can be found at the in the related posts section at the bottom of this article.
Here is the exchange between Joseph E. and the DA’s office:
I wrote the District Attorney an email expressing my concern about the release of the suspect to soon and they responded:
Thank you for your email. The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office share your concern for the very dangerous behavior Lucas Lujan is alleged to have committed.
Pretrial detention is determined by the courts, not the district attorney. I am attaching the Presiding Judge Order that governs pretrial release in Multnomah County. It’s a complex matrix and I share it to demonstrate the complexity. Our records indicate Lujan is not being held in jail, but he is being supervised rather than released on his own recognizance.
MCDA will do what it can to bring this case to a speedy resolution. However, the defendant will be represented and the defense may not view a speedy resolution as being in the defendant’s best interest. That, along with a case backlog, can drag out the process.
Again, thanks for your email and concern for preserving the safety of folks using the Springwater Corridor.
Regards,
Jillian Detweiler (she/her)
Executive Assistant to Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt
1) What does it mean in this case that “he is being supervised rather than released on his own recognizance.” Does Mr L. have a known address? Were his prior attempts to evade officers not considered by the DA and Judge?
2) Did the DA write anything in opposition to the Judge’s order, or was your office in agreement with the guidelines?
3) The current standards do not appear to be working to prevent repeat vehicle thefts. Can the policy be changed by the judge or the DA, or is a change in the law required?
The DA office response:
1) Pretrial supervision is provided by: https://www.multco.us/dcj-adult/specialized-programs/pretrial-services-program-psp2) The Presiding Judge has the authority to determine pretrial detention standards. It was not a negotiation with the DA.
3) There is likely some room for the Presiding Judge to modify the order but significant change probably would require a change in laws and the state and U.S. constitution.
Jillian Detweiler
Thank you for taking it to the real world, Joseph E. You can find Joseph E.’s comment and the rest of the discussion under the original post.
Welcome to the week. Here are the most notable stories our writers and readers have come across in the past seven days…
**This week’s roundup is sponsored by The eBike Store, Portland’s original all-electric bike shop and the place for all things e-bike with brands like Tern, Specialized, Gazelle, and more..**
Expensive: Expect the freeway expansion industrial complex to tout the news that highway construction costs have ballooned 50% since December 2020 as yet another reason projects must be built ASAP. (Eno Center for Transportation)
Megacars: President Biden is bumbling his transportation and livability policies by paying Americans to buy heavy, dangerous, expensive “megacars” that will anchor us to terrible road safety and climate outcomes. (Streetsblog USA)
Central city diversion: City officials in Amsterdam understand that even a few cars in the central city muck things up so they are plotting to prohibit driving on some key through-routes. (Bloomberg)
Co-opting “complete streets”: Beware the DOT tactic of abusing terms to greenwash their projects. If cars dominate a street project, the project is incomplete because it effectively prohibits non-driving uses. (Smart Growth America)
Better buses, better cities: I can definitely relate to bus advocates who feel like their mode of transportation is too often overlooked as a powerful weapon in the fight against climate change. (Scientific American)
Blank check for freeway expansions: Economist and ODOT critic Joe Cortright has offered his breakdown of HB 2098 and he warns that it is full of vague terms that could saddle Oregon with debt for decades just to expand freeways. (City Observatory)
Figure this out: The square-wheeled bike is something you definitely have to see to believe. (Gizmodo)
Make plans now: I had no idea National Parks officials allowed bicycle riders to use many miles of roads in Yellowstone in a carfree environment before they are opened to the driving public. (Idaho Sun)
Biketown and bike counts: Don’t miss the OPB story on the Biketown expansion and the bike decline that featured little ol’ me being interviewed by local bike funnist (and new Weekend Edition host!) Lily Karabaic. (OPB)
Video of the Week: Was nice to see Portland Timbers put a star player on a bike for a promo, but it’s too bad it was just a promotional gimmick. (Would much rather see a Timber player rolling to a match on their own two wheels a la Golden State Warriors star Klay Thompson.)
Map from North Burgard Road Bridge Bridge Replacement Feasibility Study (PBOT, 2020)
The Burgard Bridge on Portland’s northern peninsula will be replaced thanks to a federal grant. And the project will come with a major upgrade for bicycle riders headed toward Kelley Point Park, Smith & Bybee Lakes, and other destinations on the 40-Mile Loop.
Last week the Biden Administration announced that the City of Portland won a $13.9 million grant that will pay for the project. The funds were part of a $300 million investment from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law via the Federal Highway Administration’s Bridge Investment Program. PBOT’s Fixing Our Streets program (local gas tax) will add $3.8 million in matching funds.
The current Burgard Bridge is on North Lombard just northwest of Pier Park. The 92-year-old viaduct goes over a Union Pacific Railroad line and is considered vulnerable to an earthquake. It’s also a key connection for major freight haulers as the bridge is just a stones-throw from major container shipping companies and many heavy industrial businesses along the Willamette River.
Cross-section as shown in the 2020 Feasibility Report.
The planned cross-section for the new bridge includes a two-way protected bike lane at sidewalk level on the east side and 8-foot sidewalks on both sides.
“This project will not only help to connect businesses and travelers, but will also help encourage alternative, low-carbon forms of transportation by adding bike lanes and sidewalks to the bridge,” said Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley in a statement last week.
“This investment will provide access for freight to some crucial industrial areas, and provide a safer route for biking and walking on a major corridor in the St. Johns neighborhood. With a seismic upgrade, this bridge will benefit Portlanders and our entire region for generations to come,” added Interim PBOT Director Tara Wasiak.
Stay tuned for opportunities to weigh in on the design, a more detailed timeline, and possible detour notices as construction begins.
Commissioner Mingus Mapps rode bike share from City Hall to the announcement this morning. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
The City of Portland’s transportation bureau has been successful with their bike share system by just about every metric except one: The system has been starved for bikes.
As PBOT expanded the service area to cover 41 square miles of the city and boosted access to the bikes to a wider variety of users throughvariousprograms, the one thing we (and many other observers) have grumbled about for a long time is the simple lack of bikes. (Well, that and the price, but that’s a whole other story.)
This morning, PBOT Commissioner Mingus Mapps responded with an announcement that the system will expand by 500 bikes.
“Portland needs more bikes!” Mapps exclaimed at a press conference in front of a row of Biketown bikes and a crowd of media assembled at PSU’s Urban Plaza. “These machines that you see right in front of us are really miracles of technology. They are beautiful.”
In the right hands, bicycles can be powerful political tools — especially in a city desperate for good news. Mapps has yet to full embrace cycling in a very public way. But today, that started to change. Wearing a Biketown t-shirt and a wide grin as he pedaled a bike up SW 5th Avenue from City Hall, he seemed as energized and excited as I’d ever seen him.
“If you’ve never been on an electric assist bike before. The first time you get on one will be like the first time you figured out how to ride a bike. You will rediscover the joy of riding,” Mapps said in his remarks. “And Biketown is for the youth,” he continued. “I’ll tell you, I’m the parents of two young kids. One of the fun funnest activities we’ve had in recent weeks was I gathered the kids and we hopped on a couple of e-bikes, and we went for a ride and it was an amazing experience. They love these things.”
Below audio from Mapps prepared remarks (edited for clarity and brevity):
In an interview with Mapps after the announcement, he said the inspiration for today’s announcement came from a BikePortland post (maybe it was this one about our one big wish from Cycling Santa?). “Frankly, this is a lesson that I think I learned from you,” he said. “I remember seeing a piece that you wrote, which suggested, you know, maybe we can increase bike ridership if we got more Biketown bikes out there. So we’re giving it a shot.”
Asked how/if more Biketown bikes is part of his response to the decline in cycling in Portland, Mapps said:
“We have a set of hypotheses on the table in terms of why bike ridership is down. We’re continuing to find innovative ways to get people back on bikes. Biketown is part of this. Building more bike infrastructure is part of it too. Public education, going out and modeling the kind of behavior that we hope Portlanders will embrace is an important part of it. And listening to the bike community and listening to Portlanders, who tell us where some of the friction is that they face in terms of getting on the bike and using that as their primary transportation tool as opposed to a gas-powered vehicle.”
I then shared with Mapps my opinion that no matter how many bikes we get on the road, if people don’t feel safe, they won’t ride. I told him how many of us are scared when we hear stories like the one about the guy who drove a stolen car 50 mph on the Springwater Corridor path. I asked if he was doing anything to reduce these types of dangerous behaviors and to restore public safety in Portland. He touted a partnership he’s working on with the Portland Police Bureau to recover stolen cars that he says has been “incredibly effective.” Here’s more from his answer:
“I think at this point the strategies we’re using right now, both avoid racial profiling and are 30 times more efficient than what we were doing back in 2018 or whatnot. So I think we finally have a model and plan for getting back on top of this stolen car problem.”
Mapps was clear to say PBOT’s police partnership (thus far) revolves specifically around stolen car missions; but when it comes to making Portland safer in general, he said re-activating public streets is a key part of what he thinks it will take to make that happen:
“Part of the way you make Portland safer is get people back into the community. Eyes -on-the-streets is one of the things that keeps people safe. I think during the pandemic we saw as people retreated, away from their offices and away from restaurants or whatnot that empty space created opportunities for vandalism and other bad behavior to proliferate. I think one of the things that you see even right now in this sort of vibrant streetscape we’re that we’re in right now in Portland State, as we have people around looking out for each other patronizing local businesses: it feels safe, it feels fun. And if we can keep this momentum going, I think Portland is going to continue to be safer.
We need to activate our neighborhoods, downtown, everywhere from downtown to east Portland. What really keeps people safe is a sense of community. So as we get people walking in their neighborhoods, biking their neighborhoods, you know, going down to your local coffee shop, maybe even going into the office sometimes — all of that is going to be incredibly powerful in terms of bringing a sense of normalcy and safety to Portland.”
Using transportation policies, programs and projects to activate people space and renew Portland’s civic pride is another thing Mapps and I agree on.
Hopefully these new bikes will entice even more people out of their homes and into the streets.
Biketown currently has about 1,500 bikes in their fleet. PBOT launched these new e-bikes in 2020 with just 500 of them and a total fleet size of 1,000 bikes. So we’ve doubled the size of the fleet in less than three years. That might seem like a lot, but the system needs a lot more than 2,000 bikes to reach its full potential. PBOT has promised to have 3,000 to 4,000 bikes in the system by 2024. If past performance is a measure of future results, we won’t reach that goal.
Hopefully Mapps remains a strong supporter of “more bikes!” and we get more announcements like this one soon.
The new bikes will be injected into the system in the coming days and through this summer. To further entice riders, all rides will be free (up to 60 mins) this Saturday to coincide with Earth Day.
Electric cargo trikes outside the Portland Building. (Photo: City of Portland)
The Portland Bureau of Transportation has won a $2 million federal grant to pilot a “zero emission delivery zone.”
The funding comes from the US Department of Transportation’s Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) grants program. On a newly published webpage about the program, PBOT says the demonstration project will start this summer. “This funding will allow PBOT to change some truck loading zones into ‘zero-emission vehicles only’ loading zones within a proposed project zone that spans 25 acres of downtown Portland. This area is anchored by public institutions, including city, county, and federal offices—all of which have strong commitments to taking climate action.”
Photo from a similar pilot in Santa Monica, California late last year. (Photo courtesy PBOT)
In addition to these special loading zones, PBOT says they are working to “incentivize the movement of ‘clean goods’ through using an existing hub where big delivery trucks can transfer goods to smaller zero-emission vehicles – such as local fleets of electric-assist cargo trikes or electric vehicles— for deliveries into the pilot zone.”
Another key element of the project will be the use of cameras and sensor technology to regulate and monitor the new loading zones. “This includes data from logistics companies, sensors, and third-party analytics companies,” PBOT says.
This program will also dovetail nicely with the City of Portland’s other initiatives to reduce emissions of last-mile deliveries. In 2021 we reported on the Bureau of Planning & Sustainability’s effort to establish “cargo delivery hubs.” And just last month we shared how PBOT’s 2040 Freight Master Plan calls for a pilot program that would boost the use of cargo bikes for urban freight delivery.
There will be a launch announcement on Wednesday, April 26th outside the Portland Building on SW 4th Avenue. USDOT officials will be on hand with PBOT staff and PBOT Commissioner Mingus Mapps.
The project is set to launch this summer and will run for 18 months. If it goes well, PBOT will apply for another SMART grant to continue and expand the program to other parts of the city.
Friends of Frog Ferry President Susan Bladholm (blue jacket) and invited guests on the Willamette River Thursday morning. (Photos: Taylor Griggs/BikePortland)
I’ve used all kinds of modes of transportation to get around Portland: bus, MAX, streetcar, car, bike, scooter, aerial tram, my own two feet. And now I can add boat to that list.
On Thursday morning, I accompanied Friends of Frog Ferry (FOFF) for their River Run event, which was intended to give attendees the experience of being aboard a Portland ferry en route between St. Johns and the South Waterfront. While the vessels we rode were small pilot boats that aren’t necessarily representative of what the ferries would look like, the experience provided a good sense of what it’s like to use the Willamette River as a transportation route, which is what the Frog Ferry advocates want Portlanders to embrace.
The event began with a press conference at RiverPlace Marina, where FOFF president and founder Susan Bladholm and board member Nina Byrd spoke about why Portland needs a ferry service. Due to the different (potentially more pro-ferry) mood in City Hall, the tone at this press conference was less politically charged than the one Bladholm held last April. The message, however, remains the same: FOFF needs the city’s support so they can access federal grants for ferry services.
Susan Bladholm.Tying down our bikes.Bladholm and BikeLoud PDX Chair Kiel Johnson.Green Loop advocate Keith Jones.Not quite the real thing, but close enough.Friends of Frog Ferry President Susan Bladholm (blue jacket).(Photos: Taylor Griggs/BikePortland)
During the press conference, Bladholm and Byrd discussed how a ferry service would be able to revitalize downtown Portland. They also discussed its potential to add to Portland’s multimodal transportation network, specifically pointing out that the ferries would have room for bikes on board.
To underscore this point, Bladholm encouraged me to bring my bike onboard the vessel today. I wasn’t the only one: BikeLoud PDX Chair Kiel Johnson and Friends of the Green Loop Executive Director Keith Jones joined the boat trip, and they carried their bikes along as well. Once we were aboard, one of the captains helped us tie our bikes to the rails of the boat. They were secured snugly, but I imagine there would be a way to secure bikes on the real Frog Ferries that doesn’t require riders to be experts in maritime knot tying.
The boat trip itself was invigorating — more invigorating than you’d probably prefer for a daily commute, but passengers wouldn’t be out on the bow to face the elements on the real Frog Ferries if they’re built. We didn’t go all the way up to Cathedral Park (the boat turned around just short of Swan Island), but I was surprised how quickly we got there. The Frog Ferry plan calls for 25 minute trips between St. Johns and the South Waterfront going 24 knots (about 25 miles per hour). In a larger vessel, this speed would probably feel less thrilling, but on the small pilot boat, it felt like we were going a lot faster.
“The ferry docks have the potential to become real biking hubs.”
– Kiel Johnson, BikeLoud PDX
While this experience was an effective tactic from FOFF to convince people that traveling by water might not be a completely ridiculous idea, many Portlanders still scoff the idea of floating transit.
So, what’s stopping folks from embracing the idea? Johnson and Jones both stand out amongst their peers in Portland’s current transportation advocacy circles because of their support for the project. While others have criticized the idea as too flashy and unrealistic — No More Freeways co-founder and transportation data cruncher Joe Cortright called the proposal a “slow boat to nowhere” — Johnson and Jones think the city should give it a shot.
“I’m supportive of any active transportation project,” Jones told me, adding that he and Bladholm have spoken about how to connect the ferry service to the Green Loop plan that Jones is a primary booster for.
Johnson said that people were also skeptical of other big transportation projects, like the streetcar and aerial tram at Oregon Health and Sciences University, before they came to fruition. Johnson founded the bike valet at the base of the aerial tram and built it into North America’s largest, so he knows a thing or two about turning big ideas into big successes.
“The ferry docks have the potential to become real biking hubs,” Johnson said.
Bladholm said the money used to get the ferry off the ground wouldn’t take away from other active transportation projects. The federal grants FOFF would apply for are reserved specifically for ferry service, so she said we might as well use it for Portland.
“We just have to get people out of cars, however we do it,” she added.
Even if the relationship between ferry proponents and Portland officials is friendlier now, that doesn’t mean the city has the money to spare for an initial investment in the project. Shannon Carney, PBOT Commissioner Mingus Mapps’ transportation liaison, took a ride on the river later in the morning. She told me even though Mapps is a fan of the ferry, he would not be asking City Council to carve out money for the ferry in the Fiscal Year 2023-2024 budget. Instead, they’re going to take a different approach to funding.
“Commissioner Mapps is a Frog Ferry champion and supporter of the project, but it’s a challenging budget year for the city and for PBOT,” Carney said. “He’s working through the process of ensuring that Frog Ferry can be part of the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP), which is critical to receiving federal funding for it.”
As PBOT Commissioner, Mapps has a seat on the Metro Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation (JPACT), the body that helps craft the RTP project list. A draft version of that list shared at their meeting Thursday morning (below) includes a $12 million line-item for a “passenger ferry pilot” that would be built with support from the Federal Transit Administration’s Passenger Ferry Grant Program.
Regardless of your position on this project, there’s something very alluring about being on the water. It’s a whole different world out there. It’s hard to tell from the shore, but there’s a lot of action taking place on the Willamette, and it was cool to feel like a part of that community, even if just for a bit. Even though I see the river almost every day, I’ve never really thought about being out on it like this.
Others felt similarly.
“One of the things I love about biking is the different perspective it provides. This will provide a new perspective of the city,” Johnson said.
It’s very possible that my positive experience on the boat this morning doesn’t mean Portland needs a ferry service, just that I should learn how to sail. Ultimately, it will be up to Portland City Council to make that decision. And with Mapps solidly behind it, that might happen sooner than we think.
If Frog Ferry receives a federal grant, Bladholm says the first one could be on the water as early 2025.
